1. Comprehending
2. Coconuts
3. Clarifying
Son 2 aged 19m wept, tantrumed and screamed as Son 1 aged 4y 7m and I left the house this morning. In Wonder Nanny’s arms, he gazed through the window at us as we got in the car. It’s borne in on me that the poor little mite has no way of understanding why Mummy and Son 1 are going off together and leaving him. Memo. Lots of books about school/nursery from now on. Stick with him the whole weekend. He started his tantrum about 20 minutes before we left, when I did my usual slow, clear and repetitive “Mummy and Son 1 are going to say goodbye.” So Being Positive, another Sign Of Excellent Receptive Language.
Son 1 and I went to Tesco for a Big Shop after I picked him up from Nursery. He was amazingly well-behaved. We spotted marked-down coconuts in the yellow-sticker trays. “My whole life I have always wanted a coconut,” he said, sitting in the 15 kg max weight seat and stripping some of the fibre off the shell. “Mummy how do we open it?” ” I don’t know, I can’t remember. I thought you wanted to make a hole in it and drink the milk. ” “Yes I do, but what shall we use?” “I don’t know, we’ll have to wait till we get home and see what we’ve got. We used to have hours of fun trying to get into coconuts when I was small.” “What did you do to get in?” “Don’t know, my dad used to do it. Smashed them to smithereens.” “How did he smash them?” “Can’t remember. I think he used to just throw them on the floor, very hard.” Son 1 peered down over the side of the shopping trolley. ”Don’t even think about it,” I growled.
He behaved impeccably, didn’t pester, didn’t whine, got down from the trolley and trotted around happily holding his coconut. “They have these in Aloha Scooby Doo.” So back home I showed him the paddling pool I’d bought from TK Maxx. He can’t wait. But the weather has turned, and a loud lightning/driving rain thunderstorm moved slowly over us this evening. “I don’t mind playing in it in the rain.” I got into a coconut hole with a metal skewer. Wonder Nanny stuck a straw in so Son 1 could, like Shaggy and Scooby drink the milk. “I don’t like it.” Son 1 brought Son 2 a book about fish back from Nursery. Son 2 is obsessed with it. He has a word for Shark, and Boat, and Bus, and Please, and Banana, and Car, and Down, and Upstairs and Outside, and Bubble. Still not quite recognisable to anyone except those who adore him… but we think he is a Miraculous, Magical Marvel.
Tags: Big Shop, coconut, expressive language, nursery, paddling pool, receptive language, scooby doo, separation anxiety, tantrums, thunderstorm, Wonder Nanny
