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