Story time

We're on holiday and the kids are sleeping, eating all that stuff pretty well. but last night Bax just couldn't go to sleep so I told him to tell me a bedtime story so at least I could sleep. He started off "Once upon a time" and then he stalled. I said "there lived a boy called..." and Bax said "Jack" and then we want on in this manner with me prompting and him filling in the gaps. The story goes like this...

Once upon a time...there was a boy called..Jack...who lived with his...great grandmother...in the middle of a ...big forest...They were very...happy....they lived there with ....all their friends. ...Quacky the duck, Tommy the cat...and? ....That's all...One day...A big dragon came along...and?...some hunters....and they chopped up the wolf...and? Great granmother jumped out...and? That was lucky...The End. \\

Also, bax has been loving playing with henry and Freddy and Phoebe's toys. they have a terrific tiger suit. as we went to sleep Bax said to me..."what are you thinking about Mummy?" I said "I'm thinking about how much I love you, what are you thinking about?" He said.."I'm thinking about that great tiger suit!"

AND she slept straight through the night til morning!

The sleeping tyrant

Things had got pretty bad with Ms Iz and the sleeping thang. She can now climb out of her cot so we put her in the bottom bunk. She screamed and yelled and got out of bed and carried on and came all the way down stairs...then silence...then

"Knock knock who's there it's me Izzie" would come through the living room door.

She's the bravest person I know, doesn't think anything of coming downstairs in the dark all alone.

A couple of times she'd be crying in bed and poor Bax would be singing to her trying to get her to be quiet and go to sleep and what started as a quiet little baa baa black sheep or twinkle twinkle would turn into a desperate and loud BAA BAA or HOW I WONDER WHAT YOU ARE as the poor boy got more and more desperate to get Iz to be quiet.

Then last night they were chatting happily but quite loudly and we'd already had Izzie come down stairs and be put back in bed a couple of times, then we heard a piercing scream like a stuck pig and we ran up to see if they were ok and it was Bax screaming. Izzie had climbed up into his bed barricaded herself in a corner trapping him in the other cuorner and she was lobbing metal toy cars at him. He has bruises!

So tonight we rethought the whole thing. We have moved Izzie's cot into a smallest empty bedroom, we have taken all toys, pictures everything out but a small bedside cabinet and a heater, we have changed the black and white blind for a plain calico one, and tonight when G put Iz into bed she said Night night Daddy and that was it. She did come down once "knockknockwhoisitit'smeIzzie" but that was because she had filled a nappy which I changed then straight back up into bed, door open a touch and she IS FAST ASLEEP and it's only 11.13pm! OMG!

Oops

ooooo how I used to chuckle at those signs. Before I had a child. Before I had two. When my child was a three month old fast asleep in a car capsule. Ooo how I giggled. The sign read
"pretty to look at,
Lovely to hold,
But if you break it,
Consider it sold."

Or once

"Pretty to look at
Lovely to touch
But if you break it
Consider it sold"

(I swear to you I actually saw a sign that said that once. I once saw a sign that said "Just Yams etc" aswell but that's a different story)

And my favourite sign of all

"unattended children will be given three short blacks and a free puppy"

ooo ha-d-ha - for the childfree.

But then on Saturday I suddenly GOT the sign and the sentiment behind it. It turns out kids are really clumsy AND really curious - bit like a bull in a china shop who actually collects tea cups and is on the look out for the last one to complete a set of 4 1950 Crown Lynn in Teal.

Izzie was just LOOKING at a pottery fish and I was carefully LOOKING at her when Bax said something which began "Hey Mum..." and ended "...PLEASE!!!!????" And made me turn around to look and when I looked back the fish was sans tail and Izzie was looking very pleased at what she had caught.

So I did what any self-respecting, honest, grown-up parent would do...I slid the broken fish carefully out of sight under the display pedestal, grabbed Bax's hand, picked up Iz under my arm and hightailed it outta there.

It's a bleeding shame too because now that we live in the sticks that is really the only cafe in our neighbourhood, nay in our entrie region.

I half expect a new sign if I ever go back there again:

"Izzie is welcome
If she's with her Mum
But if left to touch things
She's out on her bum"

Long time no write

I have to apologise, I haven't been around, I've been so busy and my head has been so full and perhaps that is quite a bad sign as I haven't even been able to find the head/schedule space to tell you funny little stories about my funny little children. That is quite a bad sign I think.

Issie sings all the time, twinkle twinkle little star. She is very tuneful and lovely. And Bax can do pretty much everything without help from adults. He is very proud of that.

I took Bax to see Miss O and Auntie H when they were visiting their Nana in Palmy this weekend and we had a lovely day. We went on the model train and played at the playground and had takeaways and went to the toy shop and the book shop and had lots of laughs and things. It was a perfect day.

On the way there Bax came out with a funny one. I said "Are you sniffing? Do you want a tissue?" and he said "No I'm just sniffing around for food!" He is so so funny with his word play. A while ago he was playing with G's feet, he had a little car and he was driving it into G's feet and saying to G "You've got a TOE-truck!" It's a crack up. I used to think I was just reading more cleverness into what he says than there actually is but now I think he does know what he's saying.

Both the kids are just so entertaining and funny and delightful and I am getting to the stage where I would prefer to be with them a bit more than I am. I think they are such good fun and good company and Bax is almost FOUR - which seems so old.

We have a silly little game in our house. One of us asks the kids : "Who's the boss?" and up until last night Bax has always answered and he's always said "Daddy is the boss" And when I check by asking "What about Mummy being the boss" he always laughs and says "No Daddy is the boss". Well last night G asked "Who's the boss?" And for the first time it was Izzie who answered, she said "Issie is the boss!"

She's right too.