(Not really monthly) update

Well, it's been an absolute age since I've done an update, so it can't really be called a monthly one anymore!

Age: 27 months

Size/weight: Weighs about 2 stone, not sure of height. Mostly in 2-3 year clothes, actually has a few tops that are 3-4 and her new mac is 3-4 as she complains about coats being 'too tight' a lot. I have now discovered the really easy way to take trousers up (iron on hemming thing, that takes about 2 minutes, instead of the 45 minutes it takes me to sew up one trouser leg), so am happier about buying trousers that are nice and loose, but far too long.

Health: Generally pretty good, though she's had two colds/coughs this month.

Teeth: She still has some gaps at the back, though maybe they're supposed to b there. She loves brushing her teeth, and would do so 5 or 6 times a day, given the chance. She's also usually happy for us to brush them a bit, to ensure they are being properly brushed; sometimes we have to let her brush our teeth, though. I almost always brush my teeth at the same time as she does, unless I've done them already for some reason, as I think it's good for to see it. I actually have no idea if Chris does the same.

Toiletting: Getting much closer to being dry. She's on her second potty and toilet reward chart (she got a toy snake as a prize for filling the first one up). When at home, she's now frequently realising she needs to wee or poo and pulling her trousers (and nappy, if she has one on) down and sitting on the potty. She still has quite a few accidents when she's just got trousers on, but they're gradually going. She's not much good on the toilet anymore - odd, because we thought she might bypass the potty and go straight to the toilet. I think she appreciates the immediacy of the potty; there's no need to walk upstairs and she doesn't have to worry about having to get someone to open the door for her. The potty (or potties; we have three of them; one on each floor) gives her the ability to be more independent (which is something she is clearly craving.

Sleep: Well, she had quite a bad night tonight, deciding to make a game out of bedtime. However, generally speaking she's going to bed very well and without hours of watching TV, which is useful. And, more to the point, she's going to bed at a reasonable time (usually between 7 and 8pm, though tonight she held out until 8.30pm). She comes into our bed in the early hours far too often and hasn't had a star on her staying in her own bed chart for a long time. She rarely has a daytime nap now, though sometimes falls asleep in her buggy if she's had a long day.

Eating: She's generally not too keen on evening meals at the moment, though can surprise us (with no apparent logic, unfortunately) and really wolf something down. She's very keen on noodles at the moment and quite often has some at lunchtime. She usually has a lot of breakfast and a fair amount at lunchtime and also usually has some snacks in between. She's back into bananas again, after having a couple of weeks of not liking them. She really loves pears and quite likes apples. She also prefers food from my plate, even though it's usually exactly the same as the food on her plate. She's fairly reluctant to try new things at the moment, though I'm sure that's just a phase.

Speech/communication: This is the area where she's very forward. She can explain what she needs or wants, what she's been doing, what she's going to do, and so on. She still sometimes forgets that she explain things, or is too quick to get upset, but once she's calmed down, she usually remembers that she can use words to tell us why she's upset. She can say some things in Spanish and quite a lot in Esperanto, which her Granny often speaks to her. The other day when we were running to catch the train, we were saying 'One, two, three, wheeeeeee,' and, after we'd done that a few times, she said 'In Spanish, this time,' then it was 'Uno, dos, tres, wheeeeee,' (if anyone can tell me the translation for 'wheeeeee' that would be really helpful) a few times. The interesting thing here, I think, is that she's recognising it as a different language, rather than just different words. The other thing I've noticed her doing is saying made-up words that sound a bit Spanish (pretty sure they're not actual Spanish or Esperanto words!), which is how babies learn a language and how I learnt Spanish when we lived in Spain. (Sorry, Chris and I are both very interested in language and linguistic development and so on, so we can go on about it a fair bit. Which could also contribute to her being forward in that area, I imagine.)

Intellectual development: Pretty good, I would say. She often listens when we explain why we need to do something or not do something and sometimes asks questions about the explanation. She's drawing faces now and she was making more complicated playdough creatures today, asking me to roll balls to make into eyes, and then sticking them on - on on each side (wiggly worm). She did also think that the worm needed two legs. She listens to longer stories, now, and can talk about the story afterwards. (Can also tell you what happened to Peppa Pig after watching an episode, etc.) Her counting has definitely progressed to actually counting objects and not just saying the numbers, though sometimes she does still continue counting after she's reached the end of a series. She recognises a number of different letters - O for Owl, M for Mummy, E for Eva, T for Tasha, J for Jenny, I for Ice cream... - and has started to realise that words in books say things and pointing at them and asking 'What is it?' or 'What's its name?'. She can move things around to get to places she can't reach - for example, she can pull a chair across so that she can press play on the CD player, pull a box across so that she can wash her hands or climb into the bath, pull a box across so she can look out our bedroom window, etc. There's undoubtedly much more to mention here, but we certainly don't have any concerns about her intellectual development.

