That thing called Granny and a tree called Bob

Granny came to visit Joshua this afternoon and when Daddy arrived home Joshua shyly pointed to Granny and said "that thing is Granny" Suprisingly enough Brian did recognise his own Mum and didn't need to be introduced to the "thing" that was visiting. I might need to work on the use of the word "person' with Joshua.

Today when admiring the view from Joshua's bedroom window he pointed to the large tree by the front entrance and said "That's Joshua's tree! " I asked him if it had a name and he thought for a while and then said it is "tree bob like Bob the Builder" Treebob sounds like a lovely name for a tree. Joshua then typed the name into his imaginery keyboard on his imaginery computer that was conveniently located on the windowsill.

Pat-a-cake is for babies according to Joshua. I was playing pat-a-cake with him today when he suddenly took offence and said "No, I can't like pat-a-cake" I asked him why and he told me "it is a baby song and Joshua not a baby!" I amended the words by replacing "baby" with "Joshua" and he was happy. He "can like" it now... I am so glad!

I can't like it

Joshua can't like a lot of things at the moment. When I asked him if his little 10month old buddy could sit in Joshua's booster chair for lunch he said "No, I can't like it" and kindly offered us a normal chair and suggested his buddy sit on my lap (Interesting that he will share Mummy but not his chair - strange toddler values.) He also can't like having a banana as a snack when there are biscuits in the cupboard. He also told Grandma not to sit next to him (but not as nicely... "go away" were the words used) at lunch because "he can't like it" Mummy "can't like" this stage much especially the go away part as Daddy is regularly being told to go away because Joshua wants Mummy. Poor Daddy... and poor Mummy too as it means that I can't skive off and let Brian see to Joshua :op

Everybody...

I am really beginning to wonder who else shares this house with us. Today when I told Joshua it was time to leave for music he ran back into his room where he had been playing happily on his own (why on earth can't he do that at 5am?) and yelled "Bye everybody" and gave "everybody" a big wave goodbye. Then as soon as we got home he ran in to the house yelling "Hi everybody. I'm back" Mind you this morning I told him rather sternly (you'd be stern too if you had been woken up at 4.50am) to use his manners so maybe he thought it was important to greet the Scarys and whoever else shares our abode. By the way we made a discovery today: there are no Scarys at Grandma's house... Lucky Grandma!

The wake up song

Joshua woke up at 4.50am this morning. He was wide wide awake but there was no way Mummy and Daddy were going to get up yet so we tried to get him to have a snooze in our bed. That didn't work and at 5.30 we turfed him out of bed and turned on his bedroom light in the vain hope he might play quietly in his room. Joshua turned on our light and then disappeared for about 5mins so we thought he had gone off to play and tried to catcha few more zzzzzzzzs despite the lights being on. But Joshua wasn't playing - he was composing. He appeared at our bedside (Daddy's side thank goodness) with his electronic piano in tow announcing that he was going to play the "wake up song" He sang this "wake up song" with great gusto and we couldn't help but love the beat track that accompanied the tune. Brian and I had to laugh and once we did that we knew we had lost the battle once again. Joshua 2 vs. Mummy and Daddy NIL.

Wee ruffian

Joshua has suddenly turned into a wee ruffian. He had a friend round today and his friend had done something to Joshua and was being made to say sorry and give Joshua a hug. The hug ended up with Joshua lying on top of his crying friend. I thought they had over balanced... but no five minutes later Joshua offered his friend a hug. How cute you say - I thought so too until I caught the evil glint in his eye. In an instant he had wrestled his pal to the floor. However there was justice to be had as it wasn't his friend who got hurt in the fall. Joshua hit his head on the way down and ended up bawling, and to add insult to injury was forced to apologise by Mummy. I thought the injury would have taught him a lesson but it seems that children don't learn that quickly and Joshua tried to wrestle his buddy to the floor at least two more times in the next hour (that we saw...) Rascal!

