Wednesday 30 October 2013

Mummy v Iggle Piggle









        V









I fear that Iggle Piggle may be my toddler's new hero.
Long before we had the pleasure of a daily dose of In the Night Garden, Iggle Piggle had already made an impact on my youngest son. A friend had given him an Iggle Piggle figure that she always kept in her handbag in case we should need to distract my son long enough to finish our coffee, cake and chat, it was just the right size for his little hand and when we made the big move a couple of months  ago she gave him the figure as a parting gift lest I should ever forget our coffee and cake mornings.
Iggle Piggle then took residence in my handbag, at first coming out to play only when required; when we were stuck in traffic, in the supermarket etc but gradually he made it out of my handbag permanently and has unrivaled top toy status.
All of this is really not such a big deal, we all sit together and watch an episode of the slightly irritating but oddly hypnotic 'In the Night Garden' before our toddler goes to bed and we know almost all the names of the characters and it is actually the calmest time in the house, the only time that our a whirling dervish sits down for any length of time.
So what's the problem?
Our lovely little boy has lot of words, like most children his age he can say ; 'dog', 'duck', 'dadda', 'car', -perhaps quite unusually 'yellow car' (this doesn't actually mean 'yellow car' just means we're in the car and he's seen a car, copying a car game the others play) and 'all gone',  he can say, 'moo',' roar', 'ruff ruff' and a whole host of other animal and vehical noises and 'Iggle Piggle' but not mummy. or mama or mum (unless he's really crying and everything sounds like 'maaaamaaamaaaa'). If we point at a picture of me he says... nothing.... sometimes dada...but generally nothing. I don't have any great concerns about his language development but I would really like to hear him call me by name ! I've heard that toddlers don't know that we are entirely separate entities, which makes sense as we've only had one full day apart since he's been born, perhaps it's because I'm the one who's mostly with him so it's me doing the naming, though I do tend to refer to myself in the third person (obviously not in general, just in my toddler's company !!) and others have said that the /m/ sound can be a tricky to acquire. It will come I'm sure...I'm very impatient that's all and if I'm honest just a bit jealous of Iggle Piggle. What's he got that I haven't?
The fact is that I should be grateful to Iggle Piggle, My youngest is better known as The Little Sleep Thief, but last night he slept (almost) through the night, which is AMAZING. On Sunday we purchased a glow in the dark bedtime Iggle Piggle, who wears pyjamas and plays tunes and has yet to be thrown out of the cot (unlike EVERY other soft toy and comforter we've tried). We bought him in the desperate hope that with the company of Iggle Piggle through night, he might not need my company so much.  I can't be sure he's the reason for last night's sleep improvement but I won't be confiscating Iggle Piggle any time soon. I'll put my issues with the peculiar big blue teddy aside and I'll take a solid 8 hours sleep with gratitude and say a begrudging 'Thank you' Iggle Piggle.

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