Idris at 21 Months!

Idris has found his climbing feet - he is really brave and adventurous in playgrounds now, and loves to sit for ages on the roundabout whilst older children spin it or follow them up the climbing frames. He's really confident and if he needs instructions one time, he's got it then! He's a tough old cookie too, only wanting acknowledgement of a bruise or fall before heading determinedly off again.

He is beginning to explore crafts a bit more, dabbling in painting and getting to grips with 'sizzies' as he calls them. Below he is proudly showing Dewi his picture before we ceremoniously pinned it on the kitchen door along with the girls pictures. He was very taken with having it up there to see!

He really loves books now. We have piles of books everywhere and he will announce 'book' then plump down next to or on you and open it up. We talk about the pictures often instead of reading the story and point out new things or suggest what is happening. This builds up and the next time we look at the same book, he points those things out. favourite books at the moment are Shirley Hughes 'Noisy Noises' and 'Two Shoes, New Shoes', an animal noises book with a howling wolf and Dear Zoo.

I have stopped trying to record all of his new words. He has had a word explosion but they are quite often words that are infrequently used so I don't hear them often enough to think 'oh that's new' and write them down! He strings several words together to convey his meaning, but not really sentences yet, but his is very knowledgeable and makes the most wonderful expressive eye contact as he talks with me! One word of note that he came out with was when he pointed across a field to a rugby came and proudly announced 'Butt ball, mum, butt ball'...... oh the shame of our son naming rugby as football.... I did laugh telling Dewi about it!

All of a sudden, playthings seem to interest him more - he enjoyed pouring rice into the grain silo on the farm and then letting it out again - as well transporting the rice all over the place, including into the water tray......

..... which provided for his love of pouring backwards and forwards...... but which also got transported all over the place!!! He has also enjoyed trying to match keys to the correct doors in the little animal hospital we have so he could put the animals in and out, matching a few shapes into the shape sorter till, some simple peg board puzzles and two piece jigsaws, and putting coats and shoes on and off the doll.

A poorly Idris curls up and falls asleep on his Daddy's lap - he looked so tiny all of a sudden! All in all this little boy is such a wonderful gift - my heart swells every day watching him play with his sisters, how they care for him and how he responds. He is so compassionate when they hurt themselves, running to put his arms around them with a concerned expression on his face. He has utter confidence that they have his back, often turning to them with his arms out if he hurts himself or becomes upset. Our family is the centre of his world, he falls asleep singing 'Ebe, Aith, Daddy, Moo-oom, Idis' over and over, all is just as it should be