Boys and girls

I had a fantastic conversation with my eldest on the way home from nursery this evening.

He was talking about his friends and I asked him about a new little girl that he had been raving about yesterday. He said that she had told him that she wasn't his friend...aren't children lovely?

He then listed all of his friends, saying that the girls weren't his friends. I said that was OK as he was friends with the boys. He said he wanted to be friends with the girls too, but they didn't like playing Power Rangers.

I asked him what they did like playing and he said 'I don't know. I don't understand what they play. I want to know the games that they play.'

Nothing changes then!

The tables have turned

This morning was different. The youngest woke at 6.24am (its always sometime between 5.30 and 6.30) and made such a racket that I had to go and get him. He is now practically running everywhere, toppling quite often, but simply getting up and setting off again.

The morning went ok. Shower, dress, breakfast, dress the children...and we were almost ready to leave on time (my time that is as they are not yet at school, so don't need to be in for a specific time...who knows what I will do when we have to hit a deadline!). I say almost, because they were both dressed and I went with the eldest to clean his teeth, leaving the youngest in the playroom with his shoes on the floor ready to put on. Only when I returned there was only one shoe...and the other was nowhere to be found. 20 minutes of ranting, shouting, screaming, pleading, threatening and frantically opening and closing all manner of cupboards, drawers and toyboxes and it was still not found. How was I supposed to take him to nursery with only one shoe?

Eventually, I sat down and took a number (about 100) of deep breaths and started again...this time on my hands and knees as I imagined he might have been. I crawled into all the nooks and crannies I thought he might have done and...eureka...it was hidden behind my desk, behind the curtain. I swear he was smiling at me when I found it.

I should mention that the eldest behaved impeccably throughout all of this and even helped me to look for the shoe...although he kept finding far more interesting things on the way, like the car he lost last week, some building blocks, a crumb on the floor, etc, etc, etc!

These boots were made for walking

And he is now walking...a month and a half later and he spent half an hour this morning walking round and round the bedroom with a bottle of shampoo in his hand and a huge smile on his face. He's still a bit wobbly and has a fantastic stance - wibbly wobbly legs and arms up in the air - but he is now definitely walking.

As the baby grows, so does the sibling rivalry. Every day I vow not to fight with my toddler (can I still call him that now that he's almost three and a half), and every day I fail within about five minutes of either getting up in the morning or picking him up from nursery (or both!!). He is so adorable and wonderful, but also such a challenge...he laughs whenever he is told off, pushes his brother a lot and just wants to fight with everybody...and very soon there will be two of them!

And another thought...I suppose that I should start calling the baby 'the toddler' and the toddler 'the eldest'.