When R and I arrived in Cardiff this morning, the Boy Wonder and his mother had stopped to wait for us on the pavement near the place where we usually park, on their way home from the café where they breakfast together on Thursdays. R threw off his seatbelt before I’d even slowed the car, so keen was he to leap out and get a good morning hug from his favourite Boy. As today’s designated driver I was pretty fierce about that safety breach, I can assure you.
The Boy had eaten pancakes with maple syrup, we were told, and back at home, watching him zooming around the playroom about a foot off the floor, I made a comment about sugar behaviour. He looked at me wide eyed and said, “I didn’t jus’ have sugar. I had proper food too.” “Oh good,” I replied, thinking yet again how bizarre it is to hear the words you casually input into a tiny ear emerging appropriately from the associated mouth. “What else did you have?” “Bacon,” he said with great satisfaction. “An’ sossidges. They will make me aaaaall strong and helfy!”
You won’t get any argument from me on that score. He ran both grandparents into the ground for the next six hours (I actually had to have a little sleep at lunchtime, before tackling the park and the playground), charging about like the Duracell Bunny on speed, right up to the moment when he stepped off an energy cliff and crashed. We then had several minutes of inconsolable sobbing on the pavement outside the shops, because Granddad had unforgivably stopped him from walking across a busy road all by himself, while concerned passers-by stood around frowning at us and looking as though they were contemplating an intervention. Eventually the Boy let the less out-of-favour grandparent pick him up and carry him home, where he demolished two rice cakes with peanut butter, and a slice of cheese. He was then promptly up and off again, inventing a game in which we all had to be either dinosaurs (Ticklosaurus Rex, suggested R, putting himself back in favour) or dinosaur victims, according to the whim of the Petit Prince at any given moment. When it was time for us to leave, we were given such a riotous send-off from the doorstep that it was hard to turn and walk away.
Today’s word of the day: “Zackly”.
