The littlest monkey

T turned 1 back at the end of March, and will be 15 months old tomorrow. He's such a little sweetie. He's like K in many ways, but he is a lot more physical than K was at that age. T is never happier than when he's being carried; he loves to be kissed, and will press his face against my mouth so hard that I can't breathe; if he wants me to look a certain way, he will use his hands to turn my head in the right direction. He likes piggy-back rides, and will try to climb on when I'm sitting on the floor, putting his arms around my neck and walking his legs up my back. Even before he could walk, he would crawl over to me and rest his head on my lap.

K only just started to walk at about this age but T, the typical second child, was walking before 11 months and now enjoys running off and climbing furniture. Lately, we see a lot of this sort of thing...

...and this...

...and even this. Look carefully - he's pulling himself up in a chin-up!

T is a keen eater and, despite photographic evidence to the contrary, is actually quite a tidy eater. He rarely deliberately throws food on the floor and in fact gets rather upset if something gets dropped. He uses his cloth (for wiping hands and face) to wipe up any bits on the table around him. Most foods go down well, but he's a particular fan of rice and bread. Oh, and meat. And bananas, mini-tomatoes, carrots...

Recently T figured out how to open the living room door, so we've had to put up the gate again. He can also open the living room cupboards, so I had to quickly move all K's 'don't let T touch this' stuff. On the other hand, we can now store all T's toys there, and keep the living room tidier :-)

I used to lament that K stopped napping just after his second birthday. T hardly ever naps even now, except maybe in the car. He generally sleeps well at night though, from around 8.30 till 7.

You're probably not surprised to hear that T loves to get his hands on the computer...

...or, indeed, his bum...

T is still not terribly enthusiastic about being left with H's mum while I work, but it's definitely getting better and it's only a couple of hours a weeks so I think she he should be able to cope with that. I've been teaching at the university one day a week since April, and T has been going to nursery then. Of course he cried when I dropped him off at first but the teachers assured me that he always recovered quickly. Nowadays, he reaches out his arms to the teacher, smiles to me and waves goodbye!

I could carry on with this oya-baka (doting mother) stuff for hours, but I'm sure that's quite enough for you for now. A final picture, of T spotting something of interest out the window...