It’s hard for me to imagine that I have a one year old son. Its hard to think that a year has passed already! My baby has done so much this year. He has smiled, he has not one but nine teeth, his father has tought him to climb the stairs (we have now invested in a stair gate), he has learnt to crawl, he stands up. He laughs his amazing infectious laugh. He sings to us. He waves goodbye. He smiles his dazzling beautiful smile. He calls us mam & dada.

He has brought so much to us. He is truly amazing. He is my heart. I love my son so much.

It feels like he has always been here. It is sometimes hard to imagine life without him because Boy Slumber & Fin are all that are truly important. What I thought was important, painting the town red, having drinks with friends, the latest movie/book/cd, those lovely shoes,  is nothing compared to how important my son & partner are to me. Life changes so much. To people who are ahead of me on this journey will remember how they thought this once & yet how clear it is that family would be so important. And people who have not yet met their love or started a family will not yet appreciate the importance of my son & my darling partner to me.

Anywho, I am so thrilled by the year I have had with Boy Slumber & my darling Fin. I can’t believe how quickly the year has gone & I am so excited about our future together. Our amazing journey together as a family.

And my darling son, sleep well tonight because tonight is your last night as ‘zero’, tomorrow morning you will be one & we will celebrate your birthday together, you me & dada. Our little family.

Sleep well baby & I will see you in the morning to wish you Happy Birthday, the first of many.

It appears that the wonderful Captain Fintastic also has a flaw. Crockery. Glass. Anything delicate. I don’t mix well with wood (I have been doing well recently though) & Captain Fintastic has pottery.

When Boy Slumber was born my darling partner pottered over to Scotland for  a family wedding. As it was 2 weeks after I gave birth to Boy Slumber we stayed with my parents where I got my first nights sleep, 2 weeks & I had already forgotten what a full nights sleep was!

Anywho, Captain Fintastic’s lovely mum brought home this cute mug for me as I could not travel to Scotland. And what happens. Fin happens.

I suppose it makes us equal, I broke his wooden bowl & he smashed my cup. It almost sounds a bit like Florence & The Machine’s song Kiss With A Fist – ‘You smashed a plate over my head & I set fire to our bed’. Although hopefully not ever that extreme, lets stick with wooden bowls & cups

I sit here cross legged underneath my fairy lights that shine above my head & I am just happy. It is just one of those nights where you can sit in bed alone listen to some amazing music, have a think over life, relax and be absolutely content.

Listening to his music, his lyrics make me think of so much. Mainly my partner. And yes everyone who knows me know that I am in no way mushy, but his lyrics make me think of him & how I love him. And yes my friends I am still me, I just blame the music & John Legend for bringing emotions to the surface.

[     http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LY6yIn77IcY&feature=related    ]

What a lovely evening.

I am desperately trying to find out what the heck this flower is?! It is soooooo pretty & lovely. And…. I want it! I want it in my garden.

But I have no idea whatsoever as to its name, what conditions it needs to survive or where I can buy it!

If ever you should find out please… put me out of my misery & let me know… Or better still…. Send me one!

Okay, so for Boy Slumber’s Welcoming Ceremony I had no idea whatsoever what to do other than read poems. EEEK! Can’t just read two poems and go ‘thanks very much, till next time chaps’. So what to do?!

Well, then I heard about this idea. A BOOK! All his family & our friends can write little notes, hints on life, funny jokes, any wisdom they wish to give to him. I think this is a lovely idea. Anyone and everyone can write something to him that he can have forever.

So with this wonderful idea came the realisation that his book needs to be amazing. And everyone knows that amazing is hard to come by. Luckily a friend tells me of Phoenix Copper Art.

Can I just say… wow!

His work is amazing. And beautiful. And Will is so nice, friendly & helpful.

So I recommend anyone looking for a beautiful book visit Phoenix Copper Art because his work is amazing.

Okay, okay. I know since my wonderful partner built us a patio with our family our garden has so naturally come together. Our flower bed just naturally shaped itself.
And now that I have a flower bed I officially have gone MAD buying flowers for our garden.
I have even gone mad buying flowers that aren’t even going into the flowerbed. See above pic! I am ridiculous. I must impose some sort of restriction order on myself in relation to garden centres.
Is there a Flowers Shopaholic Anonymous?
But in fairness my wonderful Mr Man did get me this cute little pot for my cute little flowers. Ah my partner in crime!

While I love the idea & fact that we are celebrating having our son in our lives little did I think of the effort involved in organizing it. I have spent hours trawling the interweb looking for templates, ideas, suggestions or anything to do for the ceremony as there is no pre-organised method as with a religious ceremony. A fleeting thought did cross my mind about the easiness of just being christened.

But success! I have come across different ideas- planting of a tree, journal for friends & family to write their own message to Boy Slumber so he can always have it to read, lighting of a candle, poems that family can read, music. Anything we want.

So far I think my favourite poem is from Kahil Gibran. I always loved ‘The Prophet’. I think it adds to why I love his poem on children, ‘Your Children Are Not Your Children’.

So I’m playing with Boy Slumber & then I get this phone call from the Health Nurse saying I’m to bring him in for his 3 month evaluation. (On a seperate note EEEK! What if he fails, can you fail? And they try run away with him, I know crazy thoughts)

WELL we all know how me, wooden bowls & the dishwasher don’t go. And we all know how I killed Fin’s bamboo bowls with pancake batter & the dishwasher. And his favourite wooden bowl from Ikea was bumped off with chocolate cake mixture…

So my wooden bowl history… Not so good. Getting in trouble for killing bowls…. Very good.

But I decided to redeem myself. How you ask?

Replacement bowl!

Well myself & some friends made some chocolate cake (which was yummy) & we used the red bamboo bowl to mix the cake in. Cooked cake, ate cake, drank tea, had a great giggle, they leave & I tidy up. I wash the bowl in the sink by hand, not in the dishwasher, what can I say I am learning!

And the next morning I see the bowl has a circular crack in the bottom of the bowl so I push the circle & POP the circle pops out & lands on the floor.

I am starting to think I really should not use wooden bowls.