Fun times

Daniel is just such a joy at the moment. He is loving exploring things and is starting to understand us when we speak to him. 
He has been clapping for a while now but he now tends to clap when he has finished eating his meal, followed by hands up in the air to say 'please pick me up'. It is very sweet.

He still loves music and will often sway to it when it starts playing, clap his hands or pat his legs. As you can see in the video he is pretty good at keeping the rhythm. Clever boy!

He is also getting a lot more enjoyment when reading books. Yes, he doesn't last very long still when reading but he does like to engage more with the books. He especially loves the touch and feel books that we have of "That's not my..." He also loves his duck board book that he got from Oscar's party.

 
Daniel has started to independently play a game that I used to do with him. He empties out his lego bucket and then puts the bucket on his head. He loves it and finds it very funny. 

Like I mentioned at the start, Daniel is starting to recognise things that I say. He has started to respond to 'no' when he is going near the oven. Sometimes he looks, smiles and then keeps crawling toward it. But more often he stops and sits down. The other day I was in the kitchen cooking and didn't really want him there as he wanted to go to the oven which was hot. I asked him "Daniel, where is your ball?" not expecting anything but instead he stopped, looked around, then crawled back into the play area and the next thing I could hear was his ball being thrown around. He then had a great time throwing it, crawling after it and then throwing it again. I definitely think he will be a sporty kid.

Another thing I have noticed he understands is when it is time for milk. I will sit down on the chair and say "Daniel, would you like some milk?" and more times than not he will stop what he is doing, crawl over to me and then pull himself up so I can pick him up ready to feed. It is amazing watching this development and his growth of understanding. I'm still working on where his nose is, he hasn't picked that up yet.

Daniel just loves playing 'pick-a-boo' and it is so fun to watch his reaction. Some mornings when I go into his room after he wakes up we have a little game which he seems to enjoy.

He also is a lot better at waving, more often than not he will wave bye to someone if they are leaving and he will sometimes wave hi. This morning I got a little hi wave after he woke up from his nap.

Daniel has also started to become quite cheeky when he doesn't want to go to sleep or when he wakes up and wants to play. One morning I went in and was quite confused to find that he had his other sleeping bag in the cot when I hadn't left it hanging over. I just guessed that I was having a baby brain moment and decided that I must have thought that I moved it onto the change table but hadn't. The next day the same thing had happened. I pulled it out and put it onto the changetable and asked Daniel "How did that get in there?" He then proceeded to show me how he stood up in the cot, reached through to his change table and pulled in whatever is on it. Mental note - move anything on the changetable to the other end, away from my cheeky little man! He was polite enough to show me again so I could record it.