At 25 months

I am blessed to have the most gorgeous blonde, tousle-haired little tornado who never fails to make me smile. Here's my message to him at 25 months. Written yesterday. I know that I said I wasn't going to share these anymore, but this month I really don't want to leave bad news up on my blog. So, you have to forgive any soppy sentimentality - any more than usual that is!

My baby Rabbit,

At 25 months your vocabulary is increasing and you gabble away all day long. You copy words as we say them, tucking them into your brain for later use. You can say lots of words. But my favourite word is by far “mummy”. For months now, whenever we’ve pointed at me and asked who I was you’ve said “daddy”. We would laugh and tell you that you were being silly. Finally, the other day after telling you that you were being silly and prompting you a second time you tucked you head under, coyly, and said “mummy”. "Mummy". The most beautiful "Mummy". And I covered you in hugs and kisses and told you how brilliant you were. And then I asked you again, to be sure, and you said “mummy” again.

Other words that you can say at the moment:
“wa-wa” = water
“waa” said rather loudly and delightedly = wet!
“deee” = said rather loudly and delightedly = tea
“aw-bwee” = strawberry
“naaah” = no, said with alarmingly increasing frequency and an emphatic shake of the head
“booh” = book
“cat” = cat and “wiaow” = meow
“doc-dor” = doctor
“doc-lor” = chocolate (doctor and chocolate are actually very hard to distinguish)
“detty” = dirty
“clean” = clean
“bubble” = bubble
“dak” = Jak

You have developed a total obsession with the Wiggles over the last two weeks. You would happily sit in front of the TV watching the same Wiggles DVD all day long. There are tears when we turn it off. There are plaintive requests for “maw?” When you wake up in the morning you ask “Wiii?” with a flapping of your foot (the Wiggles is all about dancing, after all). When you wake up from your nap you ask “Wiii?” with the same flapping of your foot. When we arrive home from an outing you ask “Wiii?” with the ever present flapping of your foot. And we know you want the Wiggles DVD. The same one. Not the other one. You know many of the actions that accompany the songs now. You will sit/stand and watch the entire DVD from beginning to end. It must be at least an hour long. I'm a bit strict with TV viewing though. Once a day is more than enough. Sorry!

Your obsession with the Wiggles extends to the new, cheap nappies I bought. They have pictures of the Wiggles on them. I am not permitted to put anything else on you. You become super distressed if I try to sneak a nice absorbent Winnie the pooh nappy on you. “Wiii!” you cry. One evening you followed me around the house, protesting at my application of a Winnie the pooh happy. Every time I turned around, you were behind me with your Wiggles nappy in hand and you’d cry “Wii!” and put it up to your bottom. I could only laugh. You were so funny. However, I did end up capitulating and putting a Wiggles nappy on you. Sigh. The allure of merchandising starts so early.

You love to sit with me and do all the hand movements to the songs I sing: “the wheels on the bus”, “dingle dangle scare-crow”, “miss polly had a dolly”, “twinkle twinkle”. You make many, many animal sounds. We saw an elephant in the outdoor furniture shop just before Christmas and you, completely of your own accord, waved your arm around in the air like a trunk and emitted a very elephant-sounding “eee” sound. It stopped me in my tracks. That’s one of the things about childcare. You pick up all these new things and surprise me with them.

You colour match proficiently now. You said “circle” the other day when you held out a circle block. You can do puzzles that have pieces that interconnect. You count on your fingers: “err, doo, dee, err…” Last night I asked you if you wanted another grape. You held up all your fingers “dee!” Three! Or more! The same when Daddy told you just one more sip of the Fanta. "Dee!" you exclaimed and held up all ten fingers.

You loved Christmas. You opened all of our presents for us this year. We started preparation for Christmas festivities a week before Christmas. We put the tree up. We told you about Father Christmas and presents. You nodded, seriously, and blew. Yes, you still associate presents and candles, from your birthday a month ago. We explained that Christmas present came sans candles. I think you still lived in hope that there would be candles to blow out. You came to know the little baby in the straw bed who appeared in all your books all of a sudden. You'd put your finger to your nose. "Shhh!" I'd agree "baby's sleeping!" and you'd nod.

You greeted a friend at the door with great excitement on Boxing Day. Instead of your bashful self, you greeted her with a big smile and much enthusiasm. You held out your arms. I was stunned. And then I realized... You were reaching for the big colourful present she had in her hands. She hadn’t even made it in the front door before you had wrestled the present out of her grip and proceeded to rip off the Christmas paper. We all had to step around you to greet our guests, as you exclaimed with great glee at Mummy’s present.

This year you actually tolerated Father Christmas. You were rather taken by his white gloves and his red jacket. You even sat next to him and had your photo taken. When he asked you about Jak, he was your friend. And then he did one better - he gave you a chocolate. Well!

Speaking of chocolates, I fear we have started a habit that will be hard to cure. Every night just before bed we open a window on the advent calendar. And there’s a chocolate behind it. You eat your chocolate and drink your milk and then it’s time for bed. You love it. The third night, you knew what was coming and you didn’t want a bath. I told you that you had to have a bath and then afterwards you could have a chocolate. That was bribery, huh? You sat in the bath for all of, ooh, 30 seconds. Then you started piling your water toys into your bucket saying “doc-dor! doc-dor!”. I was puzzled. “Doctor?” I asked. And then I realized…. “choc-lor”. You were busy packing up your toys, chanting “chocolate, chocolate!”

However, last night there were no chocolates in the advent calendar. They finished on the 24 December. You don’t know that though. You pleaded with me “choc-lor” when I brought you your milk. I gave in and went and got you some Milky Way. No. No. No. You pushed it away impatiently. It had to come from the advent calendar. Mummy had to do some slight of hand that would have made a magician proud, in order that you were happy with your chocolate. I really must remember to put that calendar in the bin when you’re taking your nap tomorrow!

Rabbit, you are purely and simply a delight. You make me smile constantly. You amaze me from sun up to sundown, with the things that you’re learning and the clever things you do. I just love you to bits.

Mummy xxx