1.  Great Years

2.  Great Pacifics

3.  Great Expectations

I remember New Year’s Eve 1969.   A five-year-old me sat on a window sill with my four-year-old brother, looking out at the tree outside.  “This is the last day of Nineteen Sixty Nine,” I told him. “What day is tomorrow?” he asked. “Nineteen Sixty Ten,” I replied. Forty years on, Son 1 is five years and three months old.  What a difference a decade makes.  On New Year’s Eve 1999/2000 I worked late at The Office, and then joined The Man at a party in a friend’s house and boogied singing Abba songs till 4am.   This year, I rang a Wednesday Mother at 11am. ”Inspiration?” I said. “Don’t know. We’re just getting up.” We agreed on the Aquarium.

The Aquarium was fab. Son 1 was excited about seeing Best Friend, and Son 2 aged 2y 3m was excited about seeing fish.  He crouched down to peer at the rays, gazed at the turtles, and loved the seahorses.   And for a boy obsessed by octopuses, The Giant Pacific Octopus was Christmas all over again.  It was wriggling around in its tank, its suckers splayed against the glass. “Look!  Stickers!” said Son 2. :I’ve been staring at that octopus since before Son 2 was born, and I’ve never seen it move before. ”It must be hungry,” I said. ”Maybe it’s lunchtime.”  We went through into the underwater section, where skates, rays and sharks soared above our heads.  Son 2 ran back in search of Wednesday Mother. “Where are yoooo?  I’m coming!”  We were thinking about lunch when an Aquarium worker stopped. “I don’t know if you know, but we’re about to feed the Giant Octopus if you want to watch.”  Back we went. Another aquarium worker climbed a rickety step ladder up the side of the tank. The octopus flew up to the surface.  Dripping tentacles slithered out of the top and up the woman’s arm. “I don’t bruise easily,” she said. “If this was my colleagues, they’d have a bruise each place the tentacle has gripped.”  She was great. We were already Octopus Fans, and now we are Octopus Experts. ”Put Shark vs Octopus into Youtube” she said. “The octopus wins.” I just looked at it. Bleargh. Oh all right, it’s here shark vs octopus   She had trouble getting it back in the tank. Splash. “Ow. That nearly dislocated my thumb.”  She threw a live crab into the tank after it. “It’s what she eats. You don’t have to watch if you don’t want to.” 

On the way home we picked up Nanna, who was staying overnight so we could go out. The boys were knackered and badly behaved, with Son 2 having one of his screaming, screeching, squealing fits. After several spells on the naughty steps he sat on my lap, his chest heaving with sobs, slowly coming back to us and managing a bit of pizza.  After bedtime we went out for drinks, two in our local, one in a wine bar nearby, and another in a pub/nightclub. We came back before midnight - the champagne was in the fridge and we like the fireworks across the river. I woke Son 1 a few minutes before, and brought him downstairs.  He cried and clung… he just wanted to go back to bed.  I have two New Year’s Resolutions. I will cut down on or cut out all food with a “c” in it.  Fruit and veg excluded of course.  And I Ain’t Gonna Grieve No More.

1.  Babs In The Buck-Buck

2.  You Shall Have A Fishy

3.  Sundowners

Out to the river wall at the end of The Terrace, crabbing again.  The Man baiting two lines with bacon, Son 1 aged 4y 10m happily scooting up and down, me trying to keep Son 2 aged 23 m out of the water.   Eleven crabs.  We all caught them, including Son 2. “Bab! Bab!”  Son 2 is of course still obsessed with fish, and while crabs were ok, yearned for “Fish!  Fish!”  And he also wanted to bait the hooks. “Babon! More Babon!”  We persuaded him to feed bits of babon to the babs in the buck-bucks instead. Son 1 is going to fall in the river.  He is always right on the edge, he has no concept of the incoming tide “Son 1 you really do have to MOVE!” and he doesn’t understand that the green slimy stuff is very very slippery.   Oh well. There is one sure way of his learning…

Still on our fishy theme, we drove to the Garden Centre so Son 1 and Son 2 could have another look at the Fish Shop.  Son 1 is still keen to get a fish tank for his birthday, so we wanted him to have a good look at all the fish for sale to get an idea of what he wants.  Nemo.  Who needs warm, salt water, a tank full of difficult, expensive swaying corals and assorted sci-fi prawnie things to keep the water and the tank clean.  Main diet of prawnie things = expensive corals.   The lad behind the Fish Shop counter recommends tropical fish for a beginner. Easier than goldfish, who are too messy.  The starter tank kit was eye-wateringly expensive. “Son 2, do you want to share Son 1’s fish tank for your birthday present?”  “Yesssss.” Sorted.  They can have toys for Christmas.

