28 months later ...

Dear Charli girl,
Darling girl, today you turned 28 months old and you are growing up too fast. Life with you of late has been interesting to say the least. About a week ago you turned into adorable girl, the weeks leading up to that.... well let me just say that you have a temper on you when you choose to :)

You and I took Zie on her first beach holiday to Marcoola with Meegan and Owen and it was a delightful weekend. You are such a little caregiver and you are alway looking out for others and especially love looking after your little sister. I try not to encourage too much caregiving behaviour as I don't want you to feel too much responsibility at the tender age of 2 - but your caring nature comes naturally and you are quick with a hug and a kiss when Zie (or sometimes Mummy!) is crying.

It turns out you are quite the cook and this morning you made scones for Aunty Bekk and Matt (aka Map - I think you truly think he is Map from Dora Spora). I tried to help with the scones but you insisted on doing most of it yourself - while they did resemble scones that had in fact exploded, they were very tasty and at this rate I may just hang up my apron and allow you to take over cooking duties soon.

You have discovered the art of procrastination - and the favourite is to ask for endless cuddles and kisses when your Daddy and I are trying to coax you to go to sleep. It's difficult to get cranky at you when you use this ploy - how does one get cranky when you look up at me and say "more kisses mummy?"...... You really do know how to play the game quite well though - and it scares me that you are quite good at it at 2. Your favourite is to push all my buttons, totally rile me up, then goad me even further by patting me patronisingly and saying "it's alright mummy" when I'm going cranky at you for doing something you are not meant to. Just as I think my eyeball is going to explode from the stress of parenting such an independent and strong-willed little girl, you put your arms around my neck, say "I lub you mummy" and ask if we can do 'bu-fly kisses'....... how can I compete with that?

You love your food and I thank the universe each and every day for this as I don't think I have the patience for a fussy eater. We are still waiting for those 2 year old molars to come through - I suspect they are waiting for me to have a really important week at work or something and then they will make their appearance - giving us no sleep or peace for about 2 weeks on end.

Darling girl, we love you - but I must dash now and end this letter as there is ironing to be done, dinner to prepare and a mountain of other things that I must do before you wake from your nap. As much as you love to help me with all of these things, it truly is best if you don't ;)

All my love,
Mummy
xoxo

Where has the time gone my darling....

Dear Mackenzie Grace,
It is hard to believe that nearly 8 months ago you blessed our lives with your smiles. And you truly are our smiley girl. Even in the midst of tears, when your tummy hurts or I'm just taking way too long to get food to you, you always have a smile for us. And speaking of food, don't you just love it? From the moment it was introduced to you about 2.5 months ago, you took to eating like a duck to water. With a couple of tongue thrusts you soon learnt that you were wasting precious food doing that and soon learnt to just devour anything in sight. Some have commented that you seem ready for a good old steak with a side of vegetables and they are not far wrong. Granted, we should probably puree the meat, but there are some days when you seem to be having a growth spurt when I suspect that you would make light work of a T-bone steak despite not having any chompers just yet.


You are now sitting quite well, though your desperation to reach objects just out of your grasp sometimes means that you fall flat on your face with your legs still out in front of you. This makes me wince as it's been years since I've had that level of flexibility - I suspect if I tried that now my child-bearing hips may just simply crack into two piece. But you just roll over and keep trying to get hold of whatever it was that took your fancy in the first place - usually with a giggle or two along the way.

And giggle - your sister and you are a right royal pair when you get going. Charli's favourite pastime when it comes to playing with you is the take the edge of the fisher price swing and swing you as high as it will go - or alternatively bounce you in your bouncing car until I suspect that the mountains of food you just devoured are about to erupt like Mt Vesuvius. The first time I caught her doing this I just about died of fright - but it's difficult to tell her that she shouldn't do it because you don't like it when - right in front of me - you make a liar of me and giggle at Charli while giving this look that says "don't listen to Mum, I'm having a marvellous time". Charli turns to me and says "Zie likes it"..... how to argue with that. The two of you run rings around your father and I already ...... it's frightening.

You love to sing (i.e. squeal really loudly) - and love to be sung to - by your sister of course - not me or your father. She loves to sing you "Dora Spora (Explorer)" and she's no doubt already planting the dora obsession into your pretty little head - which is probably just as well because it's plainly obvious that you are going to be forced to watch hours of Dora Spora as the years go by. Still if this relieves me of Dora watching duties then sorry babe, but I'm all for it.

While you are not yet crawling yet, you may as well be. I cannot leave you for a second - the other day I dared to go and pee for 2 seconds while you were on the floor and on my return you were under the coffee table. Not at all bothered by this fact, you just giggled when I had to get down on hands and knees and drag you out.

Zie you have brought us such delight over the past months and you are such a placid easy-going little girl. Your Dad and I look forward to the coming months of crawling, learning to walk and those first delightful words that will come out of your mouth - and I don't mean the vocalisation of dada that your Daddy claims was his name but really we both just know it's the first thing that ALL babies say - but we'll let him enjoy that moment ;)

Love Mummy
x