forty-six weeks new

It seemed like you had grown up a whole month in just a week.

And just as we were wanting time to slow down a bit,

you had decided it was time to race forward.

You had been enjoying standing up for a little while now,

and we would often find you standing in your cot

holding onto the bars and peering over the top,

but in your forty-sixth week you stepped up a gear.

All you wanted to do was stand.

You were pulling up on the sofas,

the big toys,

our legs,

anything and everything.

And then as if to show us that you really had the standing thing cracked

you decided to stand all by yourself without holding on.

You were playing with a wooden spoon and watching your brother play

and it was almost like you forgot to hold Mummy's finger.

She hovered over your whooping with excitement

and you looked a little bewildered;

like you had no idea what the fuss was about.

When you did realise you panicked and threw your arms up towards Mummy

and she scooped you up for big kisses and cuddles.

Your talking was also coming on in leaps and bounds.

You chatted all day long;

and it was definitely chattering now rather than just babbling.

It sounded like proper talking with different sounds and intonation,

the only problem was that we didn't understand your language.

Funnily enough your big brother seemed to sometimes

and he would often translate for us which was really cute.

And you would also come out with proper words in amongst your chatterings

and sometimes they were really amusing,

like saying the word "scissors" which seemed a very random word for a baby.

You often sounded like you were saying "hi ya" to people.

And you would say a really funny, posh sounding "yah" repeatedly 

while nodding your head,

which would have us in stitches.

You had the best appetite of any child, ever!

You absolutely loved food

and had never turned down anything we had offered you.

You would growl and shout at us if we didn't feed you fast enough

and you would lean forward in your highchair and bounce with excitement at meal times.

You would eat a huge bowl of weetabix for breakfast each morning

and at lunch time you might have crackers or sandwiches,

you loved to have anything with Marmite on.

And at dinner time you were eating more and more of what we ate,

including pasta bake, fish fingers, chilli and cowboy pie,

all of which you loved.

But you had definitely inherited Daddy's sweet tooth

because your favourite things to eat were biscuits and fromage frais.

One thing was for sure,

you were going to race towards your first birthday at full speed

whether we were prepared for it or not.