One of the advantages of become older, except for becoming wiser, is the multitude of gifts you receive. However you’ll soon learn the amount received decreases with age 🙁 When you reach my age the only way to get more is to have children *wink wink, hint hint* By the time you read this post your gift list will be complete 🙂 Our lucky little girl received the following:

• Tablet from Nasa & Nasu (Mihaela & Razvan)
• An interactive counting book from Nasa & Nasu
• A generous gift of 100 EUR from Oma
• Play cubes and an activity center from Uncle George
• A cuddly night lamp & white fluffy coat from Catalin & Bianca (Mummy’s cousins)
• 50 EUR from Grandma & Granddad
• 2 pants and a lovely blue dress set from Grandma & Granddad
• A musical & dancing pink owl & 400 RON from Tanta & family (Your Great Aunt)
• A pink Unicorn and a pretty red coat from Dani (Uncle George’s friend)
• A large ‘1’ shaped picture frame from our Godsons, Dani, Cristina, Ianis & Stefania
• A Marks & Spencers denim dress and bespoke painting from Iulia & Puiu (Mummy’s friends)

TODO: Add more pictures

Today we’re celebrating your 1st birthday for the 3rd time, this time in Romania. We hired a professional photographer so I can only upload a few pictures that I managed to take in-between running around 🙂 I’ll make a future post with the official pictures when we get them, or just update this one.

While we wait for the official pictures here are some taken during the bread ceremony 🙂 It was very sweet and you ate quite a lot… in all honestly I ate a lot as well 🙂

Today we had some errands to run before the party tomorrow, one of them being a visit to the doctor for a quick checkup. We headed on out after your morning nap for which you woke up from in a cute way!

I was giving you some words of encouragement before your examination.. relaxing you with my phone anyway 😀 The conclusion was you have enough oil until your next service and she agreed with us… you’re crazy!! 🙂

In the evening, after your nap, we took a trip out to the local supermarket to do some stocking up, both for at home and for your party on Saturday. That’s right, there’s only one more day to go before we celebrate, for like the 4th time, your 1st birthday!

Of course when we got to the supermarket we had to have a go on the kiddie ride or two, it would be rude not to 🙂 There wasn’t a hamster like in Albert Heijn but we found one with a cute dog instead! There was also Barney the dinosaur however you were a little weary of him… hence the expression on your face. (Who wouldn’t be weary of a purple dinosaur?)

The next day Oma continued to spoil and pamper you, within a few seconds of you moaning or crying she was there 😀 If not quicker! We enjoyed a lazy morning playing with your new blocks, however you seemed to prefer playing with the fridge magnets 🙂 You even broke a few but luckily Oma didn’t mind. You and Mummy also enjoyed breakfast in bed, her breakfast though, you were there begging for a bite or two 🙂

Unfortunately we didn’t have room to take your baby-walker but we did have the next best thing… Oma 😀 She had some run leading you around the flat!

One of the other most important things, your high chair, we also couldn’t bring. So we had a choice, either you eat on the floor (Oma wants to protect her couch), or we buy one… from what you already know of us so far from reading this blog I assume you’re trying to work out which one we chose 😀

However the good news is that we didn’t have to do any! Your God Mother (Nasa) was kind enough to buy you one! You’re extremely lucky to have Mihaela as your Nasa, she’s been running around helping with everything to prepare for your big day. You’re going to thank her with a big kiss and hug right? I hope it won’t be like your baptism 😀

After a long day travelling we finally arrived at Oma’s for some well deserved rest, for us of anyway, you were still very active. So as we got settled into the flat we left you to have some fun with Oma. She and Uncle George bought you some brand new toys to play with while we were there, I helped you unwrap them all 🙂

Uncle George and his girlfriend Mirela returned home from work in the evening to join the fun, you loved all the attention you got!

Oh, I almost forgot to mention. They say that miracles only happen once in a lifetime but today we got another… you slept on the plane 😀 It’s a miracle our little miracle fell asleep *kiss kiss*.

Today we’re up early (4:45 am) to prepare for our flight to Romania. We’ll be there for a week to celebrate your first birthday, the party is planned for Saturday! Having hopefully read all the posts up until now you should know what comes next…. travel montage!

You remind me of Blake, he loved boxes 🙂 You probably won’t remember him from when you were younger, but you will see him later this month when we visit the UK. He and his brother Bailey went to live with Grandma and Granddad. I’ll make sure you get time to play with them both, I’m sure they’ll love you!

