u/Otherwise_Window

• Bye bye!

• Ricky is going to the school sandpit.

• Ricky is home!

• Ricky tipped some sand.

• Ricky didn't bring a book.

• Ricky will have Squirtle when Ricky goes to work.

• Mummy! Do you know what Squirtle likes to eat?

• When Ricky said 'May I' Ricky did have a grape. When Ricky didn't say 'May I', Daddy had a grape.

I absolutely did not. But I didn't give them to him unless he asked politely.

• Ricky wanting to write the word tractor, hexcavator, dump truck on Daddy's screen!

• Ricky worked upstairs.

• Ricky didn't touch things.

• May I type words on Daddy's screen please!

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm,,,,mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

• M. A lot of M. Wanting to type N. En double yooo.

• Ricky's wanting to type words!

n n nnnnnnnnnn n nn n n n nnnnnwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwv wvcwce;

• Ricky wanting to type more words!

ppppppppppppp ppppppppppppppppppppp

• A lot of P!

hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

• A lot of aitches!

hm,hhhhhhhhhhhhmmhmhmhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyj n c xzscddddcccd bbd

You will probably be able to tell which parts Ricky typed. Some of the quoted comments he made were said during the bit he typed and then I added them.

pdpqttyhggggggggggggt ttttt

• Ricky got a lot of Ts!

• Ricky got only one T!

• Some more Ts!

• Ricky type one more letter.

jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj,j,jjjj,,jj,jjjj,,,,j,jjjjjjjjjj...jj.j.-0poo7543*

• Ricky wanting a lot of Js.

• Ricky type Js this time!

j,nnnv bcvczcadcwqedcfcfqfc2efw1qw`weP

ünnblujukkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkku......................................u.........u,u,uuu,uuuu

• That's many Ks!

• Yoooooooooooo. Ooooooooo.

• Ricky wanting to spell Mummy!

m mummy

• Spell Ricky!

ry

riiiiiiiiiiiiiii

rickyyyyy

• Ricky wanting to make a lawnmower. A lawnmower makes lawns. It cut the grass.

• A little one and a big one.

• Now it a little hexcavator.

No art today. During all of the time we might have done art he was sweeping. Today we unpacked a little broom and dustpan we got for him that's small enough for him to use. He declared: "Ricky is going to do some cleaning."

And then everything was getting swept.

I should note I have no idea how he got the umlaut. There is apparently a way to get an umlauted U in Windows that I don't know.

• Ricky want some more noodles for Mummy!

• More and more and more noodles!

"If we put in more noodles it might be overflowing."

• singing Ooooverfloooowing...

• pointing Do you know what this word is?

• The Huckle Cat Book went bump and bumped at the pram and doonk at Ricky's face! It went boomp pram! Ricky was holding it.

• A blumboomba and a goonkboonka.

• Do you know what this one is?

• Ricky hold Mummy's steering wheel in Mummy's car!

• Do you know what this is called?

• See the corner goes around the edge of the cards and this goes in and you can put the lid on.

• Do you know what this is called?

So we have these phonics flash cards. He's a little young for them, in theory, but he saw them and loves them. He likes pointing out what the letter and picture on the front is, and then having all the example words read to him. Then he points at individual words and asks if I know what they say.

• We just needing a T! We got a G.

• I not tired!

• Play with the sand!

• Like this we go on Mummy's socks!

• In Daddy's bedroom there's some carpet and Ricky get to roll the balls along the carpet. Ricky play like this, we roll them. Aiming. Roll the ball along the carpet. Ricky rolling towards Daddy and then vrooming them back and then do it again. Vroom! And vrooming them again!

In other things he's too young for but very enthusiastic about: a set of carpet bowls (like lawn bowls, but for carpet) that belonged to my father and now belong to us. I remember playing with them when I was probably no more than four or five, so it's kind of amazing now playing with them with my son.

But, notably, his most successful shot was when he got distracted and slapped one backwards to get it out of his way without even looking.

