On Names and Steam Engines (Again!) and Scans

So, the rabbit finally has a name. Angus has been given a series of Fairy Tale stories and decided, remarkably appropriately, to call her .....


SNOW WHITE!


The amusing thing is, though, that he forgets sometimes and asks, "What is her name?" Or if people ask him what his rabbit is called he says that he can't remember! I imagine that her name will change a few times in the coming months. Thank you for all the suggestions.

And the answers to the Angus language quiz...

coal ..... his breakfast
water ..... a drink of milk or juice
steam ..... his reason for needing to eat (I need more steam)
shovel ..... his spoon
fire box ..... his mouth when eating (also sometimes called a Thomas Tunnel)
letting off steam ..... an excuse for making rude noises. He is especially proud of having made some visitors to the Zoo jump by doing this next to the Orangutans!
engine shed ..... his bedroom, or anywhere else he is heading at the time
rail tracks ..... marks on the pavement made when repairs have been carried out and that he uses as a route.

So there you are, a crash course on Angus speak.

Below are the scan pictures from Monday. We did want to know the sex but sadly Bump was not obliging.





With the amount of kicking going on, I think this one might be a bit more lively than Angus! Oh help!

Name Needed

And before you get too excited, no, this is not for Baby (you'll just have to wait for that one for a few months more!) This is for another new family member.

Last week Angus went to visit Granny for the day. Just as I was about to walk to collect him, her car pulled up at the end of the drive and Angus yelled out of the car window, "Mummy! Mummy! Look! Look at what I have!" Excited would seriously be an understatement. I have never seen him quite so uncontainably happy. I walked to the car and he was frantically pulling at a cardboard box sitting next to him on the back seat. Upon opening the box I saw....

a cute little white rabbit.



Problem - what do we call it?

Not Snowy (she was my Granny's evil, white, mass-murdering cat) and Angus hasn't got any other ideas. Last weekend we asked the Scouts at camp and were given the following (edited!) suggestions:
Breakfast
Cornflakes
Suzie
Snow White
Bunbun

Any better ideas?

She is very cute and tame as well, which is quite surprising since she came from a pet shop!

Happy Fathers' Day!

To all you fathers, want to be fathers, are glad that you are not fathers, and men in general.

I would be wishing Ken a Happy Fathers' Day personally but since his present was a pass out for the weekend to go walking in Scotland with Mark and Al, that won't be possible.

Never mind. He's back tomorrow.

Life With a Toddler - 9 A New Vocabulary

As you can see, diggers have been deposed and we are back to steam engines. His obsession is getting worse.

Two weeks ago in a music group he attends, the leader had them listening to the sound of a steam engine pulling out of a station (she called it a train and Angus felt the need to correct her!) She then had them pretending to be steam engines by moving their arms like the pistons on the wheels. This was bad.

Angus had clearly not thought of this before and decided it was a wonderful idea. This has led to him now spending a majority of his day being a steam engine and the creation of an entire new language.

Can you decipher what these words refer to as far as Angus is concerned:
coal
water
steam
shovel
fire box
letting off steam
engine shed
rail tracks.


Yes, it is a steam engine. A big, black engine. Cool.


Angus at the Severn Valley Railway recently with Grampa Steam. I mean, honestly, with a nickname like that (bestowed upon him by Angus and for very good reason!) does the child stand a chance? It's in his genes for goodness' sake. Should it be considered a disability?

The Diggers

I have been meaning to post these pictures for a while but as usual, other things got in the way and they dropped down my priority list. This post will also explain why I changed the background to our Blog!

Over the road from us there used to be a community centre. The Council in their infinite wisdom decided it was no longer suitable and arranged for it to be knocked down. We now have diggers and lorries right over the road with all their mess, mud and noise. We also have a road cleaner (yes, cleaner not sweeper. It jet blasts the road and creates a huge amount of noise every time it goes past our house) going up and down the road about every 15 minutes. Combine all that with gas pipe replacement on the main road 100 metres away that has been going in since February and involves cutting, digging, filling, re-tarmaccing and hauling pipes around, and you can see that things aren't all calm in Macclesfield.

What we also have is a rather digger obsessed two year old. I am afraid that although steam engines and the like are still high on the list of interests, diggers and especially JCBs are a little higher at the moment. In fact, not just any old diggers, they have to be back hoe loaders or mini excavators (he can identify them and knows the difference).

Imagine Angus's delight when they were digging to replace a water pipe 10 meters down the road and the driver said, "Would he like to go in the cab? He can stay as long as he likes."