I had a baby. Then I blinked. Now she’s one.

Well that’s how it feels, as if my baby girl, our littlest, has grown up in the blink of an eye!

I always knew Luna was destined to be the baby of our family and as she has 6 older siblings I am all too painfully aware of how fast time flies by. I have honestly tried to hang on to and make the most of every moment, every milestone but somehow she is growing up too quickly right in front of my eyes.

She is definitely our bonus baby, our lucky number seven and I am glad every day that we decided to try for just one more. She is an absolute joy, the happiest baby with a smile for everyone.

She is not yet walking, but crawling gets her everywhere she wants to go and she is always into mischief! She’s busily cruising around the furniture, climbing the stairs given half a chance (cue someone shouting ‘who left the stair gate open??’), chasing after her sisters Sienna and Freya and wanting to be doing whatever they are doing. They fortunately utterly adore her and don’t mind her following them around at all, in fact they actively encourage it! They laugh their heads off at her while she empties a packet of baby wipes in record time (might have to contact the Guinness Book of Records, I definitely reckon she’d be in with a chance if ’emptying a baby wipes packet’ is a thing), they love tickling her which never fails to make her chuckle and it’s clear that whilst Sienna and Freya have been a very close knit duo up until now they are definitely on the verge of becoming an equally close knit trio and the three of them will be a formidable force!

While of course I am sad to see the baby days finally behind us, I am excited to see what lies ahead, she is already saying a few words (mainly daddy, hiya, hellooo and ta) and will soon be a fully-fledged toddler, walking and talking (and no doubt throwing a few tantrums, she is already showing she has a feisty side!) It’s such a fun stage and I’m looking forward to seeing her little character really showing.

Her first birthday was a fairly low key event, I was at work (ALL the mum guilt) so Luna spent the day with Grandma and Grandad and we weren’t going to do anything special on the day as we had a birthday picnic planned for the weekend, but at the last minute, feeling the need to mark the occasion, we decided to go out for dinner with our families. It was all a bit rushed as usual for us, made even worse by the fact that my car had broken down the day before (in McDonald’s drive through, nightmare!!) and Dave and his brother were replacing a belt on it while Luna was opening presents! So maybe not perfect, but it was a lovely evening, and although at one she couldn’t really care less whether she had her birthday dinner out or not, it was nice for us to celebrate a whole year of her. We even discovered that she finally cut her very first tooth on her birthday (which was a relief as we had started to think she wasn’t going to get any!)

As all my other children are autumn/winter babies, having a picnic for a birthday celebration is quite an alien concept! As it turned out, it was one of the hottest days of the year and we nearly cancelled as it was just so, so hot! Fortunately, we found shade at the local marina where we held it and it was all fine. It was super relaxed and low key with everyone bringing their own picnics, there were a few sports day type races, football (taken slightly too seriously by the dads, of course!) and ice creams to help cool down when the heat got a bit too much.

Luna Grey, it’s been a whole year of you, you are so loved and we are all incredibly lucky to have you. Happy first birthday, beautiful girl.