Sixteen months

And so my little poo monkey, you have just celebrated your sweet sixteenth. Month that is.

Where does the time go?

You are again going through a major developmental leap, in the last week you have absolutely mastered shape sorting, and understand that you have to align quite complex shapes before you pop them in your shape-O. You never put the ellipse in though, you are happier running around with it saying "Egg, gegg" after your (still) favourite food in the whole wide world.

You also love your puzzle board, not so much fitting the shapes but telling your Daddy and I what each one represents. We still laugh how all cats are "Dude" (after our very own beloved moggie)...and that your favourite picture piece is the "cake! mmmcake!" one.

So...we have loads of words coming at a rapid fire pace, and a few more simple sentences/phrases to boot. It is so funny the way you say "up" and then "down" with a rather plummy british accent when you've had enough of being up in our arms. You cracked us up with "Ohh tea...hot tea" when you spied mummy's regular cuppa this morning and you have absolutely floored your daddy with your obsession with the word bra and the fact that you love to pull your mummy's top back to reveal the brassiere before poking around for the "boob" contained therein. All this from a girl who weaned at ten months. Go figure.

I have not mentioned it before, but you are still obsessed with brushing your own and others' hair, and the only way to get you to put up with being moisturised after a bath is to allow you to put cream on the face of whoever is dressing you! You also love to run away at the mere mention of the words bath, let's get dressed/change your nappy or time for bed. Cheeky monkey. Now if only you would run away when mummy is on the toilet, instead of wanting to climb "up" or squeal "poo". Toilet humour starts far too early for my liking.

You are really taking off in the walking department, and want to run rather than stroll everywhere you go. You had your first really major stack last weekend on the pavers, just before we were about to leave for a wedding, scraping your little nose and half of your face. It has healed amazingly quickly, and does not see to bother you in the slightest (only Mummy who has borne the brunt of the "oh my goodness what happened to your girl (should I ring DOCs)? type enquiries this week. For the record, ask your father, I missed the actual event)..

...we do need to work on those gross motor skills though, and better still start transforming our backyard from baby death trap to child friendly play space. It's so hard knowing how much I need to give you the freedom to explore and take a few falls without having a mummy meltdown in the process!

Love you so much, our little girl. Now I must log off as you are waking, ready to explore the afternoon with the fresh eyes and wonder that is so unique to the toddler world. I can't wait to share it with you x