The 52 Project: 33/52

'A portrait of my daughter, once a week, every week in 2015.'

Dear Ruby,

You spent a lot of time in that blue bowl over the past week. It became a bit of an afternoon routine in Italy, that to help with the heat and pass the many hours we spent at the villa, we would fill this bowl with water, give you some toys to play with, and hose you down. Once you discovered that you could just about fit into the bowl, you spent a whole lot of time sitting in it and displacing the water all over the patio.

It was fascinating to hear what you were thinking about from home while we were away. In order of most talked about, these are the things that you seemed to miss about home.

1) Auntie Hannah and baby Phoebe. Every single day, you mentioned Hannah and Phoebe at least ten times.

2) Choc. (Our friend's dog.)

3) 'Nen'. (Wren) - our god daughter, your friend)

4) 'ola (Granola) - you and I love my homemade granola. The day before we flew home, I told you that we would be going on an aeroplane and flying back to our house. You were eating porridge at the time, and excitedly declared, 'house...'ola!', climbed down from the table and went to look in the kitchen at the villa for granola. You were a little bit forlorn when I told you we would have to wait until we were home to eat granola again.

You seem to share your Father's enthusiasm for aeroplanes and airports, which was lovely to witness. You are quite the pro at negotiating escalators and travelators, thanks to the airport experience, and your love of ascending and descending stairs was further fuelled by the many staircases you found on your travels. What a fantastic travel companion you are, little one.

All my love,

Mama xxx