Warning: Picture Overload...If I were you, I'd grab a cup of tea, scroll to the bottom of this post & hit the lovely sound clip, come on back to the top & soak in Pip's first birthday....



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As a mum I've gone the go with the flow-find my own way kinda path...While books and expert advice is great and all, for me parenting is all about my gut, my heart & the help of other mummas I think are kinda amazing...


That all being said there is one thing I hear over & over & actually take to heart...Anything along the lines of, "Time flies- Enjoy them when their little cause it last only a second or I'd give anything for my children to be babies again"...You know, that kinda thing...


So cliche but true...


While I normally just nod and smile at the old lady in the doctor's waiting room, telling me to enjoy Pip's snuggles because she's going to grow up so fast...I can honestly sense her sorrow in missing her own "babies" {who are probably as old as my parents}...I think it's something as a mum you kinda yearn after years later, all the while trying to take in as much as you can when it's happening...


As Pip's 1st birthday came & went I couldn't help but get on board that cliche-time-is-speeding-by-mumma-train...



I want time to pause...



And right now in my life, in this sweet phase of snuggles & cuddles, it would be a fantastic time to stop that train...




I really can't believe she is ONE....So much, yet so little, has happened in that year...It was so bogged down with fear, worry, & doubt...It was draped with surgeries, doc appointments, hospital stays and therapies...It was so very different & so much faster than Noal's first year...


She doesn't really seem ONE in a way because she still feels like such a baby compared to Noal at his first birthday- She's not talking, has no teeth, isn't crawling or walking and while she eats she still breastfeeds like a bloody newborn...Her milestones are behind but in weird way I kinda don't mind...It's kinda nice to have her as a "baby" for awhile longer...


It's kinda nice to have this time with her like this, because I feel it got cut short in the beginning with everything else...


So, while it was a typical 1st Birthday Tea Party on the outside- On the inside it was a huge, enormous really, celebration to me...While our friends, delicious cakes, lovely prezzies & such, were all fabulous - It's what I was feeling inside that mattered- Tiny fireworks of love, pride & happiness were going off...I was just so overwhelmed with absolute gratefulness & felt a big celebration was needed...


So with each croissant eaten, each tear Pippy shed while refusing cake {honestly I was questioning if she was mine at that point- Hello, cake is a major food group in my life- no daughter of mine will ever shed tears eating cake again- we'll be working on that}, each sip of Baileys or white wine drank, each clank of her darling vintage tea cup & each picture taken of her with her little friends- I was just loving up celebrating my girl...











SideNote: There was no question whether Noal was invited to the Tea Party...Absolutely NOT...Within minutes of him getting home from daycare, cake was smashed into the floor & down his hatch, teacups were broken & balloons were ripped down...Instead, before he left that morning he made sure his Monkey George was part of the decor, helping to give out tea from our handmade tea box with Pip's hand & feet painted on it...We also had a family party the next day in which Noal refused to acknowledge it was Pip's big day, instead telling everyone & singing "Happy Birday to Noal"...




So celebrate we did...I've been honest about the year we've had & in a way it was also about celebrating all of us- Our little family- Surviving what has happened & finding joy within it...I'm so proud of that..




At one point I said to my friends I always pictured a one year old at their party clapping for some reason...And Pip had only done it a few times thus far, but low and behold she gave her mumma a good old clap in that moment...


Once again reminding me that while she hasn't hit the "typical" milestones she has achieved so much more...She above all else is teaching me what every mother has tried to say, "Enjoy the moments, Slow down, Enjoy Me"...