Who do they look like?

Isn’t it funny how people are often so obsessed by which parent a child most takes after? People have always said that Monkey is a mini-me for his daddy. That he is the spitting image and it is very rare anyone says he looks like me if they know both hubs and I.
Then LM came along and everyone has said she looks like me, yay! Then thre are those who see resemblances to grandparents, aunts, uncles and the likes. I guess it is inevitable really and lovely. But in truth we both struggle to see who they look like, as to us they just look like themselves.

It doesn’t remotely matter of course and this really is just a bit of fun as I thought I would share some pics of us as kiddies to see who you think they look like. Try not to laugh too much at the pics of hubs and I haha.

So does Monkey look like Mummy?

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Or Daddy?

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And does LM look like Mummy?

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Or Daddy?

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What do you think? To be honest I think this has proven a couple of things.

1) that I take waaaay too many photographs as it took me a seriously long time to find the pictures of the kiddies for this post (I have been planning this post for months!)

2) They both resemble both of us at different times. I think that’s the best way though isn’t it? Nice to see a bit of both of us in each of them :).

Who do your kids look like?

And then the fun began...Mummascribbles

Monkey Says at 3 1/2

Our little boy is growing up so much all the time and his language skills are growing with him. Pretty incredible when I think he was a little delayed and had no speech at age 2! He now gives everything a good go and even copied “echocardiogram” from Get Well Soon on Cbeebies the other day! He also comes out with some real gems at times too. Some that make me cringe and others that make me laugh out loud. So here are some of the Monkey’s top sayings recently.20151126_091318

“That’s my favourite.” Everything is his favourite. From people to food to things. The Dr is his favourite. His dinner is his favourite. Even his poo has been his favourite (I’m not kidding sadly). It’s actually very endearing when he says “I love Daddy, he’s my favourite” and when he calls LM “my favourite sister.” He also has a couple of children at playgroup who are his favourite too and it is so lovely to hear he is building relationships with other children.

Another endearing one is when he strokes his Daddy’s arm and says “You’ll be OK.” Generally absolutely nothing had happened and Daddy is perfectly happy…. but it is very cute nonetheless!

Less cute is when he copies us and shouts at LM to stop or yells at her that she is naughty. Nothing makes you think about the words coming out of your mouth more than hearing those words come out of a 3yr old’s mouth! That also includes him copying “oh for god’s sake” (we are trying to turn this into for goodness sake) and worst of all copying Daddy when he described a relative as “big fat …” I was less than impressed with that one and thank goodness he hasn’t said it to the person!!

He really likes making up random words at the moment too. Some are quite amusing, “binky banky” for example, some strangely accurate as when he described a car park as danky when yes, actually it was a bit dank. You can probably get there is a theme here and yes he did go through a stage of proclaiming everything was “winky wanky” which I was less than enamoured with! Thankfully we have persuaded him that is a bit of a silly thing to say!!20151120_132740

His imagination is wonderful now, and when he is playing cars or doing car painting he is very often using one to chase another, saying “I’m coming to get you” followed by the other car saying “aaaaaaaaahhh” hehe. You may have seen recently that he loves dressing up as a super hero and he really is so cute – running around saying he is “coming to the rescue!” and once he has rescued something (for example he did a great job of rescuing a welly the other day haha) it is “mission accomrished” with two thumbs up, so a bit of a superhero/postman pat SDS combination!

Mission Accomrished!

Mission Accomrished!

He is really inquisitive about the world around him, asking “where do trees come from?” and “what are planes made of?” He wants to know everything and he loves spotting things, the moon being the most recurrent especially at this time of year. We can be in the car and he will suddenly be yelling “look Daddy look it’s the moon!!” and of course we have to reply (as with whenever he tells us anything) or he will just keep repeating it tirelessly until he gets the answer he is looking for! He also thinks every conversation is aimed at him and answers any question he hears, not just those directed at him. So I can be talking to LM or Daddy or someone else and he will answer. He adores Show Me Show Me on the tv (one of my fave progs for the kids) and always answers when Chris and Pui ask questions. The other day he ran over and said “Chris asked me if I like shopping and I told him I did” and was so proud of himself.

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A cut? Or Jam???

We love the way he tries to find the language to describe something. For example he had a bit of a sore throat on the weekend and when he had some of Daddy’s warm tea he proclaimed “That was lovely! That made my throat feel not all gone” so cute. Other examples are “I’m getting all filled (full)” “that’s a bit splatty” (paint). During a snuggle on the sofa he decided I have “a lovely cosy bottom” and once when I was getting dressed “that’s a lovely nippley boobie.”  Errr, ok, thanks Monkey haha.

