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Letter to My Daughters ~ June

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| July 3, 2015 by Kim | Letters to my daughter

Wow – 3 months to catch up on and what a lot has happened!

Emily, my beautiful, big girl. Your confidence keeps growing, your curiosity is never ending and your smile fills my heart. The past three months have been action packed. We took you on your first ride on a train – this is now called “a big adventure” and you loved spotting things out the window and telling us all about what you could see. Many trips to the zoo where you can now find your way around as well as we can, trips to the park and lots of walks.

You adore seeing all of your grandparents and ask about them regularly. You are getting more comfortable around them and are a lot more quick to give cuddles and hold hands every time you see them. You have made lots of friends at day care and when we pick you up we get to hear who your “best friend” was that day. Usually Ashley, Hayley or Ethan seem to pop up the most, although some days it’s an emphatic “no one”! You started doing a dance class at day care once a week this term and you love it so much. Thursday is one of your favourite days because of it.

You continue to eat nearly everything, although you are getting more opinionated about your food. The only thing you really refuse is “green trees”, although most dinners which you usually scoff down are initially described as “disgusting!” at the moment. You are sleeping well most nights and have barely been sick, although I think the winter bugs are starting up as you are just over your first bout of tonsillitis. In May, you had a large patch of hair fall out. A quick trip to the gp to make sure it wasn’t fungal/contagious for daycare and then off to a dermatologist confirmed that you appear to have alopecia areata. Luckily your hair has already started growing back, but we don’t know what to expect from it in the future.

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You are our clever, creative and curious little girl and are growing up very quickly.

Sophie! What a big three months for you as well. Twenty months now and you are passing milestones like crazy, and there are some big ones in there. You have ditched the high chair and demanded to sit in a big girls seat like your sister does. The past few months have also seen you getting better and better at feeding yourself to the point we barely need to help you any more and the mess being made is definitely decreasing.

You are also walking a lot further, to the point we can walk up to the local shops and leave the pram at home – fantastic! At first your little legs would get tired on the way home, but now you make it all the way with no problems and then still want to continue on to the park. At the park, you are also increasingly independent. Climbing up the big slide on your own, confidently making your way down either slide and also being more aware of the edges, so while we still have to keep a very close eye on you we no longer have to climb up with you to make sure you are safe.

You are still loving daycare and have made some great friends there. Some days you are having so much fun that when I arrive to pick you up, you run off to another area and just keep on playing with your friends instead of coming over for cuddles and dragging me to the door.

You are loving exploring your world as you become more and more aware of everything around you. Gumnuts are a big favourite to find on our walks and you proudly share them with us. You are also talking a lot and your vocabulary increases almost every day, although we know you are getting frustrated at not being able to tell us everything you want to – we’d better look out once you can! Like Emily, you have been pretty healthy lately, a few runny noses and then first bad winter bug right at the end of June. Your 18 month check up and immunisations were done with minimal fuss. You are still our bigger than the average girl (trying to catch up to your sister?) sitting at 90th percentile or higher on both height and weight.

You are our cheeky, happy, cuddly little girl.

Love you both lots and lots and lots xoxoxoxoxo

Emily and Sophie, you are the best of friends and adore each other. It is amazing to watch you play together and take care of each other. I hope you will always have this xx

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Letter to My Daughters ~ February / March

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| April 10, 2015 by Kim | Letters to my daughter

Dear Sophie, the last two months started off hard and finished amazingly. The first 5-6 weeks of daycare were a non-stop run of illnesses – colds, ear infection, rashes and more colds. You came out of that initial blast still smiling and bar the odd runny nose and occasional cough you have been kicking up your heels ever since.

You absolutely adore going to daycare. After the initial uncertainty, you now let yourself into the room, grab a chair and sit waiting for a bite to eat. You are always happy to give a kiss and cuddle goodbye and a great big wave and smile as we leave you there. You’re just as happy to see us when we pick you up too after a big day of playing with your friends.

And Sophie, you are most definitely a “daddy’s girl”. You adore your daddy and will bypass me without a thought if you need a cuddle or want someone to read a book to you. This phase has lasted quite a while and it’s only been in the last week of March that you started coming to me as well.

Your walking has been improving out of sight, you are loving longer walks now and will happily run around the oval with your big sister chasing after a ball until everyone is worn out. You are also doing your best to talk to us – loads and loads of babble with a few words starting to come through. Your first truly clear word was, surprisingly, “mummy”. Screamed out in the middle of the night in panic. Not sure what the disaster was, but how could I resist going and giving you cuddles.

