1 and a ½

Today my little guy is one and a half! That's a whole 18 months that he has been in our lives and changing them everyday for the better :)

Physical Changes

In-keeping with the theme that Dexter doesn't do things by halves, his top two canine teeth made their (very quick) appearance together. So by the time he was 15 1/2 months he has 16 teeth! I am just waiting for those second molars to appear now then he will have a full set!

Needless to say that following his new found confidence with walking that he now insists he walks all the time. He's the first one at the door with his shoes in-hand waiting to be let loose. And he can even tackle the steps (with a little help from the railings) so he makes his own way to the car most mornings.

We are also trying encourage Dexter to exercise some better table manners and have slowly been teaching him how to use cutlery properly. I know he is still quite young for this and he knows full well that using his hands is far far quicker, but impressively he does give it his best try. Even if that only involves stabbing some food with his fork and then using his fingers to take it back off the fork to eat it haha - we are letting him take his time with this one but we offer him cutlery each meal time and more and more he tries to use it.

Developmental Changes

Dexter has only added a few extra words to his vocabulary recently but his favourite one has been doggy and since he learnt it, everything is a doggy.... bless his enthusiasm. Needless to say we try encourage him to learn the correct names for animals. However, he is getting close to being able to lion properly. We bought Dexter a lion money box and whilst it's still only understandable to us that this is what he is trying to say, he knows for sure that a lion says ROAR! and is his new favourite noise to make... and expression to pull for photographs....

He also loves to vroom vroom when he is playing with this cars :) and although he hasn't learned an abundance of new words to say recently, he can certainly understand an awful lot! He knows what certain facial/body parts are and can point to them when you ask him to (he is obsessed with belly buttons at the moment).

He can follow simple instructions such as 'fetch your shoes', 'put that away' and 'would you like a drink?' And he loves to imitate. I feel my obsessive traits with cleaning are slowly rubbing off on him. He copies me plumping the cushions, he wipes his own face with wet wipes and when we get a flannel to clean up after meals he starts clearing his own highchair :D

In final news, Dexter has recently moved groups at nursery. Since he started in January, he has been a little duckling, outgrowing the 0-18 month group at a fast pace. But now he has been allowed to spread his metaphorical wings and fly. He has moved up to the little tadpoles group and is back with children of his peers, children that can run and play and engage with him. He seems to enjoy it so much more and he has made a new found friend in his new key worker, Daniel. They are best buds! and Dexter's face lights up when he sees him.

Every new day is an adventure with kids. I love being a mummy xx

Dexter @ 18 months