The time since Noah's 1st birthday has flown by and it feels like his development has sped up 100%! He's nearly 15 months and he now says a few words. So far his favourite word is "Garden". He has loved being out in the garden all summer and now I fear that he will be fed up of being cooped up inside during the colder months. The mere mention of the word "Garden" and he's off to pick up his shoes, pointing at the back door repeatedly saying "garden"! So much so that we were outside in the back garden in the rain one Sunday morning. I couldn't say no to him and I love how the rain makes no difference to him. He's not conditioned yet to want to stay in when the skies are grey and wet. Hmm, might not love this so much as the winter kicks in....
He has progressed from saying Dadda to Daddee, Mummee, Nanee and he says "Isla" all the time. Other words he says: "ball", "bubble", "cup", "cat" and "up" when he wants to go upstairs. He does so many animal sounds in response to seeing pictures, oinks like a pig, roars like a lion, even bigger roar for Dinosaur etc - he loves the Peekaboo Barn app on my phone and I've found it such a useful tool for getting his nappy changed without wrestling with him. He also says 'Bi, ed, us' - which is his way of singing the song Big Red Bus.
He loves music still. Dances immediately on hearing it. This fits in nicely with Isla's current love of musical chairs and musical bumps! He joins in, not quite understanding why he has to sit down suddenly or why he's getting pushed off a chair. He also enjoys nursery rhymes, particularly 'Row, row, row your boat". To be honest, he dances even if there's no music on if you ask him to.
He LOVES anything Thomas the Tank Engine! He now has so many Thomas t-shirts/ PJ's that I'm worried he might not wear anything else. The minute he saw some Thomas tracksuit bottoms my mum bought him from Sainsburys yesterday he started stripping off the trousers he had on! The Thomas thing even goes so far as yogurt - he loves the pots with the characters and is visibly disappointed if we don't have those ones.
We're still regularly waking in the night (read 'regularly' as EVERY BLOODY NIGHT!). This does get me and the OH down actually. And he does want a bottle to get back to sleep. It's really tricky as Isla and Noah share a room now, so what the hell are we meant to do when he's screaming the house down other than give in to what he wants? So most nights he has a bedtime bottle and then he will wake anytime between 11.30pm and 3am and need milk. He then goes back to sleep and either sleeps until between 5am and 6.30am depending on the time he has woken up initially and if it's the earlier time then he gets another bottle and gets put back down again - we've manged to get him out of the habit of rising for the day at 5.30am (touching lots of wood while I write this). I can't see the light at the end of the tunnel to be honest with the nightly waking. He eats enough food during the day so it has definitely become a habit and if he was our only child then I think we would leave him to cry himself back to sleep but because Isla gets disturbed we can't do that really.
Back to happier things, he adores Bobcat and is actually really gentle with him when he strokes him. Although his excitement does get the better of him sometimes he does screech a bit when he sees him which freaks Bobby out a bit.
Cars and trains are his current favourite things, he will zoom around the floor with them for ages, making car and train noises as he does it. I can watch him play for ages, he finds it so easy to do it on his own, he doesn't need to be accompanied while he plays. He is also an avid Lego Duplo fan, he can build for ages. We also play hide and seek so often with Isla that when he hears people counting for any other reason he covers his eyes like we're having a game of hide and seek.
I feel so much love for my little boy, I feel such pride when I see him growing and changing but a tiny part of me mourns him not being a baby anymore. Which feels odd to me as I found it quite hard when he was a little baby!
