Today is Guest Post Day, where one blogger partners up with another and the pair swap posts for the day (many thanks to Erica at Little Mummy for organising - visit her blog for a full list of all the bloggers taking part). I had problems contacting my official partner unfortunately, so was all set to miss out on today's event, when Mari at Mari's World offered to be my surrogate partner.
Mari's bio: Born in ‘66 when England won the World Cup, when Mary Quant was introducing skirts that barely covered your backside and when the Beatles and The Rolling Stones were competing for the Number One spot. I grew up in and out and around London.
Adorable sister to two lucky men and loving mother of four; two offspring born from an Italian marriage and 19 years in Italy and twin girls born in Ol’ Blighty in 2008 by an Englishman who I’m proud to call my partner, my soul mate, the love of my life. And of course, a new addition, I’m a nanna, to Gracey born last year in Italy.
Life has led me down an unsuspected path and wherever I thought I was going, I always ended up somewhere else doing something different to what I had originally planned. At times, fun, at times trying, at times downright frustrating, however I’m here to tell the tale.
Here is Mari's post, and once you're done here head over to Mari's World to check out my post and have a good browse of her blog......
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Miss E and Mr A reached the 6 months half birthday this week and Alice and Bessie (and I) love a bit of cake so we are going to celebrate them in style with 'half cakes' for a snack this afternoon.
This got me thinking to where we are today and now at 19 months the girls walk easily around the house, they can climb upstairs and slide down on their tummy's - supervised of course. The sofa has become an excellent climbing frame with the added value of being able to reach the books in the bookcase behind it and the coffee table has been demoted to alongside the wall half hidden by the sofa as it was also quickly becoming a launching pad.
They are starting to talk 'Mummy, Daddy, Teddy' are favourite words and have been clear for months now but they also say 'Who is it? when they hear the doorbell go, or What's that? If we hear something out of the ordinary. Wow, Oi and Oh dear they also seem to have picked up from me. I MUST BE MORE CAREFUL.
Their understanding is cause of constant amazement to me. Pick it up, come here, put your shoes/jacket/bib on. Give it to daddy. I think they understand so much more than we give them credit for.
They love to watch In The Night Garden and the Waybuloos as part of the wind down each day and enjoy to sit on the floor and sing, Twinkle, twinkle (with actions) Row row row the boat, (only we do a crocodile scream EVERY time) and Incy Wincy Spider who sometimes gets a crocodile scream himself.
As far as meals go, they eat almost everything. Bessie adores pasta with fresh tomato sauce and Alice's favourite is turkey breast, cherry tomatoes and fruit. They both adore fresh fruit and eat tons of it, although I do struggle more with fresh vegetables.
Games and toys are now coming into play, for their first birthday we bought them a hard plastic Wendy house and it has been a marvellous buy as they use it every day. Yes it is large and takes up almost half of the conservatory, but the pleasure they get from it and the peace I get is just too much to deny them. Father Christmas bought them sit on cars which they love to whizz around the front room on, books, bricks, ELC Rose Cottage and puzzles, well the puzzles aren't a big hit just yet, one has been eaten, we've lost pieces to another and so I'm saving them for a rainy day but we do get the crayons out from time to time and I watch them have a go and look forward to my first Mother's Day card from them crafted with their own hands.
Fortunately, bedtime for us is 7.30ish and unless they're suffering from teething or bad colds we can be sure they sleep through till 6 ish or even 8am on a good day (never the weekend though!) Cheeky minxes seem to realise Mummy and Daddy want a bit extra shut eye and they wake up bang on cue.
Our girls are a constant joy to us. I love to see them snuggle into their daddy when he's on the sofa after a hard day's work and I love to think about the summer this year and playing with buckets and spades, collecting shells and stones and crabbing on the rocks. Ice creams, teddy bear picnics...ah the list goes on.
