Benjy's full repertoire

At ten months, Benjy knows where his head is, where his tongue is, and will sometimes show me where his nose is but tends to get distracted by his mouth on the way there and 'wa-wa-wa'-ing it with his hand. He can do the actions to Twinkle Twinkle (nearer 11 months), and thinks he can do the actions to Incy Wincy Spider. He loves a dance, usually with one arm raised above his head. He gives great cuddles, and swoops in, mouth wide open, for a kiss.

At eleven months, he is pulling himself up on everything and cruising around, and although he was very reluctant to 'walk' at first, now finds it really funny when I hold his hands for him to walk along, he stomps stomps stomps with a giggle each time his foot hits the floor.

He has loads of toys but is happiest with a stick or a wooden spoon, and a hole to put it in. He understands so many things that we say to him now, including no - he will humour us by shaking his head and repeating 'no-no-no', and then in most cases, carry on doing whatever it was we said no to. He has recently started insisting on having his own spoon at mealtimes, and makes a pretty good job of getting food in his mouth. And he also says 'gone', and 'dog', although to the untrained ear, those words sounds pretty similar.

We love him to bits, are so excited to see him every morning, find him an absolute joy and delight to be around, and although we are always tired and never seem to have any time to do anything, we don't care. We have Benjy.