The Adventures of the Garden Sprites

It has been raining and raining and raining, so this afternoon, my friend Lee-Anne and I braved the weather, which fortunately had cleared a bit, and took our 3 girls to our favourite playdate meeting place. It has every conceivable jungle gym you can think of, geese, goats, chickens and even a pony to be ridden. Absolute heaven for a child! So for 2 hours they played, we had a quick cup of coffee and then we took them for the much anticipated pony ride! While driving home with my two girls happily singing away to their favourite songs, I realised once again just how important it is for a child to be able to play. When I go shopping for my 4 year old, I am always amazed at the clothes that are available - dresses so full of bling even I wouldn't wear it, bras for toddlers and shoes with heels! I mean come on, why are we not allowing our kids to play with dollies and dinky toys until they reach high school instead of dressing them up as though they are adults. These days its the in ...

Mackenzie has always been an avid watcher of anything on TV that even remotely resembles ballet, she has been taking lessons for the last year and thoroughly enjoys it. Over the holidays she discovered ice skating and has been nagging me to take her! Reagan is much bigger than Mackenzie was at her age and I was sure she would not be into ballet like her sister, but lo and behold, I have just walked into the living room to find her copying the ice skating as avidly as her sister! Arms up, twrling around as if she's been doing it for years - so I suppose I better phsych myself up to be driving 2 little girls all over the place for ballet recitals, at least until Mackenzie gets her license!!!

Happy New Year everyone, none of us mommies can believe that another year has passed. There is a saying that goes: nowhere else is the marking of time so evident as in the life of a child... you've just found out you're pregnant and before the excitement of the actual pregnancy has worn off, birth day arrives and you bring your tiny precious bundle back home, then they start sitting, crawling, walking, then they're off to nursery school and then comes big school - and then the next thing you know, you're watching your kids bring their babies home from hospital! Its a neverending cycle and the trick is to enjoy it and never wish any time away, even the bad times, they all help shape who we are and its they way you handle things that counts. So here's to a wonderful year, whatever it may bring, may we all get to know ourselves a lot better and to remember to spend those few seconds listening to your toddler go on and on about the tiny ladybird she saw - In her life it...