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".