Alby chat

From friends from Australia visited today.  Alby did his typical thing of being shy for the first minute but once he found his voice, as Kevin said, “He’s a right little chatterbox”.  And he is.  The cliché from time immemorial (it seems) people love talking about how quickly little people grow but size is nothing really, what’s impressive is how quickly they learn new skills, how aware they become of the world around them and with all of that how brilliantly they communicate about it.

Alby has all sorts of sayings at the moment each of which give you a little insight into his personality and view of the world. I’ve been meaning to jot down the most popular ones for some time as I know that in just a few months he’ll have moved on to a whole new vocabulary and this insight to Alby at 2 years 10 months will be forgotten too quickly.

So, these days you’re most likely to hear Alby say:

“I’m really hungry mummy / daddy” (never just hungry, always REALLY hungry – as though he’s on deaths door.  If you suggest that maybe he wait a little bit for food you get told “Mummy my tummy is starting to rumble”.  Brilliant

After a meal Alby will tell you “My tummy is all filled up and my legs are all filled up”

If you get a “Hmm this is delicious” you know you’ve done when with your cooking.  However, in Alby’s mind only food can be tasty – “drink’s not tasty it’s DRINKY!”

I promise he doesn’t just talk around meal time.  The morning can start with the heart melting “I love you so much mummy” whispered into my ear.  Bless him.  Once downstairs Alby is all about making something at the moment.  Sadly he has no idea as to what he wants to make but is very happy to run around the house saying “Let’s make something mummy.”  If you don’t come up with something to do quickly then he puts on his cute face and asks very sweetly “Can I watch a little bit of telly?”.  The answer 90% of the time is “no” but still he tries.

Once he’s had his food and made something he brings up his favourite game: “Let’s fight.”  I promise I haven’t produced a toddler bully, rather Alby took great inspiration following a trip to a medieval re-enactment and has been playing Knights of the Round Table ever since.  As well as the fighting we have to “run away there’s a dragon / lion / bear coming” to which the only way to stop a very gruesome death is to jump on the sofa or bed and shout “go away nasty dragon / lion / bear”.  Actually, if he is close to the bed he’ll jump on it twenty times before demanding “Let’s go in Daddy’s tent” which then follows with “let’s hide from the dragon / lion / bear”. 

When we go on walks with Percy if we’re lagging behind he shouts out: “come on chaps!” Yesterday when we did some pasta pictures together he announced “Look at my wonderful picture”.  Adjectives also have place in his potty training and he is happy to inform us as to whether what he has produced is normal, big or enormous.  What a charmer!

And finally, as well are the random bits of conversation, there are his favourite songs.  “See Saw Marjorie Daw” and “Do you know the Muffin Man?” get shouted out constantly and randomly with his favourite place to sing currently being whilst standing on his table.  Oh and “Daisy Daisy”. On top of these “Day of the Diesels” must be played every time you get into the car: “Can I have my favourite song really loud please daddy / mummy?” And once you’ve belted out and danced through the whole song Alby asks “Again please again”.  He’ll also try and sing the song by himself whilst playing with his cars which generally involves “mumble, mumble, mumble LISTEN TO THE ROLLING THUNDER” and then back to more mumbling!

Along with all these conversations we get all the random play talk whilst racing his cars and trains, where he lines up the “best friends” and has them racing, chasing and apologising to one another after each bash “sorry, thanks”.

I love my little chatterbox.  No doubt in six months this list of Alby-isms will be completely different.  He’s just too funny a little character and too much a chatterbox to imagine anything but.  Whatever, I can’t wait to hear and giggle at what comes next.