A touch of Mozart

With the BBC Proms in full swing, George decided to put on his own concert – a little bit of very early Mozart no less. Although he manages the tune perfectly well vocally, his fingering does need a little work on the accuracy side!

A game of Cat and Mouse – or rather, Cat and George

Recently we visited Mummy's cousin and her family who've just moved back to the UK from South Africa, and while we enjoyed good company and great food, George enjoyed chasing their cats around the garden...

Needless to say, even though he tried his best with admirable persistence...

they were always going to be too quick for him!

But then again, sometimes...

he was too quick for us!

I suppose you'd call it A for effort

This week we had an informal chat with George's keyworker at nursery about how he is getting on now that he has moved from the baby room to the toddler room. And it just happened to fall on the day that George did his first wee in a potty.

Anyway, it seems we have nothing to worry about – he's doing fine and is perfectly on track for a two-year-old, but it's quite surprising on how many levels they are assessed, even at the age of two. There are five categories:

1) Personal, Social and Emotional Development

2) Communication, Language and Literacy

3) Problem Solving, Reasoning and Numeracy

4) Knowledge and Understanding of the World

5) Creative Development

Most categories have sub categories, such as Disposition and Attitudes which falls under 1) or Exploration and Investigation which is under 4). We were quite surprised at how comprehensive and detailed the development assessments are.

A profile form is filled out every so often with comments on each category – a bit like a mini school report – and the last one said things such as:

'George is a very caring and confident child who enjoys interacting with other children and adults.'

'George enjoys using repetitive language and imitating words you say.'

'George enjoys physical challenges, especially in the garden where he likes to climb, run and push toys.'

'George likes to make loud noises from different objects.'

Which adds up to pretty much your typical two-year-old.

I suppose he's started off on the right track – let's just hope he doesn't get comments like his Dad – 'Paul prefers to waste his time in lessons instead of concentrating on his work' ... well, it was maths!

Making cakes

This is what happens when we make cakes with George. The cakes turned out fine, which could be on the lucky side taking into account mummy's counting skills.

And – to keep on the right side of health & safety (whoever they may be) – said cakes are not unleashed on the public, only mummy, daddy and the grandparents.

Hats the way to do it

When the sunny weather comes along we always have the sun hat problem. The one when we put the sun hat on to George's head and he immediately grabs it and throws it off – which often leads to a mini tug-of-war in a grapple for control of the hat.

Of course, George doesn't realise we're trying to cover his head for his own good, he seems to think we're just trying to annoy him – in a similar way we annoy him during the sun cream wrestling.

However, it looks like we have found the solution and the sun hat problem is now hopefully consigned to the past...

On Monday we visited Drayton Manor Theme Park with Nanny and Grandad, Aunty Nikki and cousin Tom. George was delighted when he realised he was in the middle of Thomas the Tank Engine land and loved every ensuing minute. With the sun beating down we tried, using distraction and stealth, to plonk a hat on his head but George was having none of it and we soon gave up. Instead we sought the shade which sometimes came in the form of Harold the Helicopter, Percy's train or one of the other many rides.

It was a in the Thomas gift shop – another source of cool shade – that we spotted a Thomas Land baseball cap and decided to give it a try as it had a picture of Thomas on. George examined the hat, said "Mhomas hat" a few times (most of his Ts are pronounced M at the moment), decided he liked it and let us put it on his head.

Our son has got his hat on – hip, hip, hip, hooray!

And so the plan worked. In fact it has worked so well, he wears it nearly all the time. Thing is we now have another hat dispute – and I honestly don't know where or how George has learned this – when we put the Thomas cap on George likes to take it off and put it back on with the peak at the back... I don't know – the first signs of delinquency and he's only just two!

Riding and running

You'd be forgiven for thinking that we spent the entirity of our break in Great Yarmouth taking George on sit-on rides. After all, when we flicked back through the holiday snaps it looked like George had been on every one in East Anglia...

An Eddie Stobart lorry,

an ice-cream van,

a fire engine,

a steam train,

a double-decker bus,

an American truck,

sorry – no idea what this is,

a Jess the Cat plane,

a mini ferris wheel,

and Iggle Piggle's boat.

But that's not all we did. After a trip to the Sea Life Centre, George's favourite word became 'Nemo'. He also enjoyed a ride on the Donkeys and running along the beach. In fact, he ran at every opportunity, in any direction, as fast as his little legs would carry him. He chased rabbits, magpies, blackbirds, squirrels and ducks...

And at the end of every day, after all that excitement, running about and sea air, it wasn't only George who felt like this...

Picnic interruptions

Last weekend we went for a picnic in St Nicholas Park, Warwick, and there seemed to be a charity event/run taking place.

The first thing George saw as we put him in his pushchair at the side of the Avon was someone in a bear costume sitting and waving from a huge swan-shaped pedalo in the middle of the river. It made me wonder what went through his mind and whether he thought he was simply witnessing an aspect of British wildlife.

We walked between regular park goers and fancy-dressed fundraisers to the mini fairground where George took a trip on the mini train, and not long after that we found a spot in the middle of a huge expanse of grass to have our picnic. First of all we got the 'Winnie-the-Pooh' football out and chased it around for a while, which George thought was hilarious. He's actually pretty good at dribbling – but only in one direction. So by the time mummy had spread the blanket out and opened the picnic basket, George and daddy were about half a kilometre away.

The next problem was trying to keep George in one place while he ate his Dairylea sandwiches, olives, cheesy Wotsits, etc. After a few trips retrieving him from heading towards the swings and roundabouts, the final straw was when he put his foot in mummy's cheese and cucumber sandwich and ground it into the plate like a cigarette butt. That was when we decided he was best back in his pushchair where he happily munched away on the rest of his food.

I really thought I could at long last recline in the sunshine (Nanna phoned from her holiday while we were there to say it was raining in Majorca) and enjoy my sandwich without interruption. Alas, it was not to be... George let go of his cheesy Wotsits bag and the empty packet tumbled away in the breeze. Quite a strong breeze, because by the time I had got to my feet it was heading apace to the river. After a 100-yard dash and much stamping of feet, I finally trapped it under my foot and, like any good litter-conscious citizen, picked it up to throw it away properly. I turned round to walk back to my half-eaten sandwich and was a little annoyed to see mummy giggling hysterically. Apparently though, it was George who thought that daddy chasing litter across an empty field was the funniest thing since Iggle Piggle sneezed and fell over... mummy was actually laughing at George laughing at daddy.