You are our ever bubbly, smiley, happy girl who is revelling in her increasing independence and abilities.

Dear Emily, the last couple of months have been hard on you in ways that they aren’t for Sophie. You love being at daycare with all your friends and all the activities you get to do there. But most days you ask if you can stay home and when we pick you up and ask if you had fun, more often than not you say “I didn’t” – you then go on to tell us what you did and get terribly excited about it all, so we know you did actually have a good day!

While you physically are coping with the long days at daycare better than Sophie, you do find it terribly draining as well and real revel in the weekends spending time with all of us together. It was lovely to walk into daycare one day and hear the carers talking about you and describe you as caring, sensitive and articulate (like she ate a dictionary over summer). You are a non-stop chatterbox and are always telling us when you see a bus, or a car if it’s orange, yellow or green (all of them are your favourite). I think we have heard you sing the alphabet song over a thousand times in the last couple of months, you’re very pleased with yourself about being able to do it, as well as being able to count to 10.

You have loved seeing all of your grandparents more regularly than usual and it’s a frequently heard question when we get in the car “we go see grandma grandpa?”. I think your favourite person of all though is Sophie. You are a wonderful big sister and now that Sophie can play with you, the rough interaction has decreased dramatically and you will more often be trying to hold her hand, play ring-a-rosie or ask her for a cuddle.

While you definitely have more fluctuating moods than your sister, and can be such a dictator (as only a toddler can do!), you are also utterly delightful and it’s beautiful to watch you learn and grow.

You are our busy, clever, gorgeous girl.

Love you both lots and lots and lots xoxoxoxo

Letter to my Daughters – December/January

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| January 24, 2015 by Kim | Letters to my daughter

Dear Emily, what an amazing couple of months you have had. We had a fairly busy run up to Christmas between daycare concert, catching up with friends and family and then Christmas day itself of course. You had a ball opening presents (you totally understand it now!) and were so excited with your new play kitchen.

There followed 3 weeks with all of us at home together which saw so many changes in you. Your talk and chatter about absolutely everything now, presenting your ideas several times in a row, each time slightly differently or expanding on your idea as you work out how words go together and how they explain your world. Each morning while your sister had her nap, you had dedicated time with me, your dad or both of us and we played outside – blowing bubbles, riding your balance bike or doing craft. I think this was your favourite part of the day.

We had fabulous outings to the zoo, water play, various parks, hanging out with your grandparents as well as spending a LOT of time at our local playground and walking around our neighbourhood. While you love both mummy and daddy lots, you are definitely more of a mummy’s girl which means I get lots of cuddles and lots of demands that I do thigns for you rather than anyone else.

You also had your first haircut recently. This was a pretty big even for you and you really didn’t enjoy it at all. There were lots of tears and pleading, but you were very brave and sat on my lap and let the hairdresser do her job. You now love your shorter hair and it’s so much easier to take care of and doesn’t hurt when we brush it out for you.

You were very eager to return to childcare by the end of the break and so excited that Sophie would be coming with you too! You fell straight back into the routine and have had an absolute ball. Your confidence has been lovely to see and you are coming so much more out of your shell and interacting with the other kids there.

You are a sweet, clever, curious little girl with increasing confidence which is beautiful to see.

Dear Sophie, an amazing couple of months for you too. Your toddling has transformed into walking and now you are pretty much running! It’s gorgeous to see you walking along and reaching up to hold a hand if you get a bit wobbly or determinedly pulling your hand away and asserting your independence. Watchign you and your sister play together and twirling in our loungeroom (and falling over) has everyone in fits of giggles.

You have absolutely loved having everyone home with you for several weeks and have grown so much in that time. You are becoming more and more confident at the local playground (including a couple of incidents that really scared your parents while you worked out your limitations!) and can now walk around for about half the time we are at the zoo. You even now enjoy playing with water – a sprinkler in the backyard, the water fountain area at Olympic Park are a couple of our favourite places on a hot day.

At some point you stopped eating mushy food at all and are now eating almost the same as what your sister does. You are loving pretty much everything we offer you, just as your sister did, and enjoy trying all the new things on offer now. You also finally had 4 more teeth come through in mid-January bringing the total up to 10 teeth. Your hair is slowly getting longer and getting all these gorgeous curls at the back.