Emotional development: We have been experiencing the 'fun' of the 'terrible twos' over the last few months. As I'm sure most parents do, we thought we'd escaped this, until it actually arrived. We said things like 'She did the terrible twos early. They lasted about two weeks.' And people told us that we might need to be prepared and that perhaps it was still to come. Well, they were right. For the most part, I can identify some logic behind it (in Rosemary's case, I mean; not every two-year-old!). It seems to be down to two things, the first being the conflict between the desire and need to be independent and the inabilty to do everything. The most common scenes occur when her nappy needs changing, when it's time to get dressed and when it's time to go to sleep - all things that she's wanting to be able to do herself, but not quite there yet. The other thing is the inability, despite advanced language development, to quickly explain what she means. For example, she might ask me to tuck her in, and will scream because I didn't do it the way she wanted. She's less likely to scream these days, but may shout 'No, like this!' and even stomp her feet. But the problem comes when she has to explain what 'like this' is. She's getting better at explaining things, and including a number of steps, now, for example 'Put the cover down here, then wrap it round me' (turned out that tucking her in isn't tucking the covers under the mattress, but tucking them under her; who'd a thunk it?). But she needs to think about it before she can come up with such an explanation, hence the immediate reaction is still often just 'No! Like this!'

We went through a stage (probably a couple of weeks) of 'banging'. Banging is essentially hitting and she does now know the word 'hitting' as well. At first it was just banging a spoon or fork on the table (you know, there's actually a children's book that says 'A spoon's great for banging; a cup fits your paw', or possibly the other way round and it annoys me a bit whenever I read it, because it's really annoying having a small child banging cups and spoons on the table!), but then it progressed to hitting us and Wesley (and various cuddly toys). And there were a couple of occasions where she hit another child while running past them (i.e. running around very fast and randomly sticks her hand out and shouts 'Bang!'). This is another area where I always watched the children doing this and wondered what their parents could be doing wrong, because of course my children would never do such a thing. Apparently it's a phase that most children go through and it's just a question of how long it will last - and how you deal with, of course. We seem to be over it, for the most part. Very occasionally, when she's very excited, she still does it to us, but she also usually realises she's done it and says 'Oh, sorry, I banged you.' How do we deal with it? For the most part we tell her it's not nice and that it hurts and it's not nice to hurt people or animals. We also say things like 'We don't like banging or biting or scratching. What do we like? We like kisses and cuddles and tickles and raspberries.' If it's protracted (doesn't really happen any more, touch wood), then we might (if it's safe to do so), leave the room and say we're not coming back in until she's going to be nice and friendly. Of course (I say, of course, but I realise that it's not obvious to everyone), what we never do is hit back, or bite back or scratch back.

Over the last two weeks she has become a lot more clingy with me, saying 'I need you, Mummy.' and literally clinging on tight to me. This morning, for the first time in my recollection, she said she didn't want to go with Granny, but wanted to stay with me. A brief talk about what she'd be doing and how she would see me in a few hours when she got home, and she was fine. And, of course, she had a lovely time, as she always does. I'm wondering if this might have something to do with starting nursery school. She adores going there and asks to go in there whenever we walk past, even if it's a weekend. She's has no qualms whatsoever about staying there without us and always has a good time. However, I wonder if there's a conflict between her desire to be more independent and not quite being ready to be. (Or perhaps I'm over-thinking it!!)

Social development: She's getting better at sharing, though still does snatch sometimes. She's good at offering her things - the ones she wants to - but she's not quite so happy when someone has something she doesn't want to share. She's getting on well at nursery school and likes the other children. She's particularly enjoyed playing with an older girl, which is often the case, it seems. She's still quite shy with many adults, but seems to be OK with the adults at nursery school (though on her first day she did say that she didn't like them because 'They're too old'). She still has a tendency to go up to other children and give them big hugs, something that many children find a bit upsetting, for some reason! Anyone in a buggy she'll say 'Awww. What a cute baby', even if they're clearly (to us, anyway) older than her. She shows sympathy and concern when she sees another child or baby crying. She's generally quite good at taking turns, in the park, for instance.

Likes: Going on the merry-go-round, running, being pushed in the buggy running 'really, really fast', noodles and bread and butter and peanut butter (not at the same time), being talked to by a hand puppet (Snake is the favourite, but Eeyore, Mouse, Dragon, Knight and Princess also work), climbing over and up just about anything that she can manage (us, chairs, walls, park equipment), The Wizard of Oz, Peppa Pig, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Boris and Dudley puppet books, reading in general (mostly being read to, again, but asks lots of questions and will join in with some of the ones she knows very well), probably a gazillion other things I can't think of right now.

Dislikes: Having her hair rinsed, getting dressed when she doesn't want to, having her poopy nappy changed (fortunately, we don't have to do that very often as she does most of them on the potty), sitting at the dining table at dinner time for more than about three minutes, any clothes or straps that are not really, really loose, and probably a bunch of other stuff, too.

Developmental worries: None

New tricks/skills: Pulling her trousers and nappy or pants down so she can use the potty (and realising she needs to!), drawing faces, probably lots of other things that I have not properly noticed!