As per Dutch tradition we prepared a present for all the kids at creche, each in their own party bag announcing your 1st birthday. It was hard to know what to buy but in the end we went for a lion that squeaks and a healthy fruit juice. What more could a baby ask for right? 🙂

Mummy picked out a nice dress for the creche, one we bought at M&S when we were in London a couple of months back. At creche they organised a small party for you with music and singing.

The ladies at the creche also bought you a bath pig and small baby book, ‘you’ bought them a tasty kiwi cake from Multivlaai in return 🙂 You even got to keep your handmade birthday hat with your name on it, no-one could ever miss the birthday girl 😀

In a previous post the cake I mentioned which we kept nice and safe is now going to be demolished! However you were very hesitant and delicate in touching / tasting the cake. I expected a lot more… er… craziness with cake flying all over the place 😀 I think you were a little overwhelmed by the size of the cake and amount of chocolate in-front of you, sensory overload!

You wouldn’t believe how hard it was resisting the temptation to dunk your head right in the middle 🙂 Mummy reminded me I shouldn’t make you cry on your birthday so I’ll wait 🙂 I’m a patient father 😀 By the way the cake was a Tiramisu, extremely tasty! As they say, a moment on the lips… a lifetime on the hips.

When I look at you in your new shoes I always hear the song ‘These boots are made for walking’ in my head 🙂 The good thing about these new shoes is they keep your feet flat, you tend to stand on tiptoes normally. Mummy made a good choice and hopefully they’ll encourage you to stand up by yourself.

We all went out to break in your new bike, no new speed records were set but you loved it. We took a ride out to the local supermarket for some shopping, at the start you were holding the handlebars and trying to peddle, by the end nearing home you were just chilling with feet and arms dangling by your side 🙂

Your fever has dropped and you’re in a better mood, so let the celebrations begin! I underestimated the amount of time it would take to fully wrap your bike like I did, over an hour! We unwrapped it together in less than a couple of minutes!

You loved your bright pink bike and the best thing about it is the fact it’ll last you another year, transforming into one that you can ride yourself, once you can reach the peddles of course.

Your second present was your first proper pair of walking shoes, a color to match your new bike! These were extremely hard to get on and luckily they seem quite hard to get off as well 😀 You however found the laces quite attractive and soon tried to unravel them, I however know how to tie a double knot 😀

Wow! I’m sat here thinking how to describe the last year and that’s what I came up with… Wow 🙂 Mummy keeps telling me she can’t believe we have a daughter, let alone a 1 year old. It’s weird and I think it’s something that’ll continue to feel strange for a while, especially when I’m talking to people and I say ‘my daughter’. I’m also sat here having a coffee watching parents with their babies and all I can think of is you. I don’t know how well it’ll go but soon I’ll dedicate a afternoon to ‘Father Daughter Time’ 🙂 I’m sure we’ll have some fun together!

Back to your 1st Birthday! Unfortunately you’re still a little sick and at a point in your development where you’re a little more crankier than usual. We didn’t feel it was right to celebrate as we wanted you to enjoy the day, to enjoy playing with us and especially to enjoy opening your presents! We’re going to postpone the celebrations to tomorrow but that doesn’t mean we can’t have some fun.

I picked up your cake and kept it nice and safe in the fridge, not one sneaky bite was taken. Your main present was also left untouched for tomorrow, wrapping paper intact. If Mummy hadn’t of seen what it was before I wrapped it I’m sure I’d catch her taking a sneak peek 😀

Next week you celebrate at creche and on Wednesday we fly to Romania for another party… I think by the time we finish you’ll of had 5 parties, lucky girl!

Some random pictures of the day:

Hands down one of the funniest moments this year so far, it had both Mummy and I in tears, so all 3 of us were crying 😀 You like to eat your smoothies yourself, sucking it directly out the packet, not via a spoon. However when Mummy handed you the packet you grabbed it a little too hard and the contents were squeezed out at high speed directly towards your face!! 😀

My reaction, as it wasn’t life threatening, was to cover my mouth in shock while bursting out laughing, closely followed by grabbing my phone 😀 As I’ve said you’ve got many years to get your own back on us. Mummy was in hysterics while fumbling for something to clean you up with, all the while you were in tears. Don’t worry, Mummy managed to clean you up and gave you another full packet. It was my lucky day, I got to eat the half expelled packet.

A goal of ours is to reduce the number of toys we’re buying however it seems we’re failing miserably at it 😀 Mummy bought you a bath elephant, a mini shower for small children that acts like a toy when older. You loved having a shower in the bath and you learnt how to operate the shower head quite quickly. Unfortunately you were looking directly at it when you first learnt how it worked… you were not happy. You did your usual 3 second pause before bursting into tears.