Giselle Aviana and Arabella Valentina – they are big names for little people, but your father and I knew you’d grow into them.
To us, every day, you are Gigi and Bella. With your big brother Leo, you are my heart.
I always dreamed of being a mother. My brother is eight years younger than me, so I had a lot of practice “mothering” him when we were growing up; driving him to after-school activities when I was 16.
I knew that I wanted three children – I’m from a family of three and it’s my lucky number. You’re my little lucky charms!
Becoming a mother was the steepest, sharpest learning curve I’ve ever had.
My life was flipped on its head when your brother Leo came along; I was 30, your father and I were newly married. And then suddenly it all started.
Someone once said to me that when you have children, you know what it’s like to have your heart running around on the outside of your body. You feel all the pain, all the vulnerability that comes with it.
The role of being a mother is something you grow with, you learn the role as you move through it. You have been very good at teaching me how to be your mum along the way, and I’m so grateful for that.
Watch Renee reveal her hidden talent in the video below – for more great videos check out our Youtube channel.
Renee with her girls, Arabella (left) and Giselle.
It is the joy of my life to watch you girls and your brother turn into such individual little humans.
Gigi, at five years old you are “the thinker”, the observant one who never misses a beat. But you’re also so funny, your dry sense of humour and your clever comments.
Your dad has high hopes that your love of Lego and your enthusiasm for architecture might mean that you follow in his footsteps and take over his construction company one day.
Arabella, you are just pure love; always happy and loud.
When you were born, I remember saying to my mum – Nanny Maz to you! – “Thank goodness she’s got the name befitting an opera singer, because she’s got the lungs for it.”
I have no doubt that your future will involve a stage of some sort – even at two, you are 110 per cent an actress – and that it will also be very colourful (and loud!).
I adore your belly laugh, it’s super contagious and makes everyone within earshot smile.
Your big brother is my little action kid – my rough and tumble boy who likes to always be on the move, full of questions, loves to be out in the mud. But he’s also very sensitive; a worrier, like me.
Whereas the two of you are happy to sit on the couch and talk about how you’re feeling, I have to hound Leo to tell me.
I hope that you will both continue this gentle, loving hounding – it’s so important that all of you feel comfortable communicating about the things that worry you.
Being a mum is very important to me, but it was also very important to me that you girls saw me going back to work.
You can’t rely on someone else to give you money, you need to be able to stand on your own two feet in this world and I want you and your brother to know that you have to be self-sufficient.
However, you do not have to carry the burdens that life will give you alone. It’s important to develop meaningful connections that enrich your life and help you out.
I don’t believe we can do everything all on our own, and it’s important to realise that you can’t just have one person that gives you everything.
You get lots of support from different people, so choose wisely who you surround yourself with. Choose people who lift you up and inspire you; that can only be a good thing.
Son Leo and husband Charlie complete Renee’s family of five.
My hopes for you are simple: that you will always be happy, and always be kind. Kind to other people but also kind to yourselves.
Life can be hard, but you can only do the best you can – and know that it’s enough. I want you to know that you are enough – you’ve always been enough for me and also for yourselves.
You are complete. I don’t ever want you to feel that you are owned by anyone, that you are controlled by anyone.
I want you to be content and secure in yourselves – that’s a good base for anyone to make their way into the big, wide world.
I want you to do what you love, to find your passion and do work that you believe in. I want you to be true to yourself, because you can’t go wrong with that.
One of my very favourite parts of being your mum is when we make the “love buttons” on our hands. Sometimes we draw them with a pen, sometimes they are invisible, but when I’m at work and you’re at school, and we miss each other, we push the little love buttons on our palms and we feel an instant little shot of love. I hope we continue to do this, even as you get older.
I’m so proud of how loving you all are, and I’m immensely excited to see how you grow and develop your personalities.
That’s the funny thing with kids – just when my heart feels full, when I think I couldn’t possibly love you more than I already do, you’ll go and do something else, or show me a little bit more of your personality, and, just like that, my love for you grows even more.
