Age: 11 Months (Wk 47)

This week was Millie’s enterprise week at school and she greeted me with a lovely selection of Easter craft when I came to collect her from school, which she sold to me for the handsome price of £5.00! I can remember doing enterprise week at school when I was seventeen years old, but five, wow I guess they’ll be millionaire’s by their tenth birthday at this rate. It was lovely to see Millie looking so proud and it made me grin from ear to ear as she talked me through each piece she’d made and how much they all cost. My amazing little girl, how she melts my heart for just being so wonderful. There’s nothing like the love of a mother and her child; I wish I could turn it into something tangible so that I could bottle it and let everyone share in the experience, the warm fuzzy feeling deep inside your heart that nothing else in life can ever come close to. I’m so lucky to have my beautiful children and I thank God everyday that I’m with them.

And as it’s now half-term for two weeks little Joey our chihuahua has been making the most of some extra little people in the house and setting up camp on the sofa with Millie and her chocolate milk for some snuggles and bedtime films. We took the children to the Roald Dahl museum on the first day of the holidays and it was a lovely day out. Millie chose her first Roald Dahl book of Matilda which we’ve been reading together each afternoon and before bed and it’s amazing how she has so many games and technology around her that I could only have dreamed about as a child, yet she prefers to switch everything off, cuddle up on the sofa and read Matilda together. We got her the film of it today which will be the first book to film that she’s ever read and seen so it will be interesting to see which form of the story she prefers and which she has gotten the most out of. I’ve always preferred reading the book as opposed to their film counterpart as you seem to get so much more from words rather than pictures, your mind can explore and imagine and there is so much more detail and presence in the pages of a book. I hope that this is the start of a life long journey of literature for Millie and that one day soon we’ll go walking hand in hand to the National Library and compare notes over our favourite authors together. Because that’s what life’s about, sharing the richness of your life with your children and passing on the wealth of knowledge and learning.

Speaking of passing on your wealth, we couldn’t resist buying a moustache dummy from the gift shop at the children’s story centre for Gabriele, firstly because we were surprised to see it there and secondly because we know when he’s older we wouldn’t get a chance to dress him up in a pink hairband and facial hair like this again. He’s such a little character now, and his first birthday is but twenty-nine days away. He seems to understand so much more as if he listens to us and responds but can’t answer back, but the way he reacts makes me think that he knows what I’m saying. I played with him and his milk bottle the other day and I took the lid off and placed it next to the bottle on the table, then tapped the bottle lid onto the top of the bottle’s teat to put it back on and said “You do it,” and he looked up at me wide eyed, lifted the lid, furrowed his brow and puffed out his cheeks with his lips pursed before placing the lid rather shakily onto the top of the bottle and looking up at me with a wide toothy-grin and it melted my heart. At eleven months he never ceases to amaze me, just as his sister Millie always comes out with amazing tidbits of information that I’d never thought possible. The wonders of the human mind hey!

And I am ecstatic to say that I am nearing the end of the Insanity workout that I’ve been doing for the past two months now. It has been an uphill struggle and a huge challenge to set myself but something that I am incredibly proud of undertaking. I want to push myself and set a personal goal in order to prove that I can reach higher, aim for the stars and achieve more. We all need reminding of our capabilities and to give ourselves the encouragement to work harder, it is something that I will always carry with me to know that I set myself a line and crossed it as a champion.

So now that it’s the Easter holidays for the next two weeks I’m racking my brain to think of fun things to do with the children to stave off the boredom monster and I hope that the weather isn’t too disastrous and holds off of snowing so that we can spend some time outdoors at least. I’ve also got a cheeky little monkey’s first birthday to plan which I’ve made no preparation for so far at all, so I’d best get started and make these next two weeks something to remember!