Esther and William are two, 25 months to be precise, though 22 months corrected.

They are wonderfully complex little creatures.

They are toddlers now through and through.

This is a little of what they like and what they do.

Esther and William can recite chunks of their favourite stories including Dear Zoo, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Brown Bear Brown Bear and Owl Babies.

They can join in with retellings of The Gruffalo, Giraffes Can’t Dance, Monkey Puzzle and Bear Snores On.

The Gruffalo is our current favourite and when we are out in the car we search for The Gruffalo as we drive through the deep dark wood.

Esther and William love books and can recognise lots just from their cover.

Both Esther and William can recite numbers to ten and they can count objects up to three. They recognise most single digits now when they are written down or in a puzzle. They understand that zero means nothing.

They both know at least one word that begins with each letter of the alphabet and can sing along with The Phonics Song prompting me when I forget what comes next. Thank you AJ Jenkins!

Esther and William though very small for their age are both walking confidently now and love big wide spaces where they can practice their running.

They have good memories particularly with music. They recognise a song just from the first few notes and they can remember the order of songs on favourite CDs.

They can predict what might happen next in a story or TV program and love to narrate what is happening in books, tv shows and their own lives.

At the end of each day they recount what they have done to each other as they fall asleep. It is very funny to listen to.

When awake they love to play and in the last few weeks have really started playing together. In our big garden now they can go off for adventures just the two of them and it has really strengthened their bond.

They adore being outside and their favourite thing by far is water.

William would play with water all day every day if you let him. He loves nothinng more than filling up his watering can and pouring water everywhere. On holiday William was quite upset when there was not a watering can in the swimming pool.

Esther and William can play independently for lengthening periods of time but if you leave them together for two long they do tend to fight and can even leave marks on each other but I only think they have stopped talking to each other once. So far!

They do love being together and being left to be together. They develop their own games and even have their own secret language.

Both Esther and William love animals and can identify them from cat to water buffalo, snake to macaroni penguin. Mostly thanks to Eric Carle!

They love food and enjoy having regular ‘snack bowls’ throughout the day. Esther likes meat and fish, William prefers to eat cheese. They both love cake!

They also love wheels and chairs and stones!

Together and apart Esther and William are starting to explore imaginary play and they act out scenes with toys and concrete ducks!!

They are very sociable little beings and love seeing their friends and family. They are good at remembering people’s names and things about them. They know that their ‘Aunty Martin’ likes to drink coke!

Esther in particular loves stickers. Whenever I say, ‘What time is it?’ they say, ‘Sticker time!’ It is very funny. Though William enjoys stickers I don’t think he really understand the point of them. Mostly he likes to eat them!

Esther and William both love music and dancing. William is obsessed with Wheels on the Bus which has now firmly taken over from Wind the Bobbin’ Up which he also used to love.

They love drawing too and it is often the first thing we do after breakfast and since our holiday they always draw Granny and Grandad; and Grandad’s car!

They love going to classes and I have to admit so do I. It is great for us all to get out of the house and do something fun together. But I also think that they are going to love pre school which they will be starting this term.

They are very talkative toddlers. They narrate everything they do, parrot the people around them, ask lots of questions and comment on everything that they do and see.

Their speech has come on in leaps and bounds recently which is wonderful to hear and see.

They are very loving children and most of the time they are fun to be around. They are also incredibly challenging. And I do find it hard some days but then I just take a moment to think how far they have come, how hard we tried to get them and what battles we have all fought and won for them to be here.

They really are quite magical little creatures.

And what I love the most is seeing not just the relationship between the two of them growing but also their love and affection for Baby Tilda.

We are a family and I am a very proud Mummy indeed!