Dear Alice and Violet - nearly 4 (urgh!) and 18 months!

I always forget to blog, then recently I spent a bit of time reading through past entries and realise how nice it is. Like this blog is Alice at the same age as Violet - http://evenstarx.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/dear-alice-1617-months.html. Soooo different!

So, a bit of an update.

Dear Alice,

My little gem! You are 4 next month. You sat me down and asked for a party; specifically with balloons, a bouncy castle and a cake. Done, done and done! All you've asked for for your birthday is a balloon and an Anna dress. I am really appreciating these last few cheap birthdays! I think we're just going to renew your Wheelgate pass, as you get tons of fun out of that.

You are so lovely at the moment. If I could keep you at this age forever I would! You stroke my face, brush my hair, kiss me and tell me I'm pretty. Then ask for a biscuit.

You are basically just me, shrunk down. I completely understand all your frustrations and angers when things aren't quite right, and I'm there with you trying to make it all okay! Everyone describes you as "intense", which we all know just means a bit crazy. Or "strongwilled". Sometimes we get "independent".

We went on holiday to Alton, and I was terrified beforehand that you just wouldn't sleep or eat and generally just be a bit mental. In reality, you were lovely. You went to bed every night at around 7.30, despite our best efforts to keep you awake a bit longer! Yes you woke up at 6, but you were at least happy! We went to Cbeebies land and Mr. Bloom was there, so we had to go to his show 3 times. It was the same every time, but you were happy!

There was a hot tub which you went in pretty much constantly with Amelia. You have asked me pretty much constantly why we don't have a hot tub, a question I have often considered.

We went to Monkey Forest, and you were mildly impressed by the monkeys, but more distraught you couldn't have a snack while you were in there. We bought you and Violet a toy monkey each, and you named them Dusty and Daisy, and insisted they were sisters and best friends. Awwwww!

You had your face painted at the pub for grandads birthday and it was quite possibly the best thing I've ever paid £1 for. Worth it amillion times over. I literally nearly wet myself.

You're reading and phonics have come on loads. You can recognise and write most / all of the letters, sound out and read most 3 letter words, you guess the letters in longer words and are always telling me what things begin with.

We started swimming lessons this month, and you have been ace. I didn't know what you'd be like without me in with you, but you just jumped in and plodded on like it wasn't an issue at all. 3 weeks in you're already getting better.

Mama got you a red nose for comic relief. You gave it the name "Loopy" and make it kiss everyone. Please stay nearly 4 forever!

Dear Violet, or Violet Pilot as your sister calls you, you are now 18 months old.

You sometimes say a few words, dada, no, ta, and bayybeeeeee which you say like that and it's the most adorable thing ever.

You are obsessed with babies. Carrying them round, feeding them, getting their milk, kissing them, making everyone else kiss them. Pretty much the only thing I hear you say most of the time is "baybeeeee" and then make kissing noises!

You love slides. Alice always hated slides, and you cannot get enough! I went in the garden for 5 mins to peg some washing out and ended up spending hours lifting you up the slide in the garden while you giggled.

You chase Alice round all the time, hide from her and tickle her, and try to play snap with her. You just want to be involved in anything she's doing, and would follow her to the end of the world.

On  holiday you slept really badly, but that's because you were in a room with us and kept waking up wanting to play! You loved the In the Night Garden boat ride, and just being around other kids and trying to be in their games.

You still eat like a machine. Given the chance you will just start eating at 7am and stop eating just before bed. Whereas Alice would survive on half a cracker and a squash, you are always fetching me your high chair to remind me to feed you! I can't complain, you eat all good stuff, but you are just a little bottomless pit!

At the moment you walk everywhere and scream bloody murder if I try and strap you into anything. You won't hold hands, and mostly just want to run off in any direction away from me. God forbid we have to go a certain way.

You have entered the age of the tantrum. If I have to take something away from you, you will throw yourself on the floor and scream. That's also generally the reaction if I try and put your shoes on.

The person who makes you happiest in the world is Alice. You are sad most mornings when we drop her off at school, and perk up when you run in to fetch her. It is my favourite thing in the world to see you 2 together, and completely melts my heart. Alice always shouts you and cuddles you and tells you you're the best sister in the world. I think so too. x

With love and light xo

Dear Alice - 28 Months

Dear Alice,

You are now 28 months old, and you seem to have just got huge all of a sudden! I don't think you've physically grown a lot, but you just seem to have lost a lot of your babyness, and just become this beautiful little girl!

