It wouldn’t be right not to give my two year olds favourite toy a mention, after all, Monkey AKA Andrew’s had his 5 minutes fame, so here’s to Horsey!

Horsey was a gift to Rudy on the day he was born from my younger sister Amy. He’s a lovely small soft white (now off-white) horse with three pastel stripes around the middle of his body in orange, yellow and green and a matching set of stripes across his nose. He has a little rope tail, a kind face and a perfect neck to stuff in the crook of your own neck for sleeping (and to grab with little hands to cart round)! Of course Amy wanted Horsey to be the favourite toy, but you can’t force these things, it’s fate and this is how it happened…

Rudy was about 1 month old and sleeping in our bedroom in a mosses basket. One night after feeding Rudy and winding him I lay him down to sleep in his crib all contented and sleepy. Not for long! Two minutes later he was crying, and off started the pattern of calming, then settling, then picking him up again to stop the crying. Cy, like me had been taking turns to nurse him but to no avail! Eventually, I thought I would just let him cry and went off to the bathroom to get ready for bed. After a few more minutes of wailing, the crying stopped. I came back into a quiet room expecting to see Rudy in Daddy’s arms but he was fast asleep in his crib, I was so pleased as we could finally get some rest ourselves! Cy said all he had done was grab the nearest toy from the selection of small soft toys at the bottom of the crib, which happened to be Horsey (much to Amy’s delight!) and snuggled him into the crook of Rudy’s neck. Cy said he looked so contented straight away! And that was it – friendship for life… or for now (read below)!

Bradley’s favourite toy from birth was a stuffed monkey from Toys R Us which we parents named “Monkey”. I thought it was best we give him that name then Bradley could have the honour of naming him when he was ready. Monkey began life with the softest velvet-like light brown fur, white sticky-out ears, a little white face with perfectly stitched features and a wide line smile. They went everywhere together until Bradley was about three. I distinctly remember the day when he was going upstairs for his bedtime story with Daddy – without his companion! I shouted after them that Monkey was still downstairs, but Bradley said he didn’t want him, I felt quite upset.

And there it was, it had happened overnight. Bradley just wasn’t bothered about his stuffy old friend anymore. His once soft skin now felt more like my husbands face when the stubbles just coming through (ouch!) and he was looking a bit saggy around his middle (yes I know it happens to us all one day, earlier for those of us who’ve been through child birth!) – but on a good note, his new appearance did look like he had been a well-loved toy.

This morning I was thrilled to see Bradley holding Monkey along side a large yellow plastic lizard, he said he had NAMED them both! Oh my word this was a revelation! And his name???????????

“Andrew”.

Great. My boss is called Andrew. Not that he’s a bad person! It just made me smile when I said to the children “I’ll sit Andrew down to dinner with you both”, and I laughed out loud to myself because I was looking at this stuffed monkey patiently sat on the table eyeing up the chicken and chips, thinking of my boss!

The lizard was named “Chilly” by the way – rather fitting for an animal that lives in the desert I thought!

Picture this… Sunday afternoon walk back from the local shops, a four year old (Bradley) looking rather too large to be in the pushchair in the pushchair with a crash helmet on, a two year old (Rudy) hitching a ride on the back of the pushchair also sporting a crash helmet. No bikes. No scooters being towed. Just me and the boys. It didn’t even occur to me how odd it must have looked until I saw my neighbours walking towards me laughing! The truth of the matter was, I wasn’t the most overprotective mother on the planet, I had in fact been walking to the shops with my husband, the boys on scooters, when the little ones call of nature meant I had to get home quick. Bradley had already given up on the scooter a while back and decided to have “a rest” and he wouldn’t move, so I took them both, leaving my husband probably looking equally as crazy in the local shops with 2 scooters and no children in sight.

Rudy (2) was dangling a Thomas the Tank Engine musical toy over his brother Bradley’s (4) bath. I told Rudy not to drop it in as it had a battery, and you can’t put battery toys in the bath, blah blah. Next thing, plop. Rudy started crying because I said No, Bradley said “he didn’t hear what you said, Mummy”, I asked Bradley if he had heard, yes he had – well then so did Rudy. After a few minutes of trying to comfort the little one, Bradley suddenly said he was fed up. I told him to just let me sort Rudy out for a minute, then I’ll get him out the bath to which Bradley replied. “No Mummy! I’m fed up of that crying noise!”

We bought our four year old Bradley the Wii Star Wars Lego game for Christmas, and it didn’t take long for him (and his Daddy!) to be hooked. The two boys (hee hee) had just finished the first level and Daddy was jumping around like a crazed loonatic shouting “We won! We won!”. Bradley asked what you get for winning, and Cy replied “satisfaction!”. Bradley pondered this for a moment, then asked “can you eat satisfaction Daddy?”

Hilarious!

Hi, this is my new blog where I will be giving the big wide world an insight into my little mummy bubble: the charming antics and beliefs of my four and two year old.
Enjoy