James is now just about to be two and a half. He is something like 90cm tall and weighs something like 12.5kg. I don't know exactly. All his canine teeth finally erupted, with the minimum of fuss, so he only has the final four back molars still to come through. He stopped breastfeeding back in August.
James started at Lloyd Park nursery back in September. He loves it there and every morning over the Christmas holiday he was disappointed to learn it wasn't a nursery day.
James's language has come on hugely since the summer. He finally talks in sentences, just about. Common phrases include:
Mummy, what you doing?
What's that funny noise?
Come on Mummy, let's go!
Where's Petal gone?
Wash your hands!
Hold my hand, busy road.
Car transporter fallen over.
He can count accurately up to 11 or 12. He loves to sing songs and frequently makes up new words and actions to songs. Today we were at a library singing group and he stood at the front with the leader and did all the actions and sang beautifully. He has a CD player in his bedroom and has five or six CDs he likes to switch between - he can change the CD, skip songs, play, pause and so on.
James LOVES Thomas. He can name all the engines and sing the theme tune song. He also likes Peppa Pig and Fireman Sam and Mr Tumble. He still loves playing with cars, lining them up on his road playmat - or a rug with borders, or floorboards, or any lines on the floor really. He has also got more into imaginative play - the Fat Controller tells the trains off in his Brio set, for example, and he likes to put his teddy bears to bed and tell them off. He still loves tractors and diggers. We took him to the Paralympics in September but he wasn't terribly impressed - but at least he can say he was there!
He dropped his nap gradually over a few months, moving from napping every other day to just a couple of times a week. It became such a battle to get him to nap - he had to be walked in the pushchair, over rough ground (such as the park), with no distractions (such as a dog or a helicopter), for approximately 20 minutes before he would drop off. Eventually we stopped trying and he soon got used to it. At first he would sleep for 13 hours a night. That's now back down to 12 hours but still not bad.
Lloyd Park finally reopened at the end of the summer and we have enjoyed many walks around the park, walking on walls, chasing squirrels, feeding the ducks, jumping in puddles and playing in the playground. He still isn't very good on his scooter but he at least now likes to be pulled along on it. He can walk quite a long way but I still usually take the pushchair out as he doesn't much like to be carried and we have had a few very long, cold, slow trails home from places when he just refuses to move.
We had a good go at potty training over the Christmas holiday, but to no avail. It started off not too badly but he was totally unbothered about being in wet pants and he got more and more distressed about using the potty. We decided to put him back in nappies for the time being and to try again after our house move which is (hopefully) imminent. It may be that a more gradual approach would suit him as he likes to try sometimes but other times is not bothered. He's going to start going to nursery in pull ups and they will suggest he uses the loo.
James had a lovely Christmas, and was great at opening presents - he enjoyed playing with each one for a few minutes before moving on to the next one. He loved having lots of grandparents and uncles around to play with.
