The One with the Nanu's!

The boy has become obsessed with fire engines!


He obviously can't say fire engine yet so to exclaim his pleasure at seeing one, or anything that remotely resembles one, he makes the noise of a fire engine, "Nanu, Nanu, Nanu".


This he does over and over and over again!


So obsessed is he by them that he now thinks all trucks, lorries, big vans, dustcarts and diggers are in-fact "Nanu's". They don't even need to be red! 


Monday is bin day and I have never seen anyone as distraught as the boy today calling "Nanu, Nanu", like something out of "Mork and Mindy", after the dustmen and their lorry as they drove down the road after collecting our rubbish. I tried to explain that short of smothering a blaze in old yogurt pots and baked bean cans they would struggle to put out many fires.


The boy took no notice. Mainly for two reasons. 1, he's 16 months old and hadn't got a clue what I was on about and 2, I'm not red with a blue flashing light on my head and I don't go "Nanu, Nanu" and frankly until I do I might as well not exist at the moment.


To try and pacify his disappointment that the dustmen didn't come with hose and helmet (and lets face it we're all disappointed at that) and to channel this new craze I took the boy to Mothercare to buy a big red fire engine to play with.


When we arrived I got distracted by Clark's sale and ended up getting him two pairs of shoes in the sale, but after this minor diversion he spotted it.


Bright and shiny and red, with an extendable ladder, flashing lights, two little fire fighters and best of all a "Nanu, Nanu" sound to press over and over and over again.


He had to hold it in the car on the way home and even though we only live no more than ten minutes away he was mightily frustrated that he couldn't get it out of the box.


Toys are so bound up with wires and bits of plastic and cardboard now you need a degree in engineering just to get the box open but as soon as we got indoors I had to try and rip apart the packaging, which isn't easy to do with an over excited toddler standing over you shouting "Nanu, Nanu, Nanu" in your ear.


Eventually we freed the "Nanu" from it's cardboard prison ready to fight fires, knock down piles of bricks and rescue a sleepy and reluctant Oscar from the armchair.


We spent the rest of the morning happily playing and after lunch the boy went for a nap. After an hour and half I thought he'd woken up. It's not unlike him, an hour and half is a good nap for the boy, but all I heard over the monitor was;


"Nanu!"


Just once, perfectly clearly, as if he were wide awake. Then silence. I went in to check on him, he'd turned over and gone back to sleep with a dreamy smile on his face.


I now believe the boy is dreaming of fire engines too.


And why not? After all it runs in the family. 


I've been dreaming about firemen for years.....