Whether it's Daddy's bedroom or Mummy's bedroom depends on who was with him when he entered, even if all three of us are playing together. (He loves clambering over pillows and blankets, but he's still young enough that he doesn't get a pillow and sleeps in a sack with no loose covers at all, so he often really likes getting to play on our bed.) It's also the only room in the house with carpet.

• Ricky saw the hexcavators! One, two, three, four, five!

• Picked Lamb and Dog up! And Squirtle!

• They were playing tennis!

• Some balls!

• Ricky did some weightlifting! Put weights away. Green, blue. Green and blue.

This was his idea. He did curls. (Two-handed.) The blue weights were 1kg, the green weights were 2kg.

• Went to Grandma's house. Eat some food!

• Saw Grandmother. Played with blocks. Blocks and trucks and another truck and there was a helmet. Mummy couldn't fit the helmet.

• Ricky ate a cupcake. There was sugar on it.

• Ricky reading a book.

• At Grandmother's house sing this is the way the lady rides!

• Played with some toys as well! Grandmother's toys! Ricky played with them. Ricky was trying to build a truck.

• Played with cards! Went dropsy-daisy.

It was a very big day. Since it was Mother's Day there were trips to visit his grandmothers, plus it was apparently arm day, so he was exhausted.

Today's art was a drawing for one of his grandmothers.

I think he hit his limit on the arbitrary nonsense we keep throwing at him (by which I mean irregular verbs). He got another gentle correction this morning and since then it's been so many nonsense words. I have a suspicion he thinks that we must be making it up as we go along so why shouldn't he?

Today's art is on my profile. (One of today's arts, but the other is rather more personal; he and I made a Mother's Day card for Mummy together.)

It's a beach scene. He started with the blue, and then picked up the black crayon and said he was adding a black beach. The long black lines are the black beach, the shorter black squiggles are people.

His mother, grandmother and uncle all asked, so: every line was him.

• a bingkonga and a zingnanna.

• A tear is a drop of water from your eye.

• Tingy-goff.

"Is that supposed to be a real word?"

• No.

"So what meaning are we going to make up for that?"

• A emm.

• It has a P in it.

"Where is the P?"

• At the end.

"Is it a tingy-gop?"

• No! It's pingy-got!

• Like tea!

• Tingy-goh. Tingy-goh. How to spell the word tingy-goh?

"Tingy-goh?"

• NO! Ricky doesn't want Daddy to say that word!

• Tingy-goh. Tingy-goh.

• Daddy do you know what suna-suva means?

"Is that another made-up word?"

• Yes.

"Then no, I don't know what it means."

• It means ginga-zuzz!

"Is that a made-up word too?"

• Yes!

• It start with T. Sunanna start with T.

• I found the H!

This morning we played a game where we looked for a stuffed toy "hiding" under the covers on our bed. It involved a lot of looking, because Ricky was appalled if we actually lifted up the sheet that was covering the toy. The game was to keep coming up with new places to look.

• Tooma snoona.

• SPIDER! ARE YOU BIG? SPIDER! Are you BIG?

He was thinking about spiders today. There was one in the house.

• Ricky cut the paper!

• Ricky's wanting the scissors.

• This blue bit is for cutting but it doesn't work.

He has his first pair of safety scissors now. He's still getting the hang of them.

• If Ricky do like this Ricky can push down and have one scissor and two scissors. Because this is attached. Ricky can't tear it apart.

• Play with crayons.

For those of you who might still be concerned about his insufficiently light green, he now has the box of 64 Crayolas. He has a much better range of green.

• Is it didinga? No!

• Z for Mummy! Y for Mummy! [entire alphabet roughly in reverse] for Mummy!

Letter cards.

• L is not in spaghetti.

• It does have a Q in it!

We disputed this, and:

• NOOOOOOOOOOOO! It does have a Q in it!

"Where does the Q go?"

• In the middle!

