Joy is spelt ANNA...

Oh the fun we are having with this little one and her baby sister!

We played the memory game again.  I lost.  Again.  Twice! 

We sang songs.  I taught her Miss Polly had a Dolly and she tried to teach me a song in Gaelic.  Or it might have been Swahili.  She speaks both languages and English.  Not bad for a four year old.  And when she's not happy about something she says "Oh man!" in the most exasperated American accent I have ever heard.  It cracks me up every time, especially as she's from Scotland!  :-))

We discussed the pros and cons of having curly hair.  Pro - lots of people with straight hair are jealous.  Con - some pretty clasps just can't handle it!

She was very patient with me when I asked her for the umpteenth time to let me take her photo.  We had a fun photo session on the black velvet chair. I asked her to show me her grumpiest face.  It made me laugh out loud.

She helped me prepare the fruit for snacking on this afternoon - watermelon, oranges, and strawberries.  And maybe some jelly babies.  Well they are fruit flavour too so count as part of one's five a day ;-)

She sat on my knee and pretended her hand was a massive spider coming to bite my neck.  Much squealing from both of us!

At her bed time I got the biggest, tightest hug goodnight and a very enthusiastic promise that we will definitely have our nails painted tomorrow.  We didn't quite get around to it today.

She has accidentally called me Gran twice and brought a wee tear to my eye (she didn't even notice she'd done it.)

And as if all that wasn't enough to make today extra special, I got the most beautiful cuddles from her baby sister.  Twice she fell asleep in my arms.  There is nothing so peaceful as holding a tiny baby as they gaze up at you and you watch their bright little eyes grow heavy with sleep and eventually close as slumbers take over.  Such special moments.

Later in the afternoon we all went into the pool.  What a scream that was!  Baby Faith is a water baby!  No fear at all.  Kicking her tiny little legs and happy to be supported on her back, on her front or upright.  Anna is great in the water too.  Super confident and squealing with delight.  

It's been a lovely day marred only by the fact L is still waiting for his next lot of instructions from the Home Office re. his visa.  If he hasn't had an email advising him by 10am tomorrow David will take him to Glasgow to try and find out what is going on.  

We are going to miss this lovely family when they return home up north but I just want their situation to be resolved so they can heave a sigh of relief and get on with living their lives (and not handing over every spare penny they have to the Home Office for stupid, meaningless tests!) 

I am sorry for being an even worse blip pal than normal but I've just not had a minute to look at journals.  I will do my best to catch up later in the week.