Dear Violet - 2 and half

Dear Violet

You are just over 2 and a half.

I just spent a while looking through Alice’s entries for the same age- and you guys are just so different. I guess by now Alice already had a baby sister, so was going through a lot of change and upheaval, but you are just the chillest little person in the entire world. Your personalities have always been different, but you completely complement each other. You spend your whole time just going with the flow, and as long as you have food you’re happy.

You have the cheekiest face, and you like to point out to everyone that you're a little monkey! You jump from chair to chair, or climb into the window ledges, or roll off the coffee table pretty much constantly. You never sit still for long, and you just like to run round in circles. You scream “chase me chase me” and then pretend to cry till Alice rescues you from your capture.

You like doing anything that Alice is doing, but get bored a lot quicker. Your colouring is getting much better – you can choose which part of the picture you want which colour and love asking me to pick the colours out for you. You know all the colours now, and can count to 20-ish although sometimes have a bit of a wander off in the middle.

You completely dote on Mitch. Whereas Alice will always snuggle up to me and give me cuddles, your kisses are pretty much entirely reserved for daddy unless I have a biscuit to swap for them. You love fighting and tickling and playing rough with daddy, but that just means when I do occasionally get some kisses they are extra special.

It’s hard for me to separate you from Alice when I think about you - you’re so tangled up together and you share a room, clothes (not on purpose but you just help yourself to Alice’s a lot of the time), toys and books. You completely dote on your big sister and no one makes you happier than she does. Apart from when you hate each other and hit each other. But most of the time you’re pretty ace together.

We’ve been going to the hospital with your eyes regularly, and we’ve just started patching to hopefully correct the weaker eye. You weren't a huge fan but you’re kind of getting used to it now. You call it your pirate patch and as long as you’re distracted we can normally get the 2 hours a day in somewhere.

You still love food - especially meat. Your favourites are bacon, ham and sausage. We always joke that between you and Alice you can eat a whole meal but it’s completely true – on a Sunday dinner Alice will eat veg and yorkshires and you will eat meat and maybe mash when the meat stops coming. You cannot be talked to when we’re at the table as you’re too busy eating, and it’s such a contrast to the constant mealtime battle we used to have with Alice!

  

When you’re at home you've still been napping, although that’s kind of gone off course a little over the past few weeks while weave been on holiday. I love your nap - please continue napping till your like 30. Everyone loves a nap right?

Weave been attempting potty training every few weeks, and other than a few successes you aren't a fan. You generally just scream and cry and refuse to even entertain the idea. I don’t want to force you and make it traumatic for everyone, so we’ll keep pushing through and hopefully get there soon.

You had the best time ever on holiday. I didn't know if it would be too loud or too much for you, but you just couldn't get enough of the discos every night. You played musical bumps, entered all the competitions, sang (a bit) in the talent show, and just loved it. I think by the end of the week Alice was getting tired, but you could have kept on going for another week. All the bigger girls completely fell in love with you and were fighting over who could look after you every evening, and you obviously completely lapped up all the attention!

You’re not super sure about this baby lark. You talk to the baby a bit like Alice does, but I’m not sure how much you get it. But I’m sure you will approach it with your happy smile, cheeky face, and probably draw a moustache on her and deny it.

Love you pudding!

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

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 - 17 Months

Dear Alice,

You are now 17 months old! Again, I'm sorry that I've missed a month out but time always seems to just slip through my fingers.

These past few months I've noticed such a distinct change in you, from being my tiny little baby girl, to my little toddler. It's been a strange adjustment to you no longer being a baby! You are also quite big for your age, and we've had to move into 2-3 for a lot of your clothes and vests.

After a hard few months you are now going to sleep loads better in the daytime, and most days having between an hour and 2 in the afternoon. You (most of the time) go to sleep on your own without us having to do anything which is a lot easier than singing or rocking you to sleep!

You have really come on leaps and bounds with your words - every single day you seem to be coming out with new words and sounds. You're also able to say most of them without prompting, and you completely understand what the word means. Just a few of the words you now say - cracker, banana, mummy, daddy, mama, nanny, slide, kitty, pussy, cat, robot, seesaw, swing, slide, park, teeth, shoes, socks, toast, iggle, duck, quack, ball, kick, no, nice, kiss, book, sun, light, nose, eyes, mouth, colour, clock and sorry!


You're understanding of words and phrases has also come on a lot. If I say "bedtime" you will get your teddy and sit at the bottom of the stairs. Or if I say "breakfast" you will go and try and get in your high chair. Or if I say "kisses" you will run off giggling and shaking your head no!

You are constantly walking, running, playing and giggling. From 6am to 7pm you are pretty much none stop wanting to play! The first thing you ask for in the morning is "colour" and you love drawing pictures and swirls. You love to go to the park and burn some energy off, and if it was up to you we would be there every day.


You love dancing and singing to music, but have specific tastes. Sometimes you will love a song, then something else will come on and you will shake your head and say no! Maybe I'll keep an eye n your budding music taste incase you spend too much time with daddy...

Alongside all the lovely things, you are also developing a mardy streak! Especially if you've been forced into your pram when you'd rather be running round and making a mess. It's made going out anywhere none child friendly a million times harder! I have my first ridiculously mardy / screamy child in Tesco experience last week. You slammed your head on the trolley to get my attention, and when I got you out for a cuddle you ran off half crying / half giggling.


You will have complete tantrums and melt downs if I take something off you, or won't give you what you want. Today you only wanted to eat carrots, and if I tried to get you something else you just cried about it.

However, mostly you are incredibly funny and sweet. You love spending time with people and being the centre of attention, making them laugh and playing silly games. It takes me forever to get anywhere as I have to stop and talk to people you have pointed at or sung to!

You are challenging and difficult, but amazing and incredible. Every day I learn more about being a mum, and every day you make me laugh.

With love and light xo