Katie's speech is coming on in leaps and bounds.

 

The nursery staff noticed a difference when she came back from the Christmas break and there's been no stopping her.

 

She engages a lot more with what TV she's allowed to watch, calling out the characters' names. And when we ask her what's going to happen next in any episode of the Teletubbies we have on video she can tell us right away.

 

But you have to be careful what you say these days.

 

Whatever you utter Katie will copy it and say it right back.

 

I got frustrated on the way home from the nursery the other day and blurted out: "Oh shut up Katie."

 

"Shut up...daddy," came the reply.

 

Oops.

What a moment.

 

Here it is:

 

 

So it's averaging out at between five and six nappies a day.

The 2008 Royal Institution Christmas Lectures, called Hi-Tech Trek, were (as usual) good to watch on TV.

 

Delivered by Professor Chris Bishop, they told us things about computers I didn't know and even managed to get a brief interview with Bill Gates.

 

One item in particular caught my interest: even a super-computer couldn't tell the difference between a cat and a dog with more than 70% accuracy.

 

Well, a child can do far better than that.

 

No matter whether the cats or dogs are on TV, in cartoons, in books, in comic strips or in photos Katie always knows which animal it is.

 

No matter how badly I draw a cat on her Etch-a-Sketch (or whatever it's called) she knows it's a cat. And I can draw cats incredibly badly.

 

And your child can do just as well.

 

It's just one of those things that humans are better at.

 

For now...