1. Judging quantities of liquid - there's nothing like having to measure out 200ml of water for the steriliser to hone your powers of estimating how much liquid is in any given container.
2. Estimating microwave cooking times for small quantities of food - if you've ever picked irredeemably shrivelled vegetables out of a pot, you will know that it really doesn't take that long to cook two carrot batons and a solitary piece of parsnip on full power.
3. Knowing the sodium content of non-salty foodstuffs such as pasta - as you begin weaning, you are frequently told that allowing your child to eat too much sodium is worse than not feeding them at all, so you become obsessed with how much sodium is in almost everything you eat. Shortly after this, you realise that the process of weaning is really an extended period of making food which your child waves around in the air briefly, smears into their hair and then throws on the floor and you could probably give them salt sticks without needing to worry (although sod's law would dictate that a salt stick would be the only food that they would finish first time).
4. Expanding the list of times/places/circumstances in which I think it appropriate to sleep - when micro boy was first born, every time he fell asleep the Boy Wonder and I were simultaneously terrified that he would wake up and terrified that he would fail to wake up. Thus, when he was asleep, we found ways to sleep around him so that we would be on hand to prevent anything untoward occurring to him whilst asleep, or to us through sleep deprivation.
As time went on and we were persuaded that he could probably be poured into his own bed most of the time, and our bed when absolutely necessary, it became less important that we adapted our sleeping pattern to suit his, but nonetheless there have been occasions when I have slept in ways that I could never have predicted.
These include: in the front seat of my car in the car park of a garden centre; in an MRI machine while I was supposed to be doing special types of breathing; during root canal work; during a heart procedure for which I was specifically told to stay awake(!); . The overriding inspiration for all of these is twofold: any sleep is better than no sleep and the average level of sleep enjoyed by the two adults in the house can never rise above the level of 'slightly less relaxed than that of the baby'.
5. Time management - it used to be the case that the Boy Wonder and I could be late for an event at 8pm having done nothing all day other than loll around in our pyjamas, eat breakfast at around 3pm and relax. Now, however, we can be just as late for an 8pm even having been up since 7am, taken micro Boy out for breakfast, visited relatives for lunch, had naps all round, completed up to five showers between the three of us and packed a nappy bag with everything that we could possibly need whilst out with a small baby.
6. Doing things with one hand - being trapped under a sleeping child with my right hand in a supporting position has led my left-handed typing skills to improve immensely, and today I managed to manoeuvre a trolley around Tesco one-handed whilst trying to placate an inexplicably sad baby (unless it was just a normal response to finding oneself in Tesco of a Thursday afternoon). Cooking, washing, pouring drinks, sterilising and dressing have all proved possible one handed - the only thing I consistently cannot do unless I have both hands free is tie my hair back, but I'm working on it.
7. Identifying a floorboard which is likely to creak - there is nothing like trying to sneak out of a room where a baby is sleeping to concentrate the mind on remembering which of the floorboards on the way out of the bedroom will make the most surprisingly loud noise as you try to beat a silent retreat.
