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Today my oldest brother Isaac arrived home to Australia having lived in Colorado for 10 years. He and his gorgeous little family will be living in Australia now. We are now just waiting on the paperwork for his wife and children to follow.

 This was the first time either of my children had met Isaac as his last visit ended the day before Peach was born.

I have always felt that Theo reminded me a little of my brother Isaac. Isaac means laughter and Theo and he share a special joy for life. Within 5 minutes of their first meeting Isaac had Theo screeching in laughter and running so fast that this small boy nearly toppled an elderly lady! This was not funny but both he and Isaac laughed anyway.

I am so excited about how many more wonderful adventures (ideally not toppling the elderly) Theo will have with his funny uncle. I am so excited to have my brother home.

P.S If you’re curious about how things are going for Isaac’s wife & children waiting to come to Australia you can read about that on my sister-in-law Julie’s blog.

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as they ascended the stairs in front of me. little moments of love.

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As a mother… I’ve had to let a lot of things go.

Today I was working on a big project with the kids (I’ll share it here later) and had to take some big deep breaths. Both the kids wanted to help. I told them no. They asked again to help. I told them no. I was painting and I didn’t want it to be a) messy and b) have drips and paint brush hairs through all the paint work. The last thing Errol had said to me before he walked out the door was ‘don’t get paint everywhere’ and letting the children help would surely be a recipe for ‘paint everywhere’. Theo hovered about my ankles and earnestly asked me one more time “Pwease mama, I do it? I help?”

I looked at his face for a long time before I answered.

On one hand – I could say no again. On the other – I could say yes. I asked myself what would happen either way. The first answer, the answer I’d already given out of default (and not by conscious thought) would mean a neat paint coat, a quicker job and less mess to clean up. The second answer would give the children an opportunity to feel helpful, to feel trusted, to feel wanted in my project (which is, after all, for them) it would also mean a bigger clean up . Not needing to think about it much more I handed Theo my paintbrush and said “Okay Theo, I could use your help, can you paint this pole?”.

So the paint wasn’t that neat – there are a few little drips dried into the paint and the tiles got a few little paint freckles spattered onto them (which I can always clean up with some alcohol later) but Theo and Peach helped me all afternoon and when we were all done – they had before them their first big project which they had contributed to in a tangible form.

Their faces smiling wide with pride – Theo yelling ‘I did dat!”.

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Today was the day that Aunty Sarah got married. As I was photographing the wedding, I didn’t have time to focus on capturing you for the day Theo. This was the only photo I took of you!

I had left you in the morning with your Noni & Pa and headed off with Peach to photograph Sarah & the girls getting ready. A few hours had passed before we saw you again. When you saw your sister, this is how you looked, so happy to have found her. I love how you love her, please do so always.

Thank you.

Love mama.

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Homebound from a long and tiring time at the shopping centre/mall. Sailing the high seas of the carpark, Theo was quick to let me know he saw a ‘car’. Where? ‘Ebeywhere!’.