Miles!

Miles has just spent a couple of days staying at Lord Raglan's house in Wales. He listened to "miu-miu" (music) played by his grandfather and other musicians, was fascinated by the wood fire in the hearth, looked at sheep outside, spotted horses in paintings all around the house, and sat in a 1930s Bugatti -- or "car", as Miles called it.

New words include "Beh" (Ben), Anna, cuddle, cow, "bar" (bath), "lah-low" (yellow), "Ok-kah" (Oscar the cat), "La-la" (Lola), "Tiddly" (tickling, and Tiffany), "bih-boo" (brioche) and "duh" (duck). It took us a while to figure out why "duggle" means "cello" -- Miles is trying to say "double bass", since Charlie plays the double bass in one of the Maisy books. Another Maisy-related word is "Eddie", the name of her elephant friend, which now means all elephants -- and is much easier to say than "elephant".

Also this week Miles has been riding his new fold-up scooter, drawing on the easel, and eating biscuits in stereo. Biscuits must always be eaten in stereo, according to Miles. Instead of just asking for "bih-bih" he now asks for "bih-bih, wah, two?" which means "one, two" biscuits -- one for each hand. He then walks around with his two biscuits, and once he's eaten one, he is reluctant to eat the other until he has replaced the first biscuit.