your sixteenth month

You were really a toddler now and no longer a baby.

You had gone from a few tentative steps

to wanting to walk everywhere,

and then run everywhere,

in a very short space of time.

And it was funny how quickly we had already got used to seeing you walking around.

It seemed as if you had always been doing it,

and the tiny baby who couldn't even hold up his own head

suddenly seemed a million years ago.

You were so interested in the world around you

and watching you explore and learn

was such a great thing to watch.

You seemed to have a really long concentration span for a little boy

and would play with things for such a long time

until you had mastered them

or just because you were having fun.

You had invented a little game of throwing toys over the arm of the sofa

and then walking around to collect them

before doing it all over again.

And you could happily play this game for ages;

half an hour for one session that we timed.

You seemed to be going through a 'posting phase'

and liked nothing better than putting toys into things.

This resulted in lots of smaller toys completely vanishing

only to resurface days or weeks later

when you had found them while attempting to post something else.

You adored looking at books

and your first job each morning

would be to empty your book shelf and have a look at your collection.

At bedtimes we always read you a bedtime story,

normally two,

and you would sit so still looking at the pages,

listening to our voices,

and waiting patiently for the pages to turn.

Your absolute favourites were The Gruffalo and The Gruffalo's Child

which you would sit completely transfixed by.

Your obsession with animals continued

and you loved to hear and try saying animal names and noises.

One look at Darcy or Wentworth resulted in a chorus of "cat cat cat"

and whenever you were outdoors you were on the constant look out for "bird".

Whenever you saw a dog we would ask "What does a dog say?"

and you would happily tell us "woof woof woof"

which was just so cute that we liked to show off that party trick quite a bit.

Talking of party tricks

you had learned a very funny one of clenching your fists and your jaw and shaking.

You started off doing it when you were excited

but because it always raised such a laugh if anyone was watching

you were soon doing it for effect

and on demand if anyone did it to you first.

The funny thing was

that your Uncle Matt used to do the exact same thing as a baby.

It was just so strange that you seems to be favouring the same party trick.

We took you on your first beach holiday

to West Wales with Pops' side of the family.

You had an absolute blast from start to finish.

You loved the sand.

You loved the sea.

You loved throwing yourself into rock pools for a dip.

You loved swimming in the outdoor pool.

You were in your element with so many family members to play with and entertain.

You would seek out favourite people for cuddles now.

And some days you would be in such a cuddly mood

that you would be coming over for a mummy cuddle every few minutes.

Not that Mummy would ever complain.

The nicest thing was the way you would lean in and nuzzle your face into us,

and that you would grip tighter if we tried to let you go and you weren't finished yet.

Those little cuddles made us feel like a million dollars

and like you really did love us

as much as we loved you.