"a portrait of my children, once a week, every week in 2015."

Stella: If, on the rare occasion, she feels like posing for my camera, she always wants to ham it up with all sorts of silly faces and plenty of peace signs. ;)

Hugo: His utter disgust with sand continues. He wants nothing to do with beautiful, soft, black beach sand.

We were away on a mini holiday this week. All of us went out to Jogjakarta, including Mr. Chef, which is a rare and precious thing. It's been great spending some concentrated time together, all of us, and really focusing on how the kids are growing and what they are into.

Hugo sprouted a molar this week. He is obsessed with watersides. He loves ponies. He hates sand. And he just started calling me by name. He saw a picture of me and exclaimed, Mimi! Which I'm not sure is Hugo speak for mummy. Which is funny, because he's been saying mama for over six months now. And all this time, I thought he was declaring his love and devotion to me, but when he's been saying mama, he's been meaning, I want that. Ha. So, anyway. It might also be worth pointing out that he now has a nice collection of about ten words, including such important lexical items such as "sit" and "fishy" and "horse" and "shoes" and of course "yaya" (Stella) all of which have been acquired before my name. So, I'll just be over here feasting on some humble pie for the next, ohhhhhh, lifetime.

Stella has really grown up these past weeks. She's trying out her independence and testing her power. She's been experimenting with a more grownup vocabulary. Her favourite expression these days is , "I am not axadutely tired" and of course I don't correct her because adorableness etc. She's also been incredibly helpful, asking to put away groceries, run little errands in the house for me, and comfort her brother when he's sad. However she does express concern regarding her father's and my parenting choices, pointing out regularly that we are not watching her brother closely enough and allowing him to fall down, or hit his head, or perhaps get a nose bleed. So far, five is a pretty wonderful age.

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