Last month, I met up with a couple of friends from my university days who I haven’t seem for ages. Between us we now have four children with one on the way (not me!). We were chatting about milestones reached and the difference between boys and girls (it seems, at least among my friends, that girls do everything faster). I noticed that my friends had written some of their children’s milestones in diaries after the baby books had run out of space. I of course have this blog, which is great, but after talking to my friends I realised there’s quite a lot I don’t record because it might be a bit boring to read. So, this post is for future Mushroom and may be a bit boring. If you do find it interesting, great! If not, come back soon and I’ll have something more interesting for you to read. Probably.

A while ago, I wrote a post which included a list of Mushroom’s most annoying achievements. I do like a good list, so I’m going to start with – in no particular order – what Mushroom can do now (at 17 months):

  • Walk, run. He can run away too fast for my liking!
  • Open and close doors. He’s fond of slamming the door on me as I chase him around the house to change his nappy
  • Blow a whistle
  • Climb up and down stairs (he prefers to climb up. Not so keen on coming down)
  • Turn a light switch (or any switch) on and off
  • Point to (most) named body parts. If he’s in the mood
  • Can wipe his own nose. At last. He needs a little help sometimes though
  • Drinks from an open cup. Not when we’re out
  • Shows empathy – comforts another child when upset (well, he tries to)
  • Follow simple (and some more complex) instructions. E.g. ‘Get Daddy’s socks from the floor and put them in the laundry basket please.’ Handy, that one.
  • Talk. A bit. Kind of (see below)
  • Sleep through the night. When he feels like it (7pm – 4/5am). This is MASSIVE for us.

And Mushroom’s current vocabulary – that is, words I recognise other than Mummy – Mameee – and Daddy – Dada) includes:

  • Banana – Nana
  • Doggy – Doddy, or ‘woof, woof!’
  • No – Naah
  • Bird – Baaa
  • Baby – Baba
  • Juice – Jeees (sounds a lot like shoes)
  • Shoes – Sheees (sounds a lot like juice)
  • Cheese – Sheees (although given the context he might just be asking for more juice)
  • Hat – Ah! Ah! (pats head. That’s how I worked out it means hat).

I have tried to put these in the order he started saying them. He also says a shortened version of his own name, which is considerably easier to say than Mushroom. Let’s say he calls himself ‘Mush.’ He also addresses all other children by his name. Unless he’s calling them baby.

He’s particularly interested in (in no particular order):

  • Music and dancing (I have written about this before. It’s not new)
  • Aeroplanes
  • Animals
  • Bikes, motorbikes
  • Cleaning. He likes sweeping, hoovering and wiping things with baby wipes
  • People. He loves watching people. He also likes to cuddle older children and coddle younger ones
  • Scooters. He’s always trying to steal these off other children!
  • Anything dangerous (usually some kind of tool) that Daddy has left lying around.

I’m sure there’s more but I’m just writing what I can think of today. What milestones has your child reached recently? I’m especially interested in things you hadn’t thought of before today!