Well it was over a year since I last wrote anything on this blog about Joe’s progress in life, I thought I should really update a little on whats happened over the past 12 months. Joe’s language is fantastic, he was saying words very early and once he reached about 18 months, the sentences began albeit two worded ones. He rapidly expanded his vocabulary and I cant even imagine how many words he knows, but he learns at least 3 new words a day. His new thing is adding the word “too” so everytime I say that I like/want/don’t like something, he will say, “Joe likes cows too” (as an example!). He is starting to recognise yours, he has known mine for a while and at the moment he likes things to be his which he confirms with “mine” or “my” and especially so if anybody stands next to me or if Chris put his hand on me, Joe will shout “No, that’s MY Mummy!”. He 
can count to 10 confidently and today got to 15 and he is even trying out the time on a Postman Pat Tell The Time book he was given by one of my friends. He was showing which hand was for minutes and was very good at counting round the clock face to find the correct hour – this astounded me! Im not sure if he is progressing as well as he could be with colours, although today he was pointing out colours on the bus without being asked but will hardly ever tell you the colour of something if you ask, but then do toddlers ever do anything on demand?
Joe’s memory is SO good, I think Joe has been to the Doctors only a handful of times but remembered that the Meningitis poster (you know, the one with the baby and the symptom labels) in the back of his red book which he found was a poster he had seen at the Doctors. We go to certain places and he points out things that even I didn’t remember. He can tell me the way to places by pointing out things he has remembered along the way (houses, cars, trains etc) and has now learned how to spell his name. Chris taught him his full name and where he lives a while ago so the next thing will be the address no doubt hehe. Everytime we see a horse, its the “football horse”, the local team has a horse on the strip so now every picture of a horse is linked to football. I really enjoy watching and listening to his thought processes, the things that boy does amazes me.
Sleeping is a heck of a lot better, well lets face it, it couldn’t get any worse! For almost 20 months, Joe had me awake every 2-3 hours in the night and by changing his bedtime routine somewhat we got him down to waking once a night. Recently, and I know Im going to screw it all up now, he has been sleeping ALL THROUGH THE NIGHT! Wahoo. Sleep, something I’ve not had for almost two years, well when I say not had I mean not had for any lengthy periods of time. I think the longest was 4 hours once. So, now Joe goes to bed 7/7.30pm might wake once around 9pm (we’ve still got one set of molars to come and the dribble suggests that they are coming) and will sleep until 5.30am when he comes into our bed, then he will sleep until 6.30am/7am. His naps are easy now, he will go down at around the same time every day without a battle and he will sleep anything between one & two hours.
Joe loves food, he will eat nearly everything other than tomatoes or carrots (except for the carrots we have grown in the back garden). We’ve hit a bit of a phase where if he doesn’t like the look of something, then he wont eat it but then he might eat it the next day without the “Yuck” comments hehe. Funny little man!
Potty training is going swimmingly. We didn’t really push it upon him, but have had a potty in the house for a little over a year now just to get him used to it. I started to ask him if he wanted to use the potty and he would sit on it bu
t wouldnt perform and then one day, we had a wee and he loved the response so much that he nearly always asks for a wee or a poo on the potty now. Equally he will sit on the toilet but prefers the potty. I’ve not been brave enough to try it outdoors yet but I might do that from next week. Ive bought the changing pads for the buggy ready and have plenty of room in my bag for spare clothes!
I gave birth to a natural comedian, Joe loves to make you laugh. He will tickle you, pull funny faces, do funny walks and has this funny voice that he does when he really wants to impress you. He loves to be outdoors, on play things (swings, slides, climbing frames) loves the ducks, squirrels and the park and loves nothing more than to kick a ball, bounce on his trampoline or play with animals and farm houses. His favourite tv programmes (I know, I know, but it gives me time to cook/tidy) are Show Me, Show Me and Something Special. He likes to dance and sing – he does a fantastic rendition of Baa Baa Black Sheep!
Im sure there is more, will add it as and when I remember.