They fell asleep in the car on the way back, so The Man and I drove up to the Headland for sneaky whirly whippy ice creams with chocolate flakes in.  We scoffed them guilty while they slept. Back home I went shopping with Son 2 while Son 1 and The Man watched telly.  I got tea, amid protests from Son 2, who couldn’t understand why he wasn’t allowed to wash the potatoes. Because we’re having stir fry darling.  Nanna babysat while The Man and I went out to the Hotel With The River View. We sat outside while the sky darkened and the lights across the river came on.

1.  Action Man

2.  Crikey

3.  She Can’t Fly But I’m Telling You…

0605.  Son 2 aged 18m.  The usual. Downstairs for snacks and drinks.   Son 2 stopped off in the lounge.  Doing his little jig.  Over to the shelf with the DVDs on. Pointing. “Mama.”  This means “I’ve got a good idea. Let’s put The Wiggles on.”   In the kitchen he disappeared out the back by the washing machine.  This means “I’ve got a good idea. Let’s go outside.”   Back upstairs The Man had a shower and first Son 1 aged 4y 6m, and then Son 2, got in and joined him.  And then they were back in the lounge. Both boys played with The Wooden Railway and I put The Wiggles on for Son 2. 

The boys went to the Aquarium today with Wonder Nanny, her Nanny friend, and the two little boys she looks after.  They went around twice.  They touched rays’ eggs and lobsters.  They saw the giant octopus out of its tank.  Son 2 loved it.  I came in just as the boys were finishing their tea. Son 1 acted out the giant octopus.  Son 2 tried to Go Outside.  “Can we play Pirate Snakes And Ladders now?” Son 1 asked Wonder Nanny.  We looked blank. “On top of my wardrobe.” Son 1 said helpfully.  “Where did we get Pirate Snakes and Ladders?” I asked. “When I was four.  From Best Friend.” “Have we played with it since then?” “Not for a long long time.”  I went up to the big bedroom and burrowed in the eave.  Son 1 did indeed get some presents for his birthday (and for Christmas) which we put away almost as soon as they were unwraped because he had so many.  He’d seen the Snakes and Ladder set in the Aquarium shop, and remembered it from six months back.   Crikey.

Son 2 howling with temper and tiredness at bedtime, so I picked digger books to make him feel better.  “Di Di Di Di” he now says when he sees the digger page.  “dum dum dum” for the dump trucks.  The words are coming through.  His bye bye is strange - a perfectly formed adult phrase delivered in an adult tone.  I will do another list of words.  I am still putting my head right into his cot to help send him off to sleep.  He has started slinging his arms round my neck, grabbing my hair and pulling me close.  I don’t see enough of him.  wednesday tomorrow, which is a Good Thing. And I got out for a run, which is another.

1.  Walking

2.  Writing

3.  Silence Of The Seahorse

Son 2 aged 14m has started choosing to totter a few steps to get where he wants to go.  Rather than crawling.  About one in three times.  He did it today without thinking - as opposed to standing in TA-DA mode, with a huge expectant grin on his face, launching himself forward into doting outstretched arms and making sure everyone’s clapping.  And he did it without us egging him - we kept catching him doing it.  He can walk, often, for 10+ paces  at a time; he can change direction.  His balance is good.  He’s standing confidently for longer periods.  I think today is the first day I can say he is starting to walk.  And from everything we already know about Son 2, we Need Reins.  Now.

I was off today, so Wonder Nanny and I took the boys to the Aquarium.  Son 2 loves fish  -  he repeatedly opens and closes his mouth every time he sees one in a picture, and he was spellbound.  There are some tanks at a good baby height and he stood up against them and stared and stared and pointed and uh-ed and stared.    Son 1 aged 4y 2m was delighted and excited, and loved the sharks and the turtles and the seahorses and spotting Nemo characters.  He drew a sea monster for a display of children’s drawings.  He coloured in a shark in the cafe.   And then, in yellow pencil on white paper (so I now can’t see it) he did a half-decent effort at writing his name.  The letter shapes were there… in order.  Not in scale with each other, not entirely recognisably Roman, and nose-diving down the page.  But it was there.

It was a Good Thing seeing Son 2 so relaxed and comfortable with Wonder Nanny.  In the car we discussed Son 2’s sleeping.  For his  daytime nap, she has a routine to send him to sleep, but if he starts “interacting” with her, she leaves the room.  She’s found it hard over the last couple of weeks.  We both think the MMR whacked his system.  She thinks I should try Controlled Crying at night. Can’t.  I always go back.  This evening I put him down, sang him his lullaby, and he started getting up, biting my hand, sticking his fingers up my nose, rolling over, pressing his head against mine and grabbing the bars of the cot.  That’s interacting, I thought, and I said goodnight, kissed him, and went to Son 1.  Son 2 raged and roared and ranted.  “We’ll do two books,” I said to Son 1, “then I have to go  back to Son 2 because I can’t stand him making that noise.”  ”OK,” said Son 1.  We looked up the things we saw today in his Ocean Encyclopedia.  Son 2 fell silent during the seahorse.