I'm three!

A super-speedy blog update as befits the faster scooter(er?) in the Southern Hemisphere... loves his scooter, birthday pressie from us, a mini-micro which I highly recommend - light, stable and easy to steer, allowing him to barrel round corners at supersonic speed. Unfortunately he chooses to use his right foot to slow down, rather than the brake, and has worn out two pairs of shoes in a month. Needless to say I am currently shopping for shoes at K-mart rather than Clarks, until this phase wears off!

Very amusing with his stories - narrates long complicated adventures of his trains, as in this picture below, e.g. "'Oh no,' thoughted(!) Thomas, 'I'm stuck!' 'I'll pull you out,' said Other Thomas." I loved hearing him say "Thoughted"!

Favourite stories at the mo are Grandpa's selection for his birthday, particularly Oliver Who Would Not Sleep and Up In The Tree by Margaret Atwood - so for the first time we have a favoured author in common (Alias Grace is probably my favourite of her novels).

Loves to blow bubbles and demands quite frequently to go out in the garden and do so, regardless of how arctic the weather is.

Leo is nearly 3...

I really need to have a piece of paper and pen handy because Leo keeps saying things that crack me up, then I get to the evening and think, "now what was it I was going to put on his blog?"

Big boy's bed
He finally climbed out of his cot last week so we have taken the side off to make it into a toddler bed, which he absolutely loves. The first night he got up about 5 times before going to sleep but he's pretty much used to it now. The best thing about the new arrangement is that we can snuggle on his bed together for stories, which we used to do on the floor, and it's much more comfy this way!

Thomas the Tank
...is still the numero uno. We've got quite a few of the older-style Thomas books and he keeps coming out with verbatim phrases from the stories like "Bust my buffers!" or odder ones ( "My fitter comes every week," "I'll be a Ding Dang Dong"). Yesterday I was refereeing an incident where Angharad was clearly the injured party but I hadn't seen what happened. Leo was banished to the naughty cushion and when he came off, I asked him why he was there and he told me solemnly "I said to Angharad, 'All Engines Stop and Pin Down Brakes' then I hit her with my head." He also narrates Thomas-inspired storylines when playing with his train set, murmuring to himself "'Oh dear,' peeped Thomas" or "'Oh Oh OH' screamed the trucks."

Trainspotter
He's a walking talking living map of the Melbourne metropolitan train network, he knows our regular stations and the order they come in, and will announce which station is coming next, or tell other people on the train things like, "We're going to Southern Cross. We're not getting off at Melbourne Central today." (Which obviously the other passengers think is very cute). He likes to point out directions, "Daddy goes to work THAT way. Our house is THAT way."

Verbose
He has become aware that using new words or phrases is a sure-fire way to impress us. So he'll say something like, "Oh sorry mummy that was an accident" (after brushing past me on his scooter). I say 'that's OK darling' and carry on with what I was doing - clearly not the reaction he was hoping for: "Mummy, I did say 'accident'!" Or "Mmmm this is delicious. I did say 'delicious!'"

Pants
He's got some pants which he'll wear from time-to-time when in the mood (with the odd wet trousers and he asks for a nappy on when he needs a poo), but most of the time he isn't really interested in potty training, in fact is quite anti, so I'm not pushing it. It'll happen eventually.

Threenager
Can be a stroppy, unco-operative thug at times, and I'm learning to walk away and take a deep breath if I feel like I am going to put him on eBay. A few times I have yelled at him and then felt so guilty. C'est la vie. Luckily I have honest friends so on those days that I think I am raising a devil-child someone always has a similar story to make me feel better! He's also getting more cuddly (perhaps Angharad's influence) and his gorgeous moments far outnumber the irritating ones, and make the memory disappear in an instant. Which reminds me of what he said this morning. I had a new jumper on with a big cowl neck, and when I walked into the room he stared at it and reached out to touch the big soft neck. "Do you like my new jumper?" I said. "Yes Mummy, it's beautiful." (Pronounced Boo-ful). Angharad was also sporting a new outfit today and he said, unprompted "Angharad is very smart." Gorgeous boy.

