what dulcie likes

 Standing.  She still doesn't believe she can do it, but can stand independently for ages if she's distracted by something.  Of course, she also loves the camera so was desperately trying to walk towards me as I took this, hence the funny bottom-out position.  She also loves dancing, as evidenced in the triple-generation family dance-off in the kitchen tonight, where she showed she has inherited her father's musical preferences.

Pulling out all her toys.   Just check out the mess in the background of this picture!  She doesn't just make a mess with her toys, though, and is getting more and more pleasure out of actually playing these days.  She has just learned to put together her wooden cat puzzle (and is so proud of herself) and will spend ages playing with her farm and its animals.

 Playing with keys and cruising along sofas/tables.  Keys are Dulcie's favourite thing.  She searches all over the flat for the keys in the top right of this picture and then carries them around all day long, saying, "Keys!" repeatedly.  Dulcie still can't walk (or not more than a couple of steps, anyway) but spends a lot of time wandering around holding onto the furniture and playing peekaboo from behind the couch.

Singing ee-ay-ee-ay-oh and making animal noises.  Here's Dulcie playing with the afore-mentioned farm.  She LOVES Old McDonald and joins in with the ee-ay-ee-ay-ohs, which is what she's doing in this picture. As well as roaring like a lion and trumpeting like an elephant, Dulcie can make most of the farm animal noises.  Cows say, "Boo," and sheep say, "Hu-hu-hu-hu-hu."

Finding out what's in the glittery shoe box.  One of my work friends is having a clear-out in preparation for a house move.  She gave me some hand-me-down clothes for Dulcie in this glittery gold shoe box.  I keep some plastic balls in here now, as well as some random/changeable toys.  Dulcie shuffles over to it pretty much first thing every morning to see what's inside it.

 Trying on my boots.  I don't know what it is about these boots, but they are a bit of a Dulcie magnet.  She needs a bit of help to get them on, mind you, and I'm fairly certain walking in them would be impossible for her.

Phones and other technology.  She is obsessed with any technology she sees the grown-ups using.  I can't phone or email anyone while she's around.  She has an annoying knack of pressing buttons that actually make things happen e.g. opening up and editing the html code of webpages and turning on predictive texting on my mobile.  I can't work out how to turn it off again.  She can even send text messages.  They used to read something along the lines of "lkjasdiuer asjdpoaurlk 349ushdflf" but since she discovered predictive texting, they read things like, "I have sweetens," an actual message that she sent to my friend Lorna.  I think it could be dangerous.  Who knows what nonsensical sense she could send to someone, who would obviously think it was a real message from me.

And so ends my quick round-up of Dulcie's recent favourite activities.

p.s. Don't forget to enter the Girls' Day giveaway!