Mick the Snowman. Photo by Dylan, taken on his new camera from Grandma and Grandpa.

During swim lessons, even underwater, Isaac makes the hand signals for 'duck' (opening and closing his fingers to mimic a quacking beak), because he sees a toy duck on the pool deck.

Isaac took his first step.

Daddy wrote a new Country & Western song called 'I Love You, But I Don't Love Your Poo'.

The following story happened within the past year, but we forgot to write it down.

Daddy's glasses case was broken for years, before Dylan was born. The locking mechanism no longer worked, though Daddy continued to use the case intermittently. One day, Dylan asked permission to repair the case. Daddy explained it was irreparable. Dylan insisted. Daddy relented. In just a few seconds, Dylan fixed the case. It was broken not at the lock, but at the hinges, which threw the lock out of alignment. Dylan recognised the problem, and he shifted the hinges in order to align the lock.

For years, Daddy had written the case off as irreparable. In less than a minute, Dylan fixed it. He is very mechanically inclined, in Daddy's view.

Isaac loves to say 'quack', with varying degrees of propriety. He uses the word to refer to all non-human animals, but especially ducks and dogs. When Daddy points to a duck in a book, Isaac says 'quack' while making the motion of a duck bill with his hand. He also sings the 'quack quack' portion of the song 'Five Little Ducks'.

Isaac and Dylan enjoy playing games together, such as 'magic show' behind a curtain. Also, Isaac loves 'tickling' Dylan, which actually consists of pulling Dylan's hair. Surprisingly, Dylan loves this game too.

Dylan: [Pointing to a picture in a book.] Who is that?

Daddy: George Washington. He invented America.

Dylan: But who invented England ?

Daddy: Nobody. England happened by accident.

Dylan: Why?

Daddy: England was formed longer ago, before people knew how to invent countries.

Dylan: [After some thought.] Nana and Papa could have been the earliest people in America.

DYLAN: There's something inside me that says I'm not allowed to stop crying. It says I have to cry forever, even after I'm dead. I might control it with a lever, but the lever is broken. The thing inside me is a battery that charges me. It doesn't understand me, because it's French.

DYLAN: Winnie the Pooh understands me because he's English.

DYLAN: They should have built Devon closer to London.

Dylan and Isaac October 2011

Isaac is standing up, without holding on. He claps his hands while standing.

DYLAN: Will you still love me when you're dead?

Isaac at 9 months

Pulleys

Dylan led a tour of his boat:


the garden, with outdoor beds and a person inside a tree;


the battery, engine, and rudder.


From his new shop, Dylan sold cosmetics and tomato sauce.

Dylan had a dream that he and Daddy were flushing grapes down the toilet in a foreign cafe. In the dream, flushing grapes was Daddy's idea, and Daddy did not tell Dylan what country they were in.

User: My name is Dylan.

Cleverbot: My name is Cleverbot.

User: Cleverbot.

Cleverbot: Yes thats my name.

User: Honourable Dylan Turkey.

Cleverbot: Is it warm in Turkey?

User: Mouse.

Cleverbot: No, my name is Cleverbot.

User: Daddy.

Cleverbot: My name is not Daddy. Tell me what my name is.

User: What's your name, robot?

Cleverbot: No I'm not a robot why would you ask that?

User: Do you go to school?

Cleverbot: Art school.

DYLAN: When are we going to Devon?

MUMMY: Soon.

DYLAN: Will we be dead?

MUMMY: No, that's Heaven.

DADDY: That was before I was married.

DYLAN: When I grow up I want to marry Mummy.

DADDY: Did you know that somebody has already married her?

DYLAN: No.

DADDY: Who do you think married Mummy?

DYLAN: I don't know.

DADDY: Do you want me to give you a clue?

DYLAN: Yes. [Daddy points to himself.]

DYLAN: You?

DADDY: Yes.

'Gak' means 'duck' and is a corruption of 'quack'.

Isaac is saying 'Mama', 'Dada', and 'Gak'. We're not sure what 'Gak' means.

