Happy 2013 Mums! I hope that all the fabulous mums out there had a wonderful holiday period and that Santa brought you a glass of eggnog and the chance to put your feet up SANS KIDDIES.

The last few weeks have been very eventful in the Bolton household. Who would have thought you could roll so many firsts into such a short space of time? We have now officially had:

• Our first Christmas with Bubba (Amazing)
• Our first NYE with Bubba (let me re-phrase – my first NYE with Bubba as hubby was MIA in The Philippines. Not so amazing)
• Her first birthday
• Our first visit to the Zoo
• Our first weekend away without her VERY closely followed by our first visit to an emergency medical centre  (and as much as I would like to pass the baton to my parents in law who were babysitting for the weekend; to be honest her tooth did not go through her lip until we got home)
• Her first birthday party (just her closest 70 friends)
• Her first strawberry milk and pavlova

Not bad for space of 4 weeks!

I had heard that when your baby turns 1 it is quite an emotional time – especially for mums. I have friends who shared their stories of bawling their eyes out and holding their little ones so tightly they almost yelped in pain. For ‘Event Planner’ me, I was just excited about being able to plan a birthday party!

In between compiling run sheets and getting quotes for Petting Zoos I found myself looking back on the last 12 months and thinking about everything that had been thrust at me in this new role as ‘mum’ – a role that I had no training for (sorry – those 2 days at the hospital parenting classes do not count!) and absolutely no experience.

I remember when Siarra was first born and I kept thinking that she had the most uncanny resemblance to Gollum from Lord of The Rings. I remember when she refused to breast feed and as a result we weren’t allowed to leave the hospital because she had lost too much weight (get some bricks in that baby’s nappy!). I remember having to bottle feed, settle, express, sterilise – all on a 3 hour cycle morning and night (actually to be honest I don’t remember a lot of this – amazing what you can do while asleep!) I also remember that in this crazy schedule there wasn’t really any time for cuddling my new little bubba which was the most upsetting and confusing thing for me as a first time mum.

I also remember how amazing it was to see her first little smile and how proud we were when she was big enough to hold up her own head.  In such a short space of time she is now a little girl with her own personality, thought processes and a very cheeky and mischievous attitude running around the house. Yep – running. And I can imagine how proud I will be when she finally stops trying to stir me up by saying ‘Dad’ over and over and over and over….

And over and over and over…

And over…

J xLCB

PS I was just joking about the Petting Zoo. Hubby got back rom OS just in time to veto that one. Maybe next year…