My 20 month old

At 20 months you're so grown up! You're stringing short sentences together, you're understanding loads and will follow out quite complex instructions. You're learning and remembering lots of family names, aunties, uncles and cousins all feature in our conversations and you remember tiny little details from when you last saw them (cousin Max playing with the ABC abacus etc).

Toys and the boy

Speaking - you string short sentences together, repeating everything we say and also putting them together yourself - Daddy cough, Caitlin's hat, out now, nice sausage etc.

Teeth - You still only have 8, 4 at the top and 4 at the bottom, in the centre of your mouth. You don't have molars so can't chew properly yet.

Food - ooh you're a little monkey, you turn your nose up at a lot of meals (today spicy pork meatballs, you had a few spoonfuls and spit it all out). If anything is lumpy or needs to be chewed a lot you immediately spit it out. You love pasta - lasagne, bolognese, etc, also fish pie, chicken & rice, chicken noodles, sausages, grapes, apples, yoghurts, peas, toast, shreddies, cheerios. You hate porridge and can't be persuaded to try it.

Early in the morning with Mama

Sleep - something you're pretty good at. Bedtime is 7pm sharp and you sleep through until about 6.30pm. Occasionally you wake extra early and won't go to sleep, but that only happens once every couple of months.

Clothes - you're in a mix of 12-18 and 18-24 month old things. Quite a lot of hand-me-downs from Felix and Otto (red fleece, tons of jeans, brown & orange stripy jumper) and new Xmas clothes - stripy blue, red, green tank top, blue and white hand knitted scarf from Aunty Em and robot pyjamas.

Monster gown

Toys - you love your cuddly toy cat, bunny, monkey and elephant. Duplo lego bricks, building towers and playing with the clear blue ice cube blocks. Wooden jigsaws including the retro 50s zoo and transport ones, choo choo trains - wooden with magnets.

Books - So many, we read at least 3-4 a day, favourites include Slinky Malinki Opens the Door (Malinky), The Gruffalo (Gr'lo), Thomas the Tank Engine (Thomas), Big Book of Animals (anmals), Hairy McClary (doggies) and Waybuloo (JoJo).

Nursery - Joyce is still your favourite, but you also like Louise and Jordana and last week you learnt to say Helen (manager who works in the downstair's room). You've made friends with Caitlin, a little girl a month younger then you (today we met up with her and her Mama in the park, you two got on so well, playing together, giggling and running around), and you also have a friend called George.

In the park

Other stuff - you've just started to learn colours, you can identify blue and red, you know most others, but can't yet be prompted to identify them. You love being outside, walking around, playing at the play park, chasing little friends, peepo around trees, visiting the statue and acorn pile in the park.