A wonderful day

We've had a wonderful day and Michael has been an absolute star. He got lots of fantastic presents. Most of them seem to be noisy presents that he can bash - a spinning top with a train inside; a xylophone; an alien that moves and chatters when you bash it on the head; a (plastic) electric guitar - so I wonder if I will have a bit of a headache next week ;o) He enjoyed playing with them all whilst we helped him to unwrap them. He was happy and playful all day long and we couldn't possibly have asked for more. I gave him his first taste of jelly and to my great surprise he really enjoyed it. I was expecting him to drop it down his front immediately. I guess it didn't become one of the must-have party foods for no good reason.

It was lovely having my parents visit and the house has been full of laughter. I'll really miss them when they go back to England. Between us, we've taken a lot of photos and it will take me a while to sort through them and pick some to put on the blog. I haven't got long to write this entry because we're going back into the garden to look for more meteors. The Perseids are currently visible in the sky and we spotted four meteors about half an hour ago before the cloud cover temporarily forced us back inside. Apparently this is an annual event so they would have been visible in the sky when I had Michael. How cool is that? I was also impressed to discover that August 12th is (according to Wikipedia) the date that Cleopatra killed herself on. I was born on March 8th and historically that has been a pretty slow news day. I share a birthday with Cheryl Baker from Bucks Fizz. Thrilling...

Anyway, I can't think of a more wonderful way to round off Michael's birthday celebrations than with a meteor shower. The boy himself is currently fast asleep. Happy Birthday, my darling. My parents got him a beautiful twinkly birthday card and I particularly liked the wording so I'll end this entry with a quote:

Wishing you
all of the stars
in the sky
and all of
the love
in the world

Happy Birthday, Michael!

I can't believe he's one! We've put up the streamers, prepared the food, blown up balloons and wrapped the presents and now all we need is the birthday boy and the guests. My parents arrived on Friday and spent the afternoon and evening with us on Saturday. They adored Michael and the affection seemed to be quite mutual. Michael had a very happy time throwing toys off his highchair tray during dinner and seeing how many times my mum would obligingly pick them up. We had a walk around Nieuw-Vennep in the evening and threw some bread for the ducks and coots. We all took so many photographs that at one point it was like a photo shoot.

We're going to keep things nice and simple today because we don't want to overwhelm Michael with people and bustle that he doesn't know or understand. We'll have a BBQ if the weather is good enough (and, thank goodness, it looks promising!) and we'll have jelly and ice-cream for dessert and listen to some of Michael's CDs. I'm sure he'll just enjoy having more people to play with. We'll get out his paddling pool and his sandpit and try out our new bubble blower in the garden. I can't wait!

I'll finish this entry with some photographs.

Firstly, this is Michael when he was 28 minutes old.






















This one was taken about a month ago. It is a very similar pose to a photo taken of me at Christmas when I was about the same age. I keep meaning to dig it out for a comparison.



















This photo was taken on Tuesday. Michael fell asleep in his dinner after an afternoon out at the children's farm in Hoofddorp. The caption that screams to mind is "Go to sleep on an egg".

He walks!

I've been expecting Michael to take a step for a while now because he has such excellent balance. I caught him conducting an invisible orchestra complete with swaying arms and pointing fingers the other day. He can stand unsupported (albeit with slightly wobbly legs after a while) for about 5 minutes. The day before yesterday he took one step, and yesterday he did the same but today something must have clicked in his head. He took 4 steps towards me and hasn't stopped trying since. He'll take a few steps, bump down on his little padded bottom and will then be straight back up for more. I am so proud :o) He must have been practicing in his cot because I had just put him down for his nap and I heard a bump and a wail. I think he must have banged his head on the cot bars. It took about half an hour to settle him down back to sleep.

In other news he's in his next-stage car seat now which is a Maxi Cosi Tobi. It is great because he can face forwards and watch what we are doing. The seat is quite high so he can look out of the windows too.

He doesn't look like a baby anymore - he looks very much like a little boy. I don't know where the last year has gone - it has just flown away and in less than a fortnight he'll be one. I don't know if I mentioned it before but his Granny and Grandad (my parents) are coming out for the weekend of his birthday to celebrate with us. That should be fun. I just hope that the weather improves so that we can spend some time in the garden.