There’s been so much going on of late that I haven’t written about the stories that made me laugh or feel utterly besotted …
Here’s one from our visit a month or so back to Ireland.
She has boy cousins, lots of them, and now she’s big enough to play with them she often announces she wants to be one of them, “Hopey not big girl, Hopey big boy”… and more recently “Hopey big boy called Ishka”, nope no idea where that came from but she’s said it on more than one occasion. When she’s being a “big boy called Ishka”, she marches round standing tall with her hands in her pockets and then suddenly shouts, runs and sticks her tongue out … reflecting I guess the boy behavior she’s observed (fairly accurately it has to be said!!).
So, we’d come back from a wet walk, we were in Ireland, so there was a strong chance it would be a soggy stroll. We came into the house and she galloped off to find her cousins, they were all lolling around on cushions playing with their Wii game or a DS or something that I have absolutely no understanding of. Hope was transfixed, she stood in the middle of the room, hands on hips and watched. The game ended and they all reached for their cups of squash, juice or whatever. Hope realised she didn’t have a drink, “Hopey thirsty”, she announced to the disinterested boys, and then again a little louder.
“What do you want to drink Hope?”, one of they eventually asked.
At this point I should say that I was sitting with my mother in the dining room, she was painting and looking out watching the rain, I was eavesdropping and half peering around the sitting room door.
“What’s your favorite drink Hope?”
“Mmmmmm Hopey like mulk. Hopey want milky”.
The boys all looked at each other confused, “what? juice Hope?”
“No Hopey want mulk from my Mummy”.
The boys were still bemused … Hope explained very patiently and lifted up her t shirt to make the point.
“Milky”, she said, “milky from nipple”, prodding her chest.
Lightbulb moment for one of the boys, “Ohh she wants some of her mother’s milk”, general slightly perplexed murmuring.
“Hope want milky from my Mummy’s nipple right now”.
Boys started to blush …
“Hopey like Mummy’s nipple, like my milky, Mummy has big milkys, lots of mulk for Hope … you want some too?”
Boys horrified, a collective, “NO”.
“OK, bye”, said Hope decisively as she marched out of the room and over to me to demand her milky fix … the boys followed a little sheepishly and watched, “see”, said one of them, “I told you was milk from her Mum she wanted”.
Hope stopped mid slurp, looked and made a loud sucky noise, she beamed, “want some? Milky my fav’rit”, the boys fled!