The Scarys revisited

Hmmm there seem to be an inordinate number of Scarys living under motorway bridges!! Yesterday we went to a friend's house for a birthday party in Manurewa (which is miles away from Glenfield.) At the lights before the first overbridge Joshua suddenly started whispering "Shhhhh there are Scarys under there, be quiet or they'll bite me" and pointing to the dark corners of the bridge. This continued for most of the journey down the motorway until we came to a bridge that didn't have the usual deep triangular corner - this particular bridge had walls at right angles to the base of the bridge. Anyway Joshua didn't alter his voice under this bridge and I questioned him, "Won't the Scarys bite you if you aren't quiet?" "But Mummy there are no Scarys under here!!" he stated very matter of factly... gosh silly Mummy - you'd think that I would know where Scarys live by now!! But I won't be caught out again as I have worked out the secret of the Scarys... they only live in triangles!!

By the way Joshua got a bit noisy under one of the bridges and I asked if he got bitten. "Yup, they bit me" he said happily ?! I asked if it hurt... "No Scarys don't hurt, Mummy" he said in a tone that made me feel even dumber.

So in summary here are the things I have learnt about Scarys (this may come in handy if you are ever alone with Joshua)
1. Scarys are NOT scary
2. Scarys bite
3. A Scary bite doesn't hurt but you should be quiet anyway to avoid one
4. Scarys live in triangular spaces only and have a predilection for motorway overbridges.

Ready or not...here I come....

Hide and seek is the game of the week. At the beginning of the week Joshua wasn't particularly good at hiding as even though he found great places to hide the fits of giggles eminating from the hiding place sort of gave him away. But this has improved in the course of the week and he was able to jump out of his hiding spot and surprise me this afternoon. When Joshua is looking for Mum or Dad hiding somewhere, the giggles strike as soon as he spots your location. It is very cute even if the giggles sound a bit manic at times. Joshua is also a fantastic cheat. He goes into the kitchen to count to 10 but suddenly announces a change in rules saying he will count to 3. He counts to 3 very quickly so that means poor Mum and Dad don't have much time to find a good hiding spot!!

Engrish... toddler style

I have noticed that Joshua has a few peculiar pronunciations and thought that should try to note them down

penguin = pinguroo (something to do with the fact that a penguin appears in the outback in the Koala brothers show. A penguin pretending to be a kangaroo?)

girls = giddles (only uses this pronunciation when he has been hanging out with Grandma as when she rolls the r in girls it can sound like a d)

speakers = speedles (I have no idea where this came from)

He sometimes sounds like he should be in Glasgow "Hod on a minute" "Get doun" To my surprise complete strangers in shops have picked up on the Scottish influence in his speech. Poor boy, he might end up being asked where he is from by every other New Zealander he meets....

Night terrors.......

Joshua just had a night terror. It is one of the freakiest things to watch. It started with Joshua screaming "No, it's mine" which was followed up by lots of hysterical crying, tossing and turning with fair smattering of "No"s thrown in. We thought it was a bad dream and I tried to comfort him with a cuddle but he didn't wake up and pushed me away. In all it lasted about 5mins. It seems that he takes after me in his sleep habits. Apart from the odd freaky night terror when he gets over tired he also has the annoying habit of grinding his teeth very loudly. The sound makes me cringe and I worry that he will have no teeth left by the time he gets to primary school. We even tried worming him in the vain hope that it was worms making him grind those gnashers. But no it seems that it is all my fault as I am a teeth grinder too. I hope Joshua doesn't start walking about in his sleep (Hmm we might keep the gate on his door for a bit longer).

... could be a STAR!

Today Joshua and I went to Mainly Music as we do every Wednesday morning. But today turned out to be not your average Wednesday. When we arrived we found out that the leader of the session was sick and if someone else didn't volunteer the session would be scrapped and the kids would just have morning tea and a play. Now Joshua loves the music part of the morning so somehow I managed to volunteer myself despite the fact that when I agreed to be on the Mainly Music team it was on the one condition that I never had to sing up front. I was very nervous but managed to get through the session - dry mouth, cold sweat and all. Joshua on the otherhand had a fantastic time. He loved being right out the front. He sang his little lungs out and danced up a storm. His antics almost made me forget that I was standing out the front trying to lead the session. He truly soaked up the attention and was radiant. He clearly hasn't inherited any of Brian's shy genes. He is such a little showman.

