Well my gorgeous little girl turned 2 recently and it was such a wonderful celebration!

It was our first birthday together as a family, and I felt really quite emotional about it all. I’m so glad that I only missed one birthday (and frankly first birthdays are always a bit weird as the kid has no idea what’s going on anyway). She’s such a gorgeous, lovely, sweet child and I’m so so happy I get to be her mama.

The birthday weekend itself was rather busy and hectic – we had so many people come and visit us, but we both loved every minute of it.

On the morning of her birthday, I gave her the play-kitchen I had made her which kept her occupied for at least an hour so that I could make the cake in peace! We had a 2-part party planned, with a few toddler friends in the morning for cake and bouncing and shouting and excited jumping around. It was lovely but brief, a tiny whirlwind through the house, and everyone left by 12pm, in time for my girl to have a proper power nap and so that I could tidy up for part two…

I had instructed my family not to arrive before 2pm, so we’d have time to rest in between, so in the afternoon mostly our family arrived – my sister, brother-in-law and 2 niblings, my mum and her partner, my teenage nephew and his friend who were visiting the UK, plus a couple of my close friends as well. The afternoon was lovely, a bit calmer without so many toddlers, and she had a lovely time with presents and cake and some of her favourite family members there!

We got LOADS of wonderful gifts and I suspect I’ll have to have another clear out of my old stuff to make room for Christmas presents!

And in the same week as her birthday I received the paperwork from the court that all my adoption papers submitted are in order and there is a date for the hearing in January, so we are keeping fingers crossed that all goes well and soon she will be legally mine!