My daughter – the show off

We have had a few visitors round to our house recently and it has made it clearer than ever what a little show off my daughter is becoming.

After the initial warm-up period when she is working out who these people are and what they are doing in her home, she appears to think, yep they seem okay, an ideal audience to show off to.

She'll pull herself up to stand in front of the TV and then have a quick look behind her. “Did you see me do that?” she seems to be saying.

She'll grab hold of her toy tambourine and give it a shake, then she'll pause and look around again. “Did you see me do that?”

At this point she'll start getting a bit carried away. She'll start waving her arms around. “Did you see me then?”

She'll clap her hands together. “How about that. Did you see me, did you see me?”

After a time she'll completely give up on the pauses. Instead she'll simply sit there on the floor in front of her audience, kick her feet, wave her hands and squeal in delight. A right little performer.

And she's even worse with just mummy and daddy. She has worked out exactly what to do to get the best kind of reaction out of us.

When I'm sat on the sofa busily writing away, her little head will suddenly pop over the arm of the chair. It never fails to get a laugh out of me, especially when she combines this little game of peek-a-boo with a cry of 'yeahhhhh'.

When she's having her nappy changed she'll put her arms above her head inviting you to tickle her under the armpits or pull the cloth used to dry her off over her face and wait just long enough to keep you in suspense, before whipping it off with a giggle.

At bath time she'll wait until you least expect it and suddenly kick and kick her legs ferociously, sending a spray of water over everyone.

And unfortunately she knows what will really give mummy a laugh. She'll blow raspberries at me while she's eating her lunch in her high-chair. This is an extremely messy habit but the fact you can tell by her face that she is doing this simply to entertain, makes it hilarious to watch. As much as I know I should be telling her off, I can't through the tears of mirth.

When we go out in the car as a family and stop at traffic lights, me and my husband will often turn around to look at our daughter sitting in the back. She will give us such a beaming return of a smile and delightedly her eyes will flicker from my face to my husband's and you can see her thinking, “there they are, my captive audience. Time to entertain”.