May update

Leo is very good value at the moment, he keeps doing things that I want to remember and write down but I'm sure I've forgotten half of them! Here goes.

Non-stop chatting He still loves telling stories. Language development is so fascinating - I find it intriguing that he gets (maybe not consciously) that there are text types, and that story language is different to informal spoken language. For example a few weeks ago we were in the car, and he was flicking through 'Touch and Feel Kittens' which is a factual picture book. He made up a whole kitten-based story, which I can't remember all of, but it started "Once there was a kitten, who loved roses" (how gorgeous is that??) and the end was something about "and, sure enough..." blah blah blah. Anyway the point being that those are not words/ constructions we often use in normal speech. He also likes to tell jokes (over and over and over and over again... ooh my sides are splitting). He has two main genres of joke: mixed-up animals ("a kanga-pig?"), or replacing words in a song, sentence or rhyme with "poo" (bet Granny loves that one) or with things around him at the time. The other day he came home from occasional care, and when I asked him what he'd been doing he told me that he'd sung "'Teletubbies say eh-poo' to Will, and that was my joke."

I also find it incredible how the brain just soaks up vocabulary, and files it away in the right place to be trotted out and wow your mother at an appropriate time... earlier this week he was drinking out of a pink beaker and when he'd finished he stuck it over his face and said "look Mummy I'm a pig" ("yes dear, oink oink") "Yes, this is my pink snout"!! One of the neighbours gave him a tambourine last week and after bashing it for a while, he put it on his head and said, "is a hat like a catten." "A hat like a what?" I said. " "Like a catten. A catten of a boat." It really did look like a captain's hat as well, with a ribbon around it. The next day he was driving a box around the floor and 'it is a ferry going very fast on the water, and there is a captain on the ferry, he is the driver.' I can't remember any other gems although there are lots of them! He seems to use 'last week'/ 'next week' as past / future - he's used 'last week' to refer to something that happened this morning or months ago! This morning we were talking about balls (as you do) and he said "remember when my ball went on the train track last week?" (that happened in January).

Favourite books and toys Trains are still #1, he always has a track laid out on his bedroom floor and will happily play with it by himself for a good while. We've recently got a few more Aussie animals to go with his set, and they're currently in with the train track too so sometimes in his running commentary you'll hear "stop penican (pelican) stop, is a train coming!" or "is a platypus on the bridge!" Loves playdough, cooking (real and pretend), and playing with a little bit of flour on the table making tracks, patterns and swirls. A prolific painter, loves rollers and mixing colours ("mix mix mix... I making a lighter shade" "a lighter shade..yes dear"... see what I mean about appropriate vocabulary??). Current top books: Ginger by Charlotte Voake, which he calls the Bonzo book - because it really is about Ginger Bonzo from the Bins, it's uncanny. "His ears were black with dirt, and his tail was like a piece of string." From Head to Toe by Eric Carle - so cute when he kicks like a donkey.

Fave food Nothing particularly new to report other than that he loves eggs and asks for them all the time, and would eat far more than is healthy if I let him... he often has a hard-boiled egg or two for lunch when we're out and about, and also loves omelette. He loves helping to make omelette (he cracks the eggs for me), and the other day told me exactly how you do it: "We going to crack egg in bowl and mix egg and egg is orange and we cook some egg and is very hot."

belated update

Life's just peachy

Oh dear, Leo hasn't had an update since before Christmas, so here goes:

Hobbies du jour Balls, digging holes, running/racing/chasing, dancing, counting. Still loves to throw and kick balls, and now likes to catch as well. Rolls ball to Angharad and she gives it back to him, very cute. Pretty handy with catching, can catch quite a small ball now. Quite obsessive about counting objects and telling you how many there are, and reading numbers out. Surprised me today while playing with a toy cash register at playgroup, by pushing the .50 button repeatedly and saying "fifty, fifty, fifty." Has a scooter out of the toy libary at the mo which he loves to razz around on.

