Sushi mat

I've mentioned the sushi mat before. Ages ago, Nina noticed that there's a fence that looks like it, on the way to one of our local pubs (the jumping pub; don't worry, it's the toddler, not the pub, that does the actual jumping). It's funny because when we walk there with people she points it out. And it really does look like an enormous sushi mat.

Anyway, Nina's started telling little stories, often somewhat incoherently, to anyone but us (and, to be perfectly honest, often to us too). These tend to be sequences of things we did or things that happened, occasionally out of order. One was about a birthday party we went to: 

"I did a big fast slide, went up steps, then on a slide, then crash in a balls, then on a slide, then slide CLOSED, then outside, then shoes off then play SAND play playground OUTSIDE, saw horsies ... " and so on. Or "Went to beach, then picnic, then bouncy castle, then choo choo train, then slide, then ... then ... went home OUR house" (Yes. It was a perfect, perfect toddler day, every stage a new toddler delight). Anyway some of the slides at "soft play" places have mats. You go up, then they give you a mat to slide down on; it's faster, I guess. So today's story was 

"Went uppa slide, up steps, then sushi mat, then slide down fast, then say: WHEEEEEE!". 

Really, darling? A SUSHI mat? 

Nina told her first joke today. An old friend sent us books for her, and one is a beautiful rhyming book (Bear Snores On) about a bear, sleeping, while other little animals come in to his den from the cold and warm up, have themselves a little party. The pictures are lovely, and (unlike, for example, The Little Engine that Could, which I remember fondly from my own childhood but ... is SOOOOO repetitive) it's pleasant to read, to look at the pictures. Anyway, she's got it almost memorised; it even looks like she's reading, which she's not. So we were flipping through it, and she got to a page that reads:

"In a cave in the woods a slumbering bear sleeps through the party in his very own lair" 

except she said:

"In a cave in the woods a slumbering bear sleep a party in a very own ... bouncy castle!"

She looked me right in the eye, testing, eyes glinting. I laughed out loud, surprised, and she then she laughed too, chuckling away, delighted with herself, and I said "did you make a joke?" and she said "Mummy I did a JOKE, I did a JOKE!". She tried the same joke with a few more happy toddler items, like "... in a very own ... treat!".  

It's amazing how early these things happen - humour! The concept of a joke, of saying something that's clearly not right, for the sake of a laugh!  When my parents were here she was teasing my Mum, calling her "grandpa", with a little glint in her eyes. She calls me "mum-bi-dy" which prompted me to call her "Nin-bi-da", which she thought was really funny. But she didn't want A. calling her Nin-bi-da yesterday. And now the bouncy castle joke. What's next?

And one other achievement: I wrote weeks ago, for the zillionth time (or it would have been if I'd been blogging all along here) about bedtime. We have now reached a truly glorious stage of two stories, climb in "self", then a song, then night night. It takes about 15 minutes start to finish, if that, after the teeth get brushed. It's awesome. I love it. Sometimes I have to make my excuses for leaving, explaining that eventually I have to lie down in my own bed and can't stand there singing Coulter's Candy ALL NIGHT, but even then, she accepts it! And goes to sleep! Now all we need is for the teenaged babysitters to come back from holiday. And for writing this proud little summary not to jinx the entire thing, of course; fortunately I don't believe in that sort of thing...