Dear my precious five year old

Dear my precious five year old,

It's your birthday so it is time to write you another letter.  I am struggling to get my head around the fact that it is five years since you tumbled into the world and turned everything down-side up! This has been a whirlwind year for us all, not least of all because you have started school and this seems to have made you grow up SO much. I am very proud of the beautiful young girl you are growing into and very proud of how hard you work at school. I knew you would love the challenge and love it you do.

I think you get frustrated that school eats into the time you would like to be playing, you sometimes tell me you would like to go back to nursery so you can "just play" but I know that you are learning new stuff all the time and together we will find the joy in learning.

You are very much into everything "girly", you love all things pink and sparkly and twirly and pretty. Mummy has struggled with this at times, I am not girly at all and I sometimes feel out of my depth helping you find your identity in all of that, but you and I make a good team and we are getting there together.

I am learning that although you are a confident child in lots of situations you are a sensitive wee soul and you need lots of reassurance from me. I am sorry it took me so long to cotton onto that but I hope and pray we are getting there together now. I love to sit and read a book with you, to have you tell a story, to colour a picture or just to have you sit on my knee and I am learning that these things are especially important to you, too.

You continue to have more energy than I possibly know what to do with! I am sure you steal it from me as I cannot fathom where you else you could be getting it from. I love to watch you run and climb and tumble and jump; the dances that you make up at home are beautiful,  your body is strong and I pray that it will stay that way and you will love it.

You are an amazingly good big sister, I love watching you play with your sisters, I especially love it now that Miriam is old enough to join in your games. You always have a scenario to play or to act or create. I anticipate you will be very good at drama, you certainly made a good inn keeper in your nativity this last Christmas.

If you don't end up an actress I could see you being an artist. If there is glue to be stuck, paint to be flung or pictures to be coloured, there I will find you. I think you favourite way to be is up to your elbows in PVA with a sequin stuck to your eyebrow. I am sorry that Mummy doesn't let you do it more, I realise it is my problem, I really do find it hard but you love it and I can see you are ever so good at it.

One of the most daunting tasks I have ever undertaken is helping you grow into a well adjusted, contented, beautiful human being but I am having lots of fun while we try and do it together. I love you baby girl and even though you are not a baby you will FOREVER be my baby and I will love you always with all my heart.

My prayer for you this year is that you would get to know Jesus more, I love hearing all you know about God and Jesus and love hearing your prayers and am excited to see you develop a real, meaningful relationship with Him. However much I love you, Jesus loves you more and I am excited to see what you and God can do together, to discover the plans Jesus has for your life and what you can do for Him.

I know what I’m doing. I have it all planned out—plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for. “When you call on me, when you come and pray to me, I’ll listen.“When you come looking for me, you’ll find me.“Yes, when you get serious about finding me and want it more than anything else, I’ll make sure you won’t be disappointed.” God’s Decree.

Jeremiah 29:11-14 (The Message)

Lydia

Lydia, you are one! I've done my best to somehow make time stand still but I can't and here you are, one year old!  As you will learn over the years, it is my custom to write a letter to each of you girls on your birthday and so here is your first letter from Mummy.

It has been quite a year, from the dramatic entrance you made to the world right up until today you are always making sure that your presence is known and that even though you are a third baby you are not willing to be forgotten. You might be small but you are mighty, it might have been you that Shakespeare was talking about when he wrote the line in A midsummer night's dream "And though she be but little, she is fierce." You are an ever present feature in our family now, I saw a photo a few days ago from just before you were born, it took me a long time of studying to work out what was "wrong" with it, it was just that you were not there!

I shall take this brief moment to take the opportunity to thank you for looking a bit like me! You look so like me that even I can tell you do and I am normally rubbish at seeing family resemblances. Thank you for teaching me to love the way I look a bit by looking so much like me and being *beautiful*. You are truly stunning, a truly beautiful human being both in terms of your looks but also your character.  Your default setting is one of joy. You are happy to be here, happy to be alive, happy to be joining in, happy to be part of the gang and we are so happy to have you here.

