Princess' Birthday

Princess is 1 today.  Who can believe it? 

It only feels like yesterday when I got the emotional call from Pete to say that Cerys Grace had arrived in the world and that both mother and baby were doing well.

And now here we all are to celebrate her 1st birthday.

Her party dress was a white dress, that I had bought for her.  It's a beautiful flower concoction that I just fell in love with and couldn't resist buying.  You're probably thinking, "practical for a 1 year old", but let's face it, she's only going to wear it once.

Like all birthday parties there was an abundance of presents.  I think this was probably the best part for her as she got to rip up paper without anyone telling her "No" or taking it off her.

And there's no party without the cake.  A vanilla and chocolate sponge, decorated with green icing and Princess' favourite characters from a TV show, that only adults with kids would know about.

It came out when everyone was in mid chorus of singing "Happy Birthday".  I took a picture of her whilst everyone was singing.  She's looking at the cake and I wonder what does she see?  Does she recognise the characters?...

...well I think the next picture says it all on what she was looking at.  The concept of blowing out the candle is lost on Princess on this occasion!

Happy Birthday Princess.

x

The Olympics Are In Town

The UK has been in the limelight a lot over the past couple of years.  2011 was Kate and Will's Royal Wedding.  This year it was the Royal Jubilee and now it's the Olympics.

The advantage of living in a big city like Birmingham, is that there is a big screen in the middle of Victoria Square that allows you to watch big events in public.  Tonight I watched the Olympic Games Opening Ceremony in London.

Luckily this week has been a hot sunny one, compared to the very wet summer we've had so far; so no umbrellas needed.

I have to hand it to Artistic Director, Danny Boyle, the opening ceremony was fantastic and original.  I haven't seen anything like it.  It was a fantastic depiction of how this country has evolved and how it went through the Industrial Revolution, mixed in with some British humour.  James Bond jumping out of the plane with Queenie in tow was fantastic and was rewarded with a lot of cheers from the crowd.   How the torch was put together was also very original.  Kudos to whoever designed this petal flaming cauldron and the flaming rings.

One aspect of the Olympic Games that always amazes me is the Geography lesson that you get as you see all the competing countries do their walk around the venue.  Half the countries I have never heard of.  Think I'm going to have to get the map out.

"Mack, Macks" and Dinosaurs

Cerys' first words are "mama", "dada", "ta" and my favourite, "mack, mack".  I think all are quite obvious apart from the latter which is a bit abstract.  But then if I were to tell you that it's her word for duck ("quack, quack") then perhaps it is obvious.  Actually she uses "mack, mack" for any creature with a beak, but it's still cute to hear her make the noise and to see her begin to associate words with what she sees.

Today we saw lots of "mack, macks" at Birmingham's Nature Centre.  For those of you that haven't been, it's a cute little Centre that has lots of different animals in well maintained grounds.  At £4 entry free, it's also great value for money and great for little families.

The Centre is not just full of "mack, mack's", but a wide variety of animals.  Ranging from Guinea Pigs, to Monkeys, to Lynx's, to Dinosaurs...

Actually the latter is refering to a Crane; there was one excited little boy at the Centre who went up to the enclosure that the Crane was in and at the top of his voice shouted "Wow Mummy! Look, it's a dinosaur!"

Cerys was also very fascinated with the little monkeys, watching their antics, as they jumped from rope to rope chasing each other.  At one point she started screeching like a monkey, so perhaps this is another animal she is now recognising.

I can't wait to see what other words she will come out with next.  So refreshing and so much fun to see the world through a 1 year old's eyes.