Dear Alice and Violet, 4 and a bit, and nearly 2!

Right my little princesses - so of course it's been about 4 months since my last blog (must make more of an effort!), so what's new with you?!

Violet you are still an absolute delight!

You are still an incredible eater and pretty regularly eat adult portions of whatever we give you. Considering how Alice can survive on bread and air, you just cannot eat enough! One of the few words you can say with regularity is "more pleeeeeeeeez".

You are starting to speak much more, but you're still not super bothered. I know you can say quite a lot but you're quite happy just to watch and take it in! Either that or you can't fit in a word edgeways with Alice yabbering on! You can count to 10 (ish) and you like to sing twinkle twinkle and hickory dickory dock. You're favourite word is "no" which you say to anything that doesn't involve food or the park.

You like to dance, as long as dance means run round in concentric circles till you fall over dizzy. You like to do this while holding the pink ukelele and singing to yourself!

The house is constantly full of your giggles, and you think Alice is the funniest person in the entire history of the world.

You find it impossible to walk anywhere, and bolt everywhere at amillion miles an hour, normally falling on route. Then you giggle, dust yourself off and run in the opposite direction.

We've recently been camping for the first time, and a few weeks before that we went to Center Parcs. You were an absolute gem for both - you just love being outside and playing and running free. At camping you spent the whole weekend running naked round a field; chasing butterflies, eating apples and getting mucky. You came back covered in a layer of river water, suncream and grass - and I've never seen you happier!

The tantrums have started properly. You don't like being told no, or not being fed constantly. We're working on it!

Alice Palice, my absolute favourite person in the world - you are getting so big and so clever!

You are forever making me laugh and telling me jokes and stories. You are incredibly creative and there are absolutely 0 flies on you. You have a rhyming pocket, where you put any rhyming words throughout the day. I mentioned this at parents evening thinking this was a school thing - nope. You just made it up!

At parents evening I was so pleased to hear about how well you've done this year. You've come on so much - you write really clearly now and can recognise all the letters / numbers up to 100 (I particularly like tooty two - 22). You draw beautifully when you don't get distracted, and love drawing rainbows and cats with 10 legs.

We've had a few issues at home with your behaviour, but it was relieving to hear that it completely isn't an issue at school. In hindsight I think you were probably just tired and you've been much better for the past few weeks.

At the moment you're completely torn - you love and dote on your sister more than anything in the world, but you are getting increasingly frustrated that she wants to touch all your things and play with you constantly - "Mummy why has she ruined my magnificent tower????", but you also can't be without her for longer than 5 minutes. She cries if you leave anywhere without her, and you just aren't the same without each other.

You still get up at 5.30 most days (urhhhhhh) with runs of 6.30 occasionally. This is just how you are! You've asked to share a room with Violet and are absolutely desperate too - I think maybe we'll do this next year. (Opinions anyone? Bad idea??)

You loved Center Parcs and camping too, with a few melt downs due to tiredness! You just go go go and go, then somehow reach a screaming stop when you're broken and I've ordered pizza because you wanted pizza but turns out you meant fishfingers. Ce la vie.

I am incredibly proud of both of you, and happy with what lovely little girls you're becoming, but sad you're no longer my little babies. I miss the little snuggles and tiny baby feet and cuddles and kisses and soft cheeks! What a lucky person I am x

With love and light xo

Dear Alice and Violet - 42 Months and 13 Months

Dear Alice,

You are now 42 months old. I had only just added that up and it’s a bit mental really. What did we do without you?

A few weeks ago you started nursery school every morning for 3 hours. The first few days you were absolutely fine but then had a bit of a melt down and had a week of pulling my leg and screaming and crying. It was very difficult to leave you and there were a few tears shed by everyone, but now it is your favourite place in the world!

You love spending time with Phoebe and Amelia at nursery. You’ve told me you don’t play with the boys as they pinch your nose. Fair enough!

You are so funny to talk to! Last week mama told you to just have a sit down for 5 mins, to which you responded “It’s not all about you you know mama.” You told me there was a “right palava” at nursery at snack time! You asked if we could do a "sophie" on the train. Turns out you meant selfie! Happy to oblige - see below!

At the weekend, Violet wasn’t very well so I took you to Wheelgate on the Sunday to get out for a few hours, just the 2 of us. It was so nice to spend time just with you and I must make more of an effort to. We go to ballet on a Saturday, but that’s just you and it was nice to spend some mummy-Alice time!