Just now your main passion is learning to move, to walk, to climb, to get over there (there normally being wherever your sisters are).  You are so close to walking, I'm sure it will happen any day now.  That said, I told people weeks ago I would be surprised if you weren't walking by your first birthday and you have shown me wrong. You like to try and make me look like I am making things up though, never showing off a skill or character trait if I try and get you to show others.  You also like to wait till you are sure you are able to complete a task before you try it, I am sure the day you finally walk will be the day you run across the room.

You are an anomaly to all that know you when it comes to eating, you can eat and eat and eat and eat, and yet at 12 months old are still wearing mostly 6-9 month clothes. I have no idea where you put all this food if you don't use it to grow, it makes you very happy though. Little makes you more visibly happy than being told it is a meal time of some description.

You love to dance, and to bounce. You love going on our little trampoline, you love to dance, bobbing up and down. You love to clap to the music and sometimes even try and sing along too.

You definitely love to join in with your big sisters, you want to be like them and do whatever they are doing and put up with a lot of being pushed/pulled around and squashed just to be able to be part of the action.  You are definitely one of them and I can't think how much mischief you will all be getting up to once you are probably only a tiny bit bigger.

If life were completely down to you, you would live in the bath. You *love* the bath. On the nights we don't do one we can tell you are less than impressed and from a really young age the bath was always something that helped settle you down if you were sad. In fact along with the sound of the electric toothbrush the bath was one of only two things that helped you feel better during the colic months!

One thing you are definitely not so keen on is sleep, why sleep when you can see Mummy several times a night!?! I love you baby, I really do, but I'll find it easier to show you this if you could let me get some rest! Maybe this can be the next thing you work on, right?

Lydia, you are an utter joy to parent, a true blessing to have in our family. Thank you for helping us find simple pleasures in being alive for teaching us to find joy in every situation.

My prayer for you is that you would maintain your sense of joy, that life won't beat you down and that you will continue in your masterful skill of brightening up a room just by being in it! I pray that you will grow into a woman of God who will be a warrior for Him, that though you be but little you will be fierce. Oh my special Lydia, I pray that you will grow to know Jesus, love Jesus and fight for the things Jesus loves.

Thank you for being in my life, my beautiful, joyous, special little girl.

Making Memories

Having chosen to be a stay at home Mum the reality is that in years to come the girls won't remember the amazing holiday to far flung places we went on or the stuff we bought them or even particularly the places I take them but it is my privilege to be able to make memories with them in the simple things each and every day.

This morning Miriam and I had a friend round to play but we had a wee while before they arrived so we baked some cakes.  This is exactly the kind of thing that we chose to put Naomi to morning nursery to achieve.  Simple moments spent together before the baby comes and spoils it all!!  Naomi and I used to do this kind of thing a lot (and still do while Miriam naps) so it was nice to do it with Miriam without her having to fight over a chance to stir or add an ingredient.

Putting the cases in the trays

Mixing the ingredients

 

Helping putting the mixture in the tray

The finished article (we ran out of icing!)

She's so proud of herself AND she got to eat a cake while our friends were round!

Holidays

In July we made a visit to my parents for a few days. We've already shared the beach trip with you, but now we catch up on the other activities.

It's just weird seeing the girls playing with my old toys. Quite nice that they enjoy them so much though.

Here are the girls with pretend umbrellas. Really.

My parents are thinking about a downsize of house at some point, so part of the trip was an exercise in sorting out some of my many things that are still stored there. This is the model railway that my brother and I put together - it's about 20x6 feet so doing anything with it is a mammoth task! In fact you can probably tell it's still not quite finished. We've made a start on sorting out some of the unused bits that will hopefully find a new home quite quickly.