After falling tooth-first onto my forhead at the weekend giving me a lovely cut, lump and bruise, Monkey looked at me and said “you’re all cut. It looks a bit like Jam.” Well yes, I suppose it does, a bit!

Now for the funnies. We were watching Toy Story 2 the other day and when the man came to mend Woody’s arm, Monkey decided the needle and thread was a hooker. “Look he’s get a hooker. He loves hookers. I love hookers too, they’re my favourite!” I really wasn’t that sure what to say to that to be honest hehe. Then at lunch one day he randomly piped up “Mummy and Daddy do you like licking each other?” errrrrrr not sure what to say or where that came from.

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my cheeky Monkey 🙂

Finally, this morning he was on the receiving end of a few stern words from Daddy about the fact that he had done a wee in his pants (he seems to have regressed a little lately which is annoying with more incidents than usual) and he was being really good and listening, and then he suddenly announced “But cats don’t like bananas.” I have to admit I laughed out loud in the next room, I mean where did that come from? Funny Monkey!

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Monkey Says at 34 Months

I feel like I want to write down every word that Monkey Says at the moment as most of it is really adorable! His vocabulary is coming on leaps and bounds all the time and his pronunciation is getting so much clearer too. He can pronounce his L’s now sometimes and is learning th rather than f. There is still plenty of cute mispronunciations though and some very cute sayings and phrases.

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Manners

We have been working  a lot on his manners over the last couple of months. I was always bought up to believe that manners were important (Manners Maketh Man my Mum always said :)) and actually because most of my day to day conversation is between Monkey and I it became really important to me to be treated with a bit of respect. Obviously when little ones first learn to talk the things they say are simple – want this, need that, give me this. After a while though as the main carer I started to feel like I was more of a slave. Being shouted at and ordered around by my toddler every day was not enjoyable. We had obviously been working on please and thank you for a long time but we have started to elaborate on it now and he is doing really well.

Now when he would like something he knows he has to ask nicely (sometimes he needs reminding but he is saying it more and more on his own too) “Please can I have some milk?” “Please watch Toy Story again?” etc. etc. He is doing very well and also says “thank you,” “no thanks” and when we thank him for things it is “You’re most welcome!” It just makes our home a nicer place to be and I think it is so important to ask for things nicely and say thank you. One of my friends always says that Monkey doesn’t have to say thank you to her if she gives him something, but I don’t think there are any exemptions to the rule, personally.

It is so cute hearing him be so polite though he is learning to try it on – saying please over and over when he wants a biscuit “twease can I have a biscuit, twease, twease, twease” and “no fanks” when he doesn’t want to do something, like eat his vegetables or have a nappy change! We try not to let him get away with it but occasionally he does get something because we can’t resist him asking for something so nicely.

Conversations

We have some lovely little conversations with him at the moment. I was getting LM ready for bed and listening to Monkey and Daddy at bathytime and heard this cute convo.

Daddy: Its teethy clean time then story time
Monkey: And sleeping time and wake up and playing and eating
Daddy: Is that your day?
Monkey: (very happily) yeah

I just felt it was a really nice indication of how much he loves his little life at the moment!

We’ve also noticed how we are really having little conversations. Now when we pick him up from playgroup and ask what he has done, he doesn’t always say “I don’t know” and will now often tell us what he has got up to.

Mr Potato Head

WP_20150318_13_05_58_ProHe has such an imagination now too which is lovely and since watching Toy Story a few times he is now in love with his Mr Potato Head toy and is currently carrying him everywhere. He couldnt find  his hat the other day and kept asking for it. I said he should look in his toy boxes, to which he replied ” I can’t, I not a good looker” really despondently. I helped him look (and he decided he was a good “looker” after all and once Mr Potato head was completed he shouted “Look! Like on the TV!”

Then we were sat at the table and he was chatting to Mr Potato Head and then he got cross and said “he not talking Mummy” lol. Despite the lack of response he is talking to him a lot “Come a me Mr tato head” and “it’s ok Mr Tato head, Mummy gone to get Monkey’s drink.” He is such a cutie with him!

Other sayings

Another thing that he says all the time is “Got that at…” pointing at objects, books, toys at home, in the shops, on the TV. Most of the time it is “got that at playgroup” as they have some of the same books and the same step for the sink, and various other bits. Then there is “got that at Nanny Pop’s house!” and “Got that at home!” which is very cute.

We are also very much in the “Why” phase at the moment. There are lots of “why” and “who not” though I am sure we are only just entering this phase and will have more um fun with this over the coming months!

He also likes to talk basically all the time and narrates everything he is doing  and often will repeat things over and over until we say it too, which drives me potty. We can answer him in a hundred different ways but sometimes unless we repeat what he says he will keep going!