Dylan wrote and performed a song about Isaac: 'Isaac is a musical instrument. Isaac is a musical minstrument'. The word alternates between 'instrument' and 'minstrument' which Dylan and his parents think is really funny.

Sleepover at Damien's house.

Isaac slept through the night for the first time.

Dylan's bedtime routine.

[Dylan gets into bed after his final book.]

DADDY: Dylan, what a messy face you have.

DYLAN: All the better to get messy things all over you with, Da Dear.

[Daddy pretends to scream and covers Dylan's head with a duvet.]

DYLAN: I can't saw or see.

DADDY: You should be able to saw or see. I'll pull the duvet down.

[Daddy turns out the light and removes the duvet from Dylan's face.]

DYLAN: I still can't saw or see.

[Daddy puts his hand over Dylan's eyes, counts to twenty, and removes his hand.]

DYLAN: I still can't saw or see.

DADDY: Would you like a kiss on the cheek so that you have good dreams?

DYLAN: Ten kisses.

[Daddy delivers twelve kisses.]

DYLAN: Was that ten kisses?

DADDY: It was at least ten kisses. Would you like me to sing?

[Daddy sings Rock-a-bye Baby nine times very fast, counting on his fingers. He sings it a tenth time slower, and Dylan joins in on the words 'fall' and 'all', especially long and slow.]

DADDY: Good night Dylan.

DYLAN: Good night Daddy.

DADDY: See you in the morning.

DYLAN: See you in the morning when the sun comes up in the sky.

DADDY: I love you.

DYLAN: I love you too.

DADDY: Oh, by the way Dylan.

DYLAN: Yes Daddy?

DADDY: I won't want a letter sticker.

DYLAN: I understand. Oh, by the way Daddy.

DADDY: Yes Dylan?

DYLAN: I will want a letter sticker.

DADDY: I understand.

[Daddy closes door.]

Isaac has a tooth and is nearly crawling.

Having had my blackberry for about 9 months I have finally worked out how to transfer photos from it! Here are some of the better ones over the past few months.

July 2011 - Trip to Willows Farm with Kitty, Libby and Barney






May 2011 - Dylan, Kitty, Barney, Isaac, Sarah and Hannah




May 2011


March 2011 - Barney (4 months) and Isaac (3 months)




December 2010 - Isaac 6 days old


Isaac - 3 days old


Isaac - 4 hours old




December 2010 - Before Isaac was born

Isaac is sleeping alone in his own bedroom. We feel a bit sad about this as it was nice to sleep in the same room with him.

Dylan visited Daddy's gym. There are pictures on the walls of world champion body builders, flexing their muscles. Dylan pointed at one and asked, 'Is that you Daddy?' Daddy said no. 'But your picture is somewhere in this gym, right?' asked Dylan. It was hard to explain to Dylan why not.

Isaac said, 'Dadadadadada'.

Dylan sleeps in big boy pants (not nappies).

Most days, Dylan gets dressed in his room or the play room.

DADDY: Where do you want to get dressed today?

DYLAN: [Cheekily.] South America.

DYLAN: Oh. My nipples are very pointy today.

Isaac is sitting up.

Dylan at his last day of nursery.

Dylan and Isaac at Barney's in St Barnabas Church.

DADDY: I made a mistake.

DYLAN: Why did you make a mistake?

DADDY: I'm imperfect.

DYLAN: Why are you imperfect?

DADDY: I don't know.

DYLAN: Why don't you know?

DADDY: I'm imperfect.

Isaac enjoys being thrown up in the air, whereas just a few weeks ago he did not.

After a long hiatus, Dylan has started calling Mummy 'Meena' again.

Dylan had his first sleep-over (at Damien's) and his last day of nursery at Active Learning.

Dylan pretends the scars in pavements ('sidewalks') are train tracks. The scars are everywhere, like the utility covers that Dylan spotted in August. And like the utility covers, Daddy had never noticed them before. The scars are probably the result of digging to lay pipes, with asphalt filling. They are up to ten yards long and about eight inches wide. This width, eight inches, is perfect for Dylan's scooter wheels. His scooter is the engine, and a parent's bike or pram acts as the carriage. There are only rails and no ties on these tracks, Dylan observes. Every twenty yards or so, the scars intersect large rectangles. Dylan calls these rectangles 'level crossings'. He talks about level crossings several times each day. Daddy is not even quite sure what a level crossing is.

