January Update

T'was a snowy and cold January

Callum managed to come upclose and touch a brown and black grizzly bear in the Natural History Museum. Since then, he refers to bears as 'boh-coo!' That was his favourite word for the week after we returned from Oxford.

It was 'Mama! Boh-Coo! Mama! Boh-Coo!' for a while.

He loves museums now. He goes to the one nearby our house with a giant walrus which he also refers to as 'boh-coo'.

Callum and I definitely bonded some over this trip. It would have been fantastic if he wasn't ill for most of it. Despite the horrid virus, we managed to survive staying in a 5 bedroom house (split over 5 floors!) but came back and succumbed to the virus ourselves. It was a very tough few weeks to weather especially with our childminder having a week off and both of us falling sick simultaneously.

It's fascinating watching Callum grow. He has been able to listen to a series of instructions now. Eg: pick up that book and put it back on the shelf or in the box. Just a few days ago, I was still very sick and he came into the room and said 'Up' (his way of asking me to carry him). He surprised me by being able to follow my instructions to grab a book off the table which was well above his height and then sit down and flip through it by himself. His ability of reaching high up on his tippy toes and grabbing his water bottle, books and putting them back is amazing to watch.

He has added new words to his vocabulary. He can say 'a car', ' a bus', 'airplane', 'book', 'birdie' for starters. He has been enjoying exclaiming too. He goes 'A Ball! A Balllll! A BALLL!' He also still doing the 'rrrr' tongue flips and says 'rrrrrr.....aba!' (for rainbow). Cheeky boy as always, giggling and laughing away. Without fail, he giggles when we press the button of the giggling Gingerbread Man book. We also got him a ukelele due to his fascination with the guitar ('dee-teh' as he says it). Now he always brings it to me for some reason. He won't let me go around without it. He also refers to stars as 'tee-teh'. Yogurt is 'ah-gurt' which this little boy can eat buckets of. He adds in new babbling words every few days. Latest one is 'don-don-don'. He says 'morning' too everyday. We would say Good..... then he goes 'mor-nay'. He says 'Amen' too as 'Mennnnn'. He can say 'more' for more food and responds with 'mmm...' when we talk seriously to him about something. He started saying 'am-bah/ am-bang' for ambulance and umbrella. Adding new words every week! We are collecting the new words he has learned and adding it to a word-tree his childminder has given us a week ago.

He has also loves to climb on chairs lately. Very strong and active boy. He learned how to move forward on his tricycle which made us very proud. He runs really fast too. Our home is filled with pitter patter of little feet zooming all around.

The biggest reward so far is that he has learned to walk by himself into his room for a nap. We have been giving him 10 min, 5 min signals before naptime. When naptime comes, we tell him it's naptime now and off he goes by himself into the room to stand by the cot. What a lovely boy. He is also able to stay by himself in the room come bedtime without much fuss. It's such a joy watching him learn new things and expressing himself in new ways.