Oliver loves...

At 1 year 1 month 2 weeks and 6 days old, Oliver loves...

Reading. Before bed tonight he read a big pile of books with me. Sometimes he gets through the whole book while others are tossed aside after a few pages. I remember picking up a book about his birth-sign before he was born. It said a good career for him would be Critic.

Trying on Daddy's glasses. He steals them from my face then tries to put them on (unsuccessfully). I help him and place them on the end of his nose so he can peer over them at me, looking like a mad professor.

Thomas the tank engine. During the week, Oliver gets up at 7am and comes into our room to sit on our bed and watch Thomas and friends on Nick Junior 2. He loves to make the whistle sound. He also has a Thomas pushalong which he pushes around the house and is helping him learn to walk. Not to mention an ever growing number of other Thomas toys.

Showers. Baths are out of favour right now. He loves a shower, either with his Mummy when he gets picked up and held, or just by himself when he sits under the pouring water palying with the plug in preference to all his bath toys.

Walking along with Mummy and Daddy holding a hand each. He loves to do this when we are out and about. I think he imagines he is taking us for a walk. Actually he could be right.

Music. He goes to "Song Time", "Rhythm and Rhyme" and likes to just listen to nursery rhymes on CD which his Mummy sings along to. At Song Time, where Damien plays guitar and sings, Hayley tells me he is the most attentive baby, watching our friend Jo who sits facing him as she sings along. At the end of the song he claps. Given that I let him strum my guitar as I play at home, Damien is lucky that he hasn't attempted to do the same there.

Teletubbies. It's 8.30 on Saturday morning and Oliver has had his breakfast. We've read a pile of books, pretended to make cups of tea, investigated how to get a coke bottle top off and back on again. Now Oliver is happily watching Teletubbies before we go out. He shrieked with delight the moment he saw the baby's face in the sun at the start of the programme.

Walking. This morning he walked the length of the room to the front door. He looked so proud of himself when he looked round with a big smile. Earlier he took me for a walk with his Thomas pushalong, all the way to the little park on Craig Road near our house. His current shoes are "walker/crawler" shoes. His new ones will have to be proper walking shoes.

Play dates. He particularly seems to love playing with Niamh, Jessica and Jack at the moment. We only have to tell him he's going to see Jack and he shouts back "Jack!" and gets excited.