When I turned one...

…I got to wear these trendy red sandals bought in the Pavilion Shopping Mall in Durban. I loved crawling and climbing, sliding and gliding in my new sandals. But I was itching to walk too – I stood up all by myself on 10 February and the folks tell me I took my very first step on 16 February 2009, at just 12 months’ old. What a day!

In February…
Daddy built me my very first snow man. What a crazy idea, building a man out of snow! I wonder what came over daddy. I kind of felt sorry for him when his snow man started to melt. Daddy brought me to see the snow man and I loved stomping about and making that funny trudge trudge noise in the snow.

In March…
I was walking everywhere! Though people call it toddling, it really is walking and oh boy is it hard work. We all went to visit GG Con again and it was great to show off my walking skills. We also travelled to Wimbledon Village in London which is quite posh you know, and I got to spend fun time with Lou Lou my God-mum and my God-dad Andy too. Daddy’s school friend Nick came to visit us this month too and I met Jack who is a little bit older than me. I just LOVE to go wheee-bump! So we all went to the park.

In April…
Talk about new discoveries. Whoever invented a ball must have been very clever, they are top! And I found very funny objects all over the place. Like mummy’s brightly coloured hair bands (that I liked to call hats)… oh and things like nail files too which were very odd. I also tried new types of food, like apricots which I didn’t like much. But I really didn’t like discovering light bulbs and my hand didn’t like that much either so I got a big bandage that mummy and daddy called my panda hand. They said I was very brave.

In May…
We went to see a fairytale castle called Blenheim Palace. Mummy, daddy and I climbed on board a magical train that whisked us to the entrance of a strange garden called a maze. It really was a-maze-ing. You could get lost in there quite easily.
Back at home I found brand new things to do. Like trying on all of mummy’s shoes, watering the garden, and looking at daddy’s fish – can you believe I could reach the fish tank now!

In June…
Mummy took me to the Cotswold Farm Park. What a place! I fed my carrot to a bunny rabbit, pulled funny faces at the goats (the way they went ‘beh’ was so loud!) and I got to chase a chicken around his coop. I also had fun with our next door neighbours, I got to push little Samuel in his smart push car while his mummy Jane laughed and chatted with mummy.

In July…
Planes, planes and more planes. Big planes. Small planes. Red and blue planes. Mummy, daddy and I went to meet up with my God-dad Andy, Alara and Osman at Fairford Air Tatoo. But they had to keep an eye on me – I managed to get under the blue wire a few times. And every Sunday, like every other month, we would all go to church, Chipping Campden Baptist Church or Trinity Cheltenham where I met Indi and her musical family.

In August…
I met quite a scary horse by the park when we visited Broadway. He was very handsome though, and they do say horses turn all soft when you give them sugar lumps. We visited many other pretty villages this month: Stow on the Wold where Alan and Jackie run the café, Stratford upon Avon and Wyck Rissington. I got to see Anna Mae in London again too. Something tells me I’ll never forget how I discovered ice cream this summer. Now there’s no going back!

In September…
I learned to ring church bells! Mummy, daddy and I went to the Big Show in Moreton-in-Marsh where a kind lady showed me how to pull the string to get the bells ringing. Wow. It was something else. This month was full of my favourite things: pushing my pink pram, wearing my pink welly boots and, most important of all, Lou Lou, who came to stay!

In October…
We had to say good bye home and move back to London. But new things awaited me there. Oh yes! Like pumpkins which I’d never seen or held before. Running in the crinkly Autumn leaves through Cannizaro Park. Or playing on my wonderful, majestic pink piano, my best ever gift to date! One of my very special friendships got even stronger this month – with Mister Elephant.

In November…
I discovered the United States of America. But what was most special about this was meeting beautiful Baelyn and her lovely mummy Kelly and daddy Jeremy. They are a beautiful family. And just as special was meeting lovely Lisa and tall William. William may be bigger and taller than daddy, but he’s not at all scary and is actually very kind. He even let me ride on his tractor in the garden!
I also met Nyla, who lives next door to Baelyn. She taught me to sing ‘the wheels on the bus’ as we all went on the push car down to the playground. I remember Lisa took us all to the bouncy castles – what fun it was to slide down the bouncy slides at super speed!

In December…
Christmas time in London with lights everywhere. We had our very own Christmas tree again, although this one didn’t shake its little pine needles everywhere. I must write a list of all my presents! I discovered painting and play dough and even tried painting with my feet. I also met my new friends Lorna, Geeta, Michelle, Simone, Jean, Pamela, Barbara and Patricia, and all the children at Carmena Christian Day Nursery, “Big Play” mummy used to call it. We all went in the bus to see the Gruffalo in London’s West End. Everyone was hoping it would snow on Christmas Day, but it did a few days before so what’s all the fuss?