Weyyees

See also: "Vvet!!"

(It's not exactly a 'v' sound, but it's still a bit closer to that than a 'w', and the 't' is more of a glottal stop, but you get the idea.)

Despite some fierce weather - some of which we were out and about in - R and I had a great day with the Child Genius. He was charming throughout, and inclined to be charmed and to find everything funny, which (if I can be allowed a small complaint) made the day pass too quickly.

We were on our way home from the second park of the afternoon ("CAKE!!") when we were hit by a downpour, but B declined a ride in the push chair and kept walking, though he did at least let me put up the hood of his coat until the worst of it went over. And then of course there were puddles...

Shortly after this he and I got into our only (mild) disagreement of the day, when he decided that we were going to go down a side road at right angles to the direction in which we actually needed to be travelling, and set off at a fast trot down the hill. I scuttled after him and managed to coax him back to the junction, but I couldn't get him to move any further despite running through my entire repertoire of persuasion techniques. Had I known that he can be bribed with raisins to do almost anything, I'd have made sure I had a pocket full, but no bribe was to hand, and so there we stood, neither of us prepared to go where the other wanted, while R looked on from a short distance away and tried to pretend not to be choking with silent laughter.

B (pointing upwards and smiling charmingly): "Chree!"
J: "Yes, it is a tree - clever boy! It's dripping on our heads though. Shall we go over to Granddad? He's found another puddle over there."
B: "No."
J: "What about going home and playing with your trucks?"
B: "Leaf!"
J: "Well done! Shall we -"
B: "Bussh! Ding ding!"
J: "Yes, it is a bus - well spotted! How ab-"
B (pointing): "Dere."
J: "No, darling, that's not the way to your house. Look at Granddad - he's going to your house. Shall we go with him?"
B: "No."
J: "Yes, I think so. I'm cold - are you cold? We can go home and -"
B: "No. Car! Red!"
J: "Yes - well done again! I think -"
B: "Buur!"
J: "Sorry - what was that? Oh - up there! A bird...?"
B (beaming): "Yes!"
J: "That's a great new word - I didn't know you could do that one. Well done you!" (Pause for everyone to give a brief round of applause.) "Shall we -"
B: "No. Dere. Daddy!"
J: "No, darling - Daddy isn't there - he's home at your house, working. Shall we go and see if we can see him?"
B: "No. Dere."

And so on.

It was funny to find myself in a total stand-off with a toddler of 22 months, and I enjoyed the conversation for at least the first ten minutes, but my good humour was beginning to wear just a little thin by the time R got bored with the entertainment and intervened. He walked back to us, said, "Time to go home now, chap," and then simply picked him up and plonked him in the push chair. Braced for howls of outrage, I was astonished when B's response was a single, token "NOOO!", after which he sat perfectly calmly, happily chatting away to himself and occasionally pointing out another bus, red car or truck to us. In hindsight I think he was probably tired of the game himself, and Granddad's intervention was helpful in letting it come to an end without him having to back down to Grandma - so (counting the raisins) I learned two useful things today.