The girls amaze me with the way they change and develop every day, but this week has been really quite exceptional. Libby in particular has pulled achievement after achievement out of the bag, delighting herself with her own abilities.

For a while now, she has been learning to ride her bike without stabilisers. We initially removed the stabilisers when we were in Loch Leven, and we’ve since practised on a few occasions. But this week, she has got to a point where she can just get on the bike and ride off.

I’m very aware how safe she needs to be on a bike before going near the road, but it’s so much easier for her to ride on tarmac than grass. So we have compromised and she rides at our local park, where there is a wide tarmac track.

She is very proud of the cycle safety kit that was sent to her by Cycleplan and is getting used to wearing her high-visibility jacket when she’s on her bike. I hope that soon she’ll be able to cycle with me when I’m running, so we’ll be investing in a cycle helmet for her next. Also at the park, Libby is getting on really well with the obstacle course, now managing to get around it all on her own – even if it is a little bit scary! Libby’s other triumph this week was swimming a whole width of the pool. She has been managing a few strokes on her own since last summer, building up to nearly half a width. But with her swimming lessons and a lot of determination, she can now swim all the way across the pool. And she couldn’t be more proud.

Not to be outdone, Lia has had her own little breakthrough today, wearing pants for the first time and mastering the art of telling us when she needed the potty. She’s not ready to be in pants full time yet, but she’s getting the hang of it and the end of the line with nappies is definitely in sight. We’ve tried not to do quite so much over the past few days, allowing me to focus on work without ending up working too late at night. Our Thursday photo #117 is from our day on the beach on Friday, creating a sand art masterpiece for Konfidence. We’d been putting off going to the beach for a while due to the weather, but when we arrived I realised that had been a mistake.

Whatever the weather, we always have an amazing time on the beach. When we initially got there, the sun was nowhere to be seen. But that didn’t stop these two from enjoying the rock-pools with their bucket and watering can. There’s really no bad time to be at the beach, and sometimes it takes the children to remind me of that.

Our Thursday Photo #117

Please note, the girls were sent a cycling safety pack including fluorescent jackets by Cycleplan for the purpose of inclusion in a blog post. All views, opinions, images and happy little girls are my own.