Wow – you’re one! I feel like the first 12 months of your life went by in the blink of an eye. I have never agreed as much with the saying ‘the days might be long, but the years are short’, as much as I have in 2017. It has been a whirl wind of a ride, yet it has been an absolute pleasure to be your Mum. Happiest of birthdays to my Z man. You are exactly the baby we needed and I can only hope that we can be the parents that you need in the years to come. 

Your extremely happy temperament has continued to grow and blossom in the last 6 months. Your laugh is infectious and your smile lights up the room. No one can make you smile like your brothers and I can’t wait to see your friendship develop as you all grow together.

At six months, you were baptised – sorry about that, it took me a little longer to get onto that then with your brothers (who were both baptised at 10 weeks).

At eight months, you started pulling yourself up and cruising around on furniture. You also had cut enough teeth to eat an entire apple – and by entire apple, I mean EVERYTHING, including the skin and the core. You managed to get your hands on one whilst I was dressing your brother and when I tried to take it off you, you screamed like a banshee until I gave it back and watched you work away at it, until you had eaten the entire thing!

   

At ten months, you decided that you wanted to start walking like your big brothers. You took the odd step here and there, but by 11 months you were super confident on your feet.

You can chase down a ball like nobody’s business. You just want to be able to kick it like your brothers and have even tried to throw the basketball into the hoop a few times.

You’ve taken your first (and second) trip to the snow. Like your older brother, you spent the majority of the time alseep in the baby carrier. But I am sure that you will learn to love the snow – skiing, toboganning and tubing – just like your older brothers in the years to come.

At 12 months, you no longer sleep through swimming lessons and are breaking your neck to get into the water. You have amazing gross motor and fine motor skills – I guess that’s just what happens when you have two older brothers and such a strong sense of independence.

   

You can say; ‘mum’, ‘dad’, ‘nan’, ‘buba’, ‘ball’, ‘dog’, ‘woof’, and ‘more’.

You LOVE food! You will eat exactly what everyone else is having for dinner, and actually get very upset if we offer you something different. The other night you devoured two bowls of spaghetti bolognese, a whole cucumber, two slices of garlic bread. And then when your brothers got a paddle-pop you had a melt down, so we gave you a bowl of homemade jelly and you devoured that too.

You are a great eater and a great sleeper. You love to be with your brothers, play with balls, dance to music and often hum along, clap your hands and generally bring joy into our lives. We love you baby boy and are so thankful that you came along to join our tribe. Happiest of birthdays xox