Siblings – June 2021

My favourite thing about this time of year is being able to spend so much time outdoors and to watch the children having fun outside. Being outdoors means fewer restrictions and while we had to plan a little more than usual, the last half-term break felt more normal with days out and visiting family.

 

 

I love watching Sophie and Thomas walking along hand-in-hand exploring outside. It brings back so many memories of watching her and Jessica doing just the same on days out. The girls felt more equal partners in play though, whereas Sophie is very much the protective big sister with Thomas. Days out are always full of ‘if-only’ and ‘what-if’ moments. Wishing that Jessica could have been holding Thomas’s other hand; wondering what it might be like with three of them having fun together.

 

Jessica is both missing and present in these moments. Sophie often talks about her and whenever a robin or a dragonfly comes near, she tells us that it must be Jessica coming to say hello. I’m glad these little things give her comfort and help keep her sister near her. My little joy-carrier, forever missed, but still giving moments of joy through our beautiful memories and her invisible presence alongside us all.

 

As for Thomas, he just adores being with Sophie and having the space to run about outside. He’s a little bundle of mischief at times but is full of sunshine and brings us all a lot of joy. Sophie is such a wonderfully caring big sister to him. My spirited, confident girl who often dances rather than walks and has such a warm, affectionate little heart. These three beautiful children of mine – how thankful I am to be their mummy.

 

 

Thomas (2 years 10 months)

• Likes playing with his magnetic letters and making words that he’s seen from his favourite things, such as “Bagpuss” and “All paws on deck” and “In the Night Garden”. I’m quite impressed at the way he remembers the sequence of letters and can reproduce it.
• Loved exploring the soft play while I had coffee with a friend. I think it’s the first time he’s really been able to do soft play.
• Enjoyed having a preschool visit and is now registered there for September.
• Is enjoying being able to freely move between playing in the house and garden thanks to being able to keep the patio doors open with the nice weather.
• I think we’ve now reached the end with breastfeeding. It’s been dwindling over the last few months to just a very short feed at bedtime which he hasn’t had for a few days now. Last night he climbed into my lap to ask for “mawk” but when I went to feed him said “no mawk” in much the same way as Sophie did when she stopped breastfeeding.

 

 

 

Sophie (7 years 7 months)

• Is enjoying doing #30DaysWild this month and is looking forward to camping in the garden this week!
• Is back in the ‘red’ swimming class as it turned out she’d been put into the class above by mistake and wasn’t quite ready to move up to it. It’s been a little frustrating as there are some new children in the ‘red’ class and so they’ve been going back to very basic stuff that Sophie mastered some time ago. I had a word with the swimming teacher about it though and she’s going to try to push Sophie a little more.
• Has enjoyed being able to go to a couple of her friends’ birthday parties again.
• Was very happy to get her gold Mathletics certificate at school and even more so when she realised she was the first one to get it.
• Enjoyed seeing family over half-term, particularly her newest baby cousin and her twin cousins from Luxembourg.

 

 

Jessica (forever 6 years 7 months)

• I took Jessica some of the roses from our garden when I visited her forever bed last week. They included some of each of the children’s namesake roses – Pretty Jessica, Sophy’s Rose and Thomas à Becket.