In another odd piece of synchronicity, here is the Boy Wonder kneeling under a beech tree this afternoon, searching for nuts, on the day when Chris Packham explained about mast years – that is, the cyclical fruiting of beech trees – on Autumnwatch. Sadly, he also described a 30-year research project into the phenomenon which suggests that it’s now being disrupted by climate change, and that this may already be putting our beech woods in danger. I can only hope that in another 30 years there will still be beech trees around, for a future generation of our family to investigate and enjoy.
Every time we see the Boy now, he produces more new words. Today’s highlights were:
“Weyyees” – wellies
“Wiwul” – squirrel
“Door bowl” (or sometimes, for no obvious reason, “mum bowl”) – doorbell
“Tishoo” – a paper hankie (rather than a sneeze, which is “ashoo”)
He’s still as bossy as can be, telling R and me where to go and what to do. But it’s quite possible to negotiate with him, and I’m beyond impressed with the way he weighs up what might be on offer against whatever it is he’s being asked to give up, even when there’s a quite lot of subtle processing involved. For instance, this afternoon in the closer park to home he’d run himself to a standstill, but was kicking off about the suggestion that it was time for him to go into the pram for a rest. I said, “Can you remember what happens after you’ve had a rest in the pram in this park? Do we go somewhere else after that…?” And after just a couple of seconds of thought he marched to the pram and climbed in, having processed the question and remembered that after he wakes from his nap we walk to the further park, where the Swedish café provides coffee for R and me, and a glass of water and a cardamom bun for him. I thought it was an amazing demonstration of comprehension, memory and reasoning – but then, he is (as I may possibly have said before) a genius.
