A general update

We had some photos taken a couple of weeks ago, so I'll use that as an excuse to update here and try to capture how the kids are and what they are up to, at 3 years and 5 months, and 9 months old.

The first word that always spring to mind when describing Benjy is 'hilarious'. But to try to be more specific. He has bags of energy from the minute he starts his very early day. Benjy is all about his imagination - he very rarely plays with toys, and has never had any interest in typical 'boy' toys - give him a car, train, plane or soldier and he'll promptly pretend they're a cup of sugar, a block of butter, some flour, eggs, cocoa powder, chocolate and sprinkles, and bake a cake with them. It's always been all about food with Benjy. The one thing he has played with consistently has been his play food, and it's still a big part of each day for him. We bake pretend cakes (and often real ones too - he loves to bake), have picnics, go to the shops, then we draw pictures of the food (he loves to draw and colour, so this amalgamates his two loves nicely). His favourite book at the moment is what he calls the 'cake book', a recipe book for children's birthday cakes, and he takes it to bed with him every night. He used to do this a long time ago too, which I may have written about on here before, and we have just recently found the book again since our move.

He still loves nursery and is so enthusiastic about learning, which I am delighted about - long may it last! The excitement in his voice when he sees any of the letters in his name is delightful, and he looks out for them as we go about our day. At nursery last week they were learning about shapes. This seems to have really struck a chord with Benj. He has talked about shapes constantly ever since. So lovely to see him really excited to learn about new things and apply them to his day-to-day life. On the same note, he asks a lot of questions - he is 3, after all, although we only get the occasional 'why?', not 'why? why? why?' just yet. And he wants detail! Whether it's a real question, or a question in a game, a short answer isn't enough. When's he's being a doctor, for example, he takes a very thorough medical history ('What did you hurt? Which thumb? What did you hurt it on? Which wall? When did you hurt it?'), which shows perfectly what I mean. And he has picked up on a little game Eddie does with him. Ed had, occasionally, asked him something along the lines of, 'What would you rather be, a dog or a cat?' - sounds strange written down, I know. And now suddenly Benjy asks the questions too, and is really clever in both the choices he gives - they're always related, never two unconnected things - and is very 3-year-old in his reasons when you ask him why. For example, he'd rather be a circle than a square because his eyes are round. Of course.

He still loves books, and remembers them word for word so he can read them himself. He brings them into everyday life too - yesterday his fingers were poking out of his glove and he said 'Three fingers poke out of an underground house, can these be the fingers of the big bad mouse?' - with apologies to Julia Donaldson. He makes up stories which frequently begin with 'Once upon a time there was a little boy called Benjamin' - the only time he ever calls himself Benjamin - and they are told in a very story-telling tone of voice, or certainly the one I use for stories. And he makes up songs too. Love it.

And of course he has his 3 year old behaviour. Loving and sweet with Chloë, and then pushes her over. Is told not to do something then promptly replies. 'I'm doing it anyway'. But my goodness can he be funny with it too!

What else? He is sweet and affectionate. Gives great cuddles, when he wants to - when he doesn't, you don't stand a chance. Adores babies, and will ignore an older child to play with a baby. Strokes my face while he's talking to me without realising he's doing it. Just gorgeous. These photos capture his personality perfectly.

And Chlo-Chlo. Gorgeous squidgy little Chloë. Our 9 month old is on the move, crawling on hands and knees now and pulling herself up on everything (and inconveniently, as soon as we sit her in the bath too). She spends a lot of time in what I can only describe as a yoga-style downward dog position, which I understand is important for perspective, and I suppose strengthens her arms and legs too. She ADORES her big brother and now that she can, she follows him around, much to his irritation seeing as often she does so to get whatever he's playing with. And he'll edge further away, and she'll follow him, until the two of them are at the other end of the room, having got there inch by inch. He loves to make her laugh and she's a fantastic audience, squealing with delight as he dances, sings, kisses and cuddles her, and he is often quite rough and tumble with her but that makes her laugh hardest of all.

She has recently started to be a little clingy - the start of separation anxiety? - but along with that comes shyness and cuddles right into the nape of my neck, and how can that not be a good thing? She's started crying when left in a room alone, and now that she can, will follow us out. There's a lot of 'mamamamama' and 'dadadadada' but I don't think that it's directed at us, yet - she does say 'mamamama' as she crawls towards me, but I'm pretty sure she's saying it when she crawls in the other direction too.

She loves peekaboo; it never fails to amuse me how hilarious babies find that. She finds looking in the mirror pretty funny too, when she looks at me in the mirror, turns to look at the actual me, then back in the mirror again. Wants to stand up ALL the time. Loves books - for the first time, last week, when I went to check on her before I went to bed, one of the books in her cot was open so she must have been reading it after I put her to bed. Overall, she really seems to have made one of those leaps into being in a new stage of a little person, those leaps that happen when you don't even notice it. She's less 'baby' and more 'person' more and more now. She's scrummy. I feel that these photos don't capture her personality though - we only had 15 minutes and unlike her outgoing big brother, that wasn't enough time for her to get used to it. So they mostly show her looking pretty serious (although not the selection I've included here), and they don't do what I really wanted, which was to capture how she and Benjy play together and the way they look at each other, especially her at him, but they still show her in all her pretty and delicate glory.