a letter to another me

I've been thinking a lot lately
about how much has changed in a year.
I guess it's natural
with a certain little boy fast approaching his first birthday.

It's so hard now to imagine my life before him.
Or even to imagine my life before I was pregnant with him.
She seems like a different girl some how.

So what would l tell her
if I could explain to her all that I know now. . .

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inspired - smash cake

In case you're new to 'inspired'

it's a linky which runs every Monday

and is all about sharing some things you have seen

which have inspired you.

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{one beautiful year} our week in photos

sunday

tired eyes and mummy cuddles


monday

kitchen floor picnic

tuesday

"oh mummy, you're so funny"

wednesday

dude

thursday

just chillin'

friday

a new friend

saturday

my two best boys

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my favourite photo in january

It was really hard to pick just one favourite photo for this month.

Because I started One Beautiful Year this month

and have been taking and posting a photo a day since January 1st,

I've got so many more photos to choose from.

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pretty.little.things - going home outfit

Mummy Daddy and Me Makes Three

and 

Dear Beautiful Boy

are so excited to bring you the first ever

pretty.little.things

linky.

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a birth story - part thirteen

In my birth story so far...

more than 24 hours after it all started

I've given up being brave

and given up on my natural labour with limited pain relief.

I've been transferred from the smaller maternity hospital

to the big maternity unit at the main hospital in the next town.

I've had an epidural

and I've regained myself

after hours of being lost in pain and panic.

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your fiftieth week

You continued your race towards you first birthday.

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love and marriage

I love marriage.

I'm a real advocate of it.

And I read something recently that really got me thinking about marriage.

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inspired - words

It shouldn't really come as a surprise

that someone who spends a large amount of their free time writing a blog

would quite like words.

When you enjoy writing words are beautiful things.

Words can be powerful.

They can bring you to tears

and make you laugh

or do both at the same time.

And I for one, find words really inspirational.

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{one beautiful year} - our week in photos

sunday

fun in a bucket

monday

wakey wakey, rise and shine

tuesday

my cat likes to hide in boxes

wednesday

snuggly bedtimes

thursday

test drive

friday

a little king on his throne

saturday

top banana

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feet

One of the first things my husband asked as our son was born was that traditional question;

"ten fingers and ten toes?"

Because that is your first indicator that all is well,

all is fine

and your baby is in fact perfect.

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pretty.little.things

I love all of the little guys clothes.

That boy has a bigger and better wardrobe than me.

Not that I mind

because baby clothes are just so miniature

and so darn cute.

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a birth story - part twelve

Things in my birth story so far

had travelled so far from my ideal plan

that it was crazy.

More than 24 hours after my water broke

things aren't progressing as they should.

I've been having to fight the urge to push for eight whole hours.

Exhasuted, drained and in agony,

I've made the decision to transfer to the main hospital 

instead of continuing at the the smaller labour unit.

And at this point my contractions have all but stopped.

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one word

I realised the other day

that of the many things I've talked about on this blog

I've never talked about the one word that changed my life.

And with only a couple of weeks left until my beautiful boy turns one,

it seemed like it might be time,

time to talk about that one word,

talk about the day our lives changed

and the day that we found out we were going to be parents.

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eyes

I have a confession to make...

when the beautiful boy was born

I was a bit freaked by his eyes.

Because babies have blue eyes, right?

I just had that idea in my head 

because all the babies I've ever known have had blue eyes.

They change later,

I know that,

but they tend to be a shade if bluey-grey at birth.

I'm not sure why I thought this, but I did.

And then the little guy was born

with the most amazing and beautiful chocolatey brown eyes.

Which at the time, I thought, made him extra special.

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your forty-ninth week

 

You seemed more like a little boy than a baby with each new day that passed.

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inspired - a dreamy living room

Last week's first ever inspired was a feast of colour.

Very unlike me I'm sure you'll agree

because I am the lady who loves white.

So this week I'm going back to what I know and love,

the bestest, the beautifulest 

and quite frankly 

the only colour to really rock my world;

white.

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{one beautiful year} our week in photos

sunday

beautiful baby feet

monday

"no mummy, of course I wasn't teasing the cat"

tuesday

my clever little guy's new skills

wednesday

a comfy hiding place

thursday

a beautiful winter walk

friday

play time

saturday

a thirsty little man

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white

I love white.

The purity of it.

There is just something so perfect and unspoiled about white.