You had your first day at daycare this week. It was a big deal for us while you are quite the little extrovert it is a huge change for you after being at home all the time up to now. Much to our delight, you absolutely loved it! You have loved having a new environment to explore, toys and games to play, people to interact with and so many different activities to do. You are exhausted at the end of each day, but always in a good mood as you seem to thrive on all the interaction.

You are our happy, giggly, determined little girl, who is growing up so quickly!

Love you both lots and lots and lots xoxoxoxo

Letter to My Daughters ~ October/November

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| December 6, 2014 by Kim | Letters to my daughter

Dear Sophie – you turned ONE in October! We can’t believe our little baby girl is one year old. You continue to delight us with your cheeky grins and cuddles and generally happy nature. You had so much fun at your party at the park next door, loving being centre of attention and we saved opening presents for the next day. You received such beautiful gifts from family and friends, Emily enjoyed helping you open them too.

You also started walking shortly after your birthday and it hasn’t taken you long to get in the swing of it and you’re almost at the point of being able to run away from your sister.

Dear Emily, you are growing up SO much! Your talking has progressed amazingly and you have become a real little chatterbox. Every day you are talking more clearly and able to express yourself better, it’s amazing to watch.

You absolutely adore your little sister and were so excited when she started walking. You wanted to hold her hand as she walked, but Sophie was too independent and wanted to do her own thing. We had a few tears and you still push her over every now and then, but you’ve come to realise that it’s much more fun to have Sophie walking around with you.

You have been pretty healthy recently which has been lovely, we had a stint with hand, foot and mouth for both of you, but otherwise you have been able to get out and about every weekend and are absolutely loving daycare during the week. You have become a really cuddly little girl too, with great big hugs for all of us.

Love you both lots and lots and lots xoxoxox

For the next blog in our Letters to our Children circle, head on over to Rebecca’s blog and see what she has posted.

Letter to my Daughters ~ September

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| October 4, 2014 by Kim | Letters to my daughter

Where to start… Our illness of the month for September was conjunctivitis, No fun for anyone, with Sophie and I both still feeling the lingering effects of it. Emily, otherwise you have had a wonderful month. With the warmer weather we have been getting out and about a lot more and you can walk for so much longer now – it’s rare that you want to get in the pram at all when we go to the zoo now and we sometimes stay for close to 3 hours. Your talking is also coming along at a great rate – more words, concepts and longer sentences are coming out every single day. Even the carers at your childcare have commented on how quickly you are coming along.

Talking of childcare, you have started spending a bit more time with the “big kids” in their play area in preparation for moving into a new room next year. You are loving it and playing with new toys and people is so much fun. The best part though is that you can always take yourself back to the little kids room when you have had enough and need a bit of space and quiet from time to time.

You are getting braver and more capable when playing at the little playground next door to our place and have even started interacting with some of the other kids there at times. Your cousin Ben visited during the month and the two of you had so much fun playing together on the slide! You are so helpful as well, at childcare, you help with making the cots, passing out morning tea, bringing the other kids their drink bottles. At home you love bringing toys for Sophie to play with or giving her a cuddle when she cries, and if we ever leave our phone within reach you make a grab for it so you can pass it back to us!

Emily, you are our happy, chatty, helpful, bossy little girl who loves being outdoors, going for walks and is obsessed with going to the zoo.

Sophie, you are growing up so quickly now. Not quite walking, but you pull up on things every chance you get and can easily stand unsupported for quite a while now – even while bouncing up and down because you’re so excited at what you’re doing! You constant happiness and joy with everything continues to amaze us. You have your moments when you are tired, hungry or not feeling well and get a bit cranky, but they tend to pass very quickly.

Your appetite continues to grow and we are slowly but surely increasing how much solids you get and adjusting meal times to try and make sure you aren’t hungry. You and your sister are playing together more and more, looking at books together, chasing each other or just smiling and holding hands. You are becoming more aware of your surroundings and the people who visit in your life and it is wonderful to see you getting involved in things. Our favourite ‘stop crying’ distraction is still singing songs to you – especially action songs where you have something to watch as well as listen to.

We have moved bedtime around again and you and Emily both go down in your cots at the same time now. It’s a bit of a struggle as you are both excited to see the other, but it seems to be slowly settling into a routine – early days for this yet though.