"Is it spaquetti?"

• NO!

• B is for BASKETBALL.

Some of today's art is on my profile. We were drawing shapes and he was naming and counting the shapes then colouring them in. At this time he can confidently and accurately count to six, then he might double-count or just keep going with the numbers.

For some reason at the moment he usually skips 16.

• Played cars!

• Ricky vroomed them along the track!

• This bin truck doesn't have a bin that tips!

• Played with the balls on the trampoline!

• This is the U bin and the 2 bin and this is the zero bin.

• This is not a bin. We can fix it. It's probably a U bin or a 2 bin or a zero bin. It's probably everything. There's a lid and there's a two.

• I must sing the rubbish song. The rubbish song! Tip tip the rubbish. Tip the rubbish! The rubbish truck must be on the mat!

• A dinginga and a dimbimdah!

• Played with the drums! Do a dib dib dib!

• Ricky tapped the drums! Tapped the buckets!

• Ricky bounced the balls along! On the trampoline!

• And go tiiiiiip!

• A dingbamba!

• Played with the balls! Juggled them along!

He saw a juggler. He now wants to juggle. Since he hasn't learned to catch yet this is probably going to be challenging for him.

• Do you know where the hexcavator is?

Today's art was a very colourful work that, we are assured, depicts a star. Clearly he's rendering it as perceived via spectrometry.

• HELLO BROWN DOG! The white dog is preparing some FOOD!

(This is shouted into his Duplo bin truck. Because, at the moment, bin trucks have dogs in them. The dogs are driving them.)

• The brown dog can help!

• mrrrrrrr mrrrrrrr mrrrrrrrr

(these are crane noises)

• There's cement EVERYWHERE!

• mrrrrr mrrrrrrr mrrrrrrrr

• More cement!

• Ricky's feet are still clean!

• mrrrr mrrr mrrrrrrr

• Play with cement! Tip tip tip!

• Leave the cement on there!

• Wait! No! Brush it off! Brush it off! Brush it off! Now Mummy can play!

• Where did the duck go? WHERE did the DUCK go?

• Na. Na. Na. Nananananana. Na. Naaaaa. Write that!

• This S doesn't have a flap on it.

• This T doesn't have a flap on it.

• The E is not in the right place! I'm getting all the letters off and putting them on the mat and Mummy can spell with them.

• shakes bucket Where did the handle go?

• singing Na na ding dang na ma nah.

• A ginga and a dinbahdan! Upside-down!

• Threw the tennis ball!

• It wasn't a tennis ball. It was a football.

• Kicked the football!

• Want to throw the tennis ball.

• Rode the velocipede!

• Cricket books! Ricky wanting to read them!

• Daddy pushed Ricky! On the tennis courts! Ricky on the velocipede.

• Hello little upside-down mouse!

• Numma numma numma na gah ping bang dong and Bingo was his name.

• Ricky put the letters down upside-down.

• We got upside. We just need... down!

• There's NO poo!

This is a thing he says. It means one of two things: there's no poo, he just passed gas, and he doesn't want us to interrupt his play to check his nappy.

That, or: he absolutely just did a poo but he still doesn't want us to interrupt his play to check and change his nappy.

• Walk with foot in a bucket! I vroom it!

• It's a bit tricky.

• singing to the tune of Rainbow Connection There's a hexcavator! There's a hexcavator! Tipping some rubble into the dump truck! There's a heckavator, there's a heckavator, there's a heckavator! Tiiiiipping! There's a dump truck! There's a dump truck! There's a dump truck!

• Ricky want more noodles!

"That wasn't very polite."

• Please may I have some more noodles pleeeaaase?

• Where did the rice cake go?

(Answer: in his tummy.)

• BEE. WHY. EM DEE OH. Bung ging DAH DAH WHOA.

• Make it bigger bigger! Ricky can handle it bigger!

(He is trying thicker apple slices.)

• Ricky is going to work.

