Catch phrase

Everyone needs a catch phrase, and it is preferable to also have a theme song, mine is Randy Newman's "Short people ain't got no reason to live" but that's another story.

Bax' new theme song, after wrenching himself away from Thomas the Tanked Engine on Radio Hauraki is "Can we fix it?" by Bob the Builder. We had to introduce him to Bob at the video shop as a way to wean himself off Thomas - if Thomas is crack then Bob is methadone (is it just me or is that a deeply unsettling metaphor?)

Bax's Catchphrase is "Your turn Dada". (A little bit of background - Dada is Bax' name for himself, we have a few ponderings on why this is, but it is so it is - Dada = Baxter). So, Your Turn Dada, delivered in a sing-song voice whenever ANYTHING is happening.

Giving Izzie a spoonful of medicine for her sore gums, there's a little pip from the sidings "Your turn Dada". It's like having a careful little prompt handing lines to a hesitant actor.

Daddy hammering nails into the new bookcase. 'Your turn Dada" from stage left.

Mummy painting a sign to go above the sleepout door. "Your turn Dada".

Granny eating a scone "your turn Dada'

Poppa sipping the dreggs of his coffee "Your turn Dada"

Cousins Josh and Hailey chopping up a watermelon with a very lethal looking (but actually very blunt) carving knife. "Your turn Dada' says Bax wistfully, hopefully, wishful-thinkingly.

It's a great little catchphrase when you're two and a half - but unfortunately for him we are a rather stubborn cast of players and we all just laugh and pat him on the head, and he doesn't get to bang in nails or chop up melon or use mummy's oil-paints.

Miss O also has a catchphrase - I like... . As in, I like MUFFINS, as you bite into a muffin, I like cheese, as you cut yourself a slice, I like juice as you take a sip.

Last week I saw her whisper I like little cakes, and then try and swipe her Granny's little cake right under her nose - ah but granny's a quick and no matter how cute the catch phrase, they've heard it all before. I LIKE Little Cakes too Miss O, said Granny Di and grabbed the cake before Miss O could get to it.

Another matter: poor Bax and Izzie both have tummy aches. I would not be surprised if they've eaten something out of the garden or maybe just too much catfood. Each is reacting in a different way (and from a different end). Bax slept with Daddy last night after telling me he had a "Sore Tummy" . When he was particularly bad in the night, he woke G up and told him "Dirty tummy, dirty tummy" When it all exited his insides in a great rush, Bax said 'Empty Tummy" and after being cleaned up went straight back to sleep. Poor little Tummy.