With the recent arrival of our newest family member, Little Miss, there have been some big changes in Monkey’s world. He is now a big brother!
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Mini Milestones
Stopping swimming & Monkey’s First Fairground Ride
Saturday was one of those days where things just didn’t quite work out the way we wanted them to. Lots happened but also lots of things went wrong. We had an early morning scooter session then Monkey and Daddy went for a walk to splash in puddles, only to discover that one of Monkey’s wellies had a hole in – cue one soggy foot and unhappy Monkey! Then I went off for a hair cut and Daddy and Monkey went to their swimming class. I haven’t really blogged about it before but Daddy and Monkey have been going to swimming lessons… and they haven’t been going that well.
Monkey is apparently very upset for most of the class and though he always says he has enjoyed it when he comes home, the look on Daddy’s face and Monkey’s red and puffy eyes tell a different story. After an 8 week term of unhappy Saturdays (Daddy finds it very tiring and frustrating and is in a pretty miserable mood for the rest of the day) we have decided not to carry on the lessons for now. Hubby wants to try and take Monkey swimming just the two of them with less structure, and then try the classes again maybe next year. Continue reading
Our little reader – 28 mths
Storytime at 3 mths old
We have read books to Monkey since he was tiny. Both hubs and I love reading books to him and it has been a major part of the bedtime routine since he was just a few months old. As a result, Monkey loves books. He is constantly bombarding us with books saying “go read, go read, go read” until we comply with his demands!
Now that his speech is rapidly developing he likes saying words and pointing out the names of things in books. He’s also ‘reading’ or rather he has memorised some of his favourite books and joins in with reading them. One of his favourite books (at the moment) is one that Daddy doesn’t even like, “The Tiger who Came to Tea”. Monkey loves it. He goes through fits and starts with lots of his books, insisting on the same one for days at a time, and then moving onto another.
Monkey’s Musings at 28 mths
Regular readers will know that Monkey was a late talker, and there was a time when I worried about his speech development. Then he started talking and let’s just say that I certainly don’t worry anymore – he is a real chatterbox these days and we love it!
So I thought I would share with you some of our favourite words and phrases that he has come out with lately. Questions seem to be the order of the day lately, he is so inquisitive!
“What you doin there?”
This has to be one of our favourites, and he says it all the time. He has been sayong it for a while but it very much came out as one word so we didn;t really realise what he was saying at first. A very garbled “whauodoiere” was how it started. Eventually we realised what he was saying and his pronunciation is getting clearer by the day. He walks into a room, “Hi Mummy/Daddy, what you doin there?” He has been sat next to us on the sofa watching TV and will suddenly ask “what you doin there Mummy?” We walk into his bedroom after nap time “what you doin there?” It’s hilarious and another situation where we have realised we must ask him that question quite a lot – as he can only have picked it up from us!
“What’s dat noise?”
Another pretty constant question, generally accompanied with a hand up to his ear. Sometimes it is easy to answer, it’s an aeroplane, it’s a lawnmower, it’s the TV etc, other times it is a bit harder. In the bathy one evening, one of the millions of toys he had in the bath was making a slight noise and the question was repeated endlessly. I heard Daddy try to respond a few times but onviously Monkey wasn’t convinced by his answer so kept asking, and asking, and asking and eventually there was a very loud “I don’t know! It’s just one of your toys!” coming from Daddy as the repetitive question started to drive him completely potty.
My favourite instance was one morning when Daddy woke up early, around 6.30am, I was snoozing happily so Daddy crept out the room trying not to disturb me or Monkey. But it seemed Monkey was already awake and heard Daddy open our door, as immediately there was a shout of “What dat noise? Daddy? Daddy?” from behind Monkey’s door! Lol! Poor Daddy not a minute’s peace!
“What dat?”
Sometimes accompanying “what’s dat noise?” sometimes just about everything and anything. He has to know what everything is! At least we aren’t at the why stage yet, “What’s dat” is usually easier to answer… though not always!!
He really is at the stage where he repeats nearly everything we say and likes to narrate his little life. When we were out playing with bubbles the other day I was chuckling away to myself as he ran after them shouting: “can’t get” “too high” “come back.” It was just so cute!
He can also be quite demanding and he knows what he wants. Generally revolving around food but I was quite impressed when he woke up from his nap one day last week and said “Hi Mummy, cup a tea?” We are working on please and thank you, though please currently sounds more like “twease” and thank you is more of an “apfu” somehow. We are getting there though!
Then there are the more random outbursts. One of the most common outbursts is
“PatJessTedBen!” usually shouted as an exclamation. Sometimes when he is angry or upset, or disappointed it’s “Oh no! Oh dear me! PatJessTedBen!” We know he loves Postman Pat but quite why this has become his exclamation of choice I have no idea. It actually started off just as Pat, then PatJess, then PatJessTed, and now has been PatJessTedBen for a while. We keep wondering whether another character will be added. Ajay perhaps? or Charlie?
