27 and 9, month by month

Generous Reuben, at 27 months you:

Enjoy washing your hands, turning on the water, pumping the soap, drying your hands, the latter you find terribly funny
Love to sign helicopter and since I first applauded it with a big kiss on your hand (“Mama kiss your sign for helicopter”), you now follow the sign with moving said helicopter to my lips to kiss so that I’m not quite sure if you think part of the sign for helicopter is actually a kiss, or whether you just love Mama’s rewarding kisses

Grow your signing vocabularly day by day with "octopus", "family" and "bigger" among your new words, though I'm focusing on building short phrases rather than new signs

Are growing into your beautiful face day by day
Still have your gorgeous strawberry blonde curls which escalate when there’s humidity in the air or when you’re fresh out of the bath smelling of lavender

Have gorgeously grey-green-hazel eyes, the blue long departed and lush dark lashes under strawberry blonde brows
Adjust your hearing aid band when it’s not quite in the right position, likewise, your glasses, fixing them on your nose like Sven-Goran Eriksson
Put your hand over your mouth when you want to practice saying words
Are building your spoken vocabulary day by day, combining syllables into word like sounds

Say "Mama", "Dada", "Bra bra", "Ah-da", "Nana"
Have delightful conversations with Callum which only you both can understand, your private language
Take Callum’s hands and try to teach him to sign and to clap
Often speak with a guttural voice as if you’re speaking Hebrew
Are so endlessly generous with Callum, you'll even take your glasses off for him, knowing how much he wants them in his mouth, or perhaps knowing how excited Mama will get upon seeing them in Callum's mouth

Will always pick up two toys, giving one to Callum and keeping the other to yourself and I watch you stare at each other, chewing away in unison

Will pick up dropped finger foods and Callum's sippy cup when they've fallen or been thrown from the highchair tray and offer them to Callum

Wear size 5 diapers

Weigh 29lbs and measure 33"

Little rascal Callum, at 9 months you:
Certainly understand the word “no”, but as for obeying it…
Have your first pale brown freckle, perched above your right eyebrow
Are growing some beautiful fair hair, long and silky smooth and perfectly straight, in stark contrast to Reuben's rubenesque curls
Can pull yourself up in your crib

Have 5 little white teeth, two on top with the Craigan gap from my mum, three on the bottom so that a little bit of asymmetry is characterising your smile

And as for your smile, it's utterly infectious and gorgeous, it fills me with joy
Stand holding on to someone or something
Continue to use any of Mama’s body parts as teething rings
Showed the first signs of separation anxiety from Mama when at Nana & Grandad’s house until you learnt that you could commando crawl to find Mama and thus the real crawling began

Use your thumb and finger pincer grasp to pick things up
Say mama and dada indiscriminately, but now with greater meaning
Respond to your name “Callum” and “Cali”
Indicate what your want with gestures other than crying
Drink water from a sippy cup independently and drink juice from a straw
Love to eat toast with Marmite, marmalade, butter or bananas, making one hell of a mess of the highchair
Eat pretty much anything we’re eating in a coarse chopped form
Continue to pull off and crunch on Reuben’s glasses and I’m at my wit’s end
Look for dropped objects
Enjoy banging objects together
Combine syllables into word like sounds
Are quite content rolling around in your crib at bedroom

Aways let everyone know you’re awake within 1 minute of waking

Have amazingly developed calf muscles and a long lean figure

Use a thumb and finger pincer grasp to pick things up
Continue to love the baby in the mirror, finally saying in your eyes, “Hey, is it me?”

Have Mama thinking, "Wow! How much do I love the name Callum"

Took your first swim in our neighbour's pool

Wear size 4 diapers

Weigh 21lbs (59%) and measure 28.75" (70%) so you're a little lean for your height and since you love to eat so much, it must be all that exercise you get in the Tigger bouncer