Dear Anouk | 4 yrs and 3 months

I took these pictures of you while you were watching your big sister learn to ride her bike. You picked dandelions and made wish after wish. I captured a few frames of you just as you were. You had dressed yourself and there wasn’t a lot of colour coordination going on, but real life is not a photo shoot.

A year ago, every time you made a wish, you wished for smarties, but now that you are a little more grown up you wish you could fly, just like your sister did when she was four (except when you recently wished for a long head with a long hat and long arms and some sticky tape and a long birthday with long candles. I’m still trying to understand that one). I could ramble on about a million little wonderful things I know about you, but instead I want you to know that I am honoured that your favourite days of the week are our “mummy and Anouk days” which you also sometimes call “the two girls days”. Sometimes people ask me if I am looking forward to you starting school, when I will have more day time hours to get my work done. The truth is that more night time hours where I can actually sleep will be very nice, but honestly I consider our 4 years and 3 months worth of days together so far to be some of the very best days of my life. So for now I will cherish and enjoy every story read, every hand held, every game of hide and seek, every milk shake, every pair of shoes worn proudly on the wrong feet, every skip, every hug and every flower you secretly place in my pocket.