Sophie, you are our happy, bubbly, sharing little baby who is growing up so quickly.

Love you both lots and lots and lots xoxoxoxo

For more Letters to Our Children posts, head on over to Rebecca’s blog!

Letters to my Daughters ~ August

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| September 6, 2014 by Kim | Letters to my daughter, Personal Projects

Dear Emily. You had your second birthday this month and are growing up so quickly! We had a very small birthday celebration for you while 3 of your grandparents were in town. There were lots of presents and you got to eat a whole cupcake, although you weren’t impressed with the overly sweet frosting and turned the thing upside down so you could just eat the cake part.

The end of the month was a bit hard for you as you were hit with croup which made you utterly miserable for a week or so. Luckily we got on to it quickly and you recovered ok. Around the same time you had a massive word explosion though and you are still coming out with several new words every day. You’ve even developed a bit of a lisp as you try and get the words out faster than your mouth can handle. It’s lovely being able to have simple conversations with you and hear you express yourself.

With the weather improving, we have been able to get out to the park again which you are loving. You are interacting with us and others so much more these days. We had a fun game of chasings around the park which had you peering out from behind equipment and giving us the most gorgeous cheeky grins. Your caring nature is shining out more and more, you are a beautiful, helpful, cuddly little girl.

Dear Sophie, you are so active now! You are crawling everywhere, pulling up on everything and trying to climb anything within reach. I think you enjoyed your sisters birthday as much as she did and got to play with the paper and some of the new toys.

Most of your photos don’t show it, but it seems like you just don’t stop smiling. You’ve been pretty sick this last week, but once you stop crying after a big cough you are straight back to grinning, blowing raspberries and making happy little noises. We are still going to the zoo most weekends and make a point now to stop and let you out for a bit of a wander at some point which you are definitely enjoying, still a bit longer before you start noticing the animals though.

You are also loving the visits to the park as you can now sit in the swing and get pushed in it a bit. Emily loves giving you a push or sitting on the swing next to yours and you both watch each other as you swing.

You are my gorgeous, happy, bubbly little girl, who can’t wait to start walking and follow her big sister around.

Love you both lots and lots and lots xoxoxoxo

Head on over and have a look at Joanne’s blog for the next post in our Letters to Our Children blog circle.

Letter to my Daughters – July

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| August 2, 2014 by Kim | Letters to my daughter, Personal Projects

Dear Sophie, big milestones this month – your first tooth came through at the start of the month, with the second one only a few days behind. It was a pretty grumpy few days for you though with not much sleep for any of us as the first one came in, then the second appeared with no fanfare whatsoever. The other big milestone for you is that you have started crawling! A little wobbly and unsteady at first, but after only a week you really have the hang of it and have worked out that you can start to follow when people walk away from you. It’s adorable to see you crawling after your big sister or determinedly heading for your toys.

You hit the 9 month mark last weekend, so I decided it was time to weigh you again – you came in at 9.3kg which has you at the 85th percentile! No wonder my arms are getting tired carrying you around. You continue to do 4 bottles each day and two increasingly large feeds of solids, although I still can’t interest you in an extra serve of solids in the morning. You seem to be dropping your afternoon nap as you haven’t had one for 4 days now, but your other nap times haven’t changed at all. It does make sure you go to sleep of an evening very, very quickly which we like.

Now that your teeth are through, you are sleeping well again and it is very rare that I need to get up to you during the night. Continue to sleep well my happy, chubby, healthy little girl.

Dear Emily, not to be outdone, the first of the 2yr old molars has made an appearance the same weekend as your sisters’ first teeth came through. It caused you a bit of discomfort, so we ended up with both of you sleeping poorly and a bit upset at the same time – that was a very long few days. You also started the month with a bang, after a couple of days with high temps and being miserable, you were put on another round of antibiotics for suspected chest infection which had led to an ear infection as well.

We seem to be going to the zoo every weekend at the moment and you are loving it, you always want to see the “hop hop” (kangaroos), elephants and the lion/tiger/bear combo which is accompanied by many growls.

Your hair is getting thicker and longer and it is easier to tie it up to keep out of your face. It makes you look so much older than the little girl you are. You are getting more independent and your vocabulary is expanding on a daily basis which is lovely to hear and we are starting to get several two word combos. You continue to eat almost anything put in front of you and love your corn, peas, cheese and honey (on everything). We have started getting some impressive tantrums too, but they are still usually because you are overtired or frustrated.

