A year ago today I met the second Cowles man I have fallen in love with.  We celebrated his first birthday in quite a low key fashion, learning from the traumas of an overwhelmed one year old daughter 18 months ago.  This is the diary of Jackson’s first birthday. I got up at my usual time this morning and shouted until my mum came for me, as I usually do.  In she came and wished me a happy birthday.  We then went downstairs and I checked out my presents. Before I/Minnie could open my presents I had my breakfast. The first present was a keyboard (thank you Gran and Grandpa).  I played on that while Minnie unwrapped all of the rest. After that I put on my new jacket (thank you Uncle Gordon and Aunty Rhiannon) and looked through my cards. We went out to the toy library to get even more toys (these weren’t all for me, the pink pram is Minnie’s), then it was home for lunch with mum. After lunch I had …

Minnie and I had a delightful 10 minutes (seriously couldn’t do any longer with no wellies and no gloves) making a snowman – her first ever. The snow is perfect, really sticky.  So sticky in fact that once we had got in, cleaned up and got into dry clothes I realised my wedding ring must be somewhere in the snowman! Don’t worry any of you who know I wear my great Grandma’s engagement ring, that is currently being valued at a jewelers for our new contents insurance, phew.  However this means until the snow melts and I can get out there to dissect the snowman I have nothing on my ring finger – very disconcerting! We’re trapped in the house for the afternoon now – have no idea how I’m going to keep us all sane until dinner time – please Jackson have a REALLY long lunchtime nap…

As many friends and family will know, due to a slow moving bowel in my youngest, I am unusually interested in the contents of his nappy. I am delighted when a poo comes out of its own accord.  I love a good soft easy one. Tonight’s nappy looked like it might have smarted on the way out. There were five puzzle pieces and two bites of cheese on toast.  Thankfully these had only travelled down the back of his vest and into his nappy.  The crazy thing is, they had been down there for about an hour and he’d sat in a car seat with them making an impression on his bum and lower back – no complaints. As I was putting him to bed tonight he was trying to shove a card down his back so I am looking forward to nappy checking being far more interesting in the next few weeks.

The great thing about children, and in particular ones that are below four, they are not afraid to do things slightly different to how everyone else is doing them. Take Minnie and her new best friend Ethan.  They both have matching scooters (it’s like they were meant to be) and they are learning to ride them.  Like me, you might think that the best way to learn to ride a scooter is to listen to instruction, watch how mummy does it and then have a go yourself.  But Minnie and Ethan aren’t like you or I, no they like to think outside of the box.  On their journey of scooter discovery they like to do this… I have no idea how long this phase of learning to “ride” a scooter is going to last but I am believing that it’s a brief warming up to actually putting feet on the scooter and attempting to push oneself in a forward motion.  One can only hope. In the meantime I am trying to work out a way …

Minnie had her first pony ride today and she loved it!  As soon as she was on HP (Harry Potter) she shouted “giddyup” periodically to remind her stead who was in charge.  All those “Nimminnie knee” sessions have paid off Pops!  What was most curious was her fascination with the horse poos along the way, “there’s a poo” was said just as often as “giddyup”. Her enjoyment of it made me so proud.  I find that it’s generally when my children do something I wasn’t expecting them to do that I feel most proud. I think I had my first pony ride when I was five or six.  My dad used to take me to lessons every Saturday through my childhood and then bought me a horse, Moose, when I was in my teens.  At about 15 I realised that boyfriends and horses didn’t mix – I think I’ve been on a horse about three times since then.  My dad still owns horses! So I’m excited about the prospect of Minnie enjoying horses, learning to …

In New Zealand they have an amazing service to families with young children on a limited budget – toy libraries. My Irish friend Sheila who has lived here for years and now has a toddler and baby, advised me to join one, as we had only the toys we could fit in Minnie’s trunki from the UK.  So on Thursday night I left Gareth putting the angels to bed and I went in search of my local toy library.  They are often in an unused classroom in a primary school, which mine is.  You pay about $70 a year and can take out eight toys every two weeks. It was like finding Aladin’s cave, there were shelves and shelves of every puzzle, doll, lego or play station ever invented.  I took about 20 minutes to select a few things for each of my children, already planning what I would get the following fortnight.  Paid my money, signed up to do my volunteer session each month and packed the car full of joy. I set everything …