Life of a yummy baby ... and now there are 2!!!!!

For a while, he had been into lining up plastic animals and blocks. This one is of Morgan lining up bottles randomly in our kitchen, while I was trying to make dinner. He probably still hasn't got the concept of counting but will sometimes repeat after you, saying the odd numbers. Colours is another thing. Not that I am expecting him to get the colours right at his age but its funny to know that everything is 'melen' or yellow in Welsh and everything is 蓝色 or blue in Mandarin.

Morgan's latest developments at 21 months:

1. He has a thing for choo-choo trains. Daddy even has to standby a picture of a train at the breakfast table before he could get started on his breakfast. Everything with a train on it drives him wild!

2. His vocabulary has grown tremendously. He calls the baby frog a tadpole or 蝌 蚪 in Mandarin. Honestly I didn't know this one till I went to primary school. Also when we stopped our car outside Ikea today, he shouted 'parcio' ('to park' in Welsh). The funny thing is we don't ever remember saying this but he's obviously heard it from somewhere!

3. He enjoys not just to make mess but clear up as well! One day when he spilt water on the floor, he followed Daddy by wiping it up with a dishcloth, just the way Daddy was doing it!

4. He's starting to explore the boundaries of play. Sometimes a session of what seemed like a fun game of face-pinching and cuddling turned into unnecessary slapping and hitting. We had to stop him and repeat 'no' various times but on few occasions, we had to retaliate just to show him what it feels like to be hit. We rarely do this as we don't want to encourage him in hitting back.

5. He's also contesting his bedtime routine with us. At the moment we have 1 bedtime routine where daddy does the short version and mummy, the long one. It consists of a warm bath, 3 good stories, into sleeping bag and saying goodnight to all his stuffed toys, then lights out. Not a whimper. Max time taken : 10 to 15 mins. With mummy's version it gets stretched for quite a bit ....... bath, 8 to 10 good stories, into sleeping bag and saying goodnight to all his stuffed toys, then lights out - he cries for mummy not to go yet - and mummy feels desperate and would begin to sing along with stuffed toys till he drifts off to sleep, then tip toes out tired and guilty. Max time taken : 45 mins to 1 hour.

I believe everyone who's had children can identify with this. I am just amazed at how soon he is beginning to show all this awareness, assertiveness and control in himself and towards others. He is learning the ways of things around him so quickly that he is already negotiating for his own space and preference. I know I need to work on the bedtime routine and I will keep on at the good routines and habits. In this respect, my hats off to Daddy!

I also found the site PowerToolz quite useful and concise in summing up points to look out for in a child's development at every stage. They are not hard and fast rules but it helps to know what sort of toys and tools could be helpful at each stage of development. I also recommend this UK site called the babycentre which has good content and a pleasing layout for a good read.