Alternative Transport

DS2 has a book he reads in the bath about a teddy who has three bath toys - duck, whale and turtle. DS1 was very proud last night because, in addition to DS2's usual 'duck', he taught him to say 'turtle' and then 'whale'. However, he was less than impressed when DS2 having said 'whale' a few times, obviously searched through the database in his head - which almost entirely consists of songs - to find where he had heard this word before. Having clearly located it, he very confidently started singing the well known tune:

 'The Whales on the Bus, go round and round, round and round, round and round'.

Altogether now....

A short realisation...

Finally! We have at last worked out what DS2 has been singing for the last week! DS1 thought it was the theme tune to Totoro (late 80s japanese animation), I thought it sounded like the old hymn 'Immortal, Invisible..',   but it turns out it was the second two lines of the 'second verse' of Row, Row Row your boat i.e. '..if you see a crocodile, don't forget to scream!' - it was when he added the scream at the end that the penny finally dropped.

And you only have to re-read that the once to realise that while we may attempt the ordinary, it feels unlikely we'll ever achieve it   ;)

Of speech, circles, musical theatre and an unfeasibly large spider

DS2 weekend this weekend, DS1 at his Dad's. It's been a busy one - he is becoming more wilful by the second! Currently he is sleeping and has a big graze on his nose and forehead from falling out of the back door onto the concrete - that'll teach me to try and get some gardening done. I've finally got rid of the cherry tomato plants that he stands by going 'uh, uh' and pointing at every time he's in the garden. I think he's eaten 90% of those tomatoes - DS1 and I did not get a look in.

He's chosen this weekend to start using words. He opened on Saturday morning with 'emur' for the cuddly lemur in my bed (my lemur note, not the kids - sometimes a girl just needs a cuddly lemur). He then decided to say 'big dog there' to a big dog going down the road, and ended the day with the classic baby utterance 'nana' - for banana, of course. Getting dressed after bath time he added 'next foot there' - which is what I always say to him to put his other foot in his pyjama bottoms. So clearly, he can speak, which is good as I was getting a bit concerned. I went to a friend's on Friday, whose little boy, the same age, has a definite vocabulary of recognisable words he uses appropriately - where as up until this point DS1 would only utter 'bruvva' at his brother, other children and, with a slightly different inflection, at trees blowing in the wind - I have interpreted this as 'flower' but to be honest the difference is imperceptible to the non-mum ear. I can only assume that DS2 picked up on my concern and chose yesterday to tell me that he could use these things I called words, he just preferred to express himself through the medium of song and expressive dance - which he does all the time. I have created a musical theatre baby - somewhat unexpected, but who knows, he could go far...

The Godfamily, school friends, snot and paranoia

Sneaking in a quick blog while the baby sleeps - we all have colds at the moment, so it's a welcome respite from being covered in snot snail trails - ah the joy of DS1 being back at school and bringing home every bug, virus and general nasty going!

We finished off the weekend with a lovely day out with DS2's god family (Godmum, Goddad, plus their daughter and Goddad's mum - who we've decided to call Godsister and Godgran to make life easier!) It's fab going out with them - since DS2 doesn't have a 'dad's side' to his family, these are like the joy of in-laws without the hassle of them - I am doubly blessed!! Plus DS1 and Godsister get on really well - which is how we know them in the first place. Went to a country-fair type thing and saw kites dancing to music, went on carousels and bouncy castles, got a cuddly dinosaur for 50p and had DS1 and DS2's name carved on a name plate for their bedroom door.

Of course, all this joyousness made for a very tired and shouty Monday morning back to school - particularly with the colds kicking in. I guess that's the payback for having a busy weekend - would be lovely if there wasn't one but there always is - and I resent it less when its been my weekend than when I get the payback for the weekend DS1 had with his dad - all the pain from someone else's joy.

A disruption and a blues-playing baby acrobat

Well, so far, so calm. Things seem to have settled a bit with DS1, which is why it's a shame he had to go to his Dad's tonight, which will throw everything up in the air again. I never seem to get used to it, even though I know the routine so well: He goes to his Dad's for the weekend, he comes home whingy and complaining about everything (after the 1st couple of hours of niceness because he missed us) and this works itself up to a height by the time it gets to 'our' weekend, he gets it all out of his system and we have a couple of days of calm before he's off to his Dad's again, and the whole thing starts over. It is very tiring! School night overnights with his Dad are often worse, (even though its only 1 night, unlike the weekends), because it throws his routine out. Maybe this time it will be different though - his Dad forgot to pick up his stuff before he got him from school, so he got to come home and have a quick hug before he went, so I'm hoping that chance to touch base might help - its a vain hope, but I'm crossing everything...