Dear Ollie

I can't quite believe that the time has come to plan your first birthday party! The last 11 months of having you in our lives has been so amazing, I don't really want it to come to an end. But the days are rolling by, flying by, and each day you grow more. Which is obvious. It's just that it feels so quick!


This week you've started sleeping through. I'm not sure if it is more by luck than design but you have been going straight to sleep after your night time feed. We have the same routine each night - a bath, some nursery rhymes and some stories with Lily. Then you and I snuggle in the chair in your little room for a feed and a cuddle. Although I'm grateful for more sleep I am already missing the night feeds. Just a little bit.





You're also on the move. Finally. And already trying my patience by trying to poke your little fingers into every teeny crevice. You're also obsessed with pushing the buttons on the xbox one - I'm hoping that a fixation with games consoles isn't a sign of things to come! When you crawl you still wobble a bit, you're getting faster though and more determined to get to what you want. This afternoon we watched you use your foot to hook a shopping bag up and into your hands as you sat in your car seat. It was pretty impressive.


At Christmas you started babbling more and came out with your first word - 'mama', closely followed by something that sounds remarkably like 'Lily'. As happy as we are, Lily is concentrating on getting you to say 'dada', I think she wants you to hurry up and complete the set.


You now have four teeth. Two bottom middles ones, one top middle one and then one to the left! You've hardly grizzled, but when you do we take it seriously because you're not one to fuss.

On Wednesday afternoons and Fridays you attend the same nursery as Lily. You seem to really like it there and the staff always tell us how smiley you are. You particularly like to play with musical instruments, and anything that makes a loud noise. It's the same at home where you love it when I get out the music box and we do some singing. In the evenings you are getting more and more involved with storytime, enjoying turning the pages, lifting the flaps and stroking the textured pages in some of your favourite books.


It may sound cliched or even exaggerated. But you're always smiling. Seriously, you smile about 98% of the time. You have always been this way, a contented and smiling baby. I don't think this is down to anything I have done, I like to think it is just the way you are. Laid back and easily pleased. I hope it continues!

If people aren't commenting on how happy and smiley you are, they're commenting on the colour of your hair. I wasn't as surprised by this as I was when Lily came out blonde. I always assumed she would be brunette like me and didn't take into account that your Daddy was blonde until he was five. I had no expectations with you but your Aunty 'Ouisey had ginger hair (or, as your Godfather Neil calls it, 'African Sunset') as did my cousin, my Uncle and my Great-Grandfather, so it isn't that much of a surprise.



You have packed a lot in this last year. As well as all the developmental-stuff you've also been to the zoo, the farm and the aquarium. You have celebrated your first Christmas. You were even chosen to model for an advertising campaign for a pram. It's been a busy year! No wonder it seems to have flown by so quickly.

Your arrival into our lives has made our family feel complete. I sometimes feel like you have always been here, I can't remember life without you anymore. When I was pregnant I worried about having another child, I worried that perhaps people were lying when they said your love just grows. But it truly does. Being a Mummy to you for the last 11 months has already more than made up for 9 months of vomiting eight times a day. I haven't forgotten how awful I felt during pregnancy, how wretched it was to be so ill, but I was so right to keep hanging on, faithful that when you arrived all would be well. And it is.

Thank You

Mummascribbles
Life-As-Mum said...

Looking at these photos is making me super excited to know if I am having a boy or girl on Sunday! Lovely post. hes gorgeous
Thank you so much for linking up to #justanotherlinky

Anonymous said...

What a lovely letter. He looks such a happy little boy! They grow up so quick its scary. My boy is 17 months old and has lost that baby look now. Cannot imagine life without him either #twinklytuesday

Something Crunchy Mummy said...

What a lovely post. Your photos are so lovely and it's lovely to see how he has grown. They do so much growing in the first year it goes just so fast. Thanks for linking up to #justanotherlinky xx

Our Cherry Tree said...

Have you found out what you're having now? I'm excited for you. x

Our Cherry Tree said...

Thank you! I can't believe how quickly time has passed, I want to grab it and slow it down.x

Our Cherry Tree said...

Thank you! I can't get over how different he looks now and I'd forgotten how exhausting it is running around after a crawling baby.x

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