To my boy…

Daddy and I have been amazed lately at how much you’ve changed in such a short space of time.  Your Granny and aunties have just returned from almost a month in Florida and in the time they were away you have turned from a not-quite-baby to a proper toddler!  So I thought since I can’t actually freeze time and memorise everything about you, this would be a good way to remind myself of what life was like when you were 14 months old!

Lots of people dread their babies beginning to crawl but it was different in our house; you took such a long time to do it and we were all frustrated.  You finally got on the move about three weeks ago and it’s the weirdest monkey/crab crawling manoeuvre I’ve ever seen – hilarious to watch especially now that you can move at high speed, although not quite so hilarious when you’re trying to crawl away mid nappy change with poo stuck to your bum – yikes!  You’re a different boy now that you can go and get things for yourself and explore the room in minute detail; much happier and more easily amused.  You love to press the buttons on the Sky box and turn off our favourite TV shows when we are trying to watch – your way of saying you want 100% attention, 100% of the time!  You also like looking at your reflection in the glass front of the electric fire (from which we have had to remove all the decorative coals) and screeching Aaaaalffiieeeee! when you recognise the little boy in there.

On the subject of words, we have been amazed at how fast your vocabulary has grown and all the new sounds you’ve mastered.  Favourite words (apart from your name) are ‘digger’, ‘tractor’, ‘brick’, ’see-saw’, ‘drink’ and ‘out’ but I listed them all recently and there are almost 40 that are recognisable to most people.  And that’s before we get to the endless babbling that only you can understand!  You also recognise lots of different animals and can copy the sounds they make which is very cute – I swear you can spot a horse or a cow a mile off when we are in the car.

You’re fascinated by machinery of all kinds and I find it so strange that you are hard-wired to like ‘boy things’ already; any kind of construction machinery or big truck has you exclaiming ‘wow!’ and you practically explode with excitement when we pass by the windmills on the way to Grandad’s house.  I’m not sure where you get that from but you’ve certainly inherited your mummy’s love of books and love nothing better than getting me or Daddy to read story after story about Peppa Pig, Igglepiggle and Maisy Mouse.  My favourite time of day is when we cuddle up on the chair in your room for a bedtime story (or six!) before settling you down for the night.

A less than endearing habit is your love of throwing things, whether it’s one of your many toy balls, handfuls of your dinner or those hard little bricks that leave bruises when they hit my shins…I keep thinking I need to nip this in the bud but I’m just not sure how; I don’t think you really understand why you shouldn’t do it and when I tell you not to you seem to think it’s some sort of hilarious game!

What with all the throwing, meal times have become even more messy.  Just this evening you put a blob of mashed potato on your head and told us it was a hat; but you are making great strides at using a spoon and can feed yourself a bowl of Cheerios or a yoghurt with no help from Mummy.  I guess it won’t be long until you can do most things without help from Mummy.  We are patiently awaiting those first tentative steps and finding it super cute that you can now walk around outside and in shops holding just one of our fingers with a massive, self-satisfied grin on your cheeky little face.

It’s funny but every time you reach a new set of milestones I think this is the best age yet – and then you go and amaze me all over again.  And just when I think I couldn’t possibly love you more, you go and prove me wrong.  Those aunties of yours have been using this word a lot since they got back from across the pond and in its truest sense it sums you up.  Awesome.  Just awesome.