Monthly update for June 2008

Age: 23 months (can't believe she's almost 2!)

Size/weight: Still combination between 2 years and 18-months–2 years clothes. Weight I have no idea!

Health: Very good

Teeth: Just the canines to come now, I think.

Toiletting: Well, she did a poo on the toilet today, with her Granny. They were in the churchyard on the way to get the bus and she apparently said 'I need a poo.', so they dashed to the public loos and she sat on the toilet and did a poo. She also did another one in her nappy about 5 minutes later, but that's fairly momentous, none-the-less. Nothing on the potties yet, though has been sitting on them for slightly longer at a time. Maybe she will be a straight to toilet girl. I imagine potties aren't very comfortable!

Sleep: Bedtime still pretty good, though I'm much worse at getting her to sleep than anyone else, it seems. Eva got her to sleep pretty easily the other night. Chris does it most nights. When I do it, she almost always seems to stay awake until 11pm and make a big fuss until she's really too tired not to do anything but sleep.

Nap time is usually 2-3 hours still and mostly painless. Today she didn't go down until 4pm, though, and yesterday not until 3pm. We'll see if this is just a blip or maybe the start of cutting out the nap altogether. (Please, not yet!)

Still waking in the night, but often going back to sleep quite easily (sometimes just needs one of us to say 'It's OK. Go back to bed.' or something like that). The early morning one is the worst for getting her back to sleep, though (usually between 5am and 7am) and sometimes she just ends up getting up. The black out lining helps a lot, but there is still some light coming in, and Wesley's usually moving about expecting to be let out and I think it's possible she can sense that I'm thinking about getting up and then is more likely to do so herself. If she'd just leave waking up until after 7am, it would be fine and we could just make that getting up time, but 5am is a bit too early!

Eating: She's doing pretty well, with food, though still often doesn't want to sit at the table for long at dinner time. She does seem to prefer grazing at the moment. She had ice cream for the first time in ages the other night, because she asked nicely, waited patiently and had eaten plenty of dinner. She was very pleased. And she accepted it without quibble when she wasn't allowed any the next night, which is good.

Speech/communication: Very good, as always. She's been doing a lot of imaginative talking recently, as well, which is such fun to watch/listen to. She uses her dolls and cuddly toys and sits them down to read them stories, puts them to bed, feeds them, etc. One of her favourite things at the moment is saying 'How are you today?' and if asked it herself, she'll answer it with 'I'm fine.' 'I'm very well.' or 'I'm not very well.' She's getting better at stopping fairly soon after the start of a tantrum and trying to put into words what she wants/needs, as she's realising that sometimes it's just that we haven't understood her.

Intellectual development: Very good, as well. Her imagination is growing (see above). You can see her thinking about how to do something/get something before trying (or after trying for a bit and failing - rather than automatically screaming and throwing herself on the floor). She recognises some letters and numbers (M for mummy, A for apple and sometimes others, the number 3 and sometime 2). She knows the whole alphabet song, as well as loads and loads of nursery rhymes. She has some colouring books now and does try to colour in (though she's a fair way off from being to keep within the lines), including picking different colours.

Emotional development: She's growing out of her tantrums, it seems, as her communication abilities and thought processes develop. They still occur, but they are a lot fewer. (And, as a result, my own screaming tantrums are practically non-existant!)

Social development: She's showing more desire to play with other children - especially older ones - though still doesn't understand sharing ('That's mine' is a very common phrase coming out of her mouth.) She's still quite shy of a lot of adults, though getting a bit more inclined to talk to them.

Physical development: She's really good at climbing now. She can walk backwards, jump, kick a ball, stand on one foot while holding something, almost do a headstand, dance, walk up and downstairs (though needs help still with our steep stairs), walk very well along the balancing thing at the park, climb the net on the slide at the park, build a tower.

Likes: Her new rocking horse, walking when out and about, her new HappyLand house and sandwich kit (though they only arrived today, so don't know for sure that they'll continue to be popular), climbing up furniture and people, running, strawberries, raspberries, toast, crackers and Philadelphia, TV, reading books (a lot more independent reading these days with attempts to actuall tell the story or make up a new one), playing with the letters in the bath, and probably lots more.

Dislikes: Seagulls, apparently (there were a lot of them in Cardiff when we went down to visit her Nana the other day, and she was very clear 'I don't like seagulls.'), not getting her own way (though is accepting it a bit more often, these days, especially if there's an explanation that she can understand or an alternative offered), Key Lime pie (though the biscuit base was a hit), peppermint tea, and possibly some other things too.

Developmental worries: None

New tricks/skills: Can't think of anything specific - just a gradual improvement in most things.