Picking up the pace

The poo monkey has picked up the pace in the last week or so. Silly mummy thought it was merely two new molars responsible for four night's of ridiculously little sleep (even my boss took pity on me this week and let me sit and stare inanely at my computer screen, knowing full well that he was not going to get his punchy brief on...well the stuff that I work on that I won't bore you with).

Nope. Look what my girl can do now:

1. Say mummy, daddy, nana, pop, nanny, pa, nicki (auntie), kooka (uncle), paul (other uncle), abi (yes her own name) properly and to the right person, both in real life and in photos as is the case for her Melbourne based relatives.

2. Further to 1, don't even get me started on the number of words added to the poo monkey's vocabulary each and every day. It's gobsmacking. As for actual phrases..."there you go", "daddy gone"....it just goes on and on. And don't get me started on the rapid fire direct imitations. Thank goodness I have trained myself out of swear words, "crikey" sounds much better coming from the monkey's mouth than some of mummy's other favourite phrases.

3. Animal noises. What does the monkey say? "ooh ooh!"! And the elephant, the snake, the lion, the dog, the bird......

4. Sing my little heart out. We've added "pay skool" to the repertoire!

5. Eat sitting down at her own small table and chairs. I mean, high chairs are for babies didn't you know?

6. Perform new physical tasks with death defying ease. Climb up and down stairs even though I have never really had the opportunity to do so before this morning's mother's group? No problem, give me less than three seconds and it is sorted.

7. Happily use a cup for milk rather than a bottle. What do you mean I kicked up a stink over the three months of prior attempts Mum, don't know what you are talking about.

8. Follow through with some fairly complex instructions. "Go and find baby and put her to bed", "blow your nose with the tissue and then put it in the bin". I kid you not.

Ahh my little monkey, you saved all this new stuff for the week after I wrote your seventeen months post. You certainly are a cheeky one. And mummy loves it.