My little Violet, who is now 2 and no longer my baby Violet (sob!)
Your speech has suddenly blossomed, from the occasional yes or no, to lovely little phrases. Not quite sentences, but you can completely get your point across and you are so sweet with it! “Mummy dink pweeeeeeeeeeeeeeze!”. You can finally say Alice, after ages of just calling her “Lilet” she is now “A-iss” and you shout her constantly.
We’ve moved you into a big girl bed, which (touch wood) has been a surprisingly none event. I was dreading doing it, as we had such a nightmare with Alice and naptimes with it, but you’ve just took it with your usual laid back attitude and it’s not even occurred to you to be an issue.
A few weeks ago you woke up one morning with a lazy eye. After a bit of a battle with the doctors, who were a bit useless, we have got an appointment for you at paediatric ophthalmology to get it looked at. I am not looking forward to this at all – you’ll need eye drops to dilate your pupils and I can’t see you being a fan. I’m hoping it’s all nothing to be worried about and just glasses and perhaps patching needed.
You aren’t a great fan of being constrained, and want to walk everywhere. This is totally fine, until you take about 3 hours to do the school run! When strapped in the pushchair you scream and scream until I give you a banana and then suddenly everything is totally fine all over again.
You’re settling in really well at the childminders after a few weeks of tears at drop off. Most mornings you ask if we’re going there, although you do struggle with the long days and are a grump by 6. I think we’re all struggling with the long days a bit at the moment but it is what it is!
Everyone who meets you – health visitors or ladies in the street, comment on how lovely and smily you are. You obviously have your moments, but you are an absolute sunshine and cheer everyone up. You also now think trumps are hilarious.
Alice Palace – what can I say about you at the moment.
You and Violet are becoming closer and closer and it’s amazing to see. In the morning you run up the stairs to fetch Violet, knock on her door, and greet her with a huge “Morning my little sister!”. At naptime you tuck her in and sing her a song, breakfast time you pull faces at each other and swap toast when I’m not looking, you snuggle up with books and steal each others clothes.
You’ve started school, and you are brilliant. You thrive there like I knew you would, but we still have a moan most mornings about going. We had our first parents evening and the teacher was full of plenty of praise – especially for your writing. I have no idea what you do at school because the only thing you normally tell me is what you had for pudding.
You have been writing phonetically and spelling phrases out and it’s wonderful to see what you’re thinking! Although you did write “Alice” on the table and try to blame it on your sister. Then the cat. Then me.
You tell jokes and you lie and you spin stories and you are genuinely hilarious to be around. You make me laugh and you tell me to hold your hand if I’m scared (when you’re scared) and you cuddle me and make me so happy. Apart from when you’re not, and you can still be very difficult. You can whine and grump and stomp and strop like the best of them! You are very much the little girl with the little curl in the middle of her forehead, who can sometimes be very very good…
We’re still on the mostly 5.30 get ups, but you know you have to stay in your room till 6. It’s a work in progress. I’m not convinced you will ever be a sleeper but that’s just how you are!
It’s difficult to write these about you separately now as you are very much just my girls! You are so incredibly different – absolute polar opposites of each other, but you both make me smile and I am very lucky. Alice would call me a very lucky duck.
