Chatty Children, January 2017

I do love trying to keep a record of the funny things the kids say, and the way their speech and use of language develops. Every stage seems to be so fleeting in this respect and sometimes they move on without you realising it. It’s hard to remember a Monkey who didn’t chatter away constantly but I know there was a time when he barely said any words, and a time when he mispronounced words (like serbatry instead of conservatory and nockynurs instead of binoculars). It’s hard to imagine those times though, so I love being able to record them on my blog, mainly for me to look back on, but I hope they also entertain anyone who reads them! (I actually just indulged in looking back at when Monkey was a little older than LM is now and ooh did I chuckle at the things he said!)

I haven’t done one of these for a while but here is what my kiddies have been saying over the last month or so. Monkey first.

Monkey Says

Monkey is learning more and more about the world and just growing up so much in front of our eyes since he started school in September. He is 4yrs 7mths old.

First up, a real cracker and definitely a case of the things I say being parroted back to me. I was having one of those days where I was irritable and snappy. I kept snapping at him but I did apologise and tell him I was tired. The next time I snapped at him he said, quite calmly

“You are so tired today… But please don’t be grumpy with me”

I had to concede that he was right as it is something I have said to him many many times haha. Wise little man! He is such a sweety and loves to tell us how much he loves us.

“I love you all the way to Saturn and back.”

“I love you all the way up to the aliens”

“I love you down to the ground”

“I love you more than I love LM” (to daddy)

Daddy’s latest toy is an Amazon Echo Dot in the kitchen. “Alexa” does things like play the radio set timers and generally answer’s questions. Monkey loves her.

“Alexa’s so kind”

He comes out with some fab little pearls of wisdom.

“It’s a really exciting life”

“Felix and I will be best friends, even when we die”

About LM’s tantrums

“She thinks it’s the end of the world. It really isn’t.” Think I may have said something along the lines of that once or twice myself…

Again with the kindness, when Daddy told him that if he didn’t finish his dinner soon then he would eat his chocolate treat for pudding instead.

“I know daddy, we can share it!” ha, still have to eat your dinner Monkey!

Finally here are a few pure 4yr old comments.

“I was dreaming about reading a newspaper all about big fat tummies.” I should explain here that Monkey has a thing about shoving teddies up his jumper and having a “big fat tummy” I think it started when I was pregnant with LM, lately he seems to associate it with Father Christmas…

“This milk is making me have a cold tummy”

“my tummy is full up” (usually when he would prefer to be eating pudding) “my tummy is tired” (when be doesn’t want to eat any more dinner… Usually after mouthful 1).

I loved it when he chose his outfit the other day and wore all yellow. Proclaiming “it’s a bit foggy outside so I can be the sun.” 🙂img_20170107_133424_248

“When I get bigger I can be the Daddy and LM can be the mummy”
We explained that that wasn’t the way of it as they are brother and sister and explained about falling in love with someone…
“When mark and fran get married I’m going to be so happy and I’ll fall in love with LM”

Yep. Safe to say he didn’t get it. But there is hope yet that we can avoid incest.

“Get off goat” Don’t call your sister a goat!

Little Miss Says

I have to admit LM’s speech hasn’t developed as much as I thought it might have since the last update I wrote. Much of what she says is still just the first syllable of words, although then she will come out with basically a full sentence, and take me completely by surprise. It is coming, just very much in her own time. She is 2yrs 2mths old.

20161218_084517Some of the more recent words, are “yeah” which we love as at least get an afirmative response sometimes, rather than just all the “no”s. “Me” is another new one and she says that quite a bit at the moment when she is feeling demanding. One of her favourite games is running across the living room and she likes her brother to stand at the door with her so they can go together. He doesn’t always want to though which results in a lot of her shouting “me,  cujjer (brother), me!” over and over while pointing frantically between him and the patch of floor next to her.

Another favourite game is hide and seek and she loves running around shouting “care-dju-go? ” (where’d you go) and then “Dowdoo!” (found you).

