Dear James,

Hello handsome,

I've been meaning to write this since before we went away on holiday, you are growing and changing so much I want to document a few of the changes along the way.
However I am going to have to skip forward a month and document up to present day.

playing in the tent with your sibling..., no wait, that's your dad....

You are now 18 months old, what a milestone!  It's so exciting to see you learning and developing, you are so much fun as well as so much work.
We have a little temper issue that we are all working through, it generally involves a fit from you and if you end up led on the floor in the strop, we step over you and leave you to it - trying not to smile at the site of such a wee person having such a fit.  I explain it to most akin to an advert that used to be on tele involving a child having a tantrum in the middle of the supermarket but the mothers joins is and has one to, shoots the child a look that says "done?" and they both get up and move on.  I forget what the advert was actually for but your wobblies are reminiscent of it.

Evidence that your not always such a cutie...

Fun in the sandpit

Trying out the books in my new book kit

Other than these boundary testing sessions, that are a little too frequent for our liking at the moment, you are a love.  My little love, as I call you.

Rocking the sunglasses, for 10 seconds, a record!

You have a full set of nashers, that sometimes catch your dad or I by surprise if we are not paying attention at mealtimes and a wicked sense of humour.  The strangest things seem to make you laugh and laugh and laugh;  your dads stubble (yuck), granny C spinning a biscuit tin lid, a ball bouncing where we say "bo-ing, bo-ing, bo-ing" and you have also been through a phase of trying out a grown-up laugh, a mixture of your dads and my chuckle (please do not copy my laugh...!) but if you laugh enough you resort to a toddler giggle, which makes the whole situation even funnier.

Family selfie

You have recently discovered words and your vocabulary increases daily it seems, current favourites are "bubble" and "purple", though "yellow" and "toot-toot" are popular too.  This weekend you just about said Bob (we thought that was easier to master than Uncle Rob) as he was down for a visit and thankfully (I jest not) an attempt at Ali, if you hadn't have come up with something you'd have had to pull a major cute to redeem yourself!

SMILE, the cheeky chappie returns

With regard to your future brother/sister, you know where the "baby" is a regularly poke what's left of my tummy button and recognise pictures of children smaller than you and say "baby".  I hope when the little one arrives you are able to understand when we explain that "baby" is no longer in my tummy but an actual being but we shall deal with that as and when Doherty Jr. arrives and we are a family of four!