I don't want to forget... (a memory bank post)

... the finger people. Jack and Joseph are developing imaginations and starting to role play more. A lot of this seems to involve cars at the moment. They have a variety of little toy cars but no little toy people so they use their fingers as the people. The fingers stomp up and down the tables, across the sofas. They climb into the car and go to the shops. They talk in adorably high pitched voices. It's very entertaining to watch.


... Ben's developing 'language'. I don't seem to have very vocal babies in spite of the fact that myself and my siblings were all very quick developers in this area. Ben is starting to repeat sounds more and more. This morning he was insistently blowing raspberries onto Ryan's knee while he drank his morning coffee. Ryan leaned over, pointed to himself and said 'Da Da'. Ben looked up with a big grin and said very deliberately 'Daaa ... Daaa'. Very cute. He has also imitated me sneezing today. Of course a lot of his communicating still consists of "drrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr" (that's him rolling his tongue by he way in case that isn't, er, obvious!). Strange child.

A nobel and many splendoured thing.

J and J had just had their morning snack. I nipped upstairs to the bathroom and returned to find Jack surreptitiously helping himself to 'biscuits' (in actual fact they were peppered oat cakes).

'Jack, you just had your snack. Those are Daddy's biscuits.'

Jack looks up at me a little sheepishly.

'Yes. Daddy's biccies. Me sharing Daddy's biccies.'

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

All in all though today has been "one of those days". Most communicating (and I'm being very generous here) has been done through whining/crying and even the usually mild mannered Benjamin has been somewhat trying.
Joseph sat quietly and did a jigsaw puzzle all by himself. He was so proud; it was just adorable. It didn't last. He grazed his finger while I was otherwise engaged with washing the dishes and oh! the drama! oh, the pain!

"Mice finger Mummy," he wailed, holding his arm out desperately before me, "Mice finger is SORE".
Two hours later he is still treating it gingerly, wandering around folornly with it held out at an angle.

Well. All is quiet. As for me, I have a phone call to make.

PS: Yes, obviously 'mice' means 'mine'. It's an interesting mispronunciation of theirs, but then they have many.

It's only words...

The concept is probably a bit abstract for a just turned 3 year old - certainly my two anyway - though I don't doubt that the sense of sentiment is real.

Most children have probably said this innumerable times by now. Does it make it more poignant? Less? Who cares.
Tearing himself away from the all encompassing distraction of toy cars a little blonde head comes and leans against my knee. Big blue eyes gaze up at me, blazing sincerity.

"Me luff you, Mummy."

Sun and Soakings

Hot Hot Hot today. For this part of the world anyway. And proof once again, should any more actually be needed, that bbc.co.uk can simply NOT be trusted to give an accurate weather forecast for Northern Ireland. Apparently it's been raining for the last week. In fact it has been humid, sticky and positively sunny for much of the time.

Ryan was in work for 7am which meant he left the house just after 6am. I was woken shortly afterwards to the sound of throaty chuckles from Benjamin as he was entertained by Joseph playing 'peek-a-boo'. Adorable? Sure. At 6.15am on a Sunday? Not so much. Jack arrived shortly afterwards and, though I battled valiantly, it just isn't possible to doze when three small children are rampaging over your bed (and you!). My attempts thwarted we got up got up for breakfast. I think I need retraining as a morning person.

We pottered around for most of the morning and broke up the day with a walk down towards to industrial estate before lunch. I took the buggy as it makes J and J that bit more willing to stay close and Ben was happy enough riding along chewing his toes. At what age are bodies no longer fascinating? Ben can entertain himself with nothing but his extremeties for a good 20 minutes.

We went to Peatlands Park after picking Ryan up at 2.30pm. It's a natural bogland wth lots of nice walks and plants and things and - oh monumentous excitement for 3 year old boys - a narrow gauge railway line. Which unfortunately wasn't running today because the place was so damn busy! Apparently today was national bog day (who knew) and there were lots of events on - crafts, bouncy castles, bog snorkelling (?!) - none of which we had any intention of joining in with since we hadn't brought any money. We steered the boys off towards the quieter wooded walk areas. About 30 minutes in Jack decided he needed to answer a call of nature. Urgently. You know how it is to be three.

"Need wee wee." he announced in matter of fact tones and proceeded to pull down his pants and pee into the shrubbery. Never one to fight peer pressure Joseph followed suit within seconds! All this was much to the amusement of the people passing by. And Ryan. Of course. I think we need to discuss peeing in public some more...