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.

Today we decided to celebrate Halloween, even though you are starting to show signs of getting sick 🙁 Mummy bought you a nice T-shirt to celebrate at creche and as I like candy, that was my job. In the Jack-o-lantern I put lots of boxes containing raisins and dried apricots, bio of course 😀 In the future we’ll join the organised ‘Trick or Treat’ evenings which I’m sure you’ll love, there you’ll get real candy!

The days of plonking you down, turning around and having you not move are gone! This can obviously be a huge problem while preparing a bath with you crawling around the landing near the stairs. So today I’ve just finished installing a new gate and I thought I’d put it to the test, the ‘Emily Test’ 😀 It held extremely well, there’s no way you’re going to squeeze though, break it or even open it 🙂 This is a little frustrating for you but you came around and had some fun, my little caged doggy! 😀

This started off as a sneaky video of you playing with your socks… however it turned into so much more 😀 You’re really learning, to the point where you get frustrated when I tell you not to do something… like going behind the table to play with my Xbox. There was so much moaning and ‘crying’ in this video however not one tear was shed 🙂 I love how you have hold of the clock while watching and listening to me saying No, but continuing to lift it. Mummy and I are going to have our hands full when you’re a little older!

You’ve been making great strides, not literally but you’re getting there. Over the last few days we’ve found you sitting up in bed and you’ve been pulling yourself up on the changing mat. Today I was in a good position to capture it however unfortunately I wasn’t able to capture it on video but I did do a burst shot, creating the small animated gif 🙂 I’m sure over the next week now that you’ve found your footing you’ll be taking full advantage of your newly developed skill!

It’s an unusual technique but it works for you 🙂 Sometimes you do the splits and sometimes you only use the one leg to hold you in position. When you’re on a slippery floor it’s quite funny to see as you keep sliding backwards until you gain traction, sort of like a wheel spin in a car however you can end up a few meters behind you 😀

Someone is being slowly being prepared for the winter months, we’ve loving you in your woolly hat and scarf. I have a feeling that Mummy is going to wrap you up in many layers this winter, so much so that if you fall you’ll bounce right back up again 😀 Assuming you’re walking by then of course *fingers crossed*. Daddy also needs to remember to put your shoes on in the morning when taking you to creche, he keeps forgetting… as reminded by Mummy each day 😀

We took a different route back to the car so we didn’t have time for the Hamster @ Albert Heijn. Mummy however spotted another ride for you to have a go on, you picked the police car! We were in for a bit of a shock though… as soon as Mummy put the money in it jumped into action, spinning incredibly fast from the start! 😀

Mummy managed to hold you tight while her feet caught up 🙂 You really got your moneys worth as it went on and on… and on… and on… in the end poor Mummy was ready to collapse so she had to pull you out. Me on the other hand, being the idiot I am, I was busy recording and still laughing from the initial ‘Monty Python’ style start 🙂

Soon you’ll be wanting to walk around these aisles by yourself, grabbing things off the shelf 🙂 Plus in a few more months you’re going to be a little too big to fit in a basket like this! I have a feeling as soon as you get bored of walking you’re going to want to be picked up and carried around anyway, even at 20 kg+ 😀

P.S
You picked out something special for your tea that night… our little doggy!

While preparing your milk in the morning I heard some grunts of effort coming from your general direction. Upon investigation it seems you’ve found a new place to explore… albeit a little tight. I’m not even sure how you were planning on getting out of there. The twinkling lights on the internet router caught your gaze and you decided it was worth the ‘one way journey’ into the unknown 😀 The thing is along your way you came face to face with my XBOX… this wouldn’t normally be a problem however after a few pokes here and there you found the power switch 🙂 Like father like daughter it seems, my little gamer chick!

Today we took a trip out to the garden center for a look around and a bite to eat. I think it was Mummy’s plan all along in order to take a look at the Christmas decorations. You may say “but it’s only October Daddy…”, you’d be right but they were starting to put them all out… crazy right? Mummy and I can’t wait to go shopping for a new tree, something smaller than what we have now as someone has a liking for shining twinkling things 😀 In the past we had to worry about cats climbing and destroying the tree… now it’s a ‘rugrat’ 😀

On the way around we found both a tiger and horse to ride! You were very hesitant to touch the horse but Mummy soon coaxed you around… eventually putting you in the saddle 🙂

You’re such a cutie!