Bean and I have started working part-time. This means that for the first time, pretty much, we’re spending whole days on our own with both kids. Today, while Huey had one of his rare long daytime sleeps (nearly three hours rather than the usual one and a half), Arlo and I hung out for a bit. I stapled some paper together to make a little book, and he spent a happy half hour putting stickers in it (and on his hand, his clothes, the floor, and me). After a little while he looked up at me and said ’sticker book for bean’. ‘Are you making this book for bean?’ I asked. ‘Yah’.
When bean came home I was in the bedroom with Huey, and I felt bad because I wasn’t there to remind him to give her the book. But when she opened the door he was standing there with his little sticker book in hand. He remembered all by himself.
Later, at dinner, he was playing with our names as he often does. ‘Mummy-baba. Bean-mum.’ Then he looked thoughtful, and said ‘Ayo yuv baba-mum. Ayo yuv bean-mum. Ayo yuv Huey.’ And we love you too, Arlo, oh yes we do.