This month you are obsessed with singing, as always, but you've started making up your own songs to the tune of other songs and thinking they're hilarious! You sing pretty much from when you wake up, till when you go to sleep at night.

You are sleeping a little better / later in the morning. We bought a Gro Clock, and although I was initially sceptical it seems to have made a bit of a difference. You wake up in the morning, get yourself out of bed, then sit and play with your toys till the "sun comes up" on the clock. Obviously not all the time, but if it means I get to stay in bed till 7am a few mornings a week then I am happy!

You are really enjoying jigsaws at the moment, so I went to the carboot last week and bought you a few more. We do all of them every day, and you can do most of them pretty independently now. I am super impressed with how much better you are at jigsaws every time we do them - you really don't like to be helped!

You're memory has improved a lot too these past few months. We tell you something once and you seem to remember it for months - we saw Mick the plasterer again the other day, after you met him once months ago. You said "Oh it's Mick; he fixed Daddy's foot!" Then again this week, I took you to Berry Hill Park and you remembered that it's where we go hunting dragons, without me saying anything.

The memory that particularly impressed me this week was walking to mama's from our house. We picked you a flower and made no reference to it at all really, other than it was pretty. You looked at it, sniffed it, and declared it was lavender! How on earth you recognised it I have no idea but I was pretty gobsmacked.

You have been a bit of a toddler lately behaviour wise - you can go from absolutely adorable to monster child in the space of maybe 5 seconds! We've been working on the naughty step and various other things, but you're good most of the time. You're just 2!

We've been taking you swimming on the weekends as Mitch now gets it free with his gym membership. It is your absolute favourite thing to do in the world - you love the slides, the waves, splashing, and just have huge amounts of water confidence. You get better every time we go, and it's a pleasure to see you splashing around!

You now love speaking on the phone to daddy at work, and ask to ring him a couple of times a day. Your conversations are adorable to listen to, and you tell daddy all about your day. We also downloaded Skype and video chat on lunch time which is lovely, apart from when you kiss my screen and leave smudges everywhere.

Your sister is due any day now, which you will gladly tell to anyone who listens. How much of it you understand is another thing! Everything is ready for her, but I'm just milking these last few days just the 2 of us. You will always be my baby, even when you're my big girl.

With love and light xo

Holiday Times!

So a few photos from our lovely holidays! It was a reeeally belated honeymoon, as we decided that last year when we got married she would have just been too small to enjoy anywhere, and we would have had a constant battle keeping her occupied and not burnt etc. 
We used half of the wedding money we received to help us buy and decorate our house last November, and the other half towards a holiday we would never have been able to afford otherwise. I spent months and months last year trying to choose somewhere. We wanted to go somewhere that would be warm but not burning in April, not super far away, and with nice beaches / kids stuff to do e.g. parks etc. 
I'm so used to going on weird city holidays and exploring (e.g. Russia!) that it was a bit difficult for me to find somewhere completely different to that! We also decided to go all inclusive, as it would save the trouble of budgeting; finding somewhere "kid friendly" with high chairs etc; picky toddlers throwing food and ice creams on the floor etc. We eventually settled on Fuerteventura, in April school holidays so it wouldn't be too warm. 

Before we went I was so nervous about everything! What if I forgot everything? What if she screamed the entire time we were on the plane? What if she hated it? What if we all got super burned? What if the place was horrible?

In the end, I shouldn't have worried at all. Alice was an absolute angel for the entire week, including both 4+ hour flights. She had a few mini melt downs, but on the whole was just incredibly well behaved. The iPad was a complete and utter lifesaver for the planes and transfers etc. I think it would have been a completely different story without it!

The place was lush, noone got burned, and we had a lovely time. Not relaxing, but lovely!

Tips for myself in future - lists are your friend! List everything then list it again. Then add to the list again! Also - "packing" for a few weeks beforehand helped. I just had the case out and chucked anything in it as and when I remembered, then when it came to proper packing it was just a case of sorting clothes and rearranging things. New toys for the plane was a brilliant idea and kept her entertained, as did new videos and new apps. Reusable swim nappies are ace.


Alice particularly enjoyed swimming, playing on the park, eating sand, and making friends. In no particular order! 




With love and light xo