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.

1.  Lifeguards

2.  The Juicy Child

3.  Monster Powers

By The Flume at our local pool there is a notice saying No Jewellery, No Contact Lenses, No Goggles etc.  The Lifeguard who has to stand at the top watching punters going down has his eyebrow pierced with a bar.  One of his colleagues has a hoop through her upper lip.  Another of his colleagues is so young that he’d be allowed on the lifeboat first with the women.  And there was a small round turd on the floor in one of the changing rooms.  I took Son 2 aged 14m to the Babies and Toddlers session and he was great.  He floated along when I swam him, he played in the noodle, he got out (often) and crawled off so I had to get out the pool to get him back.  He splashed.  He watched.  He pointed at the stairs. He tried to climb up the walls.  He lay on my front while I swam backwards.  And then he put his head on my shoulder, eyes still wide and watching.  So we came out, and he was asleep by the time we got home. 

Then I went up with Son 1 aged 4y 1m.  And we played for more than an hour and a half.  He was an alien seahorse.  The noodle was seaweed, until I pretended to eat it up, when he shouted “It’s Meat!” and cackled because Mummy’s a vegetarian.  I was a mermaid and he was a pirate. Again.  I was a  sea turtle.  He was a crocodile.  I was the Enormous Crocodile, and he was a Juicy Child.  We played with surf boards, we bounced in the waves, he climbed out and jumped in.  Towards the end of the time we met one of our Friends and her family - with (of course) a four year old boy. We haven’t seen them since the Birthday Party, so it was good to catch up.

The Man made Toad in the Hole for tea, and Son 2 wanted to play out front.  So the boys and I spent an hour outside.  Son 2 scrunched on the gravel, hauled himself up by the railings and twinkled at the passers-by.  We saw two sets of neighbours,  runners, dogs, and an old lady from the other end of the Terrace out with her New Hip.  Son 1was the Mysterious Lifeguard with Monster Powers, protecting our houses with his fire sticks, which set everything on fire except of noses.  It was noisy, it was elaborate, it involved twigs and dracaena leaves and quite a few stones landing very near me and Son 2.   Son 2 managed his tea, and asked for and ate extra sausages.  It works better when he can’t smell the cooking - we at last avoided Sunday evening melt down.