You are a delightful little girl who adores her younger sister (except when she wants to play with “your” toys) and loves when your granny comes to stay for a few days.

Love you both lots and lots and lots xoxoxoxo

Click on over and have a look at Joanne’s Letter to her Children, the next post in our blog circle.

Letter to my Daughters – June

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| June 30, 2014 by Kim | Letters to my daughter, Personal Projects, Uncategorized

Dear Emily, what an amazing couple of months with you. You loved the visit up to grans place and loved spending loads of time outside. You also finally got over your fear of walking in dirt/sand, although you now can sit for ages cleaning every last grain off the bottom of your feet. You continue to be incredibly active and it’s not unusual for us to go to the zoo and you only hop in the pram right at the end when we’ve already been walking around for nearly 2 hours.

Your speech continues to expand and you seem to come out with new words every day at the moment. Latest words include “wet”, “sit”, “corn” and you love to say “meow” every time you see a cat. You have had a few illnesses over the last little while (probably courtesy of childcare), with gastro working its way through all of us, and another bout of tonsillitis making you miserable.

You test your boundaries on an almost constant basis (and our patience at times), however you are a good kid with a beautiful, kind nature and love to help us out.

Dear Sophie. so much is happening in your little world right now. You are finding your voice with your favourite noise being a deep growl, we don’t know how you don’t have a sore throat from it but you love it. In the last week you have also started some serious babbling with lots of different babbles coming out – all interspersed with your growls of course!

You are regularly eating 2 meals every day and haven’t rejected any tastes we have offered up to you so far. You are getting more mobile too, rolling is totally under control now, spinning on your tummy and you even manage to shuffle around a little bit while sitting to get where you want to – as long as it isn’t too far. We don’t think it will be very long before you are crawling now, you can move from sitting, rock forward onto your hands and knees, you just don’t have the moving part happening yet.

You are still a happy, smiley baby, with great big grins for everyone, especially your big sister and when we sing nursery rhymes to you.

Love you both lots and lots and lots xoxoxoxo

Follow on to the Joanne’s blog to see the next entry in our Letters to Our Children blog circle.

Letter to My Daughters – May

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| June 19, 2014 by Kim | Letters to my daughter

I’m a bit later on this one, so I’ve gone with some photos from the month instead – had some beautiful ones in May!

Sophie – mirror, mirror on the wall…

Sophie – Bath time

Sophie – Smiley girl

Sophie – Chatting with gran

Emily – Playing with Flair

Emily – helping in the garden

Emily – at the zoo

Emily – finding my shadow

Letter to My Daughters – April

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| April 26, 2014 by Kim | Letters to my daughter, Personal Projects

Goodness, where did this month go?!

Dear Sophie, you continue to show more and more of your personality. This month has seen you start to really interact with your world and wanting to do more. You still aren’t that keen on rolling – you have done it, but you would rather be sitting or holding our hands to stand up and see more than you can while laying on the ground. We picked up a high chair for you and you sit in it a couple of times a day now playing with toys or watching what everyone else is up to.

You have started eating a bit more “real food” and you are loving the pureed apple and porridge we have introduced you to so far. You have also found your voice, almost to our dismay, with your favourite sound being a very loud, high shriek. At least it seems to be a happy noise most of the time. You continue to be our good sleeping, happy, smiley little girl.

Dear Emily, another amazing month for you. Your energy levels continue to increase and you are definitely keeping us on our toes as you test your capabilities and boundaries. We spend weekends working out ways to tire you out and as a result we get out a lot more ourselves and are exploring more parks and playgrounds in the area. Over Easter your interest in fountains finally surpassed your fear of getting wet from them and you ended up soaked but incredibly happy. Of course this was the one time we forgot to bring a change of clothes for you!

You are slowly adding more words to your vocabulary, still not a lot of words there but it’s really starting to pick up. Recently you have added “hi”, “shhh” and “baby” and your pronunciation is getting clearer all the time. We have changed up your breakfast a few times lately to try and get enough into you and have finally settled on giving you porridge – and most days you eat as much as dad! You continue to be a funny, affectionate little girl and dote on your little sister.

Love you both lots and lots and lots xoxoxoxo

Head on over to Melanie’s blog to see the next letter in the “Letters to Our Children” blog circle.