Where does the Time go?

Our baby girl is two months old already today. Her growing so fast is a real eye-opener and makes me realise we have to enjoy every little moment, every milestone otherwise I will wake up one day and my gorgeous children will all be teenagers!

Here are the highlights of the past month.

Wriggly (2 months)

– You went to a playgroup with your big sisters for the first time and sat on my knees at singing time for ‘The Wheels on the Bus’ and ‘Old MacDonald’.
– Whenever your daddy has been playing the guitar, you have been listening intently.
– You pushed one of the rings on the play gym accidentally as you lifted your arm and seemed really happy with yourself.
– At exactly one month, you caught your first cold.
– You gave us your first real smile after I read ‘The Smartest Giant in Town’ to your sisters.
– Your smiles are incredibly cute and always start on one side of your mouth.
– In the hot weather, you started cooing when we were blowing gently on your face.
– Your eyes are a beautiful shade of blue.
– You started sucking your thumb (hand?).
– You went to the French embassy again.
– You now have a French passport.
– At six weeks old, you weighed a healthy 3.7kg.
– You grabbed on to my hair a couple of times.
– You went on your first holiday and met most of your cousins in Devon.

Jumpy (1 year 9 months)

– Your speech is getting clearer and clearer. It sounds less like gobbledygook and more like English, with the odd French word.
– This month, you started asking “allowed?” whilst pointing at food. I found it heart breaking to start with but my practical side took over: you are learning to check whether it is safe to eat such or such food, which is really clever for a twenty month old.
– You are a natural puddle jumper!
– Pigtails are perfect to tame your unruly curly hair. You look so grown up and pretty!
– You had prick tests for a range of nuts and seeds at the hospital. You reacted to all nuts apart from walnuts and Brazil nuts, and seemed fine with seeds. You also had blood tests for your allergies. You were looking at the blood filling up the syringe with a lot of interest. I think I was more squeamish than you were! You are such a tough cookie and I am really proud of you, little one!
– You have a strange new habit. You take off your pyjamas and nappy and leave ‘presents’ in your bed at the moment. No, no, no!
– You are starting to say “Thank you!”
– You love throwing stones in the sea or in rivers.

Beanie (3 years 10 months)

– Your eczema has been out of control this month.
– You are a little rock chick! When you heard the start of ‘Rocks’ by Primal Scream on the radio, you told me: “maman, it’s ‘rock your socks off’! It’s my favourite song; put it louder!”
– Your daddy has nicknamed you ‘the defecator’ in the past few weeks as you have been wetting and soiling your underwear pretty much every day. We are now hoping you will not go straight from Pull ups to Tena pants…
– You are such a performer! You are constantly singing, dancing, acting, telling us jokes.
– You are goofy, happy, bubbly and funny.
– You seem to speak in rhymes at the moment, making up your own words. You are such a creative little person. That baffles me and makes me really proud!

Crevette (6 years)

– You were really happy to get a sticker when you came third (out of four!) in a race at Sports Day, my sweet little man!
– When I asked for a “muslin”, you gave me a “Muslim”! Your elocution is impeccable, so I treasure small mistakes like this.
– After I realised you had taken a £20 note from my purse, we had a long chat about what you can and cannot do, what ‘finding’ means and talked about telling the truth immediately when asked a question.
– We had a bit of “mummy and Crevette time” when we received a parcel full of sweets.
– You turned six this month and we let you choose what you wanted to do on your birthday. You chose to go to the cinema. You then had your lunch in the park and spent the afternoon outside with friends in the paddling pool, doing some amateur face-painting (very ‘It’) and had banana ice cream in cones.
– I took you to the loft for the first time and you felt like an explorer!
– I love seeing the way you interact with your sisters. It makes me swell with pride to see you being so kind, gentle and diplomatic with them.

Us

– My hormones are still all over the place and I am hoping the real ‘me’ comes back soon. I have to stop getting frustrated about the state of my house.
– I sorted out the hundreds of photos we had taken on the camera, phone, tablet and realised that there was not one decent photo of Wriggly and I. It is completely irrational but it felt like I was not there. Do I need to mention the floods of tears that followed?
– Hubby took our older two on a boat trip.
– Beanie and Jumpy had a day at the Science museum with their daddy.
– I visited work with my three girls and thoroughly enjoyed chatting to my lovely colleagues.
– We took the paddling pool out.
– I have been trying to develop a muffin recipe for Jumpy that excludes everything she is allergic to. I am almost there I think.
– We all went to the dentist’s.
– We had a fab day at my friend Cé’s.
– We received a huge parcel, to the kids’ delight! They made a house with the box.
– We went to a paddling pool in one of our local parks and had a picnic.
– I went for a 9.30 a.m. screening of ‘Rio 2’ with Wriggly, Beanie, my friend Loraine and her little ones. It was the first time going to the cinema for Beanie and Wriggly. They loved it and so did I!
– We had our first holiday as a family of six.
– We went to Shaldon Water Carnival and threw stones in the sea.