Anya is 1

Shortly after Yana's 3rd birthday, and during our holiday in Sweden, it was Anya's 1st birthday. As mentioned in our Sweden post we weren't able to celebrate Anya's actual birthday properly. Therefore we had a party with four of Anya's little friends when we got back. Yana had to help blow out the candle, but Anya was pretty good at eating the cake (and all the rest of the food).

Anya has obviously changed incredibly in the last year. She is now a little toddler, expressing her desires and uttering her first words. She loves her big sister and is always really excited when we pick Yana up from nursery. Her favourite activities are climbing, walking around, putting her hands into shoes, hugging her dolly and eating (as long as it's proper food and she is allowed to feed herself).

Anya is very cheerful and happy. She is a little clingy at times, but on the plus-side that makes her very cuddly. As Yana always says: "Anni is soooooo cute".

Yana is 3

It's increadible how time flies, especially in regards to children. We can still remember being woken up at night and changing her nappies and all of the sudden our little girl is 3 years old. There are new challenges we are having to face now, but most of the time we are able to enjoy our cheerful, chatty and caring daughter.

For Yana's actual birthday we went swimming in Windsor and had a picnic by the river. We also had a little party with three of her little friends. She got lots of nice presents, her favourite being a balance bike, which she has immediately managed to develop dangerously fast speeds on (no more biking without a helmet!).

Yana currently loves: playing with Anya, going trampolining/climbing at the phoenix gym, riding her balance bike, going to the playground, reading books, painting (usually her hands and all the way up to her arms), watching Peppa Pig and going to play groups. She has started nursery two days a week. In the beginning she was really excited, now it has levelled off a bit, but we are hoping she'll get enthusiastic about it again soon.