Chatterbox Rarely shuts up these days. His day starts between 7 and 8 with a "Mummm-AAY! Dadd-AAY!" and from then on it's non-stop commentary about everything going on in his world. Since last time I blogged, has switched to using first person most of the time although will still sometimes say "Want Mummy to come outside and play with you" or "I want mummy to come outside kick ball with Leo." His sentences are quite long and convoluted and sometimes he's managed to get all three ways of referring to himself in the same one. Most of the time though, it's "I want to kick my ball outside" etc. Or "I'm not going home yet" or "I want to go playgroup again and make stained glass windows again." It's so cute the way he's so enthusiastic about everything, e.g. doorbell rings "Oh! Who's at the door? Let's go and see who's at the door mummy!" or "Thank you SO much Daddy".

He delivers constant lengthy monologues; yesterday he climbed onto our bed, pulled my current book down (comically enough, given what followed, 'Children Are People Too: Understanding Young Children's Behaviour' by Louise Porter) and started telling a long story. "This story is called 'Mummy's', and it goes like this... [opens it up] One day, it's going to rain again. It's going to rain and rain and RAIN. And there was a... 5, and a girl... and there were some dots, 4 dots, and then - let's see what happened.... " and so he continued, with a crazy mix of imagined content, nonsense and that inspired by chapter numbers, bullet points and other features of the text until he got to the end and said "and that's the end of the story! Now let's have another one..." We needed to go to the shops then, so I told him we could have another story when we got back, but we had to go out now and get some veggies for dinner, to which he replied, "Oh, that sounds LOVELY Mummy, that sounds LOVELY." !! His voice is rather 'rp' and at times, as you can probably gather, he sounds pretty camp!!

He has discovered love - "oh I LOVE this song", also loves watermelon, running and of course Angharad, Mummy and Daddy.

Daily life Leo likes a rhythm to his day and his week. He knows the days of the week, what we do on each day and what's coming tomorrow or at the weekend. So he'll say that tomorrow is Friday when he goes to Jika Jika, for example. We still go to playgroup on Mondays and Thursdays, and Leo & Angharad go to occasional care on Friday mornings for a couple of hours (which is where they are now as I'm blogging with coffee... gorgeous)! In addition he's now started doing one day a week at childcare on a Tuesday, which he enjoys once he's got over the goodbye. It's interesting how this has impacted on him. He is always much more 'verbal' when I pick him up - talking with increasing sophistication and maturity. I guess he has to communicate more clearly to get his needs met there, whereas at home every grunt and whine is correctly responded to, and most needs anticipated. His diet has also widened, he is more prepared to try new food when he's sitting next to other kids eating the same thing and then he asks for it at home as well. Since starting him at childcare, I've come to think that one day a week is definitely beneficial for him as well as me and, even if I'm staying off work, I think I might start Angharad doing the same at a younger age. Emotionally I think it's harder for him to adjust to it at this age than it would have been say a year or 18 months ago as he's so much more aware. Although the benefit is that we can talk about it, and he does talk during the week about things he's done at the centre.

Favourite books Bedtime regulars at the mo are: The Magic Hat by Mem Fox (especially likes his mother's impression of a baboon, Granny, now where did I learn that). How to Catch A Star by Oliver Jeffers is wonderfully calming, and he loves beaches and rockets so can't go too far wrong. Dig Dig Digging is rhythmic and lots of good sound effects, and things to count. A massive favourite until it tragically had to return to the library was Za-Za's Baby Brother which for some reason, absolutely enchanted Leo. I guess the situation it described was very familiar as the baby arrives, mummy and daddy get very tired and busy with the baby, and then Za -Za discovers that playing with the baby is fun after all. Fireman Sam: Mountain Emergency also should get a mention, as he loves Pontypandy action. And it's not a book, but he LOVES Roary the Racing Car which has been on TV for the last few weeks but just finished, sadly. I like it too because it's only 5 minutes long and the main character is voiced by Peter Kay with a few ad libs to make mums & dads laugh too.

Right - stop me someone! Expect another essay in a few months' time.....

Delighted at making Angharad laugh

At the Kite Festival

28 months!

More random phrases from the Leophone....

Mummy’s feet dirty (they always are, too)

Leo hurt head, kiss it better (shows where) And there! (shows another bit so I can kiss that too)

Kick and paddle, kick and paddle. (Goes swimming with Ben on Saturday mornings) Nice go swim Daddy.

