lilitoto

Daddy, are you happy?

admin — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 23:25:02 +0000

It’s 5.30am in the morning when Teddy drops this bombshell. So on a superficial level I’m not that happy - I was asleep up until that point, and happily so.

But had I been happy, the very asking of the question would have been cause for sadness. Does my son think I’m unhappy? Why would anyone ask that question unless they thought that there was a distinct possibility that the person being asked was indeed unhappy? And was I mistaken in thinking there was something about the tone in which the question was delivered that further confirmed my suspicions?

What have I done, or said, to make him think I’m unhappy?

Is he unhappy? Is my perceived unhappiness causing him distress?

“It’s seven o’clock Daddy.”

My, doesn’t time fly when you’re having fun.

Unrequited love

admin — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 08:19:06 +0000

Me:”I love you sooooo much. The only person who loves you more is possibly Mummy. Nana loves you and Nanny Jackie loves you. Aunty Kim and Uncle Simon love you and even Meredith loves you”.

Teddy: “I like cars”.

schrödinger’s raisins

admin — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 09:33:05 +0000

In a lesser known experiment involving two raisins dropped into a beaker of warm milk, the question is, “are there raisins in my milk?”. The answer is, “You’ll have to drink it all to find out”.

A more protracted answer involves explaining that the existence of the raisins is academic until the milk reaches the level at which the body of at least one raisin is exposed. Up until that point their presence or absence is academic. Theoretically they could occupy either state, presence or absence, without materially affecting the present.

Unfortunately this longer explanation only leads to a further question. “Why?”

“Teddy, just drink your milk. Otherwise you’re going in the box with the cat.”

Hide and Seek

admin — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 08:50:06 +0000

Teddy hasn’t quite got the hang of the rules. He’ll ‘hide’ almost in plain view. And almost as soon as you’ve finished counting to ten he’ll leap out and say, “Here I am. Now it’s your turn. You hide here and I’ll come and find you”. Although removing what little point there is to the game, he finds it all wildly exciting.

Yum

admin — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 22:16:21 +0000

Teddy has a new nick-name for his little sister. It came out last night at bedtime. “Night-night Yum”. He’s absolutely right. She is Yum.

Why, oh why, oh why?

admin — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 22:13:00 +0000

For some strange reason I thought we’d be immune. But then it happened. Without prior warning Teddy responded to a simple instruction to finish his milk with: Why? It transpires that there is no acceptable answer to this question. In fact there is no acceptable answer to any question. All possible answers are met with a follow up: Why?

Often we don’t do anything to initiate the sequence. They occur spontaneously as in, “Why do you have pink spots on your boobies mummy?”.

Counting beyond ten

admin — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 21:06:33 +0000

Teddy has mastered some hefty numbers: sixty, seventy, eighty and ninety. He’s still working on one-ty, two-ty and three-ty.

Poo and swimming pools

admin — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 19:25:23 +0000

Not really as connected as the headline might suggest. This weekend Teddy has mastered No.2s at long last and has also managed to doggy paddle out of his depth at the local baby pool. So, floating but no floaters.

Swine flu strikes home

admin — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 21:20:44 +0000

Alison has come down with Swine Flu and has just started her course of Relenza. And now Teddy has it. Meredith and I seem OK so far. It’s difficult to be sure with babies and toddler’s - there’s only so much they can tell you about how they’re feeling and where it hurts. In Meredith’s case she can’t do anything but cry if there’s a problem.

Teddy can’t have Relenza so he’s on Tamiflu - Relenza is an inhaler delivered drug and a three year old can’t take inhalants successfully. They don’t have the control or co-ordination to allow the drug to be administered correctly.

It’s all a bit of a worry.

The S words

admin — Tue, 05 May 2009 14:39:10 +0000

Teddy has managed to master ‘S’ but he can’t quite bring himself to start words with S. Sugar is still ugar and Stop is still top. But he has started to add the odd ’s’ to words that never had them.