Jumping in non muddy puddles!

In order to avoid the 40 minute grizzle after nap time, I took my little man in the house and got him in his appropriately named puddle suit and his wellies. Then in a break between the heavy showers we went for a puddle walk. We just went round our cul-de-sac and there were loads of puddles. At first I had to splash about in the puddles so that little man got the hang of things, he was a bit hesitant but soon was stamping one foot up and down and splashing quite contentedly. He got quite concerned when my tan boots changed to a dark brown colour and I had to tell him it was just wet and mummy was okay. There were lots of sycamore seeds in the water which have fallen off the trees but as they are green they don't helicopter very well. Needless to say little man was obsessed with them.

He called the puddles dudgles or something like that anyway. The sun was shining and it was warm when it did come out from behind a cloud. We could see the water evaporating off car roofs and it was really nice.

Little man also had a "conversation" with next doors cat, through the window! It was happily sunning itself on the window sill. The poor thing can't come outside due to having had some surgery as he's been fighting with other neighbourhood cats. Little man stood there and seemed to be telling the cat all about things and asked him lots of questions then eventually said de-dah and waved at him. Then we went to find more puddles.

On our walk little man was examining the flora and fauna down the paths and I couldn't help noticing the nettles. I wondered how nettle soup tasted, it looks very dark green and although my friend said it was yummy I am concerned about it. Like her son I am quite suspect of green food. Maybe with some Parmesan cheese or maybe not? hmmmm

This year I will definitely go and pick some blackberries I saw growing near the park. Will have to wait for September for those though.

After we went in for milk and biscuits and to prepare dinner. DH came home early and had been given some basic jigsaws for little man from a friend at work. Little man impressed us by pointing to a picture of a bee and saying "bee"! We never knew he knew what one was! He also pointed the things he recognised saying their names and using the baby signing for "duck" and "fish" he has taken to adding "y" onto things so ducks have become duckies and pigs have become piggies. All mechanical vehicles are either di-dis (diggers) or cars. Aeroplanes and helicopters are recognised by pointing to the sky and saying aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!

Little man is doing very well with his talking, he can't usually pronounce the constantant sound at the beginning of the work except for words beginning with b, c, d, g or w. The others become iisshh,(fish) iiiiggg (pig) dick (stick) and so on, probably very much in line with how 17 month olds speak. The best word he can say is roll-roll for a road roller (yes he's obsessed with diggers, machines and trains) it doesn't sound as if we would say it but it's quite comical.

My baby development book says that sometime soon little man will start joining words to make short sentences. This isn't my bible, just a guide I read every now and then. I don't know what they'll be about though!