Wear backpack!

Wear Mummy’s dress! (As the weather gets warmer I’ve worn a long skirt a couple of days. Leo is fascinated by the fact that I’m wearing a skirt not trousers and wants to get in on the act. Very into dresses and spinning at the mo, as you’ll see on the web album)

Go down that alleyway

Says “Hit” (reading the screen at the end of Thomas DVDs)

Oh, oh, oh NO! Oh dear me! Thomas stuck!

James pulling Thomas

Hat on, be sunny

Take hat off inside

Ready, let’s go

1,2,3 GO!

Harad says blah blah blah She actually does say ‘blaaa blaaa blaaa’ and Leo like the helpful bro that he is, likes to converse with her in her own language

Leo hold phone! Aunty Jenny/ Nana/ Anna on phone? Go park Will? (pronounced Wiw)

People coming in park? (they pass the entrance and keep walking) Not people coming in park.

Standing on the train platform, says random sequence of numbers to self… then Ben looks at poster in front of them and realises Leo is reading aloud the telephone number off the bottom of it!

Oh, where 'pider gone? (upon going into Angharad’s room, which she’s recently been sharing with 2 Huntsmen – one massive, one little – and not being able to see either of them. One has gone outside now and the other one has moved into the hall).

(Seeing spider in hall the next day as we’re going out) Oh, THERE 'pider! Bye bye 'pider, see you later.

What you doing Mummy?

Look Mummy, leaves fall off tree down there (pointing at leaves on the pavement where someone’s been pruning their bushes)

Gondor has 4. (I wondered what he was talking about. 4 wheels?) Gondor has 4 on. Aha! He means Gordon’s number is 4. Then out of interest we asked him, ‘what number is Toby? What number is Henry?’ and discovered that he knows the numbers of Thomas, Edward, Percy, Gordon, Toby, James and Henry –just from memory because there was nothing around when we asked him. Trainspotter).

Nice go in sea. Leo fall down in sea (We were paddling in the waves and he got knocked over by an extra-large wave… didn’t deter him from staying in though, brave boy)

Go on 3 trains ‘Long (he and Ben went to Geelong on the train, which involved 2 changes of train)

Look at rainbow!

Oh miss train, get next train. Get off Westgarf.

The L-ster is 2 and a quarter!

Am pushed for time so am going to do a 5 minute stream-of-consciousness brain dump for this month's Leo update.... here goes.... beautiful soft hair getting curlier again as the weather warms up. Has had stinky green cold this week and is good at having his nose blown but also wipes it on things (the sofa, my trousers) and tells me he's doing it! "WIpe nose on sofa.." "What Leo? Oops too late." Using appropriate phrases and unprompted, not just echoing. Eg "Mind head!" (getting into car seat), "Hold on tight" (on swings), "Thank you Mummy nice day" at bedtime etc. Is very good with his sister, generally, but knows (of course) that a never-fail way to get our attention is to give her a quick biff or lie on her, so does that from time to time - very rarely hurts her though. Can almost count to 20 but misses a couple of the teens out often. Walks more than he uses the pram now, and is in charge of gate opening and closing when we go out - holds it open while I push the pram through and then closes it. Helpful little darling!

The last few Saturdays Ben has taken him to the pool and he loves swimming with Daddy, keeps talking about it - knows Saturday is when Ben doesn't go to work and they go swimming. Also talks about today and yesterday. Enjoys cooking, especially mixing - we have made a cake, bread and pizza together this week and the day after the cake he asked Ben if he could have "cake Leo made" for breakfast! When we made bread he kept saying "Put in oven now OK?" at every stage of the proceedings. Has a scooter from the Toy Library and can scoot down the hall "Leo Cooting"! Is climbing like a monkey - can do rope nets at the park, quite high - scares the pants off me, also has done a runner in the park twice this month, and the second time when I caught him up and told him he mustn't run away because it's dangerous (was heading towards a road) he looked at me gravely and said "Road busy, cars coming" little bugger ! Brrrrring! Time's up. And that was 10 minutes not 5! Web album here

26 months

Leo is now 26 mnths old and such a lad. He is taller every time I look at him and a strong, solid boy. You couldn’t call him chubby any more – has changed shape massively over the past year as can be seen if you look back at pics of the visit to England last August.

