Total Recall

LM has started taking an interest in his life as a baby.  He asks a lot of questions & often starts a conversation with "When I was a baby, I..."  

I must say I have been very impressed with all the things he remembers liking & doing when he was tiny even if they do not exactly coincide with my own recollections.

Today, we sat down with the photo album of his first year (a  rather hefty tome, subsequent years have got  a little bit slimmer) and took a stroll down memory lane.  While I may have got a bit misty-eyed over my gorgeous baby boy, LM took great delight in telling me what he was thinking & doing in each picture. 

In one of the earlier pictures he said "I look very excited because I was so happy to be out of that tummy" - I wasn't quite sure how to take that & my ego didn't dare enquire further.

A few months down the line & at one of the standard baby in bath photos he said "That was my first bath", ignoring the countless other baby in bath snaps we had gone past.  Now I know he screamed a lot at bathtime when he was tiny, but I swear I did persevere & definitely did not leave him to get dirty for 6 months.  In this instance I had to insist my memory was the right one

Perceived insults aside, it was nice to reminisce with him even if only one of us has any real recall  of what was the start of an  amazing adventure

Salesman of the Year

We have started a new business selling sailing & watersports gear (http://www.coastwatersports.com/ if you're interested) and during the Easter holidays LM has had to spend a couple of hours in the office 'helping' out.* 

I didn't realise how fully on board he was with the family business until I picked him up from his football course today when I was informed that he had told a friend's mum to buy a boat as we had a sailing shop now.  She said she didn't have a boat but did have a canoe to which, being the perfectly on-the-ball salesman, he replied "But have you got wheels for it?"   Top marks for remembering that we sell kayak carts!

However, any commission he earns has already been spent as he filched a sailing cap when he last visited the office.

*He does actually help but only if it involves using the barcode scanner

Natural Gas

Daddy has a habit of singing "Pardon me, it was not me, it was my food..." whenever he burps.  LM has taken this a step further.

Tonight he was parping more frequently than is polite and sang, "Pardon me, it was not me, it was...ME!" every time.  It would have been mildly amusing if I hadn't had to cover my nose.

However, he excelled himself when he ran in to his Daddy crying "Do you want me to parp in your face?"  (I would say 'definitely his father's son' if that didn't imply I had a less than ideal romantic life).

Pity me.  Please.

Strangers in the bath

I was a little alarmed this evening when LM said to me: "Did you know I'm a different person?"  

I did a a double-take but, apart from being squeaky clean, the LM in the bath looked pretty much the same to me.

The conversation got even more bizarre.

Me:  "Who are you then?"

LM:  "I'm John Radison"

Me:  "Who?"

LM:  "You know!  John Radison."

Me:  "No, no I don't know John Radison"

LM:  "You do!  John!  He's an Italian speaker who does Olympics at home"

I was very confused particularly as we don't know anyone of that name (unless there's a new CBeebies character I'm not aware of).

Anyway, you'll know if you see John Radison out & about....he's the one with the bubbly beard.

Crepe Chase

It's Pancake Day and of course we will be partaking later but I had to make an early start because today was race day at school.  LM had to go armed with a frying pan & pancake ready to race in the playground.

Well, I had my reservations about this, not least that the pancake would never make it to the start line.  And have you seen a mob of school children brandishing pans at the school gate?  It looked like a revolution to me.  I had visions of comedy cartoon frying pan battles (with less laughs & more tears).  Not to mention, as I think I have touched on before, LM's despair if he doesn't win.

I am happy to report that LM was beaming when we picked him up as he had won his race (Hooray!) and my pan has no head shaped dents in it.

The pancake, however, is no more.

Vote of no confidence

In an attempt to counteract the over-indulgence of the festive season I have taken to exercise (I know,  I know, but desperate times call for desperate measures).  So as not to lose interest within mins days I am mixing it up a bit and using Nike + on the kinect.

For someone as unfit as me, I thought I wasn't doing too badly with the old star jumps, burpees & ski hops so imagine my dismay when I heard LM pronounce "Oh my word! You're going to hurt yourself!" this morning.  (I had thought I was alone but unfortunately our living room is now configured with a convenient viewing gallery from which my every humiliation can be observed without my knowing - until, that is, the observer decides to comment on my skill or lack thereof).

I must not let this lack of confidence in my athletic skills put me off.

Instead I just need to rig up some sort of alarm system so I'm warned when I'm being watched.

Eating by Numbers

When LM is eating slowly (mainly because he is too busy chatting) it takes all our parental cunning to get him focussed back on finishing his food.

Today we invented a new game courtesy of a cracker prize ... a big silver die.  After each mouthful Daddy or I  would throw said die twice & LM added up the numbers, announcing the answer with glee.

Making it into a game meant all of his curry disappeared although admittedly it didn't actually speed the process up.