You want to play hide and seek all the time. This morning you informed me your name wasn’t Alice, and refused to respond to anything other than “Hidey Worm”.

It's getting closer to Halloween, which I think may be your favourite time of the year? You are a little obsessed with "spooky things" like witches and bats etc. Most mornings after breakfast you're allowed 10 minutes on the iPad while we clear up, and you always request spooky videos. At Wheelgate they had halloween things everywhere, and you insisted on having your picture taken with every single monster. Even though they were mostly the same!

We went to Rufford a few weeks ago, and it was a wartime / vintage weekend. Punch and Judy were there, which you completely loved. Apart from the fact you call it Punch and Julie. And it had Hitler in who you keep asking me about which is a little awkward!

You like to cuddle up in bed and hide every night before bathtime, and every time I try to cuddle you extra tight because you seem to be getting so big - physically and mentally. You can read letters, count to 100 with help, and you are just not even a toddler anymore. I'd like to keep you at this age forever please!

Dear Violet,

You are now 13 months old, and the squidgiest cutest little bundle in the entire world.

You aren’t walking yet, and I was so sure you would be soon! Mama is buying you your first shoes for your birthday and at this rate it will be Christmas! I just looked back through the blog and apparently Alice didn’t walk till 14 /15 months so you’re taking after your sister. You cruise round the house, and want to walk holding people’s hands constantly. You’ve taken a few odd steps, but don’t seem super bothered.

Talking-wise you're still saying "t" for ta, "b" for ball, but my fave is "row row" and then you rock backwards and forwards, then scream for the crocodile! It is literally the most adorable thing in the entire world.

I’m really struggling being at work and leaving you so much, well both of you. I feel like I don’t get the time to spend with my little baby who won’t be a baby for much longer, and that’s difficult.

You’ve been full of cold for the past few days, and really unhappy and off your food. You spent all Saturday curled up on the sofa with me in and out of sleep. I think part of it is the cold, and the other part is that you’re cutting 6 teeth at the same time. It’s hard because I’m so used to seeing you eat more than Alice, and to see you refusing food and crying is just so out of character for you.

Both of you are absolutely lovely! Just wishing at the moment I could spend more time with the both of you. I feel like I'm never going to regret being skint, but every day I regret being away from my little ones.

 With love and light xo

Dear Alice - 27 Months

Dear Alice,

You are now just over 27 months old, although I had to count that as now I just say 2 and a bit! I have no idea how much you weigh - I just asked your dad and he estimated you weigh about the same as a large sack of potatoes. Although you are probably not as lumpy.

Your language is better every day - you now use full sentences all the time, including conjoining words like because, almost, instead etc. You also use the right tense the majority of the time, and you constantly show me how silly I am! The other day I asked you if Lola wanted a tip top, and you looked at me like the biggest fool in the world, and deadpanned - "No mummy. Don't be silly. Lola's a cat. Cats don't likey tip tops."

I love your use of the word "likey" for everything and make no effort to correct it. I also like that you call the puffin a muffin, so will never ever correct you.


Your sentences have certainly led to you expressing your opinion a lot more, and we have most definitely had some epic melt downs. You get frustrated very easily, and you want your own way all the time - obviously not possible. This week we've introduced the naughty step a little, with some success. It seemed to work well at the beginning, but at the moment you ask to go there - not quite the reaction we had in mind! Perhaps we need to install some spikes or something?

We introduced the big girl bed a few weeks ago, which I had been really worried about doing - you were sleeping so well and napping so well I didn't want to ruin it all! However you completely surprised me and it was very successful, quite easily. We've had a few nights of disaster, and a few napless days, but nowhere near what I expected. You still go to sleep around 7 and sleep till about 6am, with a little nap in the afternoon most days.

You are pretty anti pushchair at the moment, but you are quite happy to walk either holding my hand or pushing your own pushchair. This is fine, but it means it takes us approximately 10 hours to get anywhere! You also inevitably decide at some point that you want carrying which can lead to a total melt down when I can't carry you for miles being 8 months pregnant!

