Pros and cons

The advantages of an early talker:

* The poo monkey is able to tell me when something hurts so I can make it better. Tonight she pointed to her swollen gums and said "mouth hurts". I was then able to say "Would you like your vegies pureed tonight?", to which she replied "okay, better". Late teething is not so bad after all.

* The liberty the poo monkey feels because she can make choices. "Would you like yoghurt or milk?" "Yogurt, not milk".

*The amazement on people's faces when they discover the little chatterbox in front of them is not two until the end of January...especially when said toddler is happily chanting the ABCs song at the top of her voice. Or singing and doing the actions to "rock a bye your bear". Or providing a running commentary on her playground adventures "Abi climb up the stairs, red slide, abi go down slide, 123 go...."

* A rapidly developing sense of assertiveness and self esteem: "Abi's turn now ok?"

The disadvantages of an early talker:

* The fact that you cannot pretend that you don't understand what is being requested. Especially the bellows for "More pikies! Cake!" when doing the shopping. Or "nudey nudey" time when it is less than twenty degrees outside.

* Embarassing public conversations. "See mummy's boobies/ pom pom (as you may recall, this is the poo monkey's name for my ahem, hairy nethers)?, "Mummy take booger away?", "Mummy do wee wees" (loudly whenever we are in a public toilet). It will only get worse. Much worse.

* The fact that like other milestones, people can't help but compare their own children. It's not a race folks.

Six days until live baby check.