I’m gonna start off with that age-old cliche of ‘WHERE HAS THE TIME GONE?!’ I swear to you, these last 365 days have been the quickest year of my entire life, and I am still in utter disbelief that Reuben is now almost 14 months old. I’ve mentioned before that since becoming a Mother, I often get nostalgic flashes for my ‘old life’, and have spent many a night feed in panic mode, sitting in the darkness feeling like you’re the only person in the world awake at such an ungodly hour, wondering “what have we done… life has changed forever”. Indeed it has, and ironically the most challenging year of my life has also been the most rewarding one.
We celebrated Roo’s 1st birthday in February with a little family party at home. His favourite programme to watch at the moment is ‘Hey Duggee’, and with a serious lack of Duggee merch in the shops I just took that rainbow colour scheme as a theme and ran with it. I sent invites out on good old facebook (maybe next year I’ll be more fancy and use Paperless Post!) We also got a beautiful cake made for him by a local cake maker (Elina’s Cakes in Paisley) which tasted as amazing as it looked! I ordered a couple of sandwich platters from M&S, my Mum made a delicious veggie curry and some soup, and we just asked folk to pop round any time between 12-5pm.
Reuben actually went for his afternoon nap amidst the party chaos and missed a good handful of visitors, but if anyone is allowed to go for a snooze during a party then it’s the birthday boy himself. We had such a nice, low-key day celebrating with Reuben. This little dude is loved beyond belief and it just melts my heart seeing him surrounded by love and support of some bloody wonderful humans. I made up some ickle baby bot bath bomb favours as thank you to our guests (and also kept a few sneaky ones for ourselves)
Babies accumulate so much stuff, especially in their first year. We’ve been lucky to receive some lovely hand me down clothes, toys and accessories (which is super helpful when you’re having to completely restock their wardrobe with new sizes every 6 months) and I have been trying to do the same and pass on some of Reuben’s stuff to my friends babies as he grows too big for them as well. Reuben didn’t really ‘need’ anything for his birthday (although vouchers to fund the next wardrobe update are always much appreciated) and when it comes to play time we are trying to verge towards buying more wooden and eco friendly toys, either second hand or new!
I’d had my eyes on the Le Toy Van wooden coffee machine since Reuben was born, as a wee nod to his coffee shop owning Daddy! But for £30 I wanted to wait until he was old enough to actually play with it (and fyi not an affiliate link but it’s down to £20.95 via the Precious Little Ones link above) The set is so damn cute, very sturdy, and has been thrown across the room a few times as Roo really enjoys seeing things fall from the table to the floor. My Gran got Reuben this cute Sort & Play activity cube from Smyths – their range of wooden toys is actually pretty awesome! We’ve got our sights on the little wooden fruit and veg sets next. They even come in wee wooden market crates (TOO CUUUUTE)
Reuben was also kindly sent the Wild Animal Puzzle Play from Hape, and the animal shapes are nice and chunky so perfect for little hands navigating their hand to eye coordination. The animals are thick enough to stand up, and you can turn the board over to play with them on a mini wildlife habitat. Roo also received the Hape Wooden Block Set, a classic toy which I know he’ll enjoy for years to come. They come in a handy little drawstring canvas bag for keeping them all together, and I think they are technically only recommended for children over the age of 2 – as I found the edges of each block to be quite angular (not sharp, but definitely not rounded off/smooth) so perhaps that’s why.
Reuben still isn’t walking, but doesn’t like being confined to the baby walker, so we bought a little wooden table and chairs set from Ikea for £20 and it has gone down an absolute treat. A standard morning for us is dressing gowns on (Roo finally fits his cute Disney one from Matalan) and sit down at the table in the living room with some toast. Reuben makes a fake flat white and I’m on the real stuff. Some cartoons and playing with toys until it’s time to get ready and tackle the day ahead. My routine may have changed considerably from two years ago… but this little dude is the ultimate side kick and I can’t imagine my mornings without him. Happy 365 days on Earth to you, Roo!