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the battle of the baby walkers - leap frog v vtech

Our little guy is getting really sturdy on his feet now, 

so when we were asked to do a head-to-head review 

which involved having not one but two baby walkers sent to us,

I jumped at the chance. 

When two big boxes arrived he looked so excited that we cracked them open straight away.

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a birth story - part eleven

In my birth story so far:

I've had 24 hours of contractions 

no more than three minutes apart

but things are going slowly.

And after feeling lost and scared in the birthing centre

I've finally found the courage

to ask to be moved to the local hospital.

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phone photos

Last Christmas, 

while eagerly awaiting the arrival of the little guy, 

we invested in a rather swanky camera 

so that we could take hundreds of pictures of his every movement. 

Well you can forget hundreds, 

we’ve taken thousands. 

But I have to say that some of my favourite photos of him haven’t been taken with the fancy camera. 

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your forty-eighth week

Time was flying by so fast.

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inspired - a first birthday party

Lots of things inspire me.

People inspire me.

Blogs inspire me.

Poetry inspires me.

Music inspires me.

But most of all, pictures inspire me.

Pictures give me ideas and make me 'feel' different things.

And I'm not just talking about photographs,

art or drawings have been known to bring a tear to my eye.

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{one beautiful year} our week in photos

sunday

my excited boy at his first parade

monday

enjoying his lunch

tuesday

my gorgeous little square-eyes

wednesday

my beautiful little thumb sucker

thursday

mr darcy having his afternoon doze

friday

my beautiful bookworm

saturday

my beautiful little chatterbox

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saturday is caption day

So what is going on here?

Got a caption?

Then stick down the bottom.

Find the rest at Mammasaurus

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a birth story - part ten

In my birth story so far:

my waters broke at 6am,

then my contractions started,

after three trips to the hospital,

they finally let me stay,

but 22 hours after it started,

I was starting to feel very alone, scared and unsupported.

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your forty-seventh week

You were taking all the excitement in your stride.

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your forty-sixth week

It was all about Christmas.

Your first Christmas.

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new year, new adventures

Did you miss me?

I've been gone for more than a week,

which is the longest I've gone without blogging

since I started just over six months ago.

In six months

this blog has burrowed it's way into me.

I think about it.

I talk about it.

I never get bored of it.

I dream about it.

I dare say, I might even love it a little bit.
So I've missed it.
And I'm very glad to be back.

We had a fantastic Christmas.
We were together and happy,
surrounded by our favourite people
having fun,
making memories
and being blessed with much more than we deserve.
Who could ask for more?

I've taken enough photos to start a gallery
and I'm sure that I'll be posting up more than one post over the next week or so
with run downs of all our festive goings on.

But when I said I'd be back blogging in the New Year, I meant it.
2012 is only minutes old
and I'm going to share my New Years' Challenge with you all.

I don't believe in New Years' Resolutions.

They just set you up to fail.

But each year I do set myself a little challenge.

So instead of turning over a new leaf each year,

I simply add a new something.

Last year as the clock struck midnight and 2011 started,

I set myself the simple challenge of becoming a mummy.

At nearly eight months pregnant

it seemed pretty achievable.

All I had to do was get that baby out of me

and then love it and care for it.

I think it's safe to say that I completed last year's challenge

and I continue to complete it each and every day.

As 2010 appeared

I told myself that this would be the year

that I finally became the owner
of a pair of RayBan Aviator sunglasses.

Yes, this was my challenge for the year.

I did that one too.

At the beginning of 2009 I challenged myself

to make my wedding day as fun and special and memorable as I possibly could.

I can only speak for myself
but I'm pretty sure that my husband would agree

that our wedding in 2009 was everything we wanted and more.

So this year I needed a challenge.

And with no impending life-changing events on the horizon this year,
and no money for expensive purchases,

I decided to go for a proper challenge.

So throughout 2012 I will be documenting One Beautiful Year.

I will be taking a photograph each and every day,

and I will be posting it up
so that you get to have a little snapshot into our day-to-day lives.

If you want to follow my little challenge
then pop over to One Beautiful Year
and subscribe.
Then you'll get 366 photos of loveliness from my own fair hand.
Enough photos to see you through til 2013.
I'm pretty sure the little guy will feature,
and the fluffy babies,
and perhaps even the odd self portrait if you're really, really lucky.

Happy New Year.
It's going to be a year of photography for me.

x

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