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A portrait of my babes once a week in 2014 (14 months and three week - 64 weeks)

Each day is full and busy and non-stop between waking you up, feeding you, changing your nappy, making your food, wiping your face, drying your tears, putting you to sleep, dressing you, walking you, playing with you, packing away, unpacking, changing you, chasing you, picking you up, tickling you, laughing with you, consoling you, dancing with you, rocking you, holding you, letting you go, catching you. Loving you.

Hello there, I've missed you

Hello lovely readers - if there are any of you still here. Sorry for the silence. I can't believe I have been away from here for almost two months! I have missed it and will now attempt to play catch up with my weekly portrait posts. (You know how the longer you leave something, the harder it is... Yip, that's where I am right now so I need to just jump in).

I blame it (mostly) on the fact that I have been working on Rock-a-Baby, a fair from moms and babes which took place in Braamfontein at the end of September. Putting this fair together was a full time job, done so with babes on hips and during nap times and night times and basically any free time I could find. I'm pleased to say the fair was a success (people actually came and bought stuff!) and was worth all the effort we put in to it. Here are some pics of the day, taken by Lauren Kim Photography. Follow us on Facebook for more photos and updates.

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A portrait of my babes once a week in 2014 (14 months and two week - 63 weeks)

My babies are on that brink between toddler and baby. It's a fleeting space which hovers bewteen these two stages before imperceptibly slipping into toddlerdom. Wobbly steps are sometimes replaced by speedy crawling. Words are said with meaning, interspersed with baby babble. Rolls are still visible, yet visibly stretched. Faces change. Curls begin. Dirt appears under finger nails. That soft fontanel slowly closes. Bits of my babies disappear and new little bits emerge.

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A portrait of my babes once a week in 2014 (14 months and one week - 62 weeks)

 

My little rumpled faces waking up in the morning. These are very typical expressions of both of you and to me you are beautiful. I can't get enough of your faces, I can stare at them for hours and before I can help myself I gather you up in my arms to nuzzle that place where your shoulders meet your neck.

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A portrait of my babes once a week in 2014 (14 months - 61 weeks)

Soft downy heads and twin whispers. Sisters and soul mates.  Private jokes and sudden giggles. Copy cats and tormentors. Physical fascination and empathetic reciprocity. Exactly the same and yet so completely different. Sharing and swapping, continually negotiating. Spontaneous kisses and occasional nips. You look for each other when you wake up and smile when you see each other. You show concern when the other cries. You always want what the other has. You want to do what the other does. You want to eat what the other eats. Your milestones have tracked so closely, as if you've decided together when to stand and when to blow bubbles. A push, a pull, entwined hands. You trade as a form of sharing, as if by offering something else you can claim what the other has. They say the bond between twins is stronger than the bond between a mother and child. Watching you two I believe it's true.

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A portrait of my babes once a week in 2014 (13 months and 4 weeks - 60 weeks)

I love it when babies mimic adult positions. The bending of knees to look at something under the table, walking with hands behind the back,  peering around corners. The position of a hand on a knee. A gesture that takes you by surprise in its unbaby-like fashion. In the same way that your thumbs seem too grown up for your chubby little paws.

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A portrait of my babes once a week in 2014 (13 months and 3 weeks - 59 weeks)

I am amazed by how much you know and how much you understand. You find ways to communicate your wants, like little actions for water or finger pointing and closed eyes for ice from the freezer. You follow detailed instructions and can identify tiny details in the books we read to you. Those little brains are taking in everything, learning, copying, imitating. And then making it all your own.