I'm going to have to Up My Game

At the moment every day consists of numerous sessions of 'playing cars' with Luca. Of course I don't mind participating in this with my son, racing cars up and down ramps and doing big jumps over hills made by scrunching the floor rug up. That's just what this Mamma does in order to spend quality time with her big boy.
It's actually quite enjoyable trying out new car engine sounds with my lips. I've got some really cool sounds happening I might add.

All had been going swimmingly with my role as the Super Cool Mamma Car Racer until Luca says, "Here go Mamma, you have Firebird" and handed me a cool-looking red car with white stripes down the sides.

Well that stopped me in my tracks.

"Ah, what was that you said darling?" I asked, not sure I had heard him correctly.
"You have Firebird" he said again and pointed to the car he had given me.
"Oh..."
Right. If in doubt, ask the father.
"Austin!" I yelled from Luca's bedroom "What's this Luca's saying about a Firebird car, do you know?"
"Yeah it's a Pontiac Firebird" the father replied in a tone of voice that was really saying Everybody knows that Brigitte. Duh!

Hmph.

And so it seems I am going to have to Up My Game.

As luck would have it I randomly discovered that a lot of the names of Luca's millions of cars are written on the underside of them! This has been an invaluable source of information in my study of cars that I am now undertaking, especially when Luca hands me a car and says "What's this one Mamma?"
"Well," I say feeling like the know-it-all-so-onto-it Mamma, "That one's a........(turning car over and squinting eyes to read the rediculously small print...'Made In China'... damn).
"That one's a... (think woman THINK!)...a really fast RED car!"
"Fast red car" his little voice repeats as he locks away this information.
"What's this one Mamma?"
"That one's a.....(nervously turning it over...JACKPOT!)...a Porsche 911".
"Porsche 911" he repeats.
Woah, look out Mamma - you better get yourself a-learnin' your cars and pronto!

When out running with the boys in the buggy, Luca has begun pointing at the symbols on the front or back of every car parked on the side of the road saying "What's that one?"
Now I have to say that I'm not completely naive when it comes to knowing cars and recognising their symbols. The only ones I have had to learn on these outings have been Vauxhall and Peugot. And there's also one which I didn't recognise and for the life of me couldn't find a name written on the vehicles anywhere to work out what make it was. The symbol is shaped like a diamond.

So on our way back home the other day after such an outing we passed our car parked on the side of the road and low and behold there was that diamond symbol on the front of our car!!
Sheesh. How embarrassing. What a muppet I am. Fortunately Luca is still too young to be embarrassed by me!
Ok so the diamond-shaped symbol is for a Renault - just incase you were waiting for the answer!

But the coolest of cool is our friends, who live up the road and also have 2 boys, have a kiddy-sized ride-on electric car which can also be driven via remote control. Luca had a turn on this the other day and he thought he was the bee's knees! So proud he was to sit in it and make it move (although he ended up in the garden more than he was on the path...)

Just as long as he doesn't expect one of these for his birthday!... Storage space is not our friend in London...

One of the many great things about having 2 boys is that by the time Beni reaches Luca's current age I will be the Fountain of all Knowledge when it comes to cars.

And there'll be no forgetting the Pontiac Firebird or the Renault with the diamond-shaped symbol.