you did it, for the first time ever you copied a sentence!{almost} you were screaming at me for milk, water, or just a drink. I turned to you calmly and said, "Son, it's better to ask "please mama, may I have a drink" You looked me straight in the eye and said "please mama, something something water" You didn't really say something something, but it was a couple of words that I don't know how to type to make it sound how you said it, but it could have been "mayIhave..." Oh son, this has made me a very happy mama. I love you xoxo

our little model

some modelling jobs call for the model to stare off into the wild blue yonder. You've got it down, this is "your look". If only we could find a way to make millions, I am certain you would totally be in demand for that role.

Parco for playo

Oh how you love being with your cousins.

Your smile fills my heart and swells it to almost overflowing. Your laugh captures me and holds me spellbound unaware of the hours marching by. Your "goofy" is much more enticing than your screaming. Your "happy" is much more inviting than your scowl. You are pure delight (most times) I love you all times love Mama xoxoxox

movie night

Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family. Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one. ~Jane Howard

We had family tonight. Nicholas and Alexandra, your cousins came for a movie night. You were loving being with the big kids. They were loving being with you. I was loving watching you being so happy. Love you mama xoxoxox

Paper planes and cousins

Dear Masher,

Your cousins are here. They arrived yesterday. We are both very happy to see them.

Tonight you and I went over to the vacation apartment where they are staying to visit. Nicholas made you some paper airplanes and you thought that was just great. You spent several minutes running in the backyard with them, occasionally you let them fly into the air then squeal excitedly as they crashed to the ground.

I have missed this for you son. I want you to know the sense of family that comes from being a part of one another's lives.

I love you Macadoodle.

love mama

xoxoxox

"whats that noise?"

There is quite a buzz going on a round here at the moment. They have started building something next door on the empty section of land. I wonder what it will be.

I am excited for you, all the activity will be a great treat for you I am sure. I suspect we will see you looking at the window constantly throughout the process. I'm glad.

I love you my "totally boy" boy.

love mama

xoxoxo

Dear Son, Often we walk to school in the mornings. At the moment the weather is so lovely, warm and very sunny with no humidity. It means that we walk a lot during the day, to the park, to the supermarket, to discover this in the neighbourhood. You have taken to standing up in the stroller. It seems to be your favourite mode of transport currently. I actually like it when you do, because it says to me "here I am world, I'm ready for you, I'm looking you in the eye, I'm living my life out loud" and you do. I really like the colours of your school. It makes me feel happy and warm inside. I hope that you feel happy and warm when you are here. You appear to.

When you awoke from your nap we made dinner together. You found great joy in making music on all the things in front of you. You sang while banging each item for a different sound. I hope you continue to dance, play and sing throughout your life son, music is good for the soul.

I love you, now and forever.

love mama.

xoxoxox

30 months and counting

We have been working with you over the last couple of months to help you learn your numbers (and to count) Now you can count to 6 properly, and get the other numbers to 10 out of order, but you know them! We are so proud of you. Today you were playing with a number puzzle and excitedly took the number 5 over to your lightning McQueen pillow and put in on the 5 of the 95 on Lightning's door. I was so surprised and pleased. You really are coming along nicely son. Bravo. We love you love mama. PS Planes are still your favourite.

you love to...

RUN

Just now...

Just now I went into your room to check on you, as I sometimes do in the middle of the night. I couldn't find you on your bed, I searched the room quickly and then I heard you move. You were curled up under the table in your little hut mama made you a couple of weeks ago with your head resting on your little dalmation puppy pillow. HOW CUTE!

I didn't want to move you so I gently placed your blanket on top of you and you woke up just for a brief moment, you reached out your hand to me and softly whispered "mama" as you squeezed my hand and slipped back into sleepytime slumber.

Oh, melt my heart little one.

You must have been very tired today, because we went hiking in the hills with Daddy and you did a lot of walking yourself. It is so much fun for us to see you love the outdoors as much as we do. It is always a pleasure to take you hiking son, you are one adventurous little man

I love you

love mama xoxoxo

My dearest Masher. I love this photograph of you, I actually took it a few weeks ago but tonight whilst I was cleaning out some of my files on my hard drive I found it again. It made me smile big. It made me remember you as a happy boy, it made me hope that these days will come again. You haven't been too happy these last few days. You haven't been too pleasant to be around these last few days. But you still love life, you still live your life out loud and I think that's okay. I love the energy you have, I love the vibrancy you show for everything you do - good and bad. You, my son, are someone destined to lead, to cut new paths, to forge new routes. I am excited about what you might do in your life. I am excited to be there for you always. Let's hope we all make it through this rough patch. Love mama

The first time.

