Soaking rain all day long so we spent most of the day keeping ourselves entertained inside the house. We built some fantastic buildings for Rowan's cars. We played with his trains. We did some gymnastics in the living room and in the train room. We played hide and seek. We chased the cat. I chased Rowan and at some stage the cat must have chased me. We went up and down the staircase and in and out of all the bedrooms. Rowan put some puzzles together and stacked some tins from the pantry on his truck and scooted it across the floor as fast as he could. Every now and again Rowan sat down to watch some television.

One of his favourite shows is "Finding Nemo" and when he wants to watch it he says: "Fishies." So we watched about five minutes of it when I realised that I could just take him to the pet store to go see some real fish. So off we went.

The pet store happens to be right next to another store that I needed to go to so after Rowan said goodbye to all the fish, dogs, cats, birds, snakes and mice we went shopping. Rowan likes to browse up and down the toy aisles. I don't mind at this stage because for now he is quite content to just look at a toy for a few seconds and then put it back on the shelf. Perfect.

On our way out I was surprised to find Rowan pointing at Starbucks saying "Juice. Juice." Then I remembered Richard telling me about the time they went to get some drinks after their shopping experience. The amazing thing however is that this was at a completely different location with a completely different layout, yet he knew. It just goes to show, perhaps, how effective branding really is. Anyway, how could I refuse an invitation from my son to join him for some juice? So we walked over to the counter and while I was still deciding what to get, Rowan grabbed an organic vanilla milkshake and handed it to me. After we payed he casually walked over to the tables, pulled out a chair and sat there calmly waiting for an astonished mother to join him.

Later this afternoon, I tried to get Rowan to respond to the question: "How old are you?" and I am pleased to say that after a little coaxing and practice he got it right: "Tsoo!"

Rain and all we had a really great day together.

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