I’m really noticing that my girls are growing up. Gracie has turned from a toddler into a little girl. The main difference is that Alicia and Gracie play together; they play schools, tea parties, mummies and daddies. It has meant that I can sometimes leave them to play together whilst I get on with a few jobs – this is a real ‘treat’ as up until now I had been leaving all of the jobs until after the kids were in bed. It’s a mixed bag though as they seem to either be really close, and want to be on top of each other, or they are screaming and fighting – usually over one toy! It’s a real cliché and I am sure that I was the same with my sister but why do they start a tug of war over one toy when they have hundreds they could play with?! They also have proper scraps now, pushing, kicking and hitting each other. When they are good they are very, very good but when they are bad... it gets ugly!! Unfortunately for Alicia she can no longer tell small fibs about why Gracie is crying because Gracie’s speech has advanced enough for her to be able to say ‘Alicia hurt me’!

We received the report from Gracie’s speech assessment. Her development is at the lower end of what is expected for her age. The therapist thinks that this is because her older sister is so very vocal that Gracie doesn’t get a chance. I have also noticed that Alicia needs a lot of attention from me to keep her interested and well behaved – scarily I can see that she gets this from me and I often have flashbacks of how I was as a child! Anyway – the therapist wants to assess us again once Alicia has started school, she also gave us some advice on how we can encourage Gracie’s speech. We need to look at Gracie when we are speaking and encourage her to string three words together rather than two. She is definitely coming on.

Gracie has also started to potty train. I have had the potty around for a while now and I am very open when I use the toilet – ‘Mummy is having a wee on the toilet’ etc. Kids really learn from watching and copying Mummy, but I am looking forward to a time when I can go to the toilet by myself! This week Gracie has been taking her own nappy off and sitting on the potty – I am so proud! I do a little ‘wee and poo dance’ when Gracie has produced something on the potty, which she thinks is hilarious. I also make up little songs about how Gracie is brilliant to use the potty. I decided to just take her nappy off when we are at home so that she can feel if she has an accident, and there have been a few! For every wee or poo on the potty there has been a corresponding accident on the floor – I even caught her weeing in my shoe but I couldn’t be too cross as she obviously grasped the fact that she couldn’t just wee on the floor!