The Boy sat in his high chair at lunchtime, looked at the slice of mini pizza that I had give him and declared, "triangle!". He was right, it was. He had a big kiss as congratulations and looked, quite rightly, pleased with himself.

(Today he had a vegetarian lunch. When meat is involved lunch can be a game of cat and mouse with him offering me his ham sandwich and lovely sloppy chicken kisses. I've succeeded in avoiding sharing his food, but who can resist a 'tiss'?)

Last week at the soft-play centre, we were building towers with giant lego. He broke off from play, glanced up at the shapes painted on the wall and said 'cirtle, tri-gle, skwar' (I do know how to spell in case you were wondering if I'm the worst teacher ever).

Of course, he was completely correct but how on Earth does he know this? I know we play together and it is directed to facilitate his learning, but that's not what I mean. I find it fascinating how babies and toddlers learn. My mum and I were discussing this last week. The Boy has a very expressive face and as a result, you can see his thought processes especially when he glances up to the top-left, like when a person lies and is accessing the creative part of their brain. (I don't think he's lying anyway. First of all he's 20 months old so I hope he doesn't know how to. Secondly, he comes out with factual statements, so if he is trying to lie he's a bit rubbish at it!).

Watching The Boy learn is like nothing short of seeing the neural pathways fuse together and make a new connection. In older children, when they have an extensive vocabulary and a sense of reasoning and logic, it is easier to see a 'learning moment', but in a toddler with a limited lexicon it's not so easy to pinpoint why he has 'picked something up'. Either way, this is why I love watching him play; the wealth of information that his little mind has to acknowledge, digest and assimilate. They are nothing short of miracles really!

Although, I do believe that Mister Maker may have something to do with it. Altogether now,

"I am a ….."