Two!

Favourite TV watching position.

What?

Never in the same position he's left in.

Thanks Unckle Munkle, Yan & Ayisha.

Slide of death! Mummy thinks so anyway.

Vegemite on the veranda

Favourite place.

Doing this all the time now.

Another favourite thing to do.

"Sharing" our bed.

Swimming

Dad's uggs.

TV time.

Stacking in colour.

Jack & his baby.

"You looking at me?"

This one is odd!

Who needs a spoon?

Cutie.

Piggy.

Queen Armidala!

Dear Jack,


My gorgeous, funny, cheeky, much better-sleeping little chicken! What a year we've had.
We celebrated your first birthday with a picnic in the Royal National Park & have just celebrated your second with a picnic in Cooper St Park. Picnics are fun & this way we can invite all the people who love you & not go broke doing it!
This year we had a Thomas tent & balloon - that blew away! A gorgeous Thomas cake & Caterpillar cakes that Grandma made for you, music, bubbles & lots of fun.

Since your last birthday we moved from Grandma & Poppy's house to our new house at Heathcote. We all love it. You went into your own bedroom for the first time & amazingly within about 2 weeks you were mostly sleeping through the night!! This is good for all of us! Even when you do wake now we just bring you into our bed for a little while then pop you back in yours about ten minutes later & you settle quite easily. The bad nights are justified because you are sick, those nights we just leave you in with us.

You have a lovely blue mat in your bedroom & up until recently (cause the trains took over!) would drag everyone into your room to sit & lay down on your mat. It was quite funny sometimes to have all the visitors in your room, on the floor & not allowed to leave!

We have a lovely big veranda at the new house & you love riding bikes out there and pushing the very noisy lawnmower that Uncle Michael, Aunty Yan & Ayisha sent you for your birthday! We also got you a slide & ball pit that you immediately loved - scaring Mummy with your daring! And annoying Daddy by throwing all the balls off the veranda. We have playgroup at home every week & you play with all your friends & so far are very good at sharing your toys - but I fear this might start changing soon.

You used to love pulling out all the pots & pans & kids cups & bowls in the kitchen & making a giant mess, but were always happy to put them all back too - luckily! We discovered swings this year & you love them! Even falling asleep in your one on the veranda.
But your favourite thing by far this year & I think in the years to come is Thomas the Tank Engine. You love him. I got you about 10 trains to start with & you quickly learnt all their names & would bring them to me when I asked for them, you love to line them all up as one big train. And you drove us all crazy with battery operated Percy & Thomas forever having to be retrieved from under the TV cabinet with the very long tongs! You love having Poppy, Daddy or Myself (or anyone really) sit down at your train table with you & just play.

You still love books & have started "reading" them back to us now, especially the ones we have read to you since birth, like Where is the Green Sheep? & Ten Little Fingers & Ten Little Toes but any book will do.

You also love the iPad & will play games happily on it - luckily because we are going on a big flight to Hawaii & I'm hoping it will keep you occupied!

You started swimming this last year also. You do a half hour lesson every Saturday morning & it wasn't until the twelfth lesson that you finally stopped crying! It was very hard to listen to you & I really wanted to "rescue" you, but I knew it was best for you to learn. You are so good at it now & we watched you swim unaided to the ladder at about week 10, we were very proud.

You are asserting your own will more then ever & started saying "more" & "no" & recently "I don't want it!" you will come & talk at me about things & I don't understand most of it but you persist until we seem to give you the right answer! You are still a genius & pick up things very quickly - sometimes too quickly! It was very funny to hear "bugger, bugger, oh bugger" coming from the back seat one day. You are now counting pretty much up to 10 with not much help. Daddy has taught you to say "love ya mate" & it's very funny.

You still love a cuddle & when I ask you "are you my big boy or my baby?" you always say "baby", not sure how I'm going to feel the day you say "big boy". And any time I am nursing a baby you always have to be on my lap as well pretending to cry & needing cuddles too.

You are funny & I think you truly understand the humour in things. One day in the bath I was asking you what all the animals say & at the end I said "what does Daddy say?" & you made a fluffing noise - I laughed so hard.

So another year older my little chicken. I still have moments of shock that you are here & belong to us. We are so blessed.

Love, love, love,
Mummy & Daddy