Who's the boss?

Not me, that's for sure.

[PS- this is another old post, from December 2010 when Sophie was just over 2]

Sophie's language skills have reached a point, at 2 years and one month, where there's now very little she can't ask or express in words, one way or another. We are pretty stunned by her level of language development and her understanding- she has skills that far exceed her age, which we already know officially- but it wouldn't surprise me if she was racing on even further at the moment.

A typical day begins with a typical Sophie conversation.

"Mummy! Mummy!"

I go in to get her up, and get bombarded with questions. "Daddy's sleeping?"

"No, daddy's at work."

"Oh. Daddy's working. Look, Sophie's pillow! Bunny! Sylvester! Sophie's cot!" Then she remembers a few more important things. "Where's Daisy? Sophie pat Daisy? Daisy kiss Sophie?"

Daisy the dog wanders in to squeals of delight, followed closely by Sheba the cat, known around these parts as "Beeba." Much patting, kissing and cuddling of both pets ensues. Then,

"Sophie wee-wee. Sophie new nappy."

Nappy change. Before this is halfway done, she's ordering breakfast. "Sophie wants porridge. Sophie wants honey porridge."

Throughout the day, I can't scratch my own nose without getting the order. I'm told to stand up, sit down, go this way, fetch various things, put on a favourite movie, even go to the toilet. What would I do without her?

"Mummy, pat Beeba. Mummy, turn off music. Mummy, put baby in cot."

She went out to see the Christmas lights with her dad last week, and came home hysterically excited about all she'd seen, including,

"Sophie's panda! Mummy, say, 'bye-bye Panda!'". I had to repeat her farewell to the animatronic panda she'd seen in someone's display- quite often lately we're even instructed on what to say at various points ("Mummy, say, "No, Daisy! Naughty Daisy! Stop barking! Bah! Bah!"")

One of her favourite games at the moment is to put me in bed and tell me "Go sleepy, Mummy! Close eyes!" She waits an appropriate period of time (perhaps half a second) then leans in and yells, "Wake up, mummy!".