Little miss sunshine

Koh lipe

Beautiful Cape Town

Gettin' techi

Sitting at my kitchen table, hoping ton have mastered the incompatible iPad, Eva is painting; practicing her ' shoulders' on people as the overly enthusiastic teacher at her craft class told her it is a ' school ready sign' that she becomes aware of herself as a person, not just a head with arms..... Mmm I nodded and smiled, but Eva is now on a mission. She has an organized brain and great concentration, thank you sister for those genes.
Now as my beautiful Pip gets older and throws her personality on everyone that passes, I realize that although my daughters look nothing like me, Pip has a personality recognizable to my loud, hungry, testing, foot stomping babyhood. It really gives me a lovely sense of connection.

Sent from my iPad

evaism

Eva has such an interest in words. Not the rude ones, I am very lucky. She did ask her nana waht the F word was one day and then accepted that she was not to say it. At the moment, she has been asking 'how to use' words such as 'certainly' 'serious' and purely. Eva now is quite chuffed as she injects these into her daily, not stop chatter. Are you ok? Its serious!, I am certain that you didnt know i was hiding there! It was purely funny- this one was a good one.

Pip is now the biggest fan of books. Her favourites are the 'sheep book' -'where is the green sheep' and the 'big sheep book' 'Go to sleep'- ahhh Mem fox. At one point in the book the fish holds its breath and makes a wish- Eva' Why does a fish need to hold it's breath?' Then we talked about wishing for something really hard and holding your breath to help it come true. The next day when opening a difficuylt jar of olives, eva convieniently showed me how to hold your breath and bite your bottom lip to help open difficult jars...

There is not a word Pip wont attempt now. Crocodile is the latest one and lavender, which both make me giggle as she accentuates the 'L' by poking her tounge out. She gets things done around the place, what a different world it must become- 'mum you get', 'You stay', 'wait', 'don'tlike', 'bed, mankey and book' which means she just wants to curl up, sleep and grow. not too fast!!

Flying time

Well so much has been happening around here. An extended trip overseas being one of them. Had a great time catching up with the scottish rellies in Glasgow for Alison and Lucas's wedding. Found out about Aunt L's growing belly, and nothing more could have topped a big family party. we stayed in an old manor/ estate house with beautiful gardens and a pool! so the girls were happy. They were a little jetlagged over the weekend, but they are such troopers and seem to travel well. The only difference (with the beauty of hindsite) travelling with toddlers on your own over 24 hours of flying is that you dont get bored. There is nothing else to worry about except the next walk up and down the ailse, trip to the toilet is a big one, so is hunting down stewards for biscuits. Eva is a truely accomplished traveller now and enjoys putting her own Dora the explorer backpack on the security machines, holding her own boarding pass, and looks forward to the meal trays where everything is in small boxes.

The travelling continued when we flew to Italy and the beautiful Lake Garda. The real fun started when we picked up our 'house on wheels' and drove off to the nearest pizza bar for beer, pizza and gelato. Gelateria quickly became eva's first Italian word.

This one is for you

When speaking to my lovely next door neighbour, whos youngest is the same age as my eldest, and she has said she has trouble remembering the first words, the old favourites, quirky habits, especially as Phillipa is changing into a person larger than life day-by-day. As I finish my conversation with my next door neighbour, I turn to Pip- 'Is that right Pip?', 'What!' Now my little one says 'what' to anyone that calls her name, but you must imagine the tone as more like middle-aged cranky teacher rather than cute as a button 1 year old..
Pip also loves a cuddle, big strong chubby armed cuddle, but at the moment she has found her run. So dont dare pick her up if you need to, and be prepared for the little noisy one to protest and wriggle free. On the call of 'on your marks ..go! she will race, usually in the direction of her older sister who will race anyone anytime. This has been an amusing way to get a wriggle on out of a shop, down the street ect..
And then there is Eva, oh sweet Eva. She sits at her desk alot and makes the most marvelous sculptures, drawings, presents for everyone. Today she made presents to drop off to her new favourite people, the kids next door, but as they were'nt home, left them in the post box. She slides down the baulestrades singing 'a spoon ful of sugar' she yells 'yipppee' when she finds a good climbing tree- they are everywhere apparently. She proudly tells me that she has been a good girl with 'no tantrums today', loves to come and watch me play netball, will mimic reading books all the time reading the story out loud from memory, out of the blue she would pick out all the numbers and letters she can read on signs, will only wash and put 'hairditioner' in her beauiful hair on Wednesdays. She is so full of love and kindness it makes me feel mean and stupid when I loose my cool with her, and it is always interesting when she repeats things I say..' no, i can't go out with Lyndsay today as I have alot of work to do, I have all my drawings..'

I love my girls so much, Eva gave me a medal for mother's day for me to hang around my neck, and a beautiful card which she can now write mum and eva awwwww. She also drew a picture of herself, but no room for Pip on the card apparently. xx