You Turned One!

Dear L,

My baby boy. My first boy. My handsome little taco! You are now a whole one year old. How, and when, and why did this happen?! I still vividly remember the day I had to go into hospital to get induced with you and how scared I was about everything. Your sister had rocked up early and had taken us by surprise, where as you were in no rush whatsoever and were completely oblivious to all the stress surrounding the birth, timings and the fact your dada was away on deployment at the time.

I’ll never forget the moment I first held you in the birthing pool and I was so lucky that our lovely friend Emma captured every single bit of emotion going through me in a stunning photo, which I will treasure forever. I held you for a good minute or so before I even realised you were a BOY! We didn’t find out your gender, as we wanted it to be a surprise, and I felt like the luckiest mama in the world when I realised I now had not only a beautiful daughter, but a beautiful son as well.

You lulled us into a fall sense of security by sleeping 24/7 for the first week, but I always said you would be trouble. I sensed it even when you were still just a bump and you haven’t proved me wrong!

You have pushed me to my absolute limits, and have made me summon up a strength I didn’t even know I had, but you are worth every single fear, stress, frustration and tear. I would do it again a thousand times just to see one of your ridiculous toothy grins, feel one of your intense cuddles (complete with headbutt) or to watch you crawl at a speed of light across a room just to lie down on the floor and put your head on someone’s foot (??).

You are incredibly head strong (just like your sister) but you are a lot more cuddly and needy than she was/is. It is fascinating to see the similarities in your personalities but also your differences. You will be running rings around her soon, I’m sure. She is so proud to have a little brother and loves showing you off at every opportunity – ‘MY LACKILIN’.

Every parent questions whether they have enough room in their heart and love to share with more than one child but it really is true that your heart just grows in size to accommodate all the additional love. You don’t have to split your love. It grows naturally.

So happy birthday my crazy little coconut. You are certainly one of a kind and we look forward to each and every day of watching you grow. I have a feeling nothing will stand in your way…

Love you more than you could ever imagine,

Mama aka ‘mememememe’ (I’ve been trying for months to get you to perfect ‘mama’ to no avail!) xx