3/52

Ellery: embracing the (messy) top knot

Aubrey: dig, dig, dig

2/52

Ellery: usual scenes

Aubrey: following in big brother's footsteps (literally)

1/52

 Ellery: usually moving at speed (as a reindeer or a super hornet)

Aubrey: the best playground (in the first shot, he is saying 'ha-yo' to the driftwood horse

51/52

Ellery: absorbed in play

Aubrey: birdspotting

50/52

Ellery: wild as the wind, with dirt

Aubrey: rockpool running

47/52

one golden afternoon : joining the dots between the spaces : two little mermen, crabhunters, handfuls, heartbreakers. but that protective hand.

43/52

Ellery: fistful of starfish

Aubrey: monkey see

A stay-at-home holiday. A trek to the western beach. You wanted to throw them back in. So we stopped.

42/52

Ellery: perpetual motion

Aubrey: bed hair, golden light

41/52

Ellery: rainbow at his heels, friend in sight

Aubrey: boy and the ball

Somewhere along the line I've fudged the weeks. Two kids, two houses, a job and lighthouse logistics are getting the better of me.

The weather is sublime right now. We're booking a mini staycation.

Portraits from a week we had friends stay, a total rarity. And Ellery has been all sorts of gorgeousness, save his newly acquired whine, completing the big kid feel. 

39/52

Ellery: proud of your new chair

Aubrey: pudgy fingers and blueberry mouse whiskers

You both seem so much more grown up all of a sudden. It is breaking my heart a little.

This week you both got new chairs - in the hope it would make table time, whether eating or playing - a bit more focused. Tick.

38/52

Ellery: we played trains under the kitchen table while his brother napped

Aubrey: down the back steps

E: The past couple of weeks with him have been bliss. Tantrums at an all-time minimum. We are loved up, and my goodness it makes life infinitely better.

A: A nice knock on the chin where he fell into a table. And a fractured bone in his foot means we are back to crawling everywhere. Hashtag toddler lyf! Also, first haircut, over several nights whilst sleeping. It could still use a bit more choppity chop.

37/52

Ellery: intense focus

Aubrey: joyous jumping

36/52

Ellery: full steam

Aubrey: gotcha

Bubble play in the backyard. With a snippet of bus.

35/52

Ellery: unleashing your energy

Aubrey: new tricks

So. Much. Wild. So. Many. Questions.

I have a wonderful shot of you both sitting on the kitchen bench, post paddle pool. Ellery with a scowl, probably complaining to me about something. Aubrey with his new camera smile (eyes closed, channeling Ellery). It's a nudie shot, so cutting room floor, but is SO descriptive of you both right now.

34/52

Ellery: homemade mango ice cream on the step

Aubrey: prefers dandelions

Simple homespun delights this week. Thanks be to the freezer gods and our summer laden mango tree. And dandelions, everywhere.

33/52

Ellery: cinders and ashes

Aubrey: mini-me

'Cinders and ashes!', his new childish expletive (but from where?). Eyes asparkle, cheek coal dusted from some real firefighting, in Daddy's helmet and goggles.

And speaking of goggles, I give you mini-me.

32/52

Ellery: airborne and wild

Aubrey: lapping up the winter sun

We had the most magnificent weekend on the island. An unusual treat to be there for days off, and the weather was divine. We did lots of morning beaching. Grandma and Pop even saw the much mythologised jabiru! A note to my future self: holiday at home in winter!

31/52

Ellery: They're singing for ME! But it's too loud!

Aubrey: simple pleasures

The week of four. The week of eighty! And forty one!

A small birthday gathering for Ellery, his Pop (bestowing on us our first visit in a whole year, on his very significant milestone birthday!), and his Dad (the week after) ... my three Leos.

His cake, chocolate spelt, smothered in strawberries. Four-year-old delight.

And that face! Eye popping excitement for cake and the spotlight!

30/52

Ellery: digger obsessed

Aubrey: next steps, hills

Last portrait as a three-year-old. So naturally, there are two. In the thick of three, it has been difficult at times to see the good, but there is so much good in him.

Aubrey, mastering tricky terrain (and delighting in peeing everywhere).