Games and Garden Centres

Hi Guys,

I’m very impressed with my little boy Jake; the other day we were sitting in the car waiting for my wife and decided to play a game.

The game we decided to play was snakes and ladders, which is on my phone. What you need to do is touch the screen to get the dice up and the shake the phone to roll the dice, which to be fair; to a two year old is never that straight forward.

For the first few goes I had to help him, I directed his finger and helped him shake the phone, but by the 4^th go he had it. When it was his go he was touching the screen and saying “Daddy I did it!” Then he would shake the phone again saying to me “Daddy I did it!” He did this every time!

To my horror, my 2 year old boy then went on to beat me 2 games to 1!!!!

After this, we went up to a nearby garden centre to have lunch and look at the Christmas stuff (link is Dobbies garden centre); to go along with the Christmas theme, they had their decorations up and they also had people walking around in pantomime outfits.

Mia decided that she couldn’t take her eyes off of one person, who was dressed up as a cow, but Jake decided that if he didn’t look at them, they weren’t there and decided to stare in the opposite direction whenever they came near us!

Whilst we were there we had a lovely roast dinner, which Jake enjoyed (Mias still too young); but I must have visited the toilet at least 10 times with Jake, which was no mean feat as it meant going past the cow!

The other thing that they have there is an area where they have fish and lizards, for some reason every time Jake poked his tongue out at a couple of the lizards, they started running back and forth in their tank getting over excited, I think Jake thought this was the funniest thing in the world.

Thanks

Darren

Drawings and Dancing

Hi All,

Firstly, sorry for the delay in the post, my little girl has been unwell, but is on the mend now!

Jake has been very creative recently, he has been sitting at his little table, blank bit of paper in front of him and drawing.

I sat down with him the other day to look through his pictures to find out what they were all meant to be, we had Josh at school, Mummy holding Mia, Jake with a balloon, all the normal stuff.

Eventually we got to one of me at work, I was quite chuffed about this, so I asked him which part I was, so he pointed to me, I then asked him if another part of his drawing was my computer, which he said yes to. Feeling confident that I could tell what he was drawing I asked if the final part of his drawing was my desk; he promptly replied “No, cow!” So apparently I work with a computer and a cow in my office!!

On another note, after hinting to Louise what I wanted for either my birthday or Christmas, she told me out right what she wanted (Barry Manilows greatest hits) and started her own version of Copacabana. Jake witnessed this and started dancing along with her singing.

Afterwards I asked Jake if he would buy the CD for Mummy, which he quickly agreed to and than announced that he was going to buy her Madagascar! Bless him; because that song appears in Madagascar 2, he thought he would get it for Louise.

Thanks

Darren

High Chairs and Weaning

Hi All,

We recently bought a new “big boy” high chair for Jake, one that can be pushed up to the table so that he can eat at the table with the rest of us, so that Mia can have his old high chair for when she starts to be weaned.

I decided to put the “big boy” chair up on Sunday, with Jakes help. We started off by taking all the parts out of its wrapping, which Jake had fun screwing up and throwing to one side.

 When I had the chair on its side, he was helping me turn the allen key to screw the screws into place. Very helpful; but in between this he decided that it would also be helpful to keep randomly putting the screws in different holes, with a “sorry” every time I took them out again. He then kept trying to give me bits of the chair that I wasn’t ready for yet. It took my twice as long to build, but he enjoyed himself so it was worth it.

About halfway through building the chair, Peppa Pig came onto the TV and that was the end of my little helper.

Later that day, we were all sitting at the table with Jake in his new “big boy” chair and Mia sitting in Jakes old high chair when Louise brought out Mia’s first ever food, baby rice. She seemed to really like it and kept laughing as we clapped each mouthful.

Jake not wanting to be left out, decided that he didn’t want his pizza and salad, but wanted to share Mias baby rice. Strange request from my son, but I guess he also wanted the round of applause.

Thanks

Darren

Trick or Treat?

Hi Everyone,

Halloween was a funny old affair.

This year I had to go into work in fancy dress, something to do with team moral boosting.

Anyway, I put a lot of effort into this, face paint on, costume on and off to work I go as a Zombie.

When I got home later that day, I went into the house and found out the Jake had been uncharacteristically naughty all day due to lack of sleep.  So I went in to see him whilst he was in his high chair eating and to tell him to be a good boy for his mummy when he just freaked out!! All I got off him was “No, Mummy, Mummy.” Bless him, he was actually quite scared.

To calm him down I went of and picked Mia up, who was just happy to see her Daddy and didn’t give the paint a second thought and went into the kitchen.

Louise then got Jake down from the high chair and explained to him that because he had been naughty all day Daddy had turned into a monster, but if he was a good boy Daddy would turn back into normal Daddy. (Halloween couldn’t have been better timed)

To get his confidence back up, Louise said to him “quick, quick, monster Daddy has got Mia, quick Jake, rescue her!” Jake than came racing up to me, looking scared and took Mia off of me and ran off (Louise also had hold of Mia the whole time as it would be to risky to let a 2 year old run off with a 6 month old).

He then wouldn’t come near me until I’d washed the face paint off.

The best thing about the whole experience is that Jake has shown that he will face any fear for his sister.

Thanks

Darren