Brazenmom

My beautiful Amelia

It is really hard not to get all soppy and sentimental when I look back at the first year of your precious life. So, to avoid a flood I will simply say that I adore you. You inspire me to be better and I love you madly. You make me crazy, you make me laugh, you make me cry (for better or worse) and you make me feel more than I ever thought possible. My world is a magical place with you in it. Amelia, you are my muse and I will fight for you always.

Here’s what I know about you. You love the colour blue. You love bath time – one of your favourite activities is to play Picasso with your bath crayons. You wave goodbye to your daddy every morning when he picks up his bicycle helmet and heads for the door, and you get excited when you hear the door open at the end of every day because you know that your daddy is home. Read the rest of this entry »

Dear Bug

Your first year of life has been filled with a wonderful sense of fun and adventure inspired by some fab holidays that you have had the privilege of experiencing. As I think about all the amazing things that you have seen and done, I can’t help but laugh at the fact that you will remember precisely none of it. But don’t worry, we will show you the photos – and we have plenty of them.

Although you won’t remember the things that you have done, I do think that all of your adventures have enhanced your natural baby curiosity by enlivening an inquisitive nature and love for being out and about. The other day we went to visit Kenwood House, a magnificent historical villa in the midst of Hampstead Heath, and you were mesmerised by the beautiful old chandeliers and rows of lovely smelling books. As we walked through the rooms of the old house, your excited squawks of delight showed that you recognised the tangible atmosphere of history that permeated each room. I showed you the paintings on the walls and you gaped at them with your big blue eyes – you were particlularly interested in a small paiting of some gondolas floating on the canals in Venice. Read the rest of this entry »

I write the following tale so that my darling daughter can read it in years to come and know what a brilliant baby she is.

After spending a fun Halloween evening carving pumpkins, bitching about Wagner, eating copious amounts and laughing hysterically we (daddy, mommy and baby) managed to catch the midnight tube home. As we settled into our seats for an hour-long train ride, the journey progressed uneventfully until, two stops before our destination, the train stopped dead. The train stopped dead for an hour, which, as a passenger travelling alone, is irritating but manageable. We were not alone. Our adorable but very tired baby was gracing us with her gorgeous presence. Think: overtired baby, hot tube, nowhere to go: the recipe for disaster in any parent’s book. Read the rest of this entry »

Dear Tangy

I fell in love with you the moment you were conceived and when I held you in my arms for the first time that love burst in a way I never thought possible. Looking at your beautiful face, so often brings tears to my eyes. I can’t believe that God gave you to me to look after. My miracle. My little bundle of loveliness: a perfect symbol of the love shared between the beings who created you. I could spend hours watching your facial expressions and I try to imprint them on my mind so that I won’t forget. I am mesmerised by your big, inquisitive eyes and I am already addicted to our chats about life and to telling you stories of fantastical worlds, creatures and adventures. I want to protect you and cuddle you and adore you eternally. Tangy, I love you and I promise to be the best mom that I can be.

Devoted to you
Mommy

Dear Tangy

You have accompanied Mom and Dad on many concert adventures this year in our ongoing quest to see our favourite bands, and you will thus be born into the world as a real ‘metal baby’. Naturally, we will not dictate your music choice – unless boy bands and Beyonce (now block that name from your mind) appear on the list. Okay, so maybe we will be a little bit dictatorial. In fact, whilst waiting in the queue to watch 30 Seconds To Mars last night your Dad and I had an argument about who will accompany you to concerts if the bands you like are ‘lame’ (in our expert opinion of course). Your Dad says that there is no way that he is going with you to a Britney Spears or Atomic Kitten concert (now block those names from your mind) but here’s a little piece of advice: your Dad already refers to you as his Amelia and if you just bat your eyelids he will accompany you to whatever show you like (don’t tell him I told you). I am happy to take you to see ‘lame’ bands as long as you pay for my ticket. Little Tangy: the essential point is that we just want you to love music as much as we do. And we can’t wait to tell you about all of the fun you had in my tummy as you succumbed to the comfort of your amniotic fluid and the vibrations of double-bass drumming whilst Mom and Dad lived some dreams. Here’s a morsel to keep you satiated in the meantime: Read the rest of this entry »

My beautiful Amelia

Dad and I have come up with the coolest nickname for you. And it has stuck for two weeks, which means that it is a keeper. At your 32 week scan, the Scanographer confirmed that even though I have a wonky umbilical cord, you are looking beautiful and are growing very well. As usual, we received a report that shows a number of measurements; each based on a scale that represents the mean values for babies – the report shows where you sit for each of those measurements. According to the report, you have a rather large belly and long arms, which Daddy and I found it hysterically funny because it made us both think of monkeys. So now you have a new nickname: Tangy – short for Orangutan. Your Uncle Alastair looks kind of like an Orangutan and he even has what we like to call the ‘red gene’, so maybe you will look like him. I can’t wait to find out!

Love you lots my Tangy
Mommy