During dinner, Ailsa asked Violet and Ivy if they liked being twins. Yes – they both did. When asked why, Violet responded with no hesitation,
“Always together!”
and Ivy said,
“We get two cakes on our birthday!”
November 24, 2013
Always Together
September 3, 2013
Violet and Ivy: First Day at School Went Well!
Twas a good day for the twins. They really enjoyed their first day of school 🙂
March 14, 2013
Neep by Violet
If you don’t know who Neep is, then you really ought to be watching Abney and Teal. It’s the best thing since.
March 14, 2013
Hedgehog by Violet
This is just spot on. I love it. I think it’s eating a monkey-nut. Or possibly using the facilities.
August 16, 2012
Leighton Moss
We went on a lovely day trip to Leighton Moss in Silverdale, Lancashire. We’re not bird-people (I believe the term is Twitcher, or something) but it was a great day out. It was both ruggedly-wild and family-with-three-children-and-a-pram-friendly. And the food at the café was amazing.
August 7, 2012
Centurion VI
Well, it’s been one of those English summer mornings where, upon seeing the lovely blue skies, you head to the park but end up taking shelter from the rain in the museum. But, as ever, Lancaster museum made for a lovely little trip; we even excavated some rather remarkably in-tact centurion uniforms…
Violet
Violet
Rosabel
December 5, 2011
Rosabel and Violet play the piano.
Rosabel can now reach the piano keys herself and spends a good deal of time practising, often with help from her sisters.
August 2, 2011
Typical.
July 29, 2011
Another Mental Bedtime
Ailsa and I thought we’d check in on the twins this evening. This is how we found our little lovely monkeys:
July 6, 2011
From Excitement to Exhaustion
Ivy
Ivy in stripes; Violet in pink; both in water…
Marianne & Rosabel
Ivy & Violet
Ivy throwing water at her Godmother
Ivy throwing water at her Daddy
There’s always room for one more. Violet, Ivy and Eleanor
Coming to the end of a long day
Coming to the end of a very long year
July 3, 2011
Badger Attack
Watch out, twins, there’s an Anglican Badger with a hose.
Where’s the hose coming from? 5 house points for the first correct answer!
June 19, 2011
Six Months
Well, not only is it Fathers’ Day and Uncle Gabriel’s First Holy Communion (congratulations, Uncle Gabriel!), but it is also SIX MONTHS since Rosabel was born (unless sleep deprivation (from teaching, btw, not parenting) has warped my sense of time, in which case you should just smile and nod). Well done, Rosabel!
Rosabel at Six Months Old
It is a long time since Violet and Ivy were of such an age. Twas the 5th March 2009 if memory serves me correctly (which it really probably isn’t doing). Violet was about eight and a half pounds, Ivy was about ten and a half pounds, but Rosabel is at least 15 and a half pounds, bless them all. I have trawled the blog to find some images of the twins at a comparable age to their ‘little’ sister…
When Violet and Ivy were Six Months Old  |
| Violet sat on the nappy bag, playing our old piano at the little house in Galgate. |
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| Ivy and Violet, looking positively menacing in those hoodies. |
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| Violet and Ivy doing their reusable-nappy dance routine. |
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| Peekaboo, Violet! |
June 18, 2011
A familiar face
Violet Grace, looking not unlike childhood photographs of cousin Tracey and auntie Ursula. Does anyone agree?
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June 12, 2011
Pop.
“Bouncy, bouncy, bouncy, bouncy…”
Violet is very light, but that balloon has got to explode sooner or later…
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June 10, 2011
Names
The twins are doing brilliantly with their talking. They have recently learnt their “big names” and now recite them on a regular basis. They still pronounce Violet, “Yiyat”, but otherwise are getting pretty nifty.
Violet Grace Lucille
Ivy Elisabeth Clare
Rosabel Mary Ethel
We’re often asked about where these lovely names came from. Usually, by the time I’ve stopped talking, people wish they’d never asked, because, well, I love this kind of shizzle. Put simply, they constitute an infusion of homages to important mothers: biological mothers and grandmothers, ‘mother’ nature, and the blessed Theotokos, Mary the mother of God. For a more detailed analysis, keep reading…
FIRST NAMES – MOTHER NATURE
Violet is a name that Ailsa has liked for a long time. It is the name of a character from one of Ailsa’s favourite childhood books called – wait for it -, “Ivy Cottage”, by E. J. Taylor. Violet is a beautiful word to say and listen to. I like the way its three syllables flow into each other, giving the impression of triplets over two quavers.
