19 months
New own-language words (with English translation in brackets): kekkol (apple), nice (cheese), baba (any child of any age), pretty (any jewellery), tea-tea (Happy Feet, the DVD), pawpaw (strawberry), bup (up), pies (please), come-come (come here).
New English words and phrases: Gruffalo, “bless you”, tea, lunch, mess, hug, blue ball, big ball, hot, teddy.
New skills: cleaning imaginary mess on the floor with a face-cloth (every. single. day: I’m starting to get a complex about the state of our floors), pretending to be asleep by doing a very convincing little snore noise, walking up and down stairs while standing upright instead of crawling or climbing, pushing the swing and saying “wheee!”, blowing kisses, building Megablocks towers, making her teddies hug and kiss each other, putting my necklaces round her own neck, running, kicking a ball, putting on a funny voice for comic effect, playing Catches, mimicking the sounds of horses’ hooves past our house by clicking her tongue, singing in gibberish and on a single note, using the potty (sporadic), saying sentences (“Dad gone” in the morning; “belly-button gone” while I dress her; “toes hot”, plaintively, standing barefoot on the paving next to the pool on a summery day, right before bursting into tears; “Cole-Cole num-num” while the dogs are eating).
Likes: fruit, all kinds; splashing in the pool; hats; my earrings; closing cupboard doors (even when I’m standing in front of mine while choosing clothes); scolding the dogs when they bark; going for a drive in the car; new places, especially if they come with jungle gyms or slap chips; her nanny, the cat, her stuffed cow called Cow, me, her Dad, her grandmothers (in that order).
Not keen on: cooked red peppers (it was worth a try), the nanny leaving in the afternoon, food or tea or paving that’s too hot (fair enough, really).
This is where I come to write 