your twenty-first month

You were such a grown up little boy.

It might have been because we had your baby sister to compare you with,

but you suddenly seemed so big and clever.

You liked to be grown up and help with things at home,

so as well as tidying up your toys

you would also collect nappies and wipes for us

and knew how to put rubbish in the bin.

Having been shown once

you would now take it upon yourself to rock your baby sister in her car seat 

while we got ready to go out.

You were such a considerate and helpful boy

and you really were the best big brother.

You had an incredible memory

and had clearly learned the route to Nanny and Pops house,

because as soon as we turned left at a particular set of traffic lights

you would start excitedly shouting "Nanny and Pops!!!"

You could also remember things that had been talked about weeks or months before,

like when you saw Daddy with an umbrella

and said "Umbrella"

followed by "Ella ella, ey ey ey."

This had been a silly joke we had played with your umbrella flash card months ago,

but you had remembered it.

Your vocabulary seemed to exploding

and you were adding new words to your repertoire at an incredible rate.

Plus you were stringing together increasingly more words into little sentences

to the extent that we could have proper little conversations with you now.

You had always loved to listen to us sing

and would dance along whenever you heard any music whatsoever,

including ringtoes or toy noises,

but you now liked to join in with singing

which was super adorable.

Your favourite song by a long way was Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

You would join in with the words your knew

and do the actions while spinning around in a circle.

You had hit a phase where your were obsessed with climbing.

You seemed incapable of 'just sitting' anywhere

and all the furniture had become your playground.

Sofas were mountains,

your chair provided you with a ladder to peer out of the window

and on one occasion

in practically no time at all

you used a dining chair to climb up and sit in the middle of the dinner table.

Luckily you were pretty good at understanding the word "no"

so you hadn't tried that one more than once!

You absolutely lit up whatever room you were in

with your cute smile

and your charming personality.

So many people complimented us on what a lovely little boy you were

that we couldn't help but see that it wasn't just us who were totally under your spell.

You were so polite;

always saying "Hello. You alright?" and "Bye bye. See you soon."

At bed times you would say "Nu-night. Dweet dreams." to everyone in sight.

You never forgot to say "Ple-lease" when you wanted something

although "Thank-you" did occasionally get forgotten if the thing you had been given was food.

You were just too busy stuffing it in your mouth to say "Thank-you" sometimes.

We were so proud of the caring, kind, clever little boy you were becoming

you were an absolute star.