Ivy is the name of my late paternal Grandmother, who died before I was born but for whom I have always had great affection. Like Violet, Ivy was a very popular Victorian and Edwardian floral name, and is another beautiful word to say. The twins’ names fit perfectly together in so many ways. The obvious VI-IV mirror reminds me of their genetic identity but also their many undeniable differences. The reference to the Roman numerals for 6 and 4 is not intended but I’d be very interested if anyone can read anything into them?!
Rosabel is, well, several things. First of all, it grew from my thoughts: a simple contraction of Rose and Belle, which a quick Googling will show to be not without precedent. The name Rose, like Violet and Ivy, has floral connotations, but unlike violets and ivy, roses are often grown and presented as a single flower. Rose reminds us of the name Rosemary, which has an honoured place in both our families. The rose is also an historic symbol of England, particularly the beautiful counties of Yorkshire and Lancashire, where our families come from. Rosabel was born in the same year that a great Yorkshireman, Uncle Melvyn, passed away, and whilst we couldn’t call her ‘Melvyn’, she will always remind me of the joys and sadness of the final months of his life. The ‘bel part of Rosabel is simply an Anglicisation of belle, ‘beautiful’ in French, an extravagance on my part and a way of differentiating her from all the other Rosey people in our lives. The rose, or Mystical Rose, has long been a symbol of Mary the Mother of God, another motherly presence in the names of our children:
SECOND NAMES – MOTHER OF GOD
Violet’s second name is Grace. This takes us right back to the story of the Annunciation in Luke’s Gospel, when the archangel Gabriel announced to Mary the incarnation of God: “Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee”, which forms the first line of the Hail Mary prayer.
After Mary humbly agreed to carry the Christ child, she hurried to be with her cousin, Elisabeth, who was also pregnant with a precious child, who would be John the Baptist. He leapt for joy in Elisabeth’s womb when Mary approached carrying his Lord. Elisabeth said to Mary, “Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the Fruit of thy womb, Jesus.”, the second line of the Hail Mary. Elisabeth is Ivy’s second name.
Both Grace and Elisabeth, then, remind us of the wonder and beauty of pregnancy and new life, and in particular the story of Our Lady’s journey from fear to joy as she embraced God’s will to bring Christ to His people.
Rosabel’s second name, then, is Mary itself. Mary, in its various forms (from the Hebrew, Miryam) is a very popular name amongst Catholics, and is often taken as a second name by nuns and monks of many religious orders as a way of honouring Our Lady and asking for her intercession. We would probably have given Mary as a second name for our first born daughter, but since we had two (!) first born daughters, we saved the name for Rosabel. Mary is a very precious name in Ailsa’s family as the name of Ailsa’s maternal and paternal grandmothers. Mary Kennedy sadly passed away not long before Rosabel was born, and it is a great privilege for Rosabel to take her great-granny’s name. That brings us nicely to the girls’ third names, which are all names of matriarchs, past and present:
THIRD NAMES – GRANDMOTHERS
Our mothers and grandmothers are unquestionably the most important people on the planet. They have given us the incredible, generous gift of life, have nurtured us and loved us and guided us with their wisdom. Violet’s third name is Lucille, after Ailsa’s mum; Ivy’s third name is Clare, after my mum; Rosabel’s third name is Ethel, after my maternal grandmother, and our other grandmothers have been accounted for already: Ivy is named after my paternal grandmother, and Mary is the name of both of Ailsa’s.
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So there we have it.
June 6, 2011
Big Sis, Little Sis.
Violet was greatly amused when she awoke from her afternoon nap to find a little Rosabel in her cot.
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June 5, 2011
Matching Cardigans
Bespoke knitwear by Nanna Mary.
Lovely 🙂
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May 15, 2011
Sunday morning fun…
If you listen carefully, you can hear mummy singing in the background.
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May 14, 2011
Eldest and Youngest
Every morning, having been successfully extracted from their cots, the first thing the twins want to do is see their little sister and give her a lovely big cuddle.
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May 12, 2011
Dancin to the blues on a cloudy Thursday mornin…
Dance: Violet; Music: Hugh Laurie
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March 14, 2011
Beautiful Singing
I recorded this outside the twins’ bedroom this morning. It’s a lovely example of how they like to sing and chat when they wake up. I’m fairly certain that the melody line is an extemporised variation on Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star sung by Violet, textured with some very inspired contributions from Ivy. Well done girls 🙂
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Little Flowers 