Elliot

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Siblings {April}

On the eve before we find out about Elliot’s Primary School place (that’s a whole other post!) I’m finally getting round to this month’s siblings post. It’s true I blog like buses…none for ages and then lots at once (probably contravening every “How to be a brilliant blogger” rule there is, but hey ho!)

Anyway, this month’s photo was taken on a really lovely family visit to Cogges Farm. I’ve blogged about Cogges before, and we continue to feel so lucky to have the farm literally on our door step.

Brothers on a swing

This month has seen lots of changes in our house as we now have a walker! Alexander has been steadily getting better on his feet and now walks the majority of the time. It is amazing how quickly he’s got the hang of walking, from taking first steps only a few weeks ago. He’s beaten Elliot’s record of 17 months (not exactly difficult, but they do say good things come to those who wait!)

Elliot is also adding more things to his list of “things he can do” – wordsearches are current favourites for indoor activities, and zooming everywhere on his scooter (with new Spiderman helmet WITH FLASHING LIGHT) is the BEST way of getting around outdoors. I kinda wish I had a grown up scooter to be able to join him!

As usual I’m linking up with Lucy at Dear Beautiful so do check out the other lovely blogs there.

dear beautiful
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Elliot at 4 – a New Years Eve round up

Dear my beautiful boy Elliot,

A couple of weeks ago you turned four. Four whole years old. Even as I write this I can’t fathom how these last few years have passed so quickly, yet equally I can barely remember a time before you.

Four years ago you made me a mummy, and I’ve loved every minute (or most of them anyway!)

In order to stop time for a second, I want to capture you right now – the things you like and what we really love about that quirky little personality of yours. So here goes. 4 things about Elliot aged 4:

1. You LOVE your friends and family. Your absolute favourite thing to do is to visit your cousins, see your grandparents, or have play dates with your friends. You regularly try to plan these – “er, mummy, tomorrow can we go camping with Ben?” or “I’m going to visit Una tomorrow. We’ll go on the train” Normally this is mid week when it’s not possible to fulfil your dreams, but we do try to make sure you spend time with everyone you love most in all the world. And guess what? I think they all love it too!

2. You are an AMAZING big brother. Alexander thinks you’re the bee’s knees and I suspect the feeling is mutual. You both seem happiest when you’re together and I’ve loved seeing your relationship grow and develop over the past year. I can’t believe I was ever really worried about how you’d cope with a new sibling. You’ve blown us away with how well you’ve handled it all.

3. You love books, and spelling – who knew three year olds can spell?! You’ve absolutely mastered reading, and can now read any word on sight, including dinosaur names (which you’re slightly obsessed by!) I’m so excited about you really getting into books as I have always had my head in a book and feel that the escapism it offers you will set you in good stead for the rest of your life. I hope you continue to grow more in love with fictional worlds and the vast amount of information you can find for yourself in the pages of books!
In a conversation the other day, I mentioned to you that most 3 and 4 year olds can’t read as well as you do, and you just said “oh” and then when I said you were clever you replied with “I know” and a wink!

4. Sense of humour. You find the funniest things funny and your laugh is absolutely addictive! Coupled with the cute little dance you do when you’re happy, you really make it clear when something you like is going on!
I really hope that in the next year you develop even more in terms of self confidence. We’ve already seen lots of changes in this regard in the last few months so I’m hopeful that the next year, including starting school next September will be the turning point for your confidence levels. You’re loved by your close group of friends, and I’m sure you will be loved by many more in the months and years to come.

Here’s to the next year my little big boy. You make me proud every day.

Lots of love always,
Mummy xxx

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Elliot – 41 months (& 3 days!)

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My biggest boy Elliot,

I haven’t done an update on here for you for a little while. What can I say about you at the moment? You are an absolute delight and so very funny!

You have in the past month completely cracked potty training, which had up until then been a bit of a worrying area for you. We are so proud that you’ve made this big step and I really think mastering that has given you much more confidence in other areas.