He now speaks fluent English (!) and pretty much doesn’t stop talking when he’s awake and hanging out with the family, although can be shy and quiet around others. Around the time Angharad was born, I started making a list of words he could say. I haven’t updated it for ages and it’s now pointless doing so because he now knows too many to list and learns them far quicker than I can keep up. He can speak, basically, and comes out with several new words every day and often new concepts / sentence constructions too. He is also parroting things that we say, including his first profanity which was an immediate echo of his potty-mouthed mother. It hasn’t been repeated and I’m being much more careful about what I say….

He’s started being more interested in clothes, sometimes insisting on wearing certain things like his cycle helmet which he wore all afternoon the other day (without going anywhere near a bike) and Big Socks pulled up to his knees. It’s a good look, you’ll surely agree.

Cracking sense of humour, now makes jokes like “Oooh, tiger!” When you say “Tiger? Where?” he shrugs and then wets himself laughing at the confused look on your face. Also does funny voices, and thinks saying "belly button" in different ways is the funniest thing ever (whispering, high pitched, growling). Very good value at the mo – it’s such a fun age.

Extracts from the non-stop chattergram …

“Nice today. Nice on train Mummy.”

“In park Leo, in park Mummy, in park Hadad.”

“Throw stones in water.”

“oooh, BIG splash!”

“Banjo on table / up tree/ Bonzo asleep now”

“Banjo GET DOWN”

“Hadad done BIG poo”

“Leo’s turn!” (evidently it’s always Leo’s turn, and never anyone elses’)

“Mummy Leo fall down”

“Leo running FAST”

(on the train) “Next stop Mummy”

[oh dear, we’ve missed the train] “Next train Mummy”

“Helicopter in sky. White helicopter. Helicopter FAST”

“No poo, just fart”

“Watch Thomas on telly? One more….” (holds 1 finger up for emphasis!!)

“Leo go on naughty cushion now?”

[why are you on the cushion?] “Hit Hadad. Sorry Hadad.”

“Go on train Daddy swim?”

“Red light”

“Click clack” (when doing anything up – seatbelt, chin strap on cycle helmet etc)

"Another tram - 2 trams!"

"Leo crossing road!"

Have done a web album for this month to avoid cluttering up the blog. Seems to be a lot of food featured in it… well he is his mothers’ son in that respect :-)

25 months

L is 25 months old now, and a real boy - noisy, physical and can be a thug at times! he is also talking LOADS, has lots of linking words like "here" "now" "soon" "is" "gone" which means he can construct some meaningful and interesting sentences. Such as "Daddy work now, on train city." And "Angharad asleep / awake / sick now." A couple of days ago I bought him a cuddly monkey backpack with a strap I can hold onto, and when we put it on he says "click clack" and this morning when we put it on he said "Hold Mummy's hand, road busy, cars coming," so he's got the message about why he wears it! More soon when Picasa is behaving itself.

2 years old

Nothing like getting your hands dirty

"Kick de bawwwl" is a very over-used phrase in this house

Poorly boy - had mystery infection for 48 hours, temp over 39 and very out-of-sorts poor thing. But doc couldn't see an obvious infection, ears throat etc all OK and no snot, so suspected a urinary infection and cheerily asked us to get a urine sample to check.. hah! Leo was better before we'd managed it. We had his nappy off for a few hours and he straddled the potty a couple of times but nothing came out - the one time he did it I was holding Angharad and not quick enough with the jar, so the carpet got a sprinkle but no sample. Anyway he's all better now.

Alfresco artwork. Banjo had pink flanks for a week after this. Matched his nose.

"Ruuuunnnnnnninng!"

