15/52 2016

A portrait of my babes once a week in 2016 ( 2 years 8 months)

We celebrated Kimmy's 60th birthday with a high tea at 54 on Bath with all her girls. You both loved it, feeling all grown up sipping on herbal tea concoctions and nipping delightful tarts with purple flowers on top. There were four generations celebrating my mother - your great granny, your gran, your mama and my sisters, and you and your cousins. The significance of time, and how fast it goes was really highlighted on this occasion as we watch a slideshow of photographs of Kimmy's life, looking down the line at all these moments and women who are part of you in some way. It brings back memories of my childhood adventures and carefree days. It's mind blowing for me to contemplate that I have memories of my mother at my age, and how that doesn't seem so long ago. It makes me think about my parents being parents to children your age, and how my mom was a mom at that age. And of my grandparents being grandparents and now my gran being a great gran. And then her mother and all the generations before them in all these different phases of life from child to mother to grandmother. Witnessing the passing of time and the continual circle of life so clearly fills we with a type of fearful wonder, and yet grounds me to the present.

Happy birthday to our Kimmy, our rock and believer in our dreams.

14/52 2016

A portrait of my babes once a week in 2016 ( 2 years 8 months)

"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow." Melody Beattie

13/52 2016

A portrait of my babes once a week in 2016 ( 2 years 8 months)

Making "kos" with papa is one of your favourite things to do. You help him mix or chop or taste. He teaches you about herbs and spices, which you learn in Afrikaans (Florence, you told me the other day you can taste the "knoffel" in your chicken dish). Your latest discovery is "koljander" (coriander) and you both ask for it in random dishes. He tells you about when to stir the bolognese, while popping capers in your mouth, or how to tell when a piece of pasta is ready. I overhear him asking you to repeat names of cheese pronounced in Italian accents. I love watching these little scenes from the sidelines. It makes my heart burst and my mouth water ;)

12/52 2016

A portrait of my babes once a week in 2016 ( 2 years 7 months), annual Easter party in Kimmy & Bear's garden

It is the first year you've really been aware of Easter. You were so excited to find out about this special time in the year, and although you prefer Jesus to stay a baby (you really like the Christmas story), the fact that chocolates were involved means that Easter is now highly rated by you. I love how these events and occasions gain a new meaning when we're celebrating with you. It give gravitas to simple actions, like painting eggs and hiding chocolates, and putting effort into small things which light up your faces but previously would not have been done. I love that about being a parent, how your children really make you slow down, be present,  and focus on what's really important. 

11/52 2016

A portrait of my babes once a week in 2016 ( 2 years 7 months)

Florence Willow

The way you start most sentences with "Mama, you know what..."

You used use the term "yesterday" to refer to any past tense but you've just started saying things like "last week" and "the other day"

You're a creature of habit and thrive on routine and repetition. If you do something once then you insist on doing it again, in the exact same way, following the exact same steps. Like the way you switch off the nursery light at night or the way you go up by yourself in the lift every single time we arrive home. No matter what. 

Anna Clementine

You love the moon and look for it in the sky any chance you get

You've started answering questions with "me" instead of "I" when referring to yourself

The way you still run with you right arm pumping back and forth, propelling you forward as you go faster and faster

And you've started reading to Florence. I over hear wondrous stories being told as you turn the pages together on the edge of the couch

10/52 2016

A portrait of my babes once a week in 2016 ( 2 years 7 months)

"Hello, sun in my face. Hello you who made the morning and spread it over the fields... Watch, now, how I start the day in happiness, in kindness." 

Mary Oliver

Sunlight floods through our home in these beginning-of-autumn mornings. I open the doors, open the windows, and let time unravel slowly as we open our eyes, lying in bed together, and talk about what we are going to do today. This does not last long. In 10 minutes, sometimes more sometimes less, we'll be up, either with one of you on a hip and the other around a leg as I brush my teeth, or with you running off with bubbles of energy immediately immersing yourselves in some make believe game while I make breakfast. But the start, the slowness, the laziness of two sleepy bodies under my arms, sweet conversations, sometimes a song or a stretch, sometimes disgruntlement and irritation that your twin's leg is touching your own or holding my too much of my hair, before we face the real world, this is time I treasure. 

9/52 2016

A portrait of my babes once a week in 2016 ( 2 years 7 months)

You've entered the magical world of fantasy play and dress up. "Ballareas" (ballerinas), fairies, and mamas and papas (or any combination of Honor, Cheska, Hugs, Guy, Human, mama, papa, Jack, Francie Sugar, sister, Gladys, Cate, and often a random Ali), are the most popular characters you adopt. You play these games in these little worlds you create for yourselves. Anna appoints roles most often, and Florence obliges with what role you've been allocated (often papa, or some other male, but even donkey in the Nativity story). But when Florence is given a chance to choose her role, she usually chooses Honor and springs around with such enthusiasm and excitement ("I'm so cited mama). There are strict rules in these games, a secret code of conduct respected by both parties (F: "Anna, we do it like this", F: "No Florence, like this" , F:"ok Anna.") about where babies sleep, how dolls are fed, what fairies can and cannot do, who goes shopping, what nests are made and with what blankets. I love watching and listening (although I have to be discreet for if you catch me you often snap our  of character). Sometimes I am allocated a role: real mama, often sister, and sometime Cate or order (waiter).  You mix real experience (I need a credit card and ID) with wild imaginations (the fairies live on holiday with Eeyore and Oppipops) which I hope grow and filter throughout your life.