I could probably go on forever, but these are some of our current favourites. I love being able to have sort of conversatiosn with him and his little personality really shines through with all his chattiness.
What little phrases do you love to hear from your little one?
Sing, Monkey, Sing! 28 months
Monkey, like most little ones, has always loved music. A while ago I wrote a post about how he used to sing songs in his head, before he could actually sing the words, it was so cute!
Since his speech development has come on so rapidly lately, we have been waiting to see when this would lead to singing, and he has not disappointed.
Before he could speak, Wind the Bobbin was one of his favourite songs to dance along with, so it came as no surprise when he started singing it, after a fashion. This short video was taken at his Uncle Simon’s house, months ago actually, I just never got round to posting it!
A but rudimentary but very much wind, wind, pull, pull, clap clap clap. He did eventually sing he rest of the song too, but it has to be said, this is no longer a favourite of his to sing!
He loves a microphone toy now and was playing with one in the back of the car a few weeks ago when suddenly hubs and I heard him crooning away into it. Up until now he has just spoken into it, and not used actual words either, mainly a ga ga, which was was his favourite pre-words phrase. I missed the best bit of his singing (you never have a camera on them all the time) but this was still cute.
I think he was singing something about going to the seaside? Bless him hehe.
Just a cute little step to record for posterity 🙂
Playing with friends – 27 months
Monkey made a really lovely big step last week, and one I am really proud of. All babies and toddlers start off playing pretty independently from other children, sort of sid by side, without interacting with them. Monkey has always been particularly wary of other kids, especially after a knock earlier this year. He has been getting a lot better and there have been signs of improvement over the past few months. For example he stopped launching himself off the side of a climbing frame whenever he saw another child nearby!
Pretty much every week we meet up dor a play date with my friend S and her little girl E, who is almost exactly a year older than Monkey. They get on pretty well for the most part though do bicker and snatch toys from each other at times. E though has been very excited by the development of Monkey’s speech over the past few months, often exclaiming “he can nearly talk as good as I can!!”
There has just been little more signs of interaction between them over the last few weeks and then last week they really actually played together. They were lying on the edge of the ‘baby’ zone in the soft play and after watching E roll of a few times (making Monkey chuckle a lot) they then started counting together and trying to roll off at the same time. Sometimes they managed it, other times they were way out of sync, but they were taking it in turns counting down and really trying to do it together.
They looked so cute playing together S and I really had a moment! E is a really sociable little girl and loves playing with other kiddies whereas Monkey has always been much more reserved. We spend so much time together and S was as proud of Monkey as I was. It may seem small but actually a huge step for him and one fo the many signs recently about how much he is growing up and getting more independent from me. Just so lovely 🙂
Lots of Learning – Mini Milestones 26mths
Monkey seems to be at an age where he is learning so much- and just soaking things up like a sponge so I thought it was a good time to write another Mini Milestones post to write it all down somewhere. I also feel that a fitting word for my word of the week, is Learning.
Speech & Cognitive Development
This is the biggy at the moment really. His speech is, all of a sudden, coming on leaps and bounds. As a slightly later talker I have worried in the past and been frequently reassured that one day it will just click and there’ll be no stopping him. I wanted desperately to believe this but there was always a seed of worry and doubt at the back of my mind that it wouldn’t happen that way. But, well, everyone was right! Something has clicked in his brain and the words are flying out of his mouth.
Learning to Count – 25 months
Monkey’s wall stickers
Monkey loves numbers. Loves them. He’s been fascinated by them since he was tiny really. He has some ‘Hungry Caterpillar’ themed wall stickers in his bedroom, which include the numbers 1-5 which are positioned above his bed, and he has found those numbers fascinating since he was very small. He also loves clocks and watches and many times has nearly pulled a relative’s arm off (well maybe not quite off but given it a good tug) to see the numbers on their watch.
Monkey’s Speech at 25 months
Monkey is a late talker. I know all kids vary and do things in their own time, but this is one of those areas where Monkey has definitely lagged behind slightly. One of my friends’ little boys started talking at around 10 months, and most of the other toddlers we know started pretty early too.
But, judging by other toddlers at the music class Monkey goes too, and his tumble tots class, I have seen that it really is not that unusual for a toddler to not speak much until they are around the age of 2. Because it is something I once worried about (and therefore talked about a lot) I also know of lots of adults who didn’t speak until they were nearly 3 – and it never meant anything detrimental about their development.
Moving up a class at Tumbletots
With Monkey turning 2 a few weeks ago, it is now time for him to move up to the 2-3 age group at Tumble Tots! We have loved going to Tumble Tots ever since he started walking, at around 11 months and I have to admit I was a little nervous about making the transition.
