1.  Early Speech

2.  Trains And Boats

3.  Everyone Else

Marvellous Night My A***.  Son 1 aged 4y 5m woke shouting at 3pm and That Was It.  I couldn’t sleep, I went downstairs and in the double bed next to Son 2 aged 18m’s cot… he woke up at about 4am calling “Ma Ma! Ma Ma!” and I ignored him.  Then he woke again at 0530 and we were off and up.  18 amazing months old.  Wordcount.  Look Away if you’re bored, this is a scientific project.  I am Capturing Language Development.  Ma Ma. Da Da.  Na (for no) Sss (with nodding) for yes.  Aaar for parrot.  Rarr for lion, tiger, bear and dinosaur.  Mooo for cow.  Woo for Dog.  Na Na (snap snap) for crocodile.  Dum dum (”Dump trucks are good at dump, dump dumping”) for lorry/vehicle.  Bye Bye.  Allo.  Meeh for milk.  Oooo (hoo, hoo) for owl.   Ba Ba for beep beep.  Rabid screaming: I am Disappointed.  His understanding is fantastic.  At one point today I asked Son 1 “Do you want CBeebies or The Wiggles?”  Son 2 nodded and jigged.  “You want The Wiggles?”  Nodding.  Off he trotted to the shelf where the DVDs live. 

Getting ready to visit The Museum with the Wednesday Friends, the boys escaped upstairs while I tidied.  I heard boxes being pulled out.  After 15 minutes I went upstairs to check.  They’d pulled out some Thomas Wooden Railway boxes, and Son 1 had started to build a track.  They were both hiding in the cupboard, pulling the doors closed behind them.  We finished the track, they played with two electric engines and I went downstairs again.  Son 1 wore his Captain Hook outfit for the Museum, and we walked all the way down.  Old ladies twinkled at him, and, by the time we got there he was twinkling back.  He played with Best Friend and Three Year Old With His Arm In Plaster.   Son 2 played in the boats, but fundamentally  just wanted to go upstairs, to go outside, to get out into the world.

We all went into Pizza Express for lunch.  Five boys under five, and we got away with it.  I had vegetables, pitta and hummous for Son 2, and Son 1, who was starving, raided it. We had a bottle of wine between us, and wondered whether our lunch was stress-free because the boys behaved, or because we’d added alcohol.  Afterwards Son 2 dozed for about twenty minutes of the walk home.  Son 1 managed the whole walk.  ”I want you to change your mind and buy me a gun to play with.” “No. I don’t want you playing with guns.”  “Everyone else has got one.”  The first one.  Before he’s four and a half.  I’m so proud.    He found a thick stick and played shooting people all the way home.    Where I heard the news from Germany. 

I made roast dinner, Nanna came round.  The boys, The Man, Nanna and I ate dinner.  Son 1 stayed at the table and ate two pieces of parsnip.  It was all very successful.  Until pudding, which was some iced buns/cup cakes I’d bought earlier.  Son 1 ate the icing from the doughnut and Gromit cup cake … and then started careering round, fizzing like a Catherine Wheel.

1.  Mama

2.  Na Na

3.  Ta Da 

I didn’t make it back from The Office yesterday in time to see Son 2 aged 17m before he went to bed.  And I didn’t make it back in time tonight.  Pang.  Not enjoying that.  But Hey ho, it’s the weekend so I’ve got two days with him, hooray hooray.  I ended up in the double bed in his room last night… insomnia, then Son 1 aged 4y 5m screaming out for me, and then “I think I’ll just bump into a few things in Son 2’s room in the night and maybe he’ll wake up and I can have a cuddle.”  Nope.  The only time you can guarantee that child will sleep like a stone is when you need him awake.  But it did give me the full benefit this morning, at 0615, of Son 2 standing up in his cot, gripping the rail in both little fists and yelling out “Ma-Ma!”  

He did a “Na na” as he reached for his snack tub as well, not that we’ve got any.  He could say Nana for banana months back, and then it just faded away, so I’m pleased it’s back.  I’m  hoping I can catch the way his language develops in the blog; he’s certainly having lots of attempts at words.  Ni Ni Ni is just peering through for “no.”   He did a “mooo” at a picture of cow during reading today.  And then Son 1 and I left for Nursery and the office and That Was That.  I haven’t seen him.  The Man says he’s on fine form.

Son 1’s coat was covered in mud yesterday during a game which involved making a hide out for Four Arms.   So he went to school in a third hand blazer.  Owner 1 is now on a £30k first job for a commercial law firm.  The second owner is thirteen, Son 2’s Godbrother.  And there was Son 1.   A little urchin with a cropped fringe, dimples, bright eyes and a dazzling smile, in an oversized 1980s acrylic blazer.   Eating a chocolate cookie and listening to Peter Pan all the way home.