Ballboy

Searching the library catalogue, perhaps for "T-R-A-I-N-S"

"To: ginger@stripytail.com Same time tomorrow night? I'll bring the milk. L"

Below are just a tiny fraction of the photos we have documenting the current obsession - TRAINS. This includes "big train" which is the real one, with endless requests for "on train" wen you ask him what he wants to do today. As you approach the station he says "ticket!" and when he has it in his paw, puts it through the machine before shouting "but-ton" and runs off to press the green button which tells you when the next train is coming. If we're by the level crossing he shouts "train coming! Car baiting [waiting]!" In the picture below you can see him re-enacting this scenario with the model cars waiting at the level crossing and he's carrying out a running commentary, telling them to wait. (He also says ding ding as he puts the gates down, and when the train's passed he tells his cars "bye train, train gone, GO!"

He likes to "make train" and it's (yawn) the first thing he wants to do in the morning, which is about 6.30 am at present. "Mummy, make train!" He builds tracks himself but needs help to get them to loop properly. He constantly wants to "play train." This masseef track going all round the table was built by Daddy. Check it.
The usual dawn session.


He is talking absolutely loads and it's delightful - he's also getting very into his numbers. He recognises numbers 0 - 9 and points them out on gateposts, at the railway station etc. He counts to 10 (to himself, just for the fun of it) and understands the concepts of 2 and 4. (The first time we realised this was recently when I offered him a biscuit and he said "2 bickick!" Since then he'll point things out and say "2 train" etc etc). Understanding 4 really surprised me because we were looking at a page in a book with loads of different farm animals and I asked him what he could see and he thought for a minute and said, "4 duck." This blew me away as there were indeed 4 ducks, but spread all over the page, mixed in with other animals - I guess they stood out because they were bright yellow against the browns of the other animals. Earlier in the same book there was a page with 4 flowers (no number 4 ) and he pointed at it and said "Four" , but I wasn't sure if he was saying "four" or "flower." But then a couple of pages later he saw the 4 ducks so there was no doubt that's what he was saying. This is such a fun time - there's something new every day. He is GORGEOUS.

Less blogs, more labels

We're realising, possibly much later than everyone else, that we've got too many blimmin' blogs.

We started the bLeog when we had much more non-family posts, to let readers go straight to the baby pics, and I automatically did the same for Angharad. However, these days we're struggling to work out which of the four blogs to post to.

So, despite just having started Angharad's blog, we're going to retire both it and the bLeog, leaving them there for posterity but making all new updates to Board Acres. (I'm going to keep the Galleries blog because it is so self indulgent and of niche interest.)

You may have noticed at the top of the green set of panels just to the right of the posts, a new panel titled 'Read about...'. In future we'll be labelling our posts, so if you want to filter just the post of Bonzo, find that window and click his ginger name. The size of each word in the panel reflects the number of posts with that label. I've labelled the more recent posts as a kick-off.

If anyone disagrees violently, or has any other suggestions, comment away...

Play School addict

We've already mentioned that Leo is a Play School junkie. These pictures show him using. Some viewers may find them disturbing.

trains, double decker, my drum kit

Meanwhile, Leo plays with his trains

Leo's had a train set out from the toy library.


Banjo risks the tip of his massive tail.

"Cowwwwwwwwwwwwwwww."

Mid-air piece of track not quite in shot.


Incidentally, the reason we've been using Web Albums more than in-line blog pictures is due to an apparent problem in Picasa which, to cut a long and embarrassing story short, is now remedied (user error, thanks Chris K and Fernando @ Google!). We've back in business now.

Aerial Leo

Leo's been doing a lot of jumping and dancing just recently. (Pre-Angharad photos.)

21 months

Probably Leo's last monthly update as an only child so I'd better make the most of having a leisurely nap time to write this!

