My little art critic

I'm working on a lovely picture book for a US publisher at the moment - this will be my last illustration project for a few years. 

When my little boy comes home from nursery I like to show him what I've been doing during the day. When I showed him this spread, he looked, thought for a bit then said:

"You need to make the eyes bigger so I can see them on the grey bit like the pig and the fox", referring to the hippo. Not bad for a 3 year old! Comments noted and changes will be made little one!

Early words

Here's a selection of my boy's early words. 

I'm not sure what his first word was. I remember him saying "happa" (leaf) at his first birthday party, but he'd been mimicking quite a few words by then. One of his favourite words was "wheel" which he'd say repeatedly with a massive smile on his face. And then there were words that he couldn't quite get right, like:

Capupum = Caterpiller

Kwaawaa = Cucumber 

Kumuya = Kuruma (car)

Kee = Cheese

I wanted to make a record of these to make sure I don't forget. You think you'd remember everything but brain has other ideas after being sleep deprived for over 3 years...

What I do remember is my fascination and amazement at how a very young mind starts to get to grips with communication and language. It still amazes me today as my boy becomes more articulate, picking up all kinds of expressions and making connections between 2 languages, mixing it all up and creating his own.

pose and command

I left the room for a few seconds and came back to a little boy telling me:

「ママのいない間におならしちゃった。」(I did a fart while mummy was out of the room), promptly followed by this pose and command :D

I don't know where he's picking up these phrases...

Lucky cat

He's usually quite good at mimicking and learning new words but he mispronounced this word which made me smile! It's one of those cats you often see in oriental shops and restaurants, which is supposed to welcome good fortune. I prefer his pronunciation :)

A night out

Thought I'd do one of these (What I wore today) to mark our first night out together in over 3 years!! The occasion was our friends' wedding party so we got to dress up a little - something we're not used to at all, as we shuffled awkwardly to the venue in alien shoes and outfits. 

Big thanks to the newly weds Tristan and Claire for a great party, and also to Rosie who gave us our night out xxx