Haha. Just a little something there for any "Charlie and Lola" fans that happen to be reading! ;) We watched that episode again recently for what must be the millionth time and Toby seems to have got the song stuck in his head because he's been singing it incessantly. The other morning both Chris and i were lying in bed half asleep, faintly aware that it had been noise from Toby's room that had woken us but he didn't seem to be crying or yelling to be set free (he has a gate across his door way because of the stairs) and then we heard him singing "spring is here, spring is here at last!"
I managed to get a video of him singing it so will have to upload that at some point as it's just too cute and hilarious not to!
He's right though. Just a couple of weeks ago Rudy was wearing his bear snowsuit and now suddenly it's scorching?! Personally, i'm an Autumn/Winter kinda gal. I get happy when the leaves start crisping up and falling off the trees and i have to dig the hats and scarves back out of storage, BUT i know that makes me in a minority and that everyone else has a bit of a "thing" for the sunshine. I don't have anything against it, although i do get more migraines when it's very bright, and as a hayfever sufferer, bug-hater and pasty pale complexion owner this kind of weather/this time of year poses me several practical problems. Plus there's the constant sweating. Urgh, i hate sweating. On the other hand, i like not having to wear a coat, or bundle the boys up into coats etc and it's nice not to have to wear socks! I also enjoy pegging the washing out on the line to dry...
Those are the first nappies to be hung outside to dry this year! Maybe a bit of a weird photo but it cheered me up seeing them all out there?!
Toby loves the sunshine and warm weather! We had to buy him some new shorts as his ones from last year clearly won't fit. We bought him two pairs and let him pick one himself so he picked Lightening Mc Queen (obviously!) and at the same time he got a pair of Lightning Mc Queen sunglasses and a Lightening Mc Queen scooter! He's been babbling on about scooters for over a week now since we went round to a friend's house and her little girl (the same age as Toby) had two scooters and Toby seemingly fell in love with the idea of having one himself. They were selling "Cars 2" scooters in Tesco for £14 so Chris treated him. Here it is in action:
Those photos were taken on Monday. We'd gone for a walk to the post office and to get some milk and decided to come the long way home as it was such gorgeous weather and Chris was at home revising for his exam that afternoon so from his point of view the longer we were out the better!
First we posted the parcels and bought the milk and we were headed for the underpass when we were randomly accosted by this man who was having a drink outside a cafe. He looked to be in his 60's and was smartly dressed, with an Irish accent and after saying "Good morning" and asking how we were as we walked past he asked if i could spare a couple of minutes. I steered the pram to one side and said yes of course and he asked if i liked poetry. Needless to say, that wasn't what i was expecting! So anyway it turned out he is a poet called Jeremiah Oliver O Brien and he was having an opening night at that cafe that evening, he started writing poetry five years ago and has two (self published) books. He let me have a flick through one of the books and read a poem to me that he'd written that morning and i actually thought it was pretty good! He asked if we could sit down for a coffee but Rudy was grumbling away and desperate for a sleep so i had to politely decline. So we carried on our way but by this point Rudy was starting to get a bit worked up about not being able to sleep and the sun was shining in his eyes. We don't have a parasol for the pram so i was apologising to him about how bright it was and Toby whipped his glasses off, turned them round and said "Rudy borrow it my glasses" and put them on Rudy's face! Ok, so he might have poked him in the eye a little in the process but it was really the sweetest little gesture, and it actually worked! Within minutes Rudy had dropped off to sleep!
I told Toby he was the kindest big brother ever :)
We've also been doing a lot of "Playing Out" in the front/back gardens (well, yards!)
Often this involves Toby begging to "play outside", us opening the back or front door for him and then him demanding that one of us to come out with him, and not content to just have us sit and drink a cup of tea and watch him, he wants us to either take turns with his scooter or push him on his sit and ride Thomas or chase him/the dog around the garden. Which is fine for a bit, but the minute you stop it's like it's The End of The Actual World and he gets so upset, which normally then means he wants to come back inside...until ten minutes later when he wants to play out again! D'oh! It seems to be happening a lot recently actually, not just with the inside/outside thing, but in general. He just isn't satisfied to have only part of your attention and wants you to be fully involved in the game in every way, but you have to play it exactly how he wants or he has a tantrum! You might play with him for 30 minutes solid, no distractions and then excuse yourself to go have a wee or put the kettle on he starts having a massive emotional breakdown like you've betrayed him in the worst possible way by leaving the game at that moment. I'm finding it hard to get my head around it to be honest as some days i feel i have given as much as i possibly can and tried to be fun and stimulating and entertaining and i just need to switch off for 10 minutes and have a brew and he can't handle it. On bad days you think"Jeez, what more do these kids want from me?!" on good days i try to remind myself "He's Two! He's Two! He's only Two!"
Speaking of which, we're having so much trouble, well, not trouble exactly, but i guess, issues with people thinking he is older than he actually is. Random folk are forever asking him questions that he couldn't possibly understand let alone answer, and then being surprised when he looks at them like ???? At which point i say "He's only two" and they usually look suspicious like i am lying to them for reasons unknown and/or surprised and say they thought he was at least a year older. I think partly it's his height (he's really very tall) and partly because he's so communicative. Clearly all parents think their children are mini geniuses;) but he really is quite a bright little button so i think that might contribute to people mistaking him for a pre-schooler when really he's still just a toddler. Similarly at the park etc people give me "looks" for keeping such a close eye on him when he's climbing up the steps to the ladder or whatever because i suppose they think he looks big/sturdy enough for me to take more of a back seat but i know he's happier knowing i'm right behind him and i certainly am!
Yesterday he took me by surprise though. We went to visit my friend Anna who also has two boys who are 3 and 1 and Luke, her eldest has a "tree house" which i thought no way would Toby dare to climb up but i think all the softplay centres we've been to recently have gone to his head a bit because the next thing i knew:
That's about 6 foot off the ground by the way! Haha!
We had a lovely day actually, Luke and Toby played quite well together (as well as a 3 and 2 year old can i think!) and Rudy even had a little sleep so that me and Anna could have a quick catch up
Then we took a stroll across the playing fields during which Toby discovered daisies and picked a couple. Then we headed to the playground where we were treated to what appeared to be an al fresco episode of Jeremy Kyle with two Mothers yelling expletives across the park at their hoardes of kids without ever shifting their fat asses off the bench they were sat on.
I might not be about to win "Mother of the year" award but my god at least i'm trying. One of their little girls started crying and shouted across to her Mum that the other kids she was playing with wouldn't let her have a turn so her Mum screeched "What yer crying fawwww?! Get over here now or stop crying!" What the hell kind of sense does that make?! Later she was yelling "Dante! Get yer shoes on! Dante! Shoes NOW! Right, that's it! Yer not going pub for your tea and yer grounded all of today tomorrow and the weekend" (Seemingly not realising that she'd neglected to mention Friday at all) The boy in question looked to be about 6 years old at the most. To think that Dante was the first boy's name on my list when i was pregnant with Toby! Shudder.
Toby has never heard people yelling like that before and just kept staring at them like he was trying to make sense of what was happening, and Rudy was awake by this point too so in the end i figured it was best we came home. We'd been out for three hours anyway so we'd had a nice afternoon and it seemed to wear them both out so after tea they were ready for baths and bed. To be honest, after writing all this i'm thinking "me too" actually and i'm considering heading up to join them!
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