"Where are you going to work?"

• Hmmmm. Hmmmmmmmmmmm. Hmmm. Um. Ricky's going to go to work in cars.

"Are you trying to say you're going to work in A car?"

• Yes.

"So where are you going to work?"

• Ricky's going to get some letters.

• Daddy's going to work with Ricky.

hands Daddy a letter

• Daddy! Ricky wanting to go to work!

"Oh? Where are you going?"

• Um... To work.

"What are you going to do at work?"

• Ricky going to take some letters!

• Daddy's wanting to go to work with the A!

• Ricky keep that I for another Ricky.

• Ricky keep that I for another Ricky as well.

• Ricky keep that S for spaghetti.

• Ricky look in all the letters and see if there's another Y and I think there's not a Y.

• Ginga and a dinga!

"What did you do on your walk today?"

• Dinga and a gumba!

• Go on a bench!

• singing creepily: Watch the spiderweb. Watch the spiderweb. Watch the spiderweb.

• Go to the school. Run around! Carry Daddy!

I have no recollection of this, but I'm hardly going to call him a liar.

• Ricky want to spell xylophone and hammer and rubbish truck and bins.

You have to respect the ambition.

Today's art was attempting to draw letters. I have seen worse fonts, but I wouldn't necessarily recommend this one for ease of use.

• It starts with a O! I mean... it has a O in it!

This is new. And "I mean..." became the phrase of the day.

• Ricky's riding with the G.

• Ricky's from the shops!

• When Ricky gets back from the shops, Ricky will get this black A.

He carefully placed one of his letter tiles in the middle of the floor.

• Mummy! Bye bye! Ricky's off to the school sandpit!

• Ricky's just turned the O around the right way.

• Ricky's also going to take a little letter with Ricky.

• Ricky's got to the school sandpits!

(said from the kitchen)

• Ricky go to sandpit where the sand is. Bye bye!

• Ricky's also going to take a small bin with Ricky.

• A chusa and a danda!

• That's a speaker box! That's a tunnel box!

• Ricky went in the car to find some shelves. Ricky saw a waterfall and some rocks.

• Raaawr tip the bin! Raaaaaaaaaawr.

(these are noises for raising and lowering the bin on his Duplo bin truck, not roars)

• Tip in the bin! Off it goes! mrrrrrrrrr.

(vehicle noises)

• It going to sleep!

"What do the dogs do?"

I was asking what the Duplo dogs that are inside his Duplo bin trucks are doing in the bin truck.

As it turns out:

• Go woof woof woof!

• Ricky's wanting to spell the word rubbish truck out of letters and the word bin out of letters!

• Ricky wanting to spell Ricky!

For anyone who might be invested in the progress of Ricky's spelling: he managed to spell 'dog' today, but it remains to be seen whether that was a bit of a fluke.

Today's art is on my profile. He said it was a love heart.

• Ricky ride on the bulldozer and there is some music playing on the song.

• There is some music! On the radio!

• Ricky's going to ride to trampoline park.

rides into corridor

returns on foot

• Not quite at trampoline park!

"Oh? What happened?"

• Velocipede fell over!

"Did you come off your bike? Are you okay?"

• Yes. It fell over when Ricky stood up.

"It fell over when you got off? You're not hurt?"

• Yes!

• Ricky's tipping a bin into the big rubbish truck.

• Ride to trampoline park.

rides into the laundry door

stares for a moment

reverses carefully

"It's nearly dinner time. Do you think I could have Ricky for dinner?"

• Yes!

"Om nom nom nom nom..."

• Delicious Ricky!

• A gooah and stink!

• A danga og binga!

• Ricky's wanting to write in Diary Book block and jar and lid.

• Ricky's been shaking the jar! Has a block in and a lid on top.

• Ricky's bringing the dump truck with Ricky.

• A dog and a fox and a purple bear and a lamb and a dog.

• Getting a person! Ricky get a box and put the people in it.

