I’ve started to do this thing to babies in the playground, and I did it to baby Matthew at the party: I grab them by the face with both hands, maybe squeeze a bit, then put my fizzog about two inches away from theirs – it looks like a slightly painful enforced kiss, but I don’t perform the smacker.
A bit like this, but from the front:
I never watch to get CBeebies, Daisy always gets her own way by flouncing and sulking and generally going on about it and we watch Nick Jr or NJ2 (except for Lazytown Sundays, before which the line has been drawn). I have an encyclopedic knowledge of toy adverts – NJ1/2 use their full 9 minutes per hour, and push it if possible – especially of dolls that exude fluids of one sort or another.
Since Daisy’s been at school I’ve been able to watch a bit of Beebies, I enjoyed Little Robots and tonight I got to see In The Night Garden for the first time in so long it seemed like a whole new program. (You can tell when I like something because I stand stock still eighteen inches away from the TV screen.)
Standing on the arm of the sofa and diving onto it..
We went down the fair last night, I went on a couple of rides: the Teacups, which I found terrifying despite the gentleness of the rotation and Daisy holding my hand (well, touching my white knuckles hanging on for dear life) and the Giant Sack Slide, which I thought was fantastic despite it’s ramshackle construction and sheer height.
Daisy went on too, she got up the steps much quicker than me and Dad as I was stopping to wave at the tiny people below: she is old enough to go up the slide by herself anyway. The second time we went on, she went down while we were still climbing: a little girl who was in the next lane waiting to get in her mat and slide down turned to look as Daisy went past and lost her grip: she slipped down her mat, and was only prevented from going face-first down the slide because her foot caught in the mat, but fortunately she was dangling securely enough for her mum and her mum’s friend to stop chatting and pull her up.
I have lots of new words: bubbles, thankyou, zock, MINE, more, apple, nana, more nana.. and I’m more or less willing to echo what is said to me, as long as it’s reasonable, and sometimes to do what’s asked of me, even!
Sometimes only the old sign language will do, though: if I want you to come somewhere, I come and take your hand and pull it. When I’ve got you where I want you to be and I want you to sit or lie down, I sit or stand next to your destination and pat it while looking meaningfully at you.
We retired our video recorder today. We only have two videos of note anyway, Mum and Dad’s wedding and The Jungle Book, both of which are tricky to get on DVD, but we’ll manage. The video rattled on removal: it had a toy car and a CD in it (/me whistles innocently)
Incidentally, Daisy can really whistle! She’s a bit shy about it though.
I can climb onto a closed toilet, which opens new vistas of opportunity in the bathroom! I also like monkeyboy swinging on the kitchen drawers, which is very unpopular.
Daisy has a little two-step staircase in the kitchen for when she is helping, which is kept upside down to keep me off it, except I can turn it over – I just heave in Herculean fashion, heedless of possible toe-squashing, and after two terrible crashes there it is, ready to bear me up to the kitchen counter and drawers and sink.
Compared to Daisy I have a fairly limited vocabulary, but then my point-and-click sign language has been very effective (as in click your fingers while pointing at something). I say (and understand) ‘hot’, ie when it comes to tea, the cooker and the kettle, but I’m not really going to be scared of them and won’t be until I get burnt.
I pick up the phone now and say “Hello”. It doesn’t have to be a real phone either, a remote control or calculator will do, anything with buttons really.