A Letter to my Baby on His First Birthday

Dear Baby Boy,

Now you are One, somehow, someway a whole year has passed since you burst into the world.  A whole, entire year has flashed past in the blink of an eye and here we are celebrating your first birthday.  And in honour of your birthday, like I did for your brother before you, it seems only right that I write to you as I have to your brother.  A letter to my Baby on his first birthday.

In one way it feels like only yesterday we were bringing you home from the hospital, a tiny, defenceless little scrap of a baby, completing our little family.  Eyes barely open as you took everything in.  Yet it feels like forever you have been in our lives.

Perfectly finding your role in our little family as the little brother, it’s like you’ve always been here.  Yet it’s only been a year.  A year in which you’ve grown and changed so much already.  Developing your own personality, likes, dislikes.  A year in which you (and your brother) have helped me to learn and grown.

A year in which so much has happened little one, but let’s start at the beginning.

Brand new, squishy baby.  A tiny 6lbs 3oz.  Blinking in the daylight, rooting for milk to help you grow big and strong.  Meeting your bounding older brother, excited to meet you.  Sometimes too over excited with you but you’ve learnt to dodge those slightly too enthusiastic kisses.  The cuddles that push you over.  The bond that grows day by day.  The big beaming smiles that you bestow on your brother, lighting up your eyes.  Those little dimples.  Frantically crawling after him.  It brings me joy to see your relationship grow. The way you both giggle together.  The way I see glimpses into the future of you ganging up on me.

Growing older, facing our first plane ride together to escape the Dubai heat, just me and my boys.  A summer in the UK, where you were introduced to the friends and family we don’t get to see out here in Dubai.  You see Baby Boy, that’s one of the things being an expat kid, we live so far away.  And I know that with technology these days you get to have a relationship, you get to see the familiar faces.  But it’s not the same as real life cuddles.  But Baby Boy, being an expat kid has meant that you get Mummy every day.  At home.  Which has meant that I’ve got to watch you grow every day.  And that summer in the UK? We had a blast.

Setting the tone to travel the world, back and forth to the UK.  Trips to Thailand.  To Portugal.  Weddings and holidays.  We want to instil in you our love of travel, our need to show you the world.  To see the wonder through your eyes.  To enjoy watching you explore new situations, sand on the beach in Jamaica, toes in the sea in Tortola, learning to roll in Portugal, learning to sit in Thailand.  Always watching Baby Boy.  Always learning.

And Baby Boy, you’ve taken everything in your stride, taking you all over the world without a blink.  Preparing for our Big Move.  The uncertainty of leaving Dubai.  You have just smiled your beautiful smile, eyes creased, dimples flashing.  Always at the perfect moment.

Baby Boy, you love the world.  To crawl, to pull up, to look around.  To babble away.  To experience new things, to experience life.  You have no fear, yet look for reassurance from me, from Daddy.  That same smile beaming at us when you spy us across the room.

Exploring the world comes with it’s own challenges, nappy changes now you’re on the move is *challenging* and wanting to see everything means that sleep is obviously for the weak from nap time to bedtime.  But when you give in and shut your eyes, relaxing your little body.  You are still so small.  So defenceless little man.

Baby Boy, you’ve grown so much in a year, so much I want life to slow down so I can savour each moment while celebrating each milestone you reach eager for the next.  Baby Boy, now you are One, I want to thank you for the joy you bring to our lives every day.

Baby Boy, Happy Happy Birthday Little One.

We love you to the moon and back.

For always.

Mummy x x