She is a little herald and if someone comes to the door she will run round the house shouting at everyone to let them know “mama, daddy, gab a day de la do door a mama” or something to that effect that haha 🙂

She loves a good “Ni Ni”  picnic especially with her favourite person “Daddy.” From the moment she wakes up in the morning and calls her first word, all I hear all day is “Daddy?” even when he’s out or at work. If she can’t find him, it’s “Daddy? Care-dju-go?” and if he is there but not doing as she pleases, it is “Daddy, Now!” with the pointing again! Yep, “Now”  is another recent word. She is so demanding and can be frequently heard shouting “mo moi” (more milk, obviously) or “oer” (egg, no idea why) at breakfast especially.

It’s a funny time as she is saying a lot and so wants to be understand. We obviously understand a lot of it, even if we don’t understand why she calls some things by random words. My friend Susie, is “cha,” no idea why. Paw patrol is “dah dah de la” possibly because of the music? It is obviously harder for other relatives and friends to get what she is saying sometimes and we really don’t always understand either.

There are things that are easier to understand though “Go ho”  for go home. “Wana ge dow”  for I want to get down. “Teddy”  is one of my faves and she loves to shout “bear” in a bit of a northern accent randomly when she wants to watch “going on a bear hunt.” She also randomly correctly named a “giraffe” the other day and sometimes when you think she is jabbering a random load of syllables  you suddenly realise that actually you understood she said she wanted you to kick the ball to her!

I’ve done a little video of some of the things she says as it is seriously cute and I know it won’t stay this way for long. With Monkey I worried about his slow speech then he suddenly took off and there was no stopping him, so I really am not worried about LM and just want to enjoy this stage.

Little Hearts, Big Love
My Petit Canard

My Children’s Chatter, October 2016

Ever since Monkey learned to talk I have been trying to keep a note of all the lovely, funny or cute things he has come out with and I love looking back on them. Now our Little Miss is talking more and more every day and I want to make sure I catalogue the things she comes out with too. Because I struggle to post anything regularly these days I’m going to combine both kids’ sayings in one series of posts, My children’s chatter.img_20161015_063400

Monkey says

So Monkey first, I’ve been collating these for some time so there’s quite a few things he has come out with that have really made me chuckle! Monkey is 4yrs 5 mths

Monkey: “Ooh look LM I’ve got longer legs than you”
Me: “Yes you do have longer legs than LM”
Monkey: “Excuse me, I was talking to LM”

When I asked Monkey to put away all the toy cars he had got out:
Monkey: “But I haven’t got hundreds of hands”
Me: “You got them all out”
Monkey: (looking at his hands) “I can put them away 2 at a time” Bravo Monkey haha

Monkey: “I love you, I love you.”
Me: “Oh I love you too darling.”
Monkey: “No not you, the tv. Which is off by the way.”

Monkey:”You’ve got to see this. It’s amazing.”

There has been some real cheekiness lately too, and a great deal of imagination which you have to admire.
One day after playing with a toy phone: “I was on the phone to Uncle Simon. I just phoned him and he asked if I would like to go to his house in the morning in the afternoon when LM is asleep.” Oh did he now? lol This was followed by “I just spoke to Granny on the phone and she would like some wipes to clean the windows cos they’re really dirty. We need to go there now!” Look Monkey we know yu love going to Granny’s house but when have we ever taken wipes to help her clean her windows? lol

He also went through a (thankfully brief) stage of coming back downstairs after bedtime, and concocting the best excuses as to why. On one occasion at bedtime he had announced it was his dog Dougal’s birthday the following day and we agreed to have a tea party But shortly after bedtime he appeared down stairs and said “You know, it turns out Dougal birthday is today!”

On another occasion he came down with a cuddly swan to tell us “My swan is a bit hungry.” Ha, nice try darling, back to bed.

I love the way he interprets the wold and the way he thinks he can say things to us the way that we say things to him. He’s obviously used to us being a bit firm sometimes and bless him tries to do the same when we aren’t doing as he wants. he announces “you aren’t doing what I say!” Nope, sorry mate. One day he even yelled at Daddy “Go and get me a plaster right now, 5,4,3,2,1 Go on right now go get it.” As you can imagine it didn’t go down too well but I just wanted to laugh. Hearing the things you say parroted back to you by your child is always weird!

