Today was the big day! After three years the cousins are finally reunited, and we all get to meet The Little Cousin and spend some time as a family.

Grace and The Cousin Who Shall Not Be Named pretty much just played all day, and the parents had to arbitrate when needed. They actually did really well – especially seen as the cousin is busy recovering from her long trip. If they’re playing the same game, then things go pretty well….if they each want to do something different, well then things don’t go so well. Pretty much like any 4 year old’s playing together.

Group painting

Watching the Tinkerbell movie and snacking after a good long stint on the beach. Grace and the cousin spoke over Skype at Christmas and Grace told her about her new Tinkerbell movie she got for Christmas. They then organised (between themselves) to watch it together when they saw each other.

Eli has been full of laughs today

Getting some makeup tips from Gogo….watch out for Eli with that lipstick!

Eli can tell us when he likes something…

Grace is loving playing her memory game and shouts, “Whoohoo!” whenever someone finds a pair.

Just having some fun with the paint (and then tried to give mommy a shower with the water later…)

Grace woke up yesterday and says to me, “Can you smell that smell?”

“What smell Grace?”

“It smells like we’re going to Jeffreys Bay!” she says with great delight.

We’ve been in a little bit of limbo between our two holiday breaks, but today we’re on our way again to spend some time with the entire family – my brother and family are coming to visit from America! The Cousin Who Shall Not Be Named is the same age as Grace, and I think the two of them are going to have a great time together.

So after a brief interlude the holiday continues and we can start our year properly in two weeks time.

Some morning dancing to get the blood flowing. Two things to look out for, (1) Grace’s transformation, and (2) the brother/sister hand flap

Every night after our bath Donné goes in to Grace and Eli’s rooms to check on them. She comes out of Grace’s room and says, “I’m going to need your help with this.”

I go in and Grace is lying peacefully on her pillow, with her little dolls blanket wrapped around her legs….on the floor. She clearly decided that lying on the floor in the draft of the door was a cooler place to sleep. Fortunately she transfers easily.

And finally, after months of waiting, Eli has cut his last incisor. His bottom left one decided to stay inside while he cut his four premolars, but eventually it has broken through and he now has 12 teeth. In theory we have a short respite before the canines start doing their thing.

Donné had asked Grace to climb into bed so that she could sing to her and say goodnight, but Grace just wasn’t doing it. So she asked her again and told her that she wasn’t going to sing if she didn’t get into bed now. Grace carried on, and so no songs….but lots of wailing.

At one stage she had Monkey and Oinkey on her bed sitting in front of her, and she was lamenting the fact that there was no singing (she was really, very, very upset), like she was having a group session with them. Donné walked in soon afterwards and heard Grace saying, “I wish I was Donné so that I could sing to myself!”

Choices and consequences….one day she will learn.

Enjoying a hair wash at the hairdresser

Eli says roll!

He has also been cruising around the house saying, “ma-MA, ma-MA,” and every now and then, “da-DA, da-DA.” He has definitely started to call Donné “mama.”

We’ve been very fortunate to make new good friends this past year, and extremely blessed that some of them live literally down the road. We got to spend an wonderful afternoon with our friends while our children had lots of fun playing together. Eli pottered around and spent a long time playing with their wooden kitchen and cupcakes – it is so cute to see him doing his own thing and exploring.

Stacking rings and blocks with Tyler