A true redhead

Up until fairly recently, I would have described Daisy's personality as "placid" and perhaps "easy-going". If people asked how I'd found having two kids, I'd have told them what a good, easy baby she has been, no trouble at all, etc etc.

Not any more! She seems to be developing a temperament to match her hair colour: fiery and feisty. She lets out a scream if something is taken off her (a common occurrence with Jamie around), she has a vice-like grip, surprising strength given her size, and getting her to let go of things is a real struggle. She can spot chocolate and crisps at a distance and makes it very clear what she wants, toddling over, pointing and gesturing. (And how bad do I feel that at a similar age, Jamie wouldn't even have known what chocolate and crisps were...an indication of how much more relaxed I've been about "bad" food second time around).

She's also becoming a total handful to take out to toddler groups and parks. I have to follow her around constantly as she loves to climb on things and get into all sorts of dangerous situations. When removed from these situations, she screams, cries, wriggles to be put down...all very reminiscent of toddler tantrums...she seems to think she's 2 years old, not 1! Luckily, Jamie is at an age where I can trust him to play fairly nicely unsupervised, so I can give most of my attention to the little daredevil.

She's so clever as well! I'm not saying this in an annoying boastful mummy way, honestly! Of course everyone thinks their child is clever - I think Jamie is too. But she seems to be doing things a lot sooner than he did and her understanding amazes me sometimes. In the interests of recording her progress (which is one of the main reasons for writing this blog) and NOT to show off (!), she can now say the following words/phrases, in context:

- ball

- tea (for a cup of tea, pretend or real)

- hat

- cat (both real life cats and ones she sees in books)

- dadda

- mumma

- there you go (when handing me something)

- yeah - this is the one that really stops me in my tracks - I'll say "do you want some milk Daisy?", and she'll say, "yeah".

- Yesterday, Jamie was filling the washing machine with laundry (still a favourite activity) and I was looking for the little cup that you put the washing gel into. Daisy spotted it under the table and crawled to get it - without me asking her to or pointing to it or anything.

I think I'm more shocked by what she can do because she's so petite and small that to me, she still looks like a baby. People are often surprised when I say she's 13 months as I think she looks younger.

I love seeing her personality emerging. And despite the fact that she's probably going to turn me grey very soon with her antics, I love that she's feisty and tough and can stand up for herself. I think Jamie's days of being top dog are numbered and fairly soon she's going to be bossing him around and twisting him round her little finger.