• Ricky going to [supermarket].

"What are you getting?"

• Biscuits! Biscuits for Mummy and Daddy and Grandma and Uncle Mike.

pushes his toy shopping trolley around

gets back on bike

• Ricky's going to [different supermarket] now.

• Getting vegetables. And chicken pouch and some biscuits.

• Where did the trousers go?!

No art today. Too much travel.

I had to get a little creative about the Diary Book text entry, because Ricky was very interested in doing it himself. The art is on my profile.

Apparently it's all rain. It did not rain today.

• A little bit of water, little bit of mud. Little bit of water, little bit of mud. Ricky is washing the letters.

He was washing things on his farm playset. He would carefully touch them to the paper pond, and then to the paper field.

• Drops of rain. They are coming on the floor.

• B. I. Bem. Dee. Yo.

To the tune of B.I.N.G.O.

• Ricky washing the vegetables.

• I fall - I fell down.

He corrected himself.

• Have to get some person! Here's some person. Hello, that's not person.

• Ricky was washing all the letters. Ricky's putting them in the pond. Going to WASH. Mud. Put them outside. Go. Water, mud. Water, mud. Water, mud.

• Water, mud. We don't want this one. Water, mud.

• Ricky lifting up the farm and putting the peas under the ground.

• Bee, I, em dee oh. Washing in the mud. No... don't want the colourful letters.

• Fox does start with an F!

• Spell pirrels. Pirrels! Pirrels. Pirrels!

His mother couldn't figure out what he was saying. She asked: "Can you use it in a sentence?"

• Ricky wanting to spell pirrels.

Can't deny that's using it in a sentence.

We're pretty sure pirrels is squirrels but he's currently finding it funny to say it in a silly way. If you ask, "Are you saying pirrels?" this is the funniest joke ever.

• A sunna is a kind of letter. Like a Z and F and a D.

• A munna is like a F and a T and a P.

• Ricky spelled hexcavator.

• Spelt the cricket books!

Literally. Spelt "cricket" and "books".

(This is still a process whereby the parents will go through the word sound by sound and he guesses which letter is needed. And if he guesses wrong we say what that would sound like and he laughs. "Is it crickem?" "No!")

• I crawled in the tunnel.

• Ride on the velocipede! I rode on the velocipede.

• There's a bin sound! Make a clank sound!

• Clank is the past tense. It's an irregular verb.

And here is where our tendency to avoid baby talk and try to explain things to him is about to meet maybe there's a reason people don't do this.

Firstly for the extended discussion trying to explain to him that clank, when used as a verb, is not irregular. He was at least less certain than the time he was firm on the notion that puppies are not baby dogs.

And then...

• Ricky want to spell the word irregular verbs!

• Bus gets some people in it and the bulldozer gets a man in it. It pushes some things around. It pushes some blocks and a flower.

• Got the bulldozer from Daddy! Also a bus!

They're new toys made of cardboard and construction paper.

• Spell irregular verbs! Ricky found the I!

• Ricky is spelling - Ricky is about to spell irregular verbs with two Rs and an I!

• This is a bulldozer! It pushes things!

Today's drawing is very avant-garde. Ricky drew three thirty o'clock.

The old diary book ran out of pages. There is a new diary book. This is the most exciting thing that has happened in weeks.

• Ricky wanting to have the new diary book!

• Biiiiiig diary book!

It's about the same size as the old one. Not sure why it's biiiiiig.

• A sunna and a nunna.

• We saw some BIG cranes! Saw some cranes!

• A blue crane and a cement crane!

• Drawing a fox.

• Foxes do have heads.

• singing Foxes do have heads!

• A sunna and a bin truck.

• Bin truck!

• It tips the bins!

• That's a new diary book.

• Ricky wanting to put numbers on that.

• Bin truck tipping some bins.

• The dentist has got some animals!

• The animals in the pum pum pum.

• Row row your boat gently down a tream! Merry merry Mummy, like but dream!