Wired!!

Totally wired!!!!!!!! Joshua has so much energy. In fact I think if we could harness his excess energy we wouldn't have to worry about petrol and power prices as we could run everything on little green power. Joshua's display of uber energy began today at 4.30am (that's right AM grrrr). Daddy was beckoned forth from the comfort of his bed by a pleading little green thing "Daddy, Daaaaady, Dadddddddddddy" Brian entered the room and then the tears began shortly after Daddy said no to Joshua's request. Now what would any normal child want at 4.30am.... a drink.... a toilet stop....... ? In the immortal words of Joshua "I say NO." No, those things would be too common, too ordinary, too boring for Joshua. No, his request was "I wanna play puter" You should have heard the indignant screams of protest when Daddy said no to that perfectly reasonable request. After all every 2.5 yr old should be entitled to play on the computer at 4.30 in the morning. Arggggggggghh. Then I made the fatal mistake of taking him into our bed. I was wriggled for the next 1 and a half hours until 6am at which point we gave up all hope of Joshua sleeping and loosed the wee monster on the world. Joshua had a full day playing with Granny in the morning, and off to preschool in the afternoon, but even so he was still able to run screaming gleefully around the lounge for most of the evening. I was exhausted just watching him. It is awesome that children have so much energy and will just play until they drop - I wish I had even half his energy. Oh and we made a discovery this morning... Joshua can now turn on all the lights without getting a stool. Pity about how this discovery was made though. I think it went something like.... "Mummy get up" (demand ignored, of course) ..... pitter patter.... bedroom lights all flicked on blinding Mummy temporarily but making it impossible to ignore the following demand "Mummy get up! I want food"

Our little con artist

Well Joshua had an absolute blast at Grandma's last night. They played the chocolate game, watched videos and had lots of good fun (the sort that can only be had at Grandma and Grandad's house cause they are willing to indulge the kiddies more than Mum and Dad...) Michelle and Natasha put Joshua to bed with lots of cuddles and then walked out and turned off the light telling him to go to sleep now. And... he went to sleep. Grandma told me all this when i picked him up this morning. My reaction? ...I've been had. Surely we can't be talking about the same boy who pleads "Mummy lie down toooooooooo" "Joshua wants cuddlesssss" "Pleasssssssssssssssse" everynight when we turn the lights out? Most nights our little green thing falls asleep being cuddled by Mummy or Daddy. We do have stages where he will happily settle himself but we are not currently in one of those stages. Hmmmmmmm so is it a con job then?! Surely if he can go to sleep on his own in a strangish house then it should be even easier at home. I know Joshua can manipulate us quite well but now I am convinced that he is a ni-dan black belt master of manipulation. Oh well soon enough he will be saying "Yuk" to hugs from Mummy so I guess I will just make the most of our sleepy warm cuddles at the end of each day and try to convince myself that I am not being manipulated.... Lol who am I kidding....