In the past week he has become a Play School junkie. I got a couple of DVDs out of the library for the first time (the Aussie version, identical in format and ethos to the British), and he is absolutely mesmerised by Play School Nursery Rhymes . He is already doing actions to songs on it, his favourites are Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear Turn Around and Rock-a-bye Your Bear (the actions are things like 'take a bow,' 'turn around,' 'touch the ground,' 'sssh sssh sssh' with finger on lips. Very cute to watch). Anyway he now has an unhealthy obsession with Play School - when it finishes he says "Mummy? Mummy? More? More?" and when we say "Bye Bye" to it he says "Noooo" and there are sometimes tears... it is the bribe of choice if we need him to sit still for 5 minutes. I'm thinking it'll come in handy when I'm feeding number 2. He still loves old favourite rhymes like Hickory Dickory & Twinkle Twinkle; does the mouse running down the clock (fingers running down other forearm) and now uses his fingertips to make the diamond in the sky (he's been twinkling for months). Oh and Humpty Dumpty has now been taken to a new performance level where he becomes Humpty using the back of the sofa as the wall, and has a dramatic tumble off at the appropriate point before bouncing back up again saying "Again? Again?" (well his version of "Again" is "Aga? Aga?") He loves performing and if we're not both watching he shouts "Mummy! Mummy!" (he calls Ben Mummy as well) until he has the full attention of the room.

Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall...

... had a great fall!

We are starting to go out without the pram for short distances, (like from car to supermarket, or just up to our local shops around the corner) he's a pro at pedestrian crossings and you don't have to hold his hand (although of course being ever ready to grab him if necessary) - he pushes the button, stands and waits for the green man and then runs across when the beeps go (saying "GO GO!" He also says "GO GO", if we're getting ready to go out and I say "Let's go!") He absolutely loves crossing the road and often just gets to the other side and wants to push the button and do it all again. So he's getting more stamina for walking, but still has a tendency to run out of steam and want to be carried when you're just at the furthest point from home and have bought 4 litres of milk and really don't need to be holding 15 kilos of boy in addition to his little sister and your shopping bag....so I am v glad of the new pram built for 2!

It was a sickly Easter break for us as Leo had his first ever contagious childhood illness... Hand Foot and Mouth. This lasted for about a week, and confused the hell out of us as he was also visibly cutting 3 teeth on his bottom jaw (2 canines and an incisor) so we put the symptoms down to teething (endless dribbling, night waking, not wanting to eat anything except yogurt and milk, terrible nappy rash with blisters on his bum). He's never had these sorts of problems before with teething and in the end I decided that it must be something more and rang the NHS Direct-thing and then took him to the doctor who diagnosed HF & M. The poor thing had ulcers down both sides of his tongue and possibly on his throat as well, so no wonder he'd been so miserable it must have been agonising. All better now.

Significantly he is starting to push boundaries and explore what happens if we say No and he does it anyway.... yesterday I disciplined him for the first time ever and sent him to his room for 2 minutes. There were tears, (almost from me as well) and that was a big threshold I guess, but he's definitely starting to test us and I'm sure will do so even more once his sister arrives, so we have to deal with it. He is the Prince of Tinkers.

He's starting to know his colours and loves felt tip pens, especially the black one ("Ba! Ba!") and is on a mission to find out whether there is anywhere other than paper that he's allowed to colour.... luckily the pens are washable, and so far a damp cloth has removed scribble from the TV screen and wall without leaving a mark...

As well as throwing himself off the furniture his other hobby at the moment is 2-footed jumping, off kerbs, steps or just on the spot. In the last couple of days this has evolved into a full-on seat drop, Big Daddy style. This is very amusing when he does it on the carpet, but the problem is that he keeps trying to sit on Banjo, who at the moment hasn't quite developed the healthy fear of Leo that makes Bonzo keep his distance (and his skeleton intact). Banjo and Leo are going to be great mates in the future, Banjo has let Leo pick him up a couple of times and doesn't run away until Leo is actively doing something painful, but we are having to keep a close eye on the L's rough and tumble to make sure he doesn't hurt our lovely little kitling and learns to be a bit gentle.

Busy mums out for a stroll

Playing ball with Will and James

Attack of the giant Milky Bar monster

Looks so innocent and sweet...grievous pigeon chasing followed very soon after this was taken

Another Sunday, another sheep-slapping session... in Williamstown this time

Directing events from behind his cuppa

Urggggggggghhhhhhhh....

Behind the wheel

Uh-oh...
Sorry Madam...I'm going to need your address and insurance details.

Translation for non-lipreaders: "CAR!"

Garage ramming