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Little Hearts, Big Love
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Hiding

One of Monkey’s favourite things at the moment is playing hide and seek. He wants to do it all the time, every day, multiple times! there have been times I thought he was saying “Hi Mummy” but what he was actually doing was instructing me to “Hi” (hide) lol. If I tell him I am leaving the room for a minute I usually hear “hi” on my way out and see him scamper off somewhere to hide. Then when I come back in a little head pops up and shouts boo!

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Random Playtime – 24 mths old

Our little Monkey is growing up and now has a lot more imaginative play, and a lot more independant play. This leads to him having a lot fun with mummy largely acting as a bystander.

Some of the things he chooses to play with are particularly amusing. I’ve blogged before about how random household objects can be fascinating for babies/toddlers but I am going to show you two recent play times which demonstrate this perfectly!

Gym Ball

Because of my SPD we have my gym ball down in the lounge a lot of the time at the moment, because it is good to sit on and do pelvic tilts etc. It is also a LOT of fun for Monkey to play on, and hilarious for me to watch.

He can’t get on it himself but he loves carrying it around the room (though it is about as big as he is)..

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And then launching himself onto the ball

Created with Nokia Camera Created with Nokia Camera

and laughing his head off when he then flies off it again!

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Very funny afternoon spent watching that!

Playing with my scarf

I got a lovely new scarf for my birthday and I had been a naughty mummy and left it in the lounge after I had taken it off. Therefore it was obviously fair game at play time. Monkey loves playing with blankets and hiding under them so it wasn’t a huge surprise when he decided to have a play with the scarf, but it was pretty funny!

He very much enjoyed hiding underneath it..

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And then there was lots of giggles looking at himself in my phone while he wrapped it around his head.

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He did look very pretty in it bless him!

You’ve gotta love the random things that amuse toddlers and the simple fun they can have with very little in the way of toys or parental involvement!

Do your kids ever turn random objects into fun playthings?

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Monkey’s Musical Medley – 22 months

I don’t very often post videos as I find pictures a bit nicer, but if you have a spare minute this one is worth a watch!

When Monkey is happy, for a long time he has obviously been singing in his head as he stops what he is doing and ‘winds the bobbin’ doing all the movements. He can be doing anything, watching something he loves on TV, playing at the park or on the mud, doing some messy play, and he stops and winds the bobbin.

Lately though it has become something more and he adds all orts of extra movements in, and in a seemingly random order. I’m not entirely sure what this sounds like in his head but he clearly loves it! I managed to catch a bit of this during some painting the other day and I think it’s hilarious.

Funny Monkey!

Ethans Escapades

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A mini photographer #wotsofunee

Monkey and I went on a play-date to a friend’s house the other day. We are very good friends and even though her little girl (E) is almost exactly a year older than Monkey they generally get on pretty well together and play nicely with each other, even if Monkey is pottering about by himself a bit.

At one point, E was playing with a shapes app on my phone, monkey was playing with some toys and my friend and I were having a chat. A few minutes went by and we suddenly realised E had figured out how to get to the camera on my phone and take pictures. Her mum has an iphone and I have a windows phone, so completely different operating systems. Clever girl! So she took a few snaps and even managed to take a few selfies with the front facing camera.

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She took some pics of Monkey and then, I thought she was taking pics of me but it turned out she was taking pics of her ken doll. So I lifted him up for her to take a few snaps. Pretending he was was smiling and saying cheese.

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She took a few snaps and then said “that’s great Ken, now let’s take you clothes off and take some more pictures”. Her mum and I roared with laughter at the shock of the request then I said “err no, no we don’t take pictures of people with their clothes off” and managed to distract her by bringing barbie into the frame for some photos. I made them kiss each other, which E was NOT amused by.

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So I tried to make them hold hands, semi-successfully…

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Then I slipped and it looked like Ken was holding Barbie’s bottom!

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E’s mum and I had a good chuckle about this, and then E cottoned on to what we were saying and started requesting that they touch their bottoms in the photos!

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Haha , silliness but who knows, E may be the next Annie Liebowitz!

Wot So Funee?

The Reading Residence

Monkey hard at work

A few days ago on our way back from the Post Office we popped in to Daddy’s office to say hello. They recently moved literally around the corner from where we live and Daddy likes us to come and say hello occasionally if we are around.

Monkey loves it there and I just thought this photo (poor quality I know, sorry) was just massively cute. He thinks lots of things are phones. Cushions, remote controls and yes the computer mouse. Monkey thinks the computer mouse is a phone and I love this photo because he looks like he is mid conversation with someone.

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Kids are so funny aren’t they?


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