Also in regard to interpreting the world, I loved it when we were watching Star Wars recently, there’s a shot where you see the back of Darth Vader’s head without his helmet, and well it is funny colours, but I love how Monkey interpreted it. “I just saw an ice cream!” LOL

The frame with Darth Vaders' head in - which according to Monkey looks like an ice cream haha

The frame with Darth Vaders’ head in – which according to Monkey looks like an ice cream haha

There’s been some little gems of phrases since Monkey has started school too. I mentioned some of his healthy eating comments in a recent post but there has been some other cuteness.

Monkey: “At school yesterday I dropped the back of my badge down the toilet!”
Me: “Oh, did they give you a new one?”
Monkey: “They did! That was very kind!”

Monkey: “Can Daddy take me to school while you and LM get me some popcorn?”

“We learned letters and sounds today like ssss… Not suh, sssss”

“The teachers call Brown skin black skin sometimes. And they call pink skin like ours white. That’s very strange”

nd finally, because it amused me, one day when basically flinging himself around the room he announced:

“Oh my brain. It keeps telling me to fall over!”

Little Miss Says

With LM at the moment it’s mainly words that she is coming out with, though she does have a few very cute phrases too which she loves to repeat. LM will be 2 next week!

I’m going to list them all here mainly for me record but I’ve also put together a little video of her saying some of these as the way she says some of them is so cute and I want to try and capture them as I know this stage will be all too fleeting. Before long she will be speaking properly and coming out with gems like her big brother.

So, her most common words and phrases: Chick, I did it, Put it back, Moon, Boo (boots), A boo (spoon), Bu (blue), Buh (book), Bo(ball), Buh(bus) No (nose), Hair, Hah (hat), Hiya dada, Wee wee, all wet, Share, Chair, Shoe, Tea, Choo choo. Now some of them sound so similar so you really have to understand the context to get what she is saying sometimes! But she is trying so hard bless her. Now apologies for the quality of the video as sometimes the tv is on in the background and it will jump about a bit but like I say it is mainly a record for me so I remember the way she says them.

So that’s it for now, will be back with some more fun phrases soon no doubt :).

Little Hearts, Big LoveAnd then the fun began...
MummascribblesEthans EscapadesBest of Worst

Monkey’s first week at school

So this week saw a big change in our little household. A change we have been preparing for for a long time, yet still seemed to creep on us. Monkey started school!  It’s just mornings this week, and afternoons next week before going full time the week after that. Doesn’t he look so grown up though?20160916_140615

After a few tears on arrival at all of his settling in sessions in July, we fully expected the same to happen in the first couple of weeks. We had done our best to enthuse about school and to focus on all the great things he would do, and though we knew he would love it when he was there, we really thought there would be some initial tears.

So we were hugely surprised when the time came and he gave us each a big kiss and a cuddle, smiled and said “see you later!” before getting stuck straight in to playing with connex. Hugely surprised and obviously hugely proud too. Our boy! He had said on the walk to school “I won’t cry, I cried before because I didn’t have my uniform, but now I do. So I won’t need to cry!” I don’t care what his reasons were but the fact remained there were no tears and by all accounts he loved every minute. photogrid_1474031586082

It’s notoriously difficult to get out of kids what they have gotten up to at school, and having experienced this at preschool too, we try to ask a number of questions through the rest of the day to prompt him (what song did you sing? Do you read any stories? Did you do any drawings? Etc.).  Not like an inquisition just as part of conversations through the rest of the day. So it was we discovered he had sung a song and had an apple for his snack (or a couple of bites at least haha). We also knew he had played with the water wall outside as he came out in a different top to the one he went in wearing!

The drop off on day 2 went just as well and that day he was due to stay for lunch. I’m obviously nervous about how much he would eat but his teacher had said they encourage them to eat a good amount of their mains before letting them turn their plate round to eat their pudding. He was very enthusiastic when he came out about his meatballs and pasta and carrots bless him so I think that went pretty well.

