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| Photo of Bertie and Daddy by First Shoots (see below) |
At one year old Bertie can walk the length of the corridor unaided before realising what he is doing and landing on his bottom with a clunk. He can babble for Britain but no obvious words have emerged yet apart from the ones he has stumbled upon by accident; coleslaw, chocolate, teetotal, gigglejuice. There is a sound that may or may not be pusscat and another that might be Jeff Jeff (one of said pusscats) but nothing we can definitely label a first word. He has eight teeth. He will have nine any day now and, despite the ninth obviously giving him huge trouble and discomfort, he has been as stoical as a baby can be. He has an amazing temperament which gets remarked on wherever he goes. He takes most things in his stride and loves nothing more than observing and taking things in. He has a wealth of toys but his favourites are the jangly balls he steals from the cats. His favourite activity is most definitely swimming - the teacher calls him a little fish. He cackles if you tickle him under his armpit. He has a (mostly thwarted by Mummy) passion for remote controls. He has finally learnt how to sleep (thank god).
This last year has been a rollercoaster ride of learning, loving, sleeplessness, worrying and marvelling but, when you add up its parts, it equals the best year of my life. Motherhood is supremely challenging but the rewards are extraordinary. Our journey to conceive was a long and often heartbreaking one but I would do it all over again tenfold if our wonderful boy lay at the end of it.
These wonderful photos were taken by Suzanne of First Shoots Photography. I was tremendously lucky and won a photo shoot with her on Twitter. We had meant to have some professional shots taken of the little man way before now but money, time etc. etc. In the end it worked out wonderfully well that the shoot coincided with his first birthday. If you are thinking of having some photos taken of your little one then I can't recommend her enough. She put Bertie massively at ease and all the photos are fantastic. We will treasure them for ever.