I've also started sifting through my old drawings and school stuff. I'll probably post some more gems at some point, but I quite enjoyed this comment on something I wrote in P7 (so age 10-11). Good thing I dropped the crazy ideas :-)

A wee bit of golf at Fraserburgh with my Dad and Ian. To give you an idea of the skill level involved, a good trip is one in which we come back with more balls than we left with.

Something for the non-Scot readers - a sea haar coming in. The scourge of many an otherwise fine day.

Lots of fun with a cartie in the garden...

Also a bit of help for Dad, who in retirement is catching up on all those maintenance jobs. Fun with scaffolding ahoy!

I was quite impressed with how good a picture my phone camera seems to manage.

The main reason for the above picture though was to show you what Miriam was so fascinated by...

Finally, my parents have a clematis growing on the front of their house. It produces the most brilliant seed heads - I was trying to work out who they most reminded me of - what do you think?

Anniversary

Jay and I have been doing the "traditional" anniversary presents since year 1. On the face of it, this can be quite fun, though some years it gets pretty interesting. I also suspect that now we're in to double figures it might get expensive too, unless some careful application of imagination is made! To make life easier we occasionally jump in to the US present list - you can get the gist of it all here.

This year was steel (11). Having already engaged the private services of a foundry to cast me something for the iron present, I felt that I'd scale back a little for this one. On the "boring" side, I got Jay a very big steel pot for the kitchen (something she's been after for a while). To make it more of a present, I went for a bit more thought on the card, which comprised a host of celebrity endorsements...

Here we have: Remington Steele, Lord Steel of Aikwood, the man of steel, steel magnate Andrew Carnegie, and the Krustyburglar.

Jay's contribution was on somewhat similar lines, although perhaps better thought out...

Comedy gold. Except that it's framed in steel.

Okay, we think similar things. Better get married or something :-)

BBs

This past weekend we made a short trip to stay with my parents. Needless to say, a visit to grandma and granddad's house went down well with the girls and they had a great time. The main motivation for the visit, though, was that on Saturday there was a celebration for 25 years of 1st New Deer Boys' Brigade.

I was a member almost from the time that the BBs started in New Deer, and ended up an officer, leading the company section (that's the older ones) for a couple of years before I finished so I could concentrate on my PhD. I can't speak highly enough of the good experiences and many happy memories that it gave me. Particularly in later years the expedition work, but also the chances to give leadership a go, and making some good friends. The BBs is at its core a Christian organisation and also played its part in seeding my faith.

It was a bit odd to catch up with guys I've not seen for years - particularly the boys I'd led who are now men themselves - but a great night. I took a few pictures before people started arriving; I didn't think to take any later on as I was busy catching up with people, but there was a good crowd: all those chairs were full!

There were lots of "memory" pictures of us in much more youthful times, including one of my favourite local press pictures of all time - not so much for me, but for Needsy (his surname is actually "Needs" not Neeps!)

Birthday

In case you hadn't realised, The Child has had a birthday! She is a whole one year old now!  It does feel about 2 minutes ago that she was born so we are struggling to come to terms with this fact, though me a little more than Sandy!

Here are some pictures of Naomi on her big day!

This video shows her playing with one of her favourite gifts, a toy phone from Granny and Grandad (Sandy and I hope this will give our mobile phones a small reprieve, but probably not!)

The Day started in Mummy and Daddy's bed with some milk and then some presents!

Presents kept us occupied while Mummy made breakfast

Naomi seemed to get the idea of presents better than she had at Christmas and with a little help was very good at ripping off the paper.

The presents just kept on coming, she was really getting into the swing of it!

Auntie Liz reads a new favourite story to Naomi

Due to a technical failure we don't have a photo of the moment the cake was presented, but here is the cake before Naomi was shown it.  She loved getting the cake brought to her and tried to blow out the candle.  She then screamed when it was taken away to be sliced!

Look! Stuff!

Playing with her friends on the day

More playing with her Mobile phone toy

This was taken today but is a birthday outfit so I thought we would share!