The Scarys

Joshua talks about the Scarys a lot. Despite the name, he normally is quite happy when he discusses the Scarys and shows no fear at all. Today he told Daddy that the Scarys live in the triangles in his ceiling (where the roof is gabled) and that they had to be quiet or the Scarys would bite Joshua. I was worried about the Scarys when they first came to live at our house but, despite an urge to bite if the noise gets too loud, they seem an amicable bunch who don't eat much and never make a mess. I expected Joshua to have nightmares about these fellas living in the roof but it seems they are creatures with similar tendencies to the ones in Monsters Inc. If you ask Joshua what sound the Scarys make he does a classic deep throated "grmmm" sound that makes me laugh every time. Since the Scarys arrived Joe and Steve haven't visited as much as they used to. Joe and Steve are named after the guys off Blue's Clues, we think. Steve lives in our toilet wall (there is a little door, you see.... well actually only Joshua can see it!!) Steve sometimes comes out visiting with us and appears randomly in other peoples toilet walls. Maybe Steve has a beaming device that allows molecular travel to multidimensional toilet walls?! Timmy hasn't been around much either which is a relief because I have no idea where Joshua got the name Timmy from so that "friend" was a bit spooky. Bobby and Mark from preschool sound cute too but unfortunately the preschool teachers have never met them so can't tell what they are like. I hope Joshua doesn't want to send them all party invites when his birthday rolls round because it might get a bit crowded in the imaginary party guest area... Sometimes I wonder if Joshua is living across dimensions and can really see things we don't as he can be very convincing when talking about his "friends" Joshua is staying at Grandma's tonight with "his girls" Michelle and Natasha. I wonder if the Scarys have gone with him... not sure that I want to go in his room without the light on...grmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Our little green thing

Our little green thing is not so little now. Joshua will be 3 in 4 months time. He is often mistaken for a 4 year old though as he is tall like his Daddy. If I had to pick one thing that I think Joshua will become in the future, it would have to be the class clown. He loves to joke. My biggest problem disciplining Joshua is trying to keep a straight face and authorative voice. For example two nights ago when trying to get the lad to sleep he suddenly says, "Mummy, Mummy, my finger..." in a distressed manner. So like any concerned parent I quickly ask what is wrong with his finger. The response? "It's a drum stick Mummy. Look...boom chicka boom chicka" Argggggggggghhhh how can you not laugh!! I didn't fall for it last night though. His cries of "Mummy, Mummy, my finger..." were ignored while I repeated the "It is nighttime, bedtime, time to go to sleep" mantra while furiously trying hard not to giggle.

Joshua adores anything musical. He was pretending to play the pan pipes on a bamboo sushi mat today. His current favorite video is "Beauty and the Beast" This is a welcome change from "Joseph and his technicolour dreamcoat" which I must have watched 60 times in the last 6 months. Joshua knows most of the words to "Any dream" and a large number of the words to the other songs. He adores Donny Osmond as Joseph and it is quite funny but I just heard that Donny is to play Gaston from Beauty in the Beast on Broadway. Joshua must have similar tastes to Donny. LOL.

Apart from music Joshua loves anything to do with space. He will beg his Grandad to put on the Cosmos videos and sits there with an astronomy book finding the planets that are being discussed on the video. We are all quite surprised by how long a Cosmos video can hold his attention. The narrator has quite a droning voice that puts Grandma to sleep fairly quickly but even so Joshua loves those videos. Joshua has a inflatable solar system hanging from his ceiling and likes to name all the planets and the sun before going to bed each night. At the moment he is purposely saying Pluto after the Sun then laughing and pointing to the "real" Pluto.

Joshua also breaks the boy mould by showing very little interest in trucks. He has had so many trucks and trains given to him as presents but they largely collect dust until another child comes to visit. Maybe No. 2 will be a girl who likes trucks (whenever No. 2 happens...)

Anyway despite his quirks Joshua is like most 2 and a half year olds in that you have to be very careful what you say around them. Case in point: While reading a trashy magazine at Grandma's today I made the mistake of saying "these magazines are rubbish" Well whaddya know a certain little green thing appears and asks for the magazine. Thinking he wanted to look at the picture on the page I was reading I handed it over, only to be told "Joshua put it in the rubbish" Oooops I did say it was rubbish but that is not what I meant.........

Carpe diem

I have finally decided to blog. Why? Because the recent and extremely tragic death of a friend's young daughter made me realise that life is short and so so precious. Everyday when Brian comes home from work I regale him with stories of things Joshua has said or done, and now I realise that these little stories are truly precious and yet so easily forgotten in the daily hubbub of life. Hopefully when Joshua learns to read he can sit down and read all about his antics and one day share those stories with his children.....

And to the wee poppit who taught us all so much in her 20 months - we miss you dancing up a storm and beating up the boys...