Guinea Pigs! (by sarah)

Yes I'm still going on about our visit to Yorkshire!

Ulrike has four guinea pigs and they are so cute - they make little fepping noises that sound like an underwater bubble 🙂

Jean loves them as at her pre-school they have guinea pigs and rabbits!

I took and had taken lots of pics of the piggies! But somehow only managed to capture two of them! They have a fantastic cage set-up too that I ment to photo but somehow didn't :/

This one I rotated the wronge way!

I can only remember two of their names - Trillion and Milka! Ulrike did tell us lots of things about them such as they have bauld spots behind their ears and naming of types due to colouration but I unfortunatly can't remeber much of it.

When energy levels are better and we have the ducks - I think we might get some guinea pigs but not right now - I have enough trouble remembering to feed the puss-mogs!

Alaric got a bit annoyed at how long we took to leave becuase of the guinea pigs - I didn't know weather to be sympathetic or laugh when he got narky about it :/

And Dead People! (by sarah)

A conversation we had with Jean concerning eating meat:

Jean "look cows daddy - I like cows!'

Alaric "I like cows too Jean, but you like them in a slightly different way to me."

Jean enquiring look

Alaric "You eat them as well"

Jean "No I don't"

Alaric "Yes you do Jean"

Jean "I don't! Do I mummy?"

Sarah "Yes you do Jeany, thats what burgers are - remember its like the cats? When those cows die they are made into burgers"

Jean "No their not silly mummy!"

Alaric "Yes they are"

Sarah "Its like the vegitables in the garden Jean - we water and feed them and then when they are big enough we dig them up and chop them into cassaroles and stuff. Well thats what happens with the animals and thats what burgers and suasages are."

Jean "I eat cows!"

Us "Yes Jean"

Jean "And Piggies?!"

US "Yes Jean"

Jean "And sheeps?!"

Us "Yes Jean"

Jean "And chick chicks?!"

Us "Yes Jean"

Jean "And dead people?!"

Us "No Jean!" LAUGHTER

Sarah "Not in our society anyway"

Jean "Why?"

Alaric "Well for several reasons - firstly there is disease - what ever the person dies of might be passed onto you if you eat them, secondly all the freinds and relatives of the person might get a bit upset as they wouldn't like the idea of their friend being eaten."

Sarah "Thirdly it would be against some peoples beliefs"

Jean "Oh ok"

Alaric "Well thats the sort of comment they are bound to come out with whilst talking to a teatcher or social working and perants go - argggKKK!"

All I can say is Soylent Green anybody?

Jean’s New Bed (by sarah)

Jean's new bed a.k.a. my cousins old bed arrived - Al bought it back from London with him in the van and then we had to face the task of getting it into the little box room. It was decided that the only way was through the window - so Dad and Al with Jean supervising proceeded to be the 'chuckle brothers' and managed to get the bed in!

Here is my bed protector and my sole contribution to this whole thing! Yes I know its a piece of card board but it was needed to stop the bed being wripped apart by the catch on the window.

Of course this ment a slight rearrange of Jean's room including the toy chest being moved - I really should finish painting it - it was one of my nan's old ottamen.

Jean and Daddy then put the winni the pooh bed spread onto Jean's very own Dovet which was entertaining to watch!

Jean then just had to try her bed out - she's decided its a princess bed as it has a pink plush headboard!

Sunday night was her first night and there were not the pitta patta of feet that we were expecting but instead there was a flomp sound - Jean had fallen out of bed but was still a sleep and only woke when I put her back in the bed. Later on there was an even softer flomp (mainly as I'd put the arm chairs cuosins beside the bed) - this time there was a little cone of dovet with a wide eyed Jean head sticking out the top looking around solomy in the dark. I tucked her in over by the wall - she didn't fall out any more - nor in the subsequent nights which is good - but feeling a bit stupid that I hadn't realised she would fall out :/

Babble (by sarah)

Jean has been doing something interesting with language - she is pretty good at talking and is often mistaken for being older than she is but she sometimes gets the word sounds back to front or just uses the wronge word full stop.

But the really interesting thing is that she will purposly babble at you - just a stream of noises whilst grinning - she knows they make no scense but tries out different combinations and watches the adults to see if they react to any of the sound combos - she knows there are lots of words she deosn't know and is looking for new ones.

However she is also a bit naughty in that she has cottoned onto the fact that there are words that alot of adults react very strongly to certain word sounds! And sometimes - esprcially when Barbaras around I think that they are the ones she is actually looking for :/

No Mummy they are my Best Friends! (by sarah)

Jean gets upset if I tell the cats off for things like raking the seat - she does this by crying, 'No Mummy they are my Best Friends!' or Hydrogen is her best friend or mini or Helium depending on who is in trouble.

Even when Mini has upset her she defends her, this is interesting as it she has definatly developed a scense of us and them but this isn't a clear cut relationship.

She will defend me and daddy from Nanny and Ferfer and Barbara but she defend them against people in the 'outside' world. She has also started to say names from pre-school as her best/specific friends and there is definatly a social dynamic forming there.

She also pretends to be a baby or a mummy and takes car of random things like she'll tuck a shoe in for the night and sing it a lullabye. She is always tucking Mini up for the night to which our grumpyest cat responds by purring. Jean also cuddles the cats which they just put up with though if others do it they mew pathetically - there is definatly a two way relationship there.