One

It's hard to believe it was a whole 12 months ago I was in hospital cradling a tiny baby boy in my arms, feeling the joy of finally meeting my baby as well as a huge sense of relief that those horrendous contractions had stopped.

I found those first few months went by quite slowly, but they soon sped up. And here we are, a whole year later celebrating Devon's first birthday.

Devon of course didn't really know what's going on, but we wanted to make the day special for him nonetheless and have some nice photos he could look back on. Alas last week I gave him a bit of a rubbish haircut but never mind.

He woke at 5am (which is early even for him!) and we unwrapped a few presents (he loved the trike from Nanny) before back down for a nap by 8am. Then I took him to our usual Thursday morning playgroup so he could have a crawl around with his little friends.

After that we headed to the zoo! Devon loves cats and dogs, and next door's horse, so we thought he'd be really interested in all the animals. We saw lots of different animals, with his favourites being the zebras, giraffes, rhinos, and elephants. He started to get tired after lunch though, and Nick popped him in the carrier to see if he would drop off.

He didn't sleep in the carrier or in the car on the way home, but he finally crashed out once we got back and slept for two hours! More present opening commenced, and we sang happy birthday to him with a cake.

We didn't really want to get him too many toys, because sometimes he is just as happy playing with twigs and plastic cups. But it is actually so much fun buying toys, we end up buying the toys we would have liked when we were kids!. He got lots of duplo, because he likes watching Nick build things and I like that it's creative. It should also last him a good few years. He's just starting to be able to put the blocks together himself.

Devon is a wonderful little one year old. He is the cuddliest he has ever been, and we get sleepy kisses first in the morning (one of the benefits of co-sleeping!) He's not walking yet but he's standing up by himself quite a lot now.

I actually love watching him crawl, it's such a short period in their lives when you think about it, so I'm in no hurry for him to walk!

We've also just started getting his first words: Mumma, Dadda and cat! Although he was calling the rhino a cat so I think the meaning is a bit off.