The Forty-Third Month: June 2008

18th
From notes on the back of an envelope
Your baby-like words:

Sellotake – I don’t bother to correct you, as I believe you will learn in time.

Other day you said ver geener or something like that that I could n’t work out, than realized it was vinegar (talking about the cleaning spray).

‘locking off’ the steps (you mean blocking). You love to get string/ cardboard boxes and create obstacles to the stairs and tunnel.

Last Sat your Dad and I were hanging our pictures for the Easton Arts Trail next weekend. You were very keen to help and kept handing us pliers, hammers and picture hooks and the art work, even when we didn’t need them – and talked in your baby lispy voice, maybe to be more endearing.

Yesterday, after Wendy’s you fell asleep on the way home (on the bike), the bike becomes harder to ride as your head rolls to one side or the other at the front of me, sometimes leaning right down onto my thigh as I try and cycle. I laid you on the sofa and didn’t wake you for nearly two hours so I could cook supper (bean casserole - home made baked beans) and make calls to renew tax disc etc.

When you awoke you were initially grizzly but then full of laughter and jokes and wanted me to take my apron off and play in your tunnel with you. We rigged up a new den with the blankets tied to the banisters and you played with the torches in the darkness. It was a delight to see you in such a good mood at the end of the day. I just went with the flow and knew you wouldn’t go to sleep again til after 9 or 10 pm. So after a hearty supper, we drove off to Cribbs Causeway, and I managed to look around a few clothes shops. Although initially you did not want to go, I enticed you with the idea of some play cars to ride in – I was mistaken as there are none. But almost as soon as I arrived you started asking ‘where is the car?’ We found the outdoor play area – a poor apology for a play ground which we visited in the last 10 minutes – you were thrilled with the slide.

I bought some silver Birkenstocks in the first 5 mins – and you were very helpful in wanting to buckle them up for me. You were interested in the numbers, which you were reading from the inside of the shoes – or at least asking about.

Play:

Tying up your bike with your coloured wool

The Shell camera – a little oval shell with a hole in it, which you have treasured for months now. It disappeared for a while but is being enjoyed again. You look through the hole and take pictures.

Teddy – you ask me to dress and undress him, put him to bed. You like to bring him into our bed in the morning, and sit him on my knee when we have stories at bedtime.

In the mornings you declare ‘clothes on’ the minute you get up, implying that I need to help you, though you often dress yourself. Sometimes your pajamas are soaking wet from leaked nappy, but you take them all off and get things out of the drawer.

You are very attached to the ‘bee top’, a brown and yellow stripey t-shirt.. One morning I came in and the first thing you said to me was ‘’the cucumbers are cooked’ and handed me the wooden cucumber from the food set you have. Sometimes you cook teddy food on your play cooker.

Indi and Kate did a sleepover at our house this month and you entertained us by playing the guitar and making a song up about bees. You sat in the ‘tent’ singing sweetly for ages …’bee..bees’ based on a variation of playgroup song which includes:

‘pardon me, I won’t be home for supper or tea..
I beg your pardon.. I thought you were a garden’ which has you in gales of laughter.