Her chatter is constant and is now quite well formed. She emphasises the 'action' word in what she says, for example, 'sound of an airplane - listen', and, 'there's a spider - look'. She tries hard to sing snippets of songs she has heard at toddler group or on television.
Jasmine is currently very polite, saying 'please', 'fanks' and 'pardon me'
when appropriate. She occasionally blames things on her baby brother, saying, 'Harry did it'.
Sometimes Jasmine overextends the use of plurals, for example saying 'I'm making cups of teas'.
Jasmine is fascinated by shapes, and loves to have help making circles, squares and 'tangles'. She is showing a clear enclosure schema - wrapping up herself, her dolls and other items such as crayons, bricks and empty cups. She also likes to surround items with her bricks. Once she spread a blanket on the floor for Harry, and Mummy carefully laid him down, praising Jasmine for caring for him nicely - but she had to explain that Jasmine couldn't roll him up in it!
Jasmine is increasingly curious and investigative. She is puzzled as to where ice cubes disappear to in drinks, returning to repeatedly look in the containers. Daddy watched in amazement one day as she connected up leads to a disconnected computer, getting them all correct. She had clearly been observing him at work.
Simple games such as matching pairs of picture cards are now enjoyed by Jasmine, but only for brief periods, as she soon loses interest. She was clearly thrilled at showing Harry her picture cards and very excited that he held on to them.
When her feet were crossed one day, Jasmine thought her wellies were on the wrong feet. She changed them over, saying 'that's better', but was puzzled when they were still wrong.
Her wellies proved useful when she found some rainwater in an old baby bath in the garden. She took them off and used them for pouring, showing a sense of initiative is clearly developing.
Jasmine can now draw good circles. One day she added three eyes and a mouth and said 'face'. She then added 'rays' and called it a 'sun'. Drawing is a favourite activity.
By Sandy Green, an early years consultant and freelance trainer. She is also Jasmine's grandmother.
