15/52

Ellery: throwing a frisby

Aubrey: new tricks

Oh, what a week.

Tantrums are at a crescendo, and I am copping the brunt. A more conscious effort to carve out time just for you.

A fringe trim and a developmental leap, and here comes the toddler! Standing, climbing, riding his wheely bug and pushing a block trolley (that belonged to my brother!).

14/52

Ellery: conversations on the kitchen bench

Aubrey: banana

I have much more poetic photos on my phone.

But these are a lot closer to reality. Unabashedly domestic and cluttered.

You were both very high need this week (let's hope it is just this week!). Developmental blips (walking! soon!) and extreme behaviour (hitting, throwing, headbutting your brother, screaming fits of the burst-your-eardrum variety that last a mofo eternity). 

Also the week I paid five bucks for a download of consoling parenting wisdom about how three-and-a-half is the nadir of humanity.

Sigh. And Wine. And caffeine. And chocolate. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

13/52

Ellery: energy for days

Aubrey: he sells sea shells

Three-and-a-half: syllables, you intrinsically understand syllables. Because words and rhythm are you.

One: walks with hands held. And can hear the fridge opening two rooms away.

12/52

Ellery: shell creature spying

Aubrey: laps of the beach

In five years, I won't remember the week you barked like a seal and vomited copious solidified milk lumps down my shirt in the middle of the night. I'll have forgotten how bloody EPIC your tantrums were, how you kept hitting me and screaming at me to go away, to come back. And how I lost my shizzle at you, again. I'll vaguely recall how clingy the smallest was. How tired and foggy I was.

But I will remember how we seized the day anyway. Despite the effort, the tears, the sandflies and the wet sand EVERYWHERE. To choose beauty. To make these our memories that stick.

11/52

Ellery: singing me the cheeky monkey song

Aubrey: slumbering delight (with paws)

Three and a half: the meltdowns, the defiance, the wanton moods, the middle of the night wakefulness, the questions about everything, the undoing the thing you just did so he can redo it, the excitement about life, the bookish-ness. 

One: the raspberries (ohmygoodness he blows a mean fart on my shoulder!), the coy smile, the singsong call of 'Dad-dah', the climbing everything, the seat-bopping, the offering up the floor crud that just went in his mouth, the hand clenching to indicate want, the screaming frustration when he doesn't get his way, the absolute disinterest in books. 

10/52

Ellery: marches to the beat of his own drum
Aubrey: sunlight in his hair

The week that teething - and a crazy full moon southerly buster - stole our sleep.

9/52

Ellery: stacking, unstacking

Aubrey: cheeks and rolls

Matching one-year-old and three-and-a-half year old vaccinations. The smallest's first fringe trim. And a new (borrowed) car!