Tonight was the first time in more than a year that you have not screamed the house day when getting your hair washed. HOORAY. In fact, you did so well and managed to hold the washcloth over your eyes to stop the water getting in. I am so proud of you being able to do this. When I wanted to get a photograph of you to document the first time of no screaming you became such a goofy comic. Roaring and cackling at the camera like a crazy kid. It was lovely to see you being so playful, you usually hide whenever you see the camera pointing your way. Sadly though for most of the day you have been one tough cookie. Was it something you ate? did you sleep funny? Was it something we said? Are you lamenting your mama once more joining the paid workforce? You wanted to throw everything, break everything, hit everything, kick everything, and scream at everything today. I guess we all have days like this, when we feel like doing all those things. If you aren't 2 though there is very little forgiveness for acting in this manner. I hope you get over it soon. But right now, you are sleeping in your bed, after you and I spent an hour reading stories together. And in the peace and quiet of the evening, it's easy to remember how much we love you, and how precious you are to us. love mama xoxo

Dear Son, I am so proud of you. You finally managed to scale the wall on the climbing frame. It has taken you a week from when you first tried, to your success. Well done! Now throughout your life, you can scale any mountain that might be an obstacle for you. You totally rock! Love mama

Through your eyes

We played with the playdough again today. I suspect you ate more than you sculpted. But thats all part of the playdough experience for a 2 yr old I think.

I wanted you to play with the playdough by yourself, but you insisted I joined you. I am glad you did. It occured to me that one of the reasons mummies should join in is because it can be a little scary doing something on your own if you havent had much experience with it before. I like support at those times, I bet you do too... so we made lots of things together in our playdough factory.

I love how much you concentrate on your tasks. I love you, love mama.

Today was brought to you by the letter "B"

Beads - sorted, ball - bouncing and beading bracelet.

Butt of boy hovering bravely. Some of the things we did today Mac, I am so proud of you and the things you could do today. You wanted me to open my bag of beads I had bought last night. I suspect you thought they were candy.

I got out an empty egg carton and tried to teach you to sort by colour. That was a little too challenging for you yet, but you liked putting individual beads into spots and filling the egg cup before moving onto the next one. You spent a long time doing this I then thought I would try to teach you to thread beads onto something. I used some pipe cleaners, which were the perfect things to use. At first it was hard for you, you didnt quite grasp the concept, but then I peeked through the hole of the bead at you and showed you how to line it up with the pipe cleaner. You thought this was a fabulous game. After a few beads you were threading like a pro. We turned our beads and pipe cleaners into bracelets, and wore them proudly I am so proud of you, and to have been able to see you through the process. We also played soccer outside. You surprised me by throwing the ball at the tree trunk over and over again, and catching it each time. You worked this out yourself, which I think is pretty darn cool for a 2 year old! It was playgroup day today too and you might notice in one of the photographs above that you have something blue under one of your fingernails. That is because we played with the play dough too. It was a lot of fun with you today. I am glad we could make things and play together. I love you mummy xoxox

Playgroup

Often you are still sleeping when Daddy is ready to go to work, so I have to wake you to be able to drop Daddy off so we can use the car. Sometimes I don't want to take you to play group because you are still sleeping and because it's hard for me not to be able to communicate with the other parents and the head teacher there. I feel shy. But when I think about how much fun it is for you, and how much you enjoy the toys and the other children to play with - I am always motivated to take you.

Today was a great day. You didn't hurt anyone with your toy throwing efforts and you didn't throw a huge tantrum when we were leaving. That makes it so much more pleasant for me, the other children... and I bet it's more pleasant for you too.

You love the ball pit. You love it so much that you didn't even want to come and have birthday cake with all the others, you preferred to play instead. They have a new area for it and you adore it. I love the wonderfully bright colours.

You were just such a cool guy at playgroup today. I hope it's like this more often big guy.

love mama xoxox

Parma, Emilia Romanga, Italy.

In Piazza Di Duomo. I love these shots Daddy took of you today, while we were visiting Parma, Italy. It really does capture your crazy personality perfectly. You had the best fun running around in this large Piazza, chasing all the pigeons. They were too quick for you though. You also were nearly hit by a car, seriously, you were only centimeters from being run over by a carload of Nuns. You ran straight into their car, but they didn't even stop to see if you were okay. Mummy screamed when she turned around. I was so mad at them, and Daddy. But you are okay, and back to your normal screamy self tonight. You really had a hard night of not being content to sleep. Perhaps you were recalling your little short life flashing before your eyes moments before nearly being mincemeat!

Today my son, you drove us nuts. Daddy swooped you off to bed in a huff, he doesnt cope well with you sometimes in the hour he is home from work. I wanted to sell you on ebay, at least make a little something for my trouble. You are a tough kid.

I was thinking it was a GOOD idea to take you to gather rocks along the gravel road near our apartment, I was WRONG.

You would not come when I asked you to, you would not leave the poor tulips in the garden alone, you would not stay out of the puddles, you would not stop screaming when I insisted we leave, you would not pander, you would not stop throwing stones, you would not, could not.

I know that there will be a time very soon when I will miss your funny things, your grubby handprints everywhere, your books and toys on the floor, your quilt being carried everywhere, your toy cupboard spilling out, your insistance at me putting the seagull puppet on my hand to pretend to gobble everything.

But right now, you are driving me NUTS!

and even through all of that, we love you to bits.

Painter Man.

Usually I don't let you near the paints, I am not sure why. Well yes I am, it's cos you run through the house touching things when I ask to clean your hands before you do that. Today I decided to contain you by closing the other doors and putting anything up that I couldn't easily wipe clean. It worked a treat, and you my son, had a blast "painting". I put an old shirt of mine on you for that authentic "crazy artist" look and you thought it was kind of cool wearing mama's shirt. You kept asking for more and more colours for your work. Aunty Joy said you have our good sense of colour. I think she might be right.

I really love the enthusiasm you show for art. Art is also something I love.

And I love you too,

Love mama xoxox