One!

Happy birthday little one. We love to see the world you point at, full of ducks and birdies and dogs. It would not have looked quite the same without you.

Meandering

Our holidays were just the kind of ranbly sprawly mix of walks and painting and play that we like. The sun shone, we played Monopoly, painted stones and listened to Mo talk for the first time.

Growing

A teething day. Mo soothed by a carry in the backpack and a picnic in the park. Mummy soothed a little by signs of this years vegetables emerging in the conservatory and a some sewing with needles from an old crocheted needle book found in a charity shop. For this weekend theres a party to go to, picnics to pack for and long overdue parcels to send.

Glass half full

Things I have learned today

1. It is actually not possible to empty a cupboard and drain a fish tank ready for a new worktop to be fitted at the same time as feeding a baby breakfast and helping two children to finish decorating eggs for a school competition.

2. When attempting the above, babies will feed themselves porridge with their hands, children will make plastecine furniture for Eggletina and work out how to spell ptereggdactyl, on their own.

3. Later, marvellous games can be invented in such rare and unexpected clearness.

Rising.

Somewhere between the beginning and the end of our day things can unravel a little. At first there is washing swaying on the line, bread rising on a sunny windowsill ready for lunch with friends. Play is calm, sunlight falls across the strange collections of things that lie on every surface of our house. I'm loving capturing these tiny moments. Somehow looking at them again at the end of the day does not remove the parts in between (he fell, they fought, paint spilled, the sauce that was boiling all day in my head for tea was rejected,he was late, I cried.) But it helps me shrink them down to size. And it makes me want to get up tomorrow and do it all again.