An afternoon with the kids

Yesterday, I looked after Aidan and Claire because our nanny had to attend a funeral. I came home just after lunch and was given the run down of the day so far - who'd eaten what, who'd had a diaper change when, and when they'd gone to sleep.

Yes, they were asleep, so I had a few minutes to myself.

Claire woke up first and wanted milk and a book. Half through the cup of milk and This Is London we heard Aidy and both went up to see him. He seemed pretty happy to be greeted by his, "daddy."

After both the kids were fully awake and fed, we set off for an errand. Then we went for ice cream. Or Ow-ceem, or I-Peen, depending on which kid you talk to.

After we'd all wiped our faces, we set off for a walk. Well, Claire and I walked and Aidan took his big red push car.

There was a moment, during the walk, which I saw myself in Aidan. And it wasn't great. I took my phone out and asked them to say, "Cheese." But as soon as I did I saw panic all over Aidan's face and he just shouted, "Cam-ma."

In the last few days when Aidan has been out with his car he's taken a black alarm clock with him, which he pretends is his "cam-ma". It wasn't there. And Aidan pulled the same face you've all seen me pull, when I've misplaced my keys or lost my wallet.

We went back in the house and found the cam-ma. I then took picture of Aidan and Claire while Aidan took pictures of me.

It's great witnessing kids learn the English language. First you have the unintentional swearing. Aidan loves trucks, and lots of the time says TRUCKS but if he says FIRE TRUCK, the TR gets changed for an F. And if he gets excited and sees two trucks, sometimes the same thing happens but he adds an ERS at the end. It sounds like he doesn't like them, but he really does. A lot.

Also, it's funny how out of context words can get. Obviously when someone bumps into Aidan they say sorry and he's picked that up. A bump on the head means sorry. So when he got bumped by the fridge door yesterday, he turned round to it and said, "Sorry."

After some food Aidan and claire finished their homework and waited for Claire's mum. It was a great afternoon but I did sleep well last night.

Aidy's words

Two things have happened to Aidy recently. He hasn't been very well. Over the last three weeks he's had two fevers, a fair bit of vomiting and hasn't been sleeping well, at all. The other thing is that his vocabulary has exploded, and he repeats everything we say.

When he wasn't well he learned the word cry. He'd cry then finish by telling us he wanted to "cry".

The other morning, when he was much better, he woke up, a bit too early, calling for, "Daddy, daddy, daddy." He stopped for a little bit then tried, "Mummy, mummy, mummy." He stopped again. Then he just simply said, "cry, daddy, cry."

He knows how to pluck at my heart strings. I went to him right away.