I basically gave up keeping up the website but keep getting worried that I’m going to forget all the wonderful things that Amelynne does, says and who she is right now as a gorgeous, energetic, enthusiastic toddler. So I’m just going to brainstorm and throw down everything that I can think of about my gorgeous daughter.

When Amelynne turned 19 months I counted 34 words that she was using consistently and in the right context. Straight after that I started to lose count because she was learning about 2 new words a day and her speech just exploded. At 2o months she used 7 words to tell a very accurate story about what happens when she goes to day care: “Vera, huggy, Daddy bye bye, car, Mummy no” In other words, she goes and gives her carer a hug, then Daddy says goodbye and leaves in the car, and Mummy stays home.

Yesterday, when she was just 21 months she told her first imagined story (well we had no idea what she was referring to): “man, hat, out there, car, big”. As she was sitting in the bath at the time so couldn’t even see outside and Josh and I hadn’t known anything about a man in a hat in a big car during the day, we think she made it up.

When we ask her to do something now she says “ok” and then does it about 70% of the time :).

Amelynne is very helpful, she loves helping to cook, especially stirring. She helps carry clean clothes to her room and puts them in drawers. She likes wiping down her own highchair tray. When she knocked over a glass of a bit of water I couldn’t be bothered doing anything about it, and she was very unhappy about that, so she went to her bedroom, grabbed a cloth off the shelf and came back and dabbed at the carpet. She has also tried to do the same but rather than getting a cloth, she grabbed an electricity bill from beside Josh and started cleaning up with that.

Things Amelynne loves:

• Climbing – and she is very good at it, she is always getting “higher” and had mastered the highest points in our lounge room months ago. Her rocking horse is no longer just for rocking but also for acrobatics.
• Going on her swing.
• Riding her bike – she also stands up on that, and rides it down our little narrow steps.
• Reading books
• Singing and dancing – She can do the whole Hokey Pokey and some other Playschool songs and she loves ringa-ringa-rosey. When we aren’t up for joining in, she sings “ringa ringa ringa” while spinning crazily and then”down” and throws herself on the floor.
• Muppets singing silly songs – She loves sitting beside Daddy and watching them on his laptop and constantly asks for “piggy, me me, beaker” every time Josh gets his laptop out.
• Playing games on the iphone – Amelynne can start her couple of games on Josh’s iphone and can play the games really well, that require touching, swiping etc.

Amelynne has a great sense of humour and often makes us laugh and laughs a lot herself.

She is extremely caring and empathetic. When she thinks that we are bothered about something, even if it is just us grumbling at something insignificant, she drops whatever she is doing and runs to us offering a “huggy”.

She is very into “huggy’s” and is often giving and demanding that we give huggy’s to her toys, her shoes, her biscuit, her block, or anything else that she thinks might need a hug right at that moment.