Eureka!

Today, we had a fun family day out at Eureka! with Dexter. It was a brilliant learning experience for him, even at this young age. He really enjoyed being able to wander freely around a public place and play with whatever he wanted. And the added bonus being that the entry fee includes an annual pass so we can take him again for free.

He had a great time & it was clearly a tiring experience, he was exhausted at the end of it!

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

Watch me run!

Dexter has well and truly found his feet, yay...

One! (and a quarter)

So, I decided that after Dexter turned 1 year old that I would reduce the blog entries to every 3 months seeing as development slows down considerably at this stage.... and then loads seemed to happen.

We were so excited recently when Dexter took his first steps completely unaided but unfortunately there is little more to report on that. He is not running around like a maniac just yet, but he keeps attempting it. Practice will eventually make perfect, but at the moment he still prefers to crawl.

However, there has been plenty of other things going on to compensate. In addition to the abundance of adorable chattering, Dexter can now say FIVE different things :) We've now got: mama, dada, all gone, hiya and yeah. He shakes and nods his head but I've not had that defiant NO! yet

Dexter started nursery one day a week in the new year and he seems to enjoy it. The staff are always telling us what a lovely, happy and well-behaved little boy he is which is so nice to hear. However, being in close proximity with other children has opened him up to getting illnesses. A few weeks ago, our little soldier had chicken pox and although he was poorly, he was very fortunate! He had only a few spots and seemed to recover from it very quickly.

But as if fighting off chicken pox wasn't enough for his body to cope with, in true Dexter style, more teeth started coming through in pairs! In addition to the 8 front teeth, Dexter now has 4 molars (one each side, top and bottom) and both his bottom canines... that's fourteen teeth!! Fourteen!! I'm sure kids his age shouldn't have that many?! But he is so brave and makes such little fuss about it that we don't even know he is teething until we see a whole tooth where there previously was just gum :)

Dexter is turning into such an adorable little person, with tons of affection for his mummy & daddy. He loves his cuddles but now he even gives kisses. He is such a loving son, we're so proud of him xx

Dexter @ 15 months

Today I went to nursery...

"Today was my first day at nursery and I had lots of fun.

It was beef stew on the menu for dinner today and cheesy broccoli pasta for tea with bananas and custard for pudding, it was so yummy!

My favourite parts of today were playing with the toy cars, meeting some new friends and charming the nursery workers with my cheeky smile.

It was all so exciting that I didn't want to miss anything so I didn't even take a nap. I was super tired when I got home and had an early night.

I can't wait to go again next week"

One step, two step...

I cannot express how proud I am of my son right now. I am so excited to be able to say that we have just witnessed Dexter take his first steps all by himself!

He has been able to stand unsupported for a while now but today he attempted for the first time to make a break for it and managed several wobbly steps before he lost his balance :)

Santa, I was a very good boy all year (honest!)

Being only 6 weeks old at the time, Dexter was completely oblivious to Christmas last year. I think he slept through most of it, and it was mummy and daddy who had to open all his presents.But this year was different!

For the first time ever, this year all gifts were wrapped and left out of sight instead of going straight under the tree. The look on his little face on Christmas morning coming down to the view of presents, presents and more presents was amazing! He'd already nailed the art of ripping off wrapping paper on his birthday last month so he was totally ready for the challenge :) 

After a tiring morning being spoiled it was time for a nap. We wanted to make sure he was well rested before we all got dolled up to head out for Christmas dinner with the family. We wondered if it was brave or just stupid of us to think it would be a good idea to take a 1 year old out in public to eat a 3-course dinner. But he loved it, was soooo well behaved and probably devoured the most out of all of us haha

He slept like a log that night and caught up on all his beauty sleep ready for another busy day ahead. On Boxing day we were invited to spend the day with Dexter's favourite cousin, Chloe and the family. He enjoyed having someone to play with and as they don't get to see him very often, auntie Kelly & uncle Craig seemed to enjoy having him round for the day. He certainly made himself at home!