15 months old

My little boy has got 4 teeth now. The 5th one is currently breaking through. He can eat most of our food but his tolerance to spicy food is still very low. I still cook especially for him each day. Just to make sure he has the essentials before dabbing into the adult food (which can sometimes be really unhealty..hehe).

He loves going out. He will spend ages trying to open the front door with my set of house keys. Patiently, he will try a key at a time. When one actually fits, he would quickly stand back as if waiting for the door to open itself. Also, sitting still for longer than 2 minutes is a hard task for him now. So it has been nightmare in the new term of music class. Instead of walking in a line with other kids, he would break free and stare at the line from afar and smirk.

I am abit worried about his speech development. He understands most of what we say to him and what we are talking about. But he just simply refuses to copy us! The usuals so far are just "there", "mum-mum", "da-di", "mama", "nen-nen", "na-na" and the most complicated one "tiger". No improvement from a couple of months back. Grunting and pointing are his preferred way of communicating. I am not rushing him, but just wondering whether if there's something I am not doing enough to motivate him. Oh well, hopefully one day he'll change his mind and decides to pick up talking more seriously.

He's into imaginative play now which can be quite funny to watch. For example, when I give him a small stainless steel pot and a ladle, he would spend ages "cooking" all his small toys in it, transferring them into another container and back into the pot and vice versa (When I am cooking he would also "help" by passing me endless supply of potatoes, garlic and ginger).

Now that he rather play on his own for quite a long period of time, I found myself having more spare time on my hand. It's so weird, I just do not know what I should do with it!!! It's been a long while since I don't feel like collapsing into a pile and rest whenever I have any spare time! So I've more or less decided to go back to work to feel more useful and send Tobey to a nursery once we settle in our new place. It would definitely crush me to be away from my son, but I genuinely believe that the time has come for him to learn to socialise, be independent, and learn the ropes of surviving amongst other little people and adults. It's very true that his standard of care will drop. No one will be there to instantly squash a spider that tries to get within 3 metres of him or frequently sniff his nappy to see whether he has done a poo. But, knowing his personality, I believe that he will have so much fun, learn faster and thrive amongst a fixed set of peers.

No doubt I will get peanuts back after paying for his nursery, but as long as he benefits from it, everyone wins.