You are a huge fan of swings, slides, and see saws at the moment – daring us to push you higher and higher. You have also recently taken to your scooter really well and love nothing more than scooting down the lane to the farm near our house.

We are constantly amazed by your reading – it’s true you can actually read pretty much anything now – and since your little till came along (thank you Grandmum!) you have become really fascinated with numbers and working out addition and subtraction sums on your till. I have to say I think we’re going to have to start swotting up on our rusty maths skills to keep up with you at this rate.

You moved up to the Pre School room at Nursery in January and have been getting on famously there also, despite some initial hesitance.

We’re so proud of our little man, even if there are some things you’d rather put off until “tomorrow” or “when I’m nine, Mummy!”

Lots of love and hugs for my biggest one,

Mummy xxxx

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From toddler to little boy all in one haircut

Elliot has recently become a big brother, and has suddenly seemed to have left toddlerhood behind. Add new shoes and a haircut to that and it's a proper little boy that now stands before us, not a toddler.

Pre-haircut, coffee in Cafe Nero (one of Elliot's fave hangouts!)

His speech has also developed even further. He's always been fairly good with conversation, picking up things easily and able to have proper conversations long before he could even walk.

Over the last couple of months I've been noting some little comments he's made, some funny, others really touching, and I wanted to capture these here.

Last year, around November time, when “discussing” whether it was time for bed or not – “but, Daddy, it's not bedtime, it's AUTUMN!”

In December he decided to tell my mum (Grandmum) that “you and mummy are my best friends” (note this privileged position is granted and taken away with shocking frequency, I think currently a Daddy is holding the mantle, although it could well be Grandad as he was so excited to see him today. We all live in hope that it's our turn soon!)

Last week at nursery, looking at one of his photos on the “inclusion board” (a photo of the four of us) – “look, it's my beautiful family”

Last month, having run around a supermarket for a while, Elliot slumps to the ground on his knees – “I can't go any more, I've run out of petrol!”

Post haircut, a little boy emerges:

 

 

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My favourite place to just be…

This weekend we went for an early morning walk to Blenheim Palace – handily about 10 minutes away from our house. This is where Elliot and I spent the vast majority of my maternity leave 2 years ago (the victoria sponge is AMAZING, and don’t even get me started on the chocolate brownie…I do credit this as my sole reason for not losing baby weight quite as fast as I had wanted!)

Anyway, whilst walking this weekend I took this picture of my boys in the early morning sun, down by the lake:

blenheim palace

It reminded me of one that I took on our very first visit to Blenheim with Elliot when he was a few weeks old in early 2011. Here he is, in the same spot, cosily wrapped up in a bear suit and the Baby Bjorn:

Blenheim 2011

I love this place.

I made it through the highs and lows of the first year as a mummy here, with the help of some of my nicest friends (my NCT group) as we met each and every Thursday come rain or shine for pretty much an entire year.

Elliot made friends here too. From the time when all the babies would take it in turns to wake up for feeding and we began to wonder (through that tired-new-mummy fog – remember that?) if they’d ever actually be awake at the same time, to the times when two or three of them finally were awake enough to meet each other. From them rolling over in the grass and taking tentative first steps, to enjoying first tastes of summer picnics on lazy afternoons.

Now we don’t get to visit as much, but I still love coming here. We come here more as a family now. Elliot loves going on the little train and visiting the butterflies – this is honestly enough to keep him talking about it for days afterwards, even more so if we meet up with any of his little friends.

Blenheim will always be “our place” – I just love it.

blenheim palace

If you missed my overly excited post from yesterday, you won’t know already that I’ve been amazingly lucky enough to be shortlisted in the Family category in the Brilliance in Blogging awards run by the amazing people over at Britmums. I’d really love to make it through to the final, so if you think I deserve a place there please do vote for me. Voting closes on 12th May. To vote, click on the below badge and fill in the details – be sure to select Letters to Elliot in the Family category! In return I promise to carry on blogging, for me, for my little boy, and for all of you who enjoy seeing what we’ve been up to. Thank you so much xx
NOMINATE ME BiB 2013 FAMILY