Monthly update

Age: 21 months

Size/weight: Mostly 18-24 month clothes; some 2 year clothes (especially tops and dresses). No idea of weight, but she's neither skinny nor chubby, so I assume it's about right! No idea of height, either, but she can't walk under the dining table without ducking.

Health: Generally good this month, with a few minor snuffles.

Teeth: Has another one somewhere towards the middle of the back on the right and has pointed it out to me, but still won't let me feel! There may be more we don't know about, though.

Toiletting: Still in nappies. She'll sit on her potty, but usually only with clothes and a nappy on. She seems to somtimes know she's just about to do a poo, but only a few seconds before, so not enough time to take clothes off and sit on potty. I think the warm weather that should be coming soon (?) will be ideal for letting her run around without a nappy and quickly get her on the potty. (Though still need to convince Chris that this is a good idea!)

Sleep: She is now sleeping in a big girl's bed! Chris changed the cot into a bed about a week ago now and she is definitely sleeping better. She is still waking, but quite often will go 6-7 hours without waking now. She has gone to sleep in her bed a couple of times now (rather than going to sleep in our room and being carried through) - the night before last she even asked Chris to leave the room and shut the door and went to sleep on her own. She's also not come to sleep in our bed in the middle of the night since the change (though this may be more down to the fact that I can sit/lie next to her when she wakes in the middle of the night, so don't feel so tired I need to take her through to our room!). She has fallen out a couple of times, but we have a duvet on the floor next to the bed to soften the fall and she has not really been bothered by it (and certainly not hurt) and has gone very quickly back to sleep afterwards. She has slept in there for all her naps since the change as well, which is wonderful. All in all the change to a cotbed has been a definite success. The next sleep challenges are for her to sleep through the night consistently, and for her to go to sleep at a reasonable time when staying with her granny!

Eating: She's eating well for the most part, though does have days where she's not hugely interested. Her taste buds and senses are maturing so that she has much more definite reactions to different flavours. She's far, far too fond of ice cream (which we introduced her to when she had a nasty sore throat - oops!) and would probably be happy to only eat that! She's still very fond of spaghetti (plain; with goat's cheese, sundried tomatoes and rocket; with bolognese; with carbonara... ), couscous and risotto, but will try most things still. The last few days she has shown a tendency to refuse things that Chris offers her, but accept things that I offer her (to the extent where Chris offered her slice of cheese, which she refused; he then passed it to me and I offered it to her and she took it, ate it and said 'Mmmm'). But she laughs when doing it, so it's probably some kind of game to her, rather than an early declaration of vegetarianism!

Speech/communication: This is fantastic, though she's coming along so fast now that we can't always work out what she's saying (much easier when it was just one word at a time). The vast majority of the time she can ask for what she wants, tell us what she's been doing, talk about a book, talk about TV show, talk to teddies, animals, etc. Occasionally, she will revert to pointing and saying 'That, that', but not very often. She's coming to terms with pronouns (can mostly differentiate between me/I and you, though still gets the muddled up, e.g. 'Pick you up.'). She's fully conversant with the present participle (I'm pooing, I'm hopping, I'm walking, I'm sitting, I'm yawning, etc.) and understands 'can' and 'can't' now as well (I can walk, I can't reach, I can climb, etc.). She can express her likes and dislikes quite well (I like, I don't like, I love, I really do love, I want, I really want, I need, I really need) (the addition of really may well be influenced by Charlie and Lola!). Her pronunciation is pretty good these days, as well, to the extent that other people understand her a lot of the time, as well as us. She can repeat back most words that are said to her (including in French, Spanish and Esperanto - and quit possibly others) with fairly good accuracy. Her intonation and accent can swap between mine and Chris' (and one her Grandma and Grandpa were visiting there was definite inclinations towards stronger Scottish intonations).

Intellectual development: Seems to be very good as well. I was surprised the other day, when looking at a book with her how many things she could recognise and point at. On every page, she could point to almost everything I asked (e.g. bucket, spade, butterfly, elephant, octopus, book, computer, lamp, torch, Mummy, Daddy, boy, girl, ice cream, etc. etc.), which I read somewhere recently is a 2-3 year milestone. She knows that if she can't reach something, she can, for example, pull a chair over to climb on. She knows the buttons to press on the remote controls and phones to turn them off. She knows that switching a light off will make it dark. She recognises when she's going somewhere familiar and can show people which way to go. She remembers (for the most part) what she can and can't get away with with different people! She remembers people more, even in their absence (talks a lot about Grandma and Grandpa, even though it's almost a month since they were here), talks about going to see Nana (my Granny) a lot, and talks about Granny and Eva a lot too, and Rupert and Emma and Holli.

Emotional development: She's a lot happier to be on her own for a bit and amuse herself, though she does still have clingy moments when she doesn't want to be put down at all. She's made great inways into the terrible twos already and can get frustrated quite easily if she is denied something (whether by us or by her inability to do something). She's definitely started to test boundaries and we're having to try to develop strategies for this. She does throw herself on the floor and even stomps. (She even says 'I'm stomping'!) and has new 'cry' that is so fake it's almost funny. She's (see above) happier to sleep on her own in her own bed now and is not waking up as much. If she's tired, she can be very grumpy and have a very short tether.

Social development: She's starting to interact more with other children, talking to them and sharing things with them. She's very gentle with little babies and animals (though not always with Wesley!) stroking and cuddling them. She will still snatch things from peers sometimes, but usually gives them back with a little prompting. She's also started asking them for things when she wants them before taking them. Unfortunately, they're not all quite at the same stage so, while saying 'Pass me the teapot, please.' would work very well with an adult, it doesn't tend to with another toddler! She has yet to (and hopefully won't ever, but I know it's not unusual) show any inclination to hit, bite or otherwise hurt other children, though she will sometimes pinch us very hard or pull our hair intentionally.

Likes: One of her favourite pastimes when in her bedroom is to 'play with monies'. This involves emptying all the money out of her two piggybanks (the boy and the girl) and putting it back in bit by bit, then doing it all over again, and again, and again. The last few days she has deviated somewhat by also putting money in her pocket, in the potty, in drawers, etc. She also has a new Matroyshka (Russian doll) which lives on her window sill and she likes to open out all the way and then put together all the way, and again, and again... Last week she had 'The Cat and the Hat' cartoon (60s version, not the new film) out from the library and watched it about a billion times. She really, really, really liked it. She danced to it, she laughed lots when one of the Things fell down the stairs. She would say 'Oh no. It's raining.' at the start and talk about other bits of it, too. She hardly watched any CBeebies that whole week. It's gone back to the library now and she doesn't seem to have noticed, thank goodness. We were very sick of it! She's still really into Charlie and Lola, but also likes Dora the Explorer a lot now, too. She's wanting to be read to a lot more again, too, especially in her room (where she is spending more time, now that there is the bed, wardrobe, bookcase and, of course, the 'monies'), having been a bit bored with books (at least in comparison to before) for a few weeks. She's also enjoying pointing things out in books more and talking about them.

Dislikes: Having to be in her buggy instead of walking/running around. Not being allowed to do something that she wants to do.

Developmental worries: None.

New tricks/skills: Sleeping in a big girl's bed!!!