On the 3rd day he read a book about a diver, built a pirate ship out of a plank and wheels “and everything else” outside. He ate a banana for his snack (only teeny bites apparently but still better than we can get him to do) and he also got a badge for his “house team” and his team is yellow. He adores his badge and is so proud to wear it everyday haha.20160916_141757

Unfortunately that night at bedtime as he was running in to LM’s bedroom to say goodnight to her, he tripped and fell face first on the floor. There was blood everywhere and he went into school the next day with such a swollen lip that I had to tell his teacher. I managed to get Monkey to tell me later that she had asked him and found out he had told her what had happened. Then he did a drawing of a hospital and a Dr’s note. He then announced at dinner that night that the drawing was in his pocket. On inspection of his trousers (which had been swapped for shorts as soon as we got home as it was a hot day) I found a very screwed up piece of paper that was indeed his drawing. 20160915_172216

It was a hospital with a person in a window who was “daddy when the Dr bandaged his knee but he’s all better now though he can walk now he can’t run but he can walk.” Love his verbal diarrhoea descriptions of things.

That afternoon playing on our neighbour’s trampoline Monkey’s friend landed on his head and his sunglasses cut his cheek. Thankfully it didn’t look too bad the next day as starting to worry the school will think we are harming him or something!

Friday morning we thankfully got him into school before the rain started and by all accounts he had a lovely time. He apparently played outside in his splashsuit twice and sang a new version of humpty dumpy which he loves and thinks is hilarious.

The afternoon school run was pretty miserable with the rain but I think I will just have to get used to those! Next week is going to be a bit odd as he is just going for a couple of hours every afternoon, but then the week after it will be full time. I’m so so proud of our boy though, he has handled it all so so well. I’m proud of us too as obviously we did just the right amount of preparation for it with him to give our boy, who can be very nervous of change, the confidence to go in happily. We have a schoolboy, seems a bit hard to believe really.

As for how I coped.. well I was more emotional than I thought I would be for the first couple of days, which I wondered whether was because I was so geared up for tears from Monkey that I didn’t know what to do when he was fine! I was so proud but it was also a bit of an anti-climax. I’m not much of a crier, or that good at showing my emotions at times and I was just so so focussed on making sure Monkey was fine. So when he was fine and didn’t actually need my help or reassurance I just felt a bit odd! So I had a few snappy irritable days and feeling like I wanted to cry over absolutely nothing… then eventually talked through how I felt with hubs and a couple of friends and as often happens with me, felt like a huge weight had lifted and I have been alright since really. I need to learn not to bottle things up I really do! Enough about me though as this is Mnkey’s adventure and we are so so proud of how he has taken it all in his stride!

How did your little one settle in to the first week of school?

MaternityMondaysLittle Hearts, Big LoveMummascribbles
Ethans EscapadesBest of Worst

Shape Printing with toilet Rolls, 3 3/4yrs

Someone recently shared a great idea on social media for using toilet rolls to do some shape printing. I was having a look thinking what a great idea it was, when Monkey appeared over my shoulder and was dead impressed. He was so excited at the prospect of having a go so how could I resist? As luck would have it we always have a pile of old toilet rolls available so the next Mummy & Monkey time we got cracking.

He started off wanting to recreate exactly what he had seen in the picture, blue and pink hearts and he absolutely loved it.PhotoGrid_1454595105486

I experimented to see what other shapes I could get from a toilet roll, obviously circle, square and a sort of odd bow shape and again he enjoyed printing the shapes.PhotoGrid_1454595213694

Then, imaginative little monkey that he is he decided that the bow shape looked a bit like monster eyes… and the heart a bit like a smily mouth, so together we created some monsters. Most of this came from him and I just made the odd suggestion here and there…the hair was mine though hehe.PhotoGrid_1454595321678

As with any painting though it soon descended into chaos with mixing of all the paint,and Monkey making gorgeous comments like “I’m good at making brown” and “That looks like indigo.”PhotoGrid_1454595380440

Then the inevitable “Let’s do hand painting!”PhotoGrid_1454595469484

He had so much fun I can’t exactly mind. Lovehow happy he is squishing paint in his hands! I also love his imagination.”Look it’s a bird now with wings!” What a cutie.20160126_100003

I do love crafting and painting with him at this age as he is so imaginative and full of fun it’s just lovely.

#ToddlerApprovedTuesday