After some thought, we explained to Dylan that he cannot have a new swim suit until he outgrows his present one. At such time, we explained, he can be given a suit 'appropriate for girls' (i.e., a purple and green unisex wet-suit).

Today we bought girl's clothes for Dylan, as promised. He wore his girl's clothes while shopping for Wellington boots. All afternoon Dylan passed for a girl. Quite naturally the shop assistant fetched girl's Wellies for him. Even though Mummy explained that we wanted boy's shoes, the assistant continued to refer to Dylan as a 'she'. The assistant assumed that Dylan was a girl wearing boy's shoes that were intended to become hand-me-downs for Isaac, who was of course wearing his boy's clothes as usual.

Later Dylan asked to wear his girl's clothes to Clown Town, where older children often play, but we persuaded him to wear his Spiderman outfit instead. At Clown Town we met Damien.

Dylan rode his balance bike down Hutton Grove.

Dylan's recent comment requires translation into American English in order to have its full impact in that language:

DADDY: Maybe this weekend we can buy a dress for you. Remember yesterday you said you wanted some girl's clothes?

DYLAN: I want a girl's swim suit.

(Dylan actually said, 'I want a girl's swimming costume', which means the same thing.)

So the stakes have risen.

DYLAN: I wish I were a girl.

DADDY: You can become a girl when you're 18.

DYLAN: I want to become a girl right now.

DADDY: We could buy some girl's clothes for you, like a dress. Would that be OK?

DYLAN: Yes.

Yesterday Isaac rolled from his back to his front. We didn't see him do it and he hasn't done it since but we left him on his back and found him on his front. Isaac now moves around his cot by shunting himself backwards on his back.

Nearly three weeks later, Dylan is still calling us 'Mummy-penguin' etc. He has tried changing us into 'Ducks' ('Mummy-duck' etc.), but he keeps forgetting and accidentally calls us 'Penguins' again. Three weeks is a long time for Dylan to stick to something like this.

DADDY: Are you my little sweetie boy?
DYLAN: No. I'm Mummy's.

MUMMY: Do you know how old I am?
DYLAN: How old are you?
MUMMY: 31.
DYLAN: Oh. I thought you were 58.

Daddy hung upside down on the climbing frame and said, 'Not bad for an old man'. Dylan thought for a few seconds and added, 'Not bad for a new man, either'.

Isaac is growing up too fast. We can't stop him.

For the past several days, Dylan has been calling us 'Mummy-penguin', 'Daddy-penguin', and 'Isaac-penguin', and he insists that we call him 'Dylan-penguin'.

Isaac is 5 months old

Isaac was 5 months old on Tuesday. He now weighs 15lb and is still on the 25th percentile line.

On Tuesday Isaac had his third set of injections which were for diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, polio, haemophilus influenzae b, meningococcal C and pneumococcal! He was very brave and quickly recovered from the trauma of the three injections.

Isaac started on solid foods on Tuesday. Since then he has eaten baby rice, porridge, carrot and banana.

Making cookies






Smiley Isaac

Dylan sleeping

Isaac is continuing his Wednesday afternoon swim lessons with Daddy in Enfield.

Dylan saw Damein's family car and commented that it has no top, like Papa's car. He wants to purchase his own convertible, using money from his Postman Pat bank. He wants the kind with back seats.

Dylan reported a dream recently. He and Daddy were on swings with a Mummy rabbit and a Baby rabbit. There was also a Daddy rabbit, made of plasticine, who sat on a bench and read his newspaper.

Daddy, Dylan, and Isaac went to get keys copied. The staff member wore safety goggles. On the way out of the shop, Dylan turned to the man and said, 'I like your glasses'.

MUMMY: One day Isaac will move out of Mummy and Daddy's bedroom and sleep in his own room.

DYLAN (looking very sad): I thought Isaac was going to sleep with me in my bed.

Isaac has chickenpox.