• Drawing animals!

• Beemy. Boomy. Pim pom ball!

(It's how he currently pronounces ping pong. We're working on it.)

The animals today were drawn in red, blue and brown. It's giving Warhol.

• Ricky's been all day at work. Now he's going to the cement mixer depot.

• This is a bike. It's for riding.

• Rick's ride on the velocipede.

• Bonk!

• A sunna and a munna!

• Giving Fox a hug.

He rode his little toddler velocipede over his toy fox.

• Ricky's putting Fox away because it's not bedtime.

• Ricky's wanting to put Fox where he's lying down. Ricky now has space to ride.

• Cement mixer. Because it's a cement mixer. Tiiiip the cement!

• This harvester needs another counterweight!

A Duplo construction that kept falling over.

He actually has figured out what a counterweight is.

• Ricky's carrying the handle.

• Ricky's wanting to play with the letters.

• Do you know what a K and an R make? They make two ee sounds!

What's fascinating about this is that he was looking at the word "Greek". (On a yoghurt bucket.)

• Ricky ride the velocipede with Ricky's hands!

This is how he describes pushing it around with one hand on the handlebars and one on the seat.

• You forgot to take the work shoes off!

• Ricky go to the playground at the school. Ricky scoop the sand with his hand and tip it!

No art today. Only spelling.

• Ricky's not a guitar, just a little instrument.

• But the dinosaur makes a drum noise. Brum brum brum brum brum brum.

• Ricky's playing some letters.

• Spell dump truck! It starts with D. The D is from Daddy.

Ricky moves aside some cards that have his name written on them.

• Excuse me, Rickys!

• Someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection, the lovers, the Mummys and me...

• Ricky's playing with some things!

• Ricky got a farm!

(I made him a farm playset out of cardboard and construction paper.)

• Do you think I could find a pea?

• There's a pea! I found it!

• Ricky's washing the vegetables in the pond.

• Ricky's washing all the animals in the pond! No frogs. No carrots. No beans. Just animals!

Everything not an animal was getting thrown aside.

• One, two, three peas.

• This is a pond where the animals wash them.

• Waaaagh! Ricky making a mess!

• The bulldozer flattens everything down!

No art today. It was all farm.

Five page can be seen on my profile. The ds and bs are where I drew a circle for him to say which side the vertical line went to make those letters. We also look at a lot of shapes and other letters, and he colours them in.

• The bulldozer got stuck in the drain at Auntie Mary's!

• The ampersand is kind of a letter. It's a and.

• A sunna and a manna!

• A nunna a mundanaboomp.

• Kicked a football! One, two footballs!

• A basketball and a, mm... orange ball.

• Looking at some footballs!

• Ricky climbed up to sit on his own chair!

• There was a football with sevens!

• There was a poo!

This was apparently the most memorable aspect of a visit to his grandparents.

• There's a J and a K and a L! That spells rubbish truck!

• Ricky wants to draw in the sketchbook! Go to five page!

• There's a biiiig triangle! And a square and a circle!

• Can Ricky see the five? Where is it?

• It's under the blue!

• There's another five under that blue!

• Ricky's not wanting the juice. Just water. Not wanting juice, just water.

• Ricky's pointing out the big ones. The big birds are called rabbits.

This was a discussion of a painting on our wall. (The birds are gulls.)

• The people get out of the truck and they fix the fence.

• Not go to trampoline park.

• Some nunna and sunna.

• Some paper.

• A red frog and red frog and some green frogs!

• A W and a U.

• Dabba dee dabba doo.

I'm blue.

• Ricky built a very nice tall duck.

• Ricky wanting to spell things with the black letters, not colourful letters.

• Ricky built a very tall cement mixer by putting blocks on top. It had a block on the top. It tipped the cement and the hose crane go up to the top and it got the cement into the rubbish truck!

• Ricky wants to spell rain barrel.

No art today. Too determined to spell rain barrel.