For the big two at the age of around two I wrote them a letter, so I realise I needed to get on and write my last one to the absolute Queen that is our koala Bear Clara…

When you popped out just over two years ago during a Covid lockdown when the world was a pretty scary place you completed our little family and boy have you made your presence known in this house. Your sense of humour and your cheekiness is positively infectious.

You crack me up the way you try to put on any clothes or shoes nearby- my pjs, Polly’s wellies, build a bear shoes, dolls skirts. Whatever you can get your feet or arms into.

I love hearing your gleeful shout of ‘meeeeee’, whether is owning up to who farted or declaring who should get the last biscuit.

The love you share with your older sister for arts and crafts, I mean yes it does mean I’m writing this post on a laptop that you’ve coloured in but it does make me laugh that everything you ‘draw’ no matter what the canvas is (an actual piece of paper, your sister’s official school photo, your face) you give a proud little “ta-daaa” and wait for a compliment on your work.

Oh my gosh, your obsession with water, from pouring it into anything from your water bottle (mainly pots and pans from the toy kitchen but sometimes you’ll turn a toy dump truck into a new cup) to the fact that you refuse to keep a rain cover over the pushchair and you’ve found the best way to splash in puddles is with your hands while sitting in one.

Your love for ‘Waffle doggy’ is next level, including the dancing and singing to the theme tune with the loudest shout of ‘oh oh ohhhhhhh’ at the end with outstretched arms.

I admire the fact that you won’t be pushed to engage with anyone, it’s all on your terms, although this does especially offend the older generation in our town it’s quite refreshing to see a person say: ‘no I don’t want to say hello today so I’m not going to.’

I love the fact that you are just starting to make more sense to the outside world with actual human words being spoken but still maintaining your own unique way of using them, like holding up a book and saying, “you talk it.”

Your love of nature is so uplifting. We have to walk home from town via the river with you collecting every stick you can carry, your face lights up when you see the sea and you’re the only one in the house who doesn’t run away from spiders.

Although you’re now dropping that nap, the ‘oh car’ game before any nap used to be a highlight of the afternoon- we would just stand at the window and shout ‘oh car’ at each car that went past for a couple of minutes, but of my gosh when a bus went past!

I do love that you usually have a baby (or a Pikachu) in your arms, pram, shopping trolley etc, you love looking after them including sudocreming them! And everything you look after gets an ‘oh poo!’ (Bluey figurines, teddy bears etc) then you pull out wipes to clean them up.

Finally, you make me laugh how into programmes and films you get (see the ‘Waffle doggy’ mention above). From dancing to every song in Encanto, to the tears that break my heart when the balloon pops in that particular episode of Bluey, to the love you have for Strictly with plenty of clapping and even blowing Craig Revel Horwood a kiss when he enters to ballroom!

Anyway, just keep being you because as your nursery teacher put it beautifully this week- everyone needs a Clara in their life.

Love from your mama xxx