eighteen months new

Eighteen months old,

officially a proper toddler now,

and just the best little girl ever!

The transformation in you in the six months since your birthday

were just plain scary.

From that little baby who turned one

to the walking, chattering little girl

crammed full of personality and charm

who we now had the pleasure of spending our days with.

Mummy would refer to you often as our little ray of sunshine,

and you really were just that.

You were so happy and smiley,

so content and loved entertaining yourself independently,

but at the same time so affectionate and cuddly.

You had a seriously cheeky side to you too,

and had just about the naughtiest little grin imaginable 

when you were about to do something you shouldn't.

And you had a feisty streak too,

which knew we'd come to dislike at times,

but which at the moment just showed how determined you were

and how you knew your own mind.

You were just the most perfect little lady,

a real mixture of different traits

in the loveliest of packages.

You were talking, talking, talking all the time.

There still weren't a great deal of words that we understood,

but you used so much intonation and pulled such dramatic facial expressions

that it seemed like you were very passionate about whatever it was your were talking about.

You did say "drink" very clearly.

And you would sometimes throw your drinks cup at us

while shouting "drink"

to let us know your beaker was empty and you wanted a refill.

You said "Dadda", "Mama"

and something which sounded like your brother's name too.

You would also sometimes say "See-a-soon"

when people said goodbye to you.

And you would stand at our feet with your arms in the air

and say "duddle" for cuddle,

which was so very adorable.

You were certainly adding more and more sounds to your repertoire

and trying so hard to mimic things we said.

But one thing was for sure,

you didn't like to do things unless it was on your own terms,

so getting you to show off new words and party tricks was basically impossible.

We knew for certain that you understood everything that was going on around you,

and while you definitely weren't saying quite as much as you big brother did at your age,

you still seemed to get your point across really well.

You seemed to picking up lots of physical skills

and would now tiptoe around at times,

and stamp your feet at others.

You loved to dance,

and you would squeal along with anyone who sang.

Your spatial awareness was really good,

you rarely seemed to fall over because you could balance so well,

and you were totally fearless about everything;

climbing, slopes, changes in terrain,

nothing slowed you down when you were adventuring.

You were turning into a real little book worm

and just loved to sit by the bookshelf

emptying book after book onto your lap

to leaf slowly through them;

carefully examining each page as if you were reading every word.

You loved bed time stories,

when you would cuddle up in your brother's bed while Mummy or Daddy read to you.

You would point at the characters,

copying what you had seen us and your brother do,

and you would keenly help us turn the pages.

You were at a simply mind-blowingly amazing age,

and you fascinated us with all that you did and learned.

It seemed impossible to think that you were eighteen months old already,

but at the same time we couldn't remember our lives without you,

or imagine our family without you in it.