A post from Mummy

I have decided to hop on here while Lilia is asleep, as it's been a long time since I wrote in her little book about how she is getting on and rather than do that I thought it would make a nice post to update.

She's now 20 months, and in the last six months has really turned into a little girl rather than being a baby any more.

Physically, she is obviously taller! She has that lovely little pot belly all toddlers have, but her legs no longer have her deliciously chunky baby thighs, but instead are proper girl legs, with normal thighs. She does still have one of her baby 'creases' at the top of her leg, but I think that will soon be gone too.

I've noticed her growth most recently because she has suddenly become too big for most of her clothes! Her arms are much longer, but the main difference is a lot of her tops simply stopped being able to stretch over her tummy, and her tights don't quite pull up over her bottom any more.

She is obviously very good at walking now, having been doing it for six months, but she has also started to run, although with varying degrees of success - every so often she will just run too fast and her feet will lag behind until she falls over. She is also trying desperately to jump, which is probably the next developmental milestone. She tries and tries, and watches older children, but can only really manage a kind of bounce at the moment, which is very cute. She loves being held under the arms and 'jumped', and bouncing on the bed is popular.

She has only in the last two weeks mastered climbing steps on slides, so we now have a slide in the garden which she loves. We're hoping to get a swing too but all these things are quite pricey so it will have to wait a bit unless I can get an ebay bargain.

In terms of her speech, she is incredible. It's at the stage of a normal to-and-a-half- to three-year-old, with complex sentences like "I cooking a cake. Needs longer in oven. Ready now. Tastes good." and the hilarious "I done a poo! Change nappy!".

Being able to communicate with her so well makes life much more interesting, and we so far have had almost no tantrums because she is able to tell us what she wants, and we are able to tell her why she can't have it!

She knows all her colours, can count to ten(although seven often gets missed out), knows all the basic shapes, understands and uses big/small, up/down, on/off, on/under, in/out, knows what writing is, and also likes to 'read' to herself. She has also started memorising rhymes and her storybooks and reciting bits of them to herself or to us. It is very cute to see her doing the actions as she says "Two lil dicky birrs sit on a wall, one nay Peter, one nay Paul. Fie-way Peter, fie-way Paul, cuh back Peter, cuh back Paul". She also knows Twinkle Star, I'm a little teapot, Tommy Thumb, Hop Little Bunnies, and probably some more I'm forgetting.

My habit of making up songs all day has come back to bite me on the bum as I now constantly get "do HONG Mummy, do HONG" and have to make up some song about going shopping or putting socks on or whatever.

She is able to clean her own teeth, although we do them as well to be sure, she brushes her own hair, helps wash it, and also is beginning to be able to take off her clothes. And she has very strong opinions on clothes! She chooses er own outfit each day and knows what she wants - today she demanded "deni skirt"" when said denim skirt was in the washing basket and not visible.

Some of her habits are just hilarious, and some are very annoying, like squashing food in her hands while saying "squash it, sqeeeeeeeeeeze it" but mostly she is an absolute joy and pleasure; this is such a lovely age I almost don't want her to grow up!

I'm sure there's more, but it will have to be for another post. Better sign off before she realises I've highjacked her account ;)