The only way is up

Xander's unique tribute to On the Buses...

Xander has been happily toddling around for well over a month and has now mastered the art of deft changes in direction in a fashion that reminds me of Ricky Villa circa 1981, minus the beard and hapless Manchester City defenders, of course. His sudden bursts of pace, dropping of the shoulder and toy slaloming skills tend to come to the fore when he realises that the safety gate at the kitchen door – and with it, access to the lucky dip that is the bin – has been left open.

He's also becoming a good little climber and can be relied upon to try scaling me and Kate at regular intervals – always, of course, with my slightly-too-baggy jeans being pulled down as the only result of note, leaving me looking like one of the Tombliboos. Anyway, he's realised that, when he is thwarted in his quest to go bin diving, language provides a potential answer and has started saying 'up!' whenever he wants a cuddle/to be carried into the kitchen/is just bored of the carpet. Clever little thing!

We're pretty sure he's saying 'yeah' and 'no' on occasion too and he has definitely added the all-important 'nom, nom, nom' to his repertoire – all in the correct contexts too. He also says 'go' and something that sounds a lot like 'get down', but that's usually in response to us urging him to leave the kitchen and its aforementioned attraction or to get off the little step that we got to help Dylan reach the toilet. Well, at least one of them is using the latter, I guess. 

His comprehension skills are good too and he understands certain instructions like 'wave' and 'clap your hands'. It's amazing how quickly he is picking up on things – even with the knowledge in mind that second children are often faster learners I'm still quite taken aback at how little time it's taking him to do things. It's just as well that he's finding his voice though – because he and I have just appeared in the latest issue of Mother & Baby magazine giving our advice to Prince William, as one does. For the record, the subheading that could be misconstrued as a swipe at the in-laws was totally his doing and most certainly not mine. It would appear that that he's learning to be cheeky too!