You learned to jump, and you are a constant little bouncing bean of energy. You do not stop moving or dancing at any point throughout the day, unless I bring in the iPad parent temporarily. I wish that we could be a family that doesn't watch TV or iPad or whatever, but you are pretty crazy, and mummy needs to sit down sometimes. You can tell me I'm a failure when you're older ;)

After the potty success of a few months ago we have attempted it again a few times with no success. I'm fairly sure you know what the potty is for, but have no interest in sitting on it for longer than 30 seconds, and I have no interest in forcing you to! You're a bright kid - I'm sure you'll figure it out sooner or later!

Your favourite things to do are still singing and reading. Currently you are loving The Gruffalo / Gruffalo's Child which I have to read many times a day, but daddy reads it better. You love to sing pretty much anything, but particularly "Miss Polly had a dolly" and "Dingle Dangle Scarecrow" at the moment. Sometimes you tell me off for singing though, as apparently you are much better.

You also love to play with your doctors set and train set. About 30 times a day we have to listen to my heartbeat and your little sisters heartbeat too, which is pretty adorable until you get the scissors out to remove my nose.

I had to crowd source the internet for some crazy hair control ideas as you were beginning to look less adorbz, and more Stig of the Dump. We are now under control for the most part, although you do not like having it brushed / touched / looked at for longer than 10 seconds.

We went on holiday to Heacham for a few days this month, and you had a brilliant time. The weather was absolutely melting, so you loved the beach; lots of ice creams; paddling; swimming; feeding the ducks; making sand castles; dancing party times and just being with daddy for a week. You were a joy to take on holiday, although we all came back pretty shattered.



The weather has been super hot for a few weeks, so we've been making tons of use of the garden, and eating boxes upon boxes of ice lollies. We bought you a little water table which you're obsessed with, and you like to water the plants for me every day.

It's really not long now until your baby sister is here, and we talk about her all the time. You keep telling me that you're going to meet her soon, and you love her a lot. I hope both of these things are true! I keep finding myself getting teary and wondering how on earth she is going to fit into our little routine, and how on earth I could possibly love anyone as much. Mainly I wonder if I will ever have time to brush my teeth ever again.

You helped me get her room more prepared this morning, after a bit of an incident involving your dad and a foot and the ceiling. I'm hoping she stays away for a few more weeks so I can enjoy my time with my big girl. We all love you very much pudding!

With love and light xo

Dear Alice - 19/20 Months

Dear Alice,

You are now 19, nearly 20 months old!

One of the biggest changes in you over the past month or so has been your development with words. It would be impossible to list all the words you know - every day you surprise us! You are also starting to put mini sentences together to let us know what you want. I would guess at maybe 100+, with some of my favourite new phrases being "silly sauage" and "it's raining"!

It's brilliant being able to communicate with you more - you also have impeccable comedy timing!

Along with the word development, you have also started becoming much clearer with your numbers, and can count to 10 with a bit of help. You can also identify colours - red, yellow, green, blue, pink, orange, silver, black and purple. However you will only do this when not directly asked!

You love singing songs, which means I am pretty much constantly singing nursery rhymes at you - you love Twinkle Twinkle the most. A few nights ago I put you down to sleep and you sung it to yourself for 15 minutes and I nearly spent all night crying with how adorable you are.

You also love Old Macdonald, however he only ever seems to have ducks and cats...


You have become obsessed with Mickey Mouse and Peppa Pig. You alternate between which one, and sometimes you want both at the same time.

Yesterday we discovered that you love piggy backs, and I have also now discovered that you are VERY HEAVY! We weighed you on the scales and you are over 2 stone.


Your hair is the most beautiful thing in the entire world. It curls into the most beautiful ringlets and I could stroke it all day. However you do not approve, and would rather spend the entire day looking like a mad scientist.

You have still been pushing your look with tantrums and throwing things, but you are also incredibly adorable, and know fully well how to use that to your advantage. You flirt shamelessly with strangers, singing them twinkle twinkle and blowing kisses.

We moved house last month, after spending months getting the new house ready. I hope you will be very happy here, and we will have lots of fun times. You seem to like it so far - but your room is the best in the house!

We are nearly at Christmas, and I can't wait to have a first Christmas with you where you understand a little more of what's going on. We bought you an advent calender but it ended badly - lots of tantrums and you demanding "more chocolate!". Perhaps next year!


Every month I think I couldn't love you anymore, and every month I do! You are incredible Alice.

With love and light xo