It was hard to believe that a whole month had passed since you turned one.
But you seemed to have grown up so much in that time.
It was as if you knew that you were a big boy now
and you wanted to crack on with all the things one-year-olds do.
You had developed a real sense of humour
and would laugh at all sorts of things.
Certain words made you laugh,
like "potato" and "tomato" and "banana".
You would giggle at certain television programmes
especially your favourite bits like the beginning of Waybuloo.
Sometimes you would even laugh at yourself
while you played with your toys.
And one morning Mummy and Daddy were woken to the sound of you
hysterically laughing in your cot.
Which was adorable.
You decided to go through a bit of a fussy eating stage
just after your birthday,
which fortunately only last a few weeks
but caused Mummy and Daddy lots of stress
as all of a sudden you didn't want to eat your favourites.
But you had started to share your snacks
which was super cute.
You only ever offered to share with Mummy
and always made sure to offer the smallest raisin
or the tiniest piece of breadstick.
But you would look so happy and proud of yourself
when she chewed it and said "Mmmmm!"
Everyone was waiting with baited breath for you to walk
but it was quite clear to us that you were in no hurry whatsoever to travel around on two legs,
especially when crawling around on all fours was so much quicker.
But you did like to walk around and have an explore
holding on to our hands now,
so you were gradually finding your feet.
In a matter of a few hours one day,
you worked out how to climb off of the sofa
and how to get out of your arm chair.
It seemed really fortunate that you learned how to get down
before you learned how to climb up
as we reckoned that you would get in fewer scrapes that way.
You were learning other new things too,
like where things belonged.
And you were beginning to understand how to help with tidying up your toys.
You knew that Woody's cowboy hat belonged on his head
and would spend ages trying to put it back on.
You even tried putting it onto Buzz's head once,
but would laugh if Mummy tried to wear it.
Mummy suspected that you might really benefit for a shape sorter
and within hours of playing with one for the first time,
you were posting the shapes through the holes
if we helped you to match the right hole.
It was incredible how quickly you were picking things up
and how much you wanted to learn.
You communication skills had come on in absolute leaps and bounds.
And you were starting to say words in the right contexts and for effect.
You could say duck, fish, frog, bird and cat
if they were said to you first.
And you could fetch all the frogs at bathtime if Mummy asked.
You had started to say "tickle tickle" with a cheeky glint in your eye,
knowing exactly what it meant.
And you would often say it which chasing after the cats in an attempt to give them tickles.
You would also ask "What's that?",
although it sounded more like "was' at?",
and would constantly bombard us with this question
wanting to know what everything around you was.
You had also learned that shaking your head and saying no were the same thing.
So whenever we caught you doing something you shouldn't
we would say no
and you would stop and shake your head in a guilty way.
Luckily you hadn't really learned the power of saying no yourself yet,
and generally said no and shook your head when we were saying no to something.
You were becoming such a little character
right before our eyes
and not a day went by
when Mummy and Daddy wouldn't spend their evenings
marvelling and something amazing you had done or mastered that day.
We were so proud of you
and felt lucky every single day
that we were getting to watch you grow up.
No comments