Two Years Of Reuben Oliver.

The Talking

>Within the last month, Ru has started to really talk. I feel like I've been waiting forever for him to talk, I know kids all take everything at their own pace but Ru has really left us waiting with the whole talking thing. We only have a few words here and there so far but he now super clearly says “hiya” every time he greets someone, walks in a room or looks at someone. It’s his most used and favourite word. He also shouts “help” a lot which sounds more like a “hen” but he says it when distressed like if he’s got stuck or can’t climb up onto something. He also uses it if he wants putting in his highchair or if he can’t open his toy box, just little things like that, so funny. It’s actually pretty lovely that he knows exactly what it means though as he can communicate when he wants us to help him with things he can't do, which is obviously a lot at his age. Another word he’s just learnt is “yeah” or sometimes it’s “yep” or "yaaah" (which sounds american) - he didn’t 100% have the gist of it at first but now he also shakes his head to say no to some things so I feel that he’s getting a better understanding between the two. His little “yep!” is the cutest! He’s started answering some questions like “what do you want for dinner?” with “ermmmmm” which is so funny. I don’t know if he actually knows what it means or he just says it because he can’t answer the question hahaha. Other than that he’s still learning new words but he still baby babbles a lot of the time, if he’s pretending to be on the phone he will quite literally come out with “hiya gleeguga ga ya goga” or yano, something similar, just making up his own language which is super cute. We also have a "yay!" when he gets told we're going out or it's dinner time, you know, the important stuff to a kid. Writing this down he actually says far more than I thought which is amazing, I can't wait for him to start stringing proper sentences together!

The Communication

He can understand almost everything you say despite not knowing how to say a whole lot of words yet. He gets so excited and goes and gets my car keys out of my bag if I say “let’s go in the car” and he runs to the kitchen when I say it’s dins dins or breakfast time. He always says “yeah!” If I ask him if he wants some juice. He knows exactly who grandad, grandma, and his aunties are. I think he's beginning to know his uncles names too, since we moved back into my parents he's really formed a much closer bond with them both which is so sweet. And obviously mummy, or mama as he likes to say. One of my favourite things that he does is grabs my hand and insists that he takes me to places. Just last night, I was sat writing this post and he got upset with me for not taking his hand and going where he wanted me to go, so eventually I gave in and took his hand, he took me all the way downstairs and pointed at the fridge. I opened it and said "what do you want?" and he put his finger on his mouth and went "hmmmm" - I mean I'm amazed at how clever he is for letting me know exactly what he wants (food obvs) but also it was absolutely hilarious at the same time. He can't tell me that he's hungry yet so he uses his initiative and guides me to the fridge instead? What an intelligent little boy!

The Laughs

>I honestly can’t tell you how much he cracks me up every single day, his personality these days is just the best ever. I know toddlers all do silly things but honestly Ru is just hilarious. It’s hard to explain exactly why or what he does as it’s just the little things in the everyday. If you have a toddler you will know exactly where I'm coming from when I say that. One example is, I once started singing to him and he does this really cute fake snore when he’s pretending to sleep and he started doing it the second I started singing. So funny. He’s been caught in the kitchen with chocolate biscuit crumbs all round his mouth too, which I found too funny, I never expected him to be so cheeky! He loves going in my mums room at night and taking all his toy cars to use her legs as a ramp - cute but hilarious. He makes an "eww" sound whenever I change his nappy, he even does it when he farts lol!! I started off making the noise as a joke to make him laugh but now he does it at every single nappy change, even when it's not a dirty one haha! Honestly, they just soak up everything at this age and he imitates everything you do, and that's what's the funniest part. Just seeing him trying to do things adults do, even small tasks like sweeping the kitchen, he'll try and do it properly just like a grown up and it's just the cutest thing ever but it makes us all laugh. He honestly just lights up the room with every little thing he does.