Another first birthday blog post, another mention about how time flies. Its an odd feeling as although I am in absolute agreement that the past year certainly has gone by in an instant, on the other hand it seems like a lifetime ago that I was childless. A self tanning, cocktail drinking, lie in on a Sunday kinda girl. Then theres the 'mummy insomnia' as I like to refer to it as. The feeling that time has flown: however looking back, I'm not totally sure I remember a lot of it! Its all just feels like a bit of a blur. Then comes the emotions. The fact that you cannot believe your precious baby is a whole year old. You look back at the squishy new born photos and just want to cry because 'look at how much she's grown!' Then the guilt, which of course has to rear its head as that's just a part of parenting. 'Could I have embraced the time when she was that small more?' and then the realisation that YES you have done it. You have Done the whole parenting thing for a whole year which just seems like a miracle when you think back to taking this baby home and wonder how you could do it for a day but a year- a whole fucking year. (Here's your cue, by the way, to pop open that bottle of champagne you've got in your cupboard because you bloody well deserve it)
Thats the thing, first birthdays. Of course you celebrate your little ones special day, their first ever birthday, but really they do not have a clue the significance and actually its a good chance to celebrate your first year with your new addition as a family. Celebrate your achievements as parents and reflect on the past year- the good times, the hard and even where you are today as those good times and hard have got you right there.
Bonnie's birthday is 29th December. She was born bang on her due date with a little help from 2 inductions and absolutely no help from a failed epidural ( having to go through the fuss of having that done then having to carry on without the pain relief anyway was not what I had in mind) actually none of it is what I had in mind, but I'll end there as that is the most information about my birth you're going to get from me-ever! She arrived at 7:42pm, weighed 7lbs 4 and was absolutely perfect.
This year being the first, gave us an insight to how manic December is going to be in our lives for a very long time. 4 days after Christmas- I must admit it wasn't the best timing on our part. (Sorry Bon!). We took the tree down on the 28th and put up the birthday balloons and she was greeted when she woke up to a huge inflatable 'Sofia the First' staring at her while she ate her breakfast.
We had a lovely day on her birthday just the 3 of us, it was raining so we took her to a soft play, on the carousel and to Wagamama's. (Her favourite!)We also started a new tradition- where Elliott and I both wrote down what we thought Bonnie was going to be when she grew up. I said she was going to be preforming on stage as she loves music and singing and dancing and Elliott said she was going to be in the music industry. We'll do the same every year.
Woodland themed birthday party
Woodland cakes from Waitrose
Hedgehog cake from M&S
Teepee from Hobby Craft
The children put their handprints on a canvas for Bonnie
Cake smash
I'm not actually sure I can officially call this a 'cake smash' as she didn't get that messy but I didn't have that long until I had to leave the house! I am however happy with how they turned out seeing as I did them on my own at home.
To achieve this, I used the balloon from her party (that was deflating by the second!) Some Christmas lights that I put behind an IKEA white curtain, balloons and a 'decorate your own cake' that was in the reduced section at Waitrose that day that I just put pink icing and hunters and thousands on. I blew up some balloons, set it all up in front of the window, told my nephew who I had for the day that we were having another birthday party for Bon and voila. I used a Canon EOS M100 for the photos.
Here's to the next year!
AML Lala x
