Response to Gail's question

Gail asked:

How do her motor skills compare? Or her social skills?

I thought I'd answer here, as other people might be interested...

She's pretty up there with most things, to be honest, though her language skills are the thing she's very ahead in (though, language is one of the things that children develop at such completely different rates, so it's difficult to say anyone's ahead) compared to her peers at toddler group, though there is one girl who's comparable, if not a bit further ahead.

She runs all around the playground, climbing up slides and nets easily and walks along the balance beam. She can jump with two feet, walk up and down stairs, though she's not allowed to walk down our stairs on her own still because they're so steep; she has to bump down on her bum (remember, I broke my ankle on those stairs, so I'm a bit paranoid about them!). She climbs all over the furniture and us.

She can undo her shoe buckles, though not do them up. She can draw straight lines and circles and almost write 'mummy'. She can do simple jigsaw puzzles and play pairs and snap (though she gets bored quite quickly and isn't too keen on 'rules'!). She can use a fork and spoon and just about cut and spread with a knife, though not incredibly well.

Socially, for the most part she's very friendly, though can be shy of some adults. She gets on particularly well with children a year or two older than her, though she is very affectionate with babies and little children (apart from one time a couple of weeks ago when she was running round the library and hit a baby on her way past, which was fairly mortifying!). She's reasonably good at sharing, but does forget sometimes and snatches.

She will throw smallish tantrums still, though for the most part she will calm down with a bit of explanation or a request for her to 'Stop crying for a bit, so that you can tell us what you need.' Sometimes, when she doesn't get what she wants, she will throw herself on the floor and kick and scream, but it doesn't normally last very long, thankfully.

She's not potty trained yet, but is on her way there, doing lots of poos and wees on the toilet and getting better at realising she needs to go and asking. (Though she also uses it as an excuse not to go to sleep - 'I need to do a poo on the toilet, now!' once is fine, 5 or 6 times, is definitely messing about!)

Can't think of anything else off hand.