Competitive much, George?

George has come up with a new game.  Actually he’s come up with lots of new games recently.  Many still focus on kicking and throwing but you can see him starting to work out cause and effect whether that’s pushing cars down a ramp, hitting balls with a hammer (toy hammer, just so we’re clear) or copying others, his little brain is starting to link things up and understand that by doing this thing, I can get that result.  One such connection which I’m getting a lot of enjoyment out of is that as fun as running around and throwing stuff is, it’s even better if you preface it with “Ready, Steady, Go!”  Now I’m not claiming at all that George has got his tongue around speech yet.  Mostly when he babbles I think he’s in the wrong county as the sounds he makes seem more Scandanavian than British, but he’s definitely got the right tones and what’s more, he gets them in the right order.  And he’s pleased as punch about it.  As Alby says, it’s just hilarious.  Obviously there are alarm bells ringing.  As an overly competitive younger sister I’m not entirely sure how healthy it is for a 13 month old to be practicing his sprint starts.  The proof will come out at the upcoming nursery Sport’s Day no doubt, but this is hand’s down my favourite video at the moment.  Being such a modern young chap George is also loving this video and giggles every time he sees it.  I don’t know if he realises it’s him but he certainly seems to be thrilled that somebody else understands the importance of sprint starts.

As I’m waffling on about cause and effect I want to share a story from Mark’s parents’ house last week which we were at as I had to go into the office and they were watching the boys. It was late.  Oh so late.  George decided sleeping was for wimps and despite all of us yawning he was still carrying on.  He’d found some coasters and was handing them to Boppa and then taking them back, handing them over one by one and then grabbing both and walking away over and over again.  Then he decided to let GG have them, so over he goes and once he hands them to GG she uses them to cover her eyes and play peek-a-boo.  George takes them back and mimics.  He doesn’t get it at first; they go on the top of his head, then over his ears but when he finally slides them over his eyes there is real pride with himself and he actually squealed with delight.

My final George story comes from today on the way home from nursery.  This is the time when Alby gets to watch telly on my phone whilst George and I sing nursery rhymes together.  Mostly it’s just me singing with him joining in for one or two songs before getting frustrated at being in the car and then pulling on his straps and shouting.  Today he was on good form though and despite a long day at Farleys his brain was switched on and, first time ever, he did the actions to the Grand old Duke of York followed by “If you’re happy and you know it.”  Proof if ever it was needed that my child is a genius.  Hahaha.  I love how all parents think their child is gifted, of course he’s not but in this little moments when all you have is complete wonder and adoration for how they are growing and learning and observing and absorbing genius seems the more appropriate word. 

Alby meanwhile is still a ninja.  Yesterday he got a load of pencils and chopsticks and poked them into his pants and strutted around telling me they were his utility belt and he needed them for fighting baddies.  To save his future self I won’t post the photo I took but I will cherish it forever. As part of showing off his ninja skills he has decided to try and teach himself how to do back flips. He’s not there yet but I’m sure watching him try has aged me considerably.  I wouldn’t mind if he said “let’s try this mummy” and I could help him but no, he’ll just be jumping about and next thing he’s thrown himself backwards, time freezes, my eyes pop out my head and then we move on to another round of energetic kicks and twists as my son educates me on all things ninja. 

He’s also started singing silly songs.  Like really silly songs which seem to start with “Put your head in your belly and you head on the telly….” And then the transform into excited jibberish for five minutes (I’m not exaggerating on the timings here).  Every now and then a real sentence comes out, sometimes once that rhymes with the next but your ears have to be very keen to pick up on such.  The boys imagination is amazing.  He’s rhyming isn’t half bad either.