“The days are long but the years are short”, a wise woman recently told me.

It is today that this sentence suddenly takes on significance.

Because yes, the days have been long – oh so achingly long at times. As it is usually just me and my boy while Daddy works his crazy long days, and as my son still has a penchant for starting the day before the sun does, we’ve had more than our fair share of 14 hour days to endure enjoy.

But to balance it out, when I think about the fact my baby boy is blowing out 4 candles on his birthday cake today and all of a sudden I am left wondering where those 1461 days have disappeared to!

I imagine, they are linked together by a series of life firsts, like a real life dot-to-dot that has outlined his little world.

So to my Master H, I want to share with you some of the standout “firsts” that are indellibly inked into this Mummy’s mind:

There’s no forgetting your dramatic entrance into the world (sadly) and the very first time we would meet, nor that first night home from hospital where you deigned to only slept a whole 45 minutes in an entire night (that should have been a sign of things to come!). Before long you were braving your first flight, as a 6 week old, to visit both your sets of Grandparents in Coffs Harbour and blessedly you barely made a peep!

There were those magical first words at 7 months old that were to unleash an early torrent of vocabulary we were continually amazed by, coinciding with the first time I began to fear for the safety of my belongings when crawling came soon to the horizon.

Let’s not forget your first passport and family trip to Fiji, and of course the big birthday bash as a 1 year old – almost at the same time you FINALLY grew your first fangs and stumbled over those wobbly first baby steps.

Mugshot (aka passport pic)

The Big B’day Bash

Fiji Baby!

And so life sped by – starting daycare (where every germ known to man infiltrated our home, twice even resulting in emergency dashes to hospital) and swimming lessons, before sampling your first bike, big boy undies, big boy bed – and of course your first ever little best buddy…

Best little buddies

Likely Daddy’s most treasured trio of all – your first Rabbitoh’s jersey, your number one NRL game, and first game of Little Kickers… Oh, and that cute first nap together too

Bliss

And even though I’d care to forget it, what would this account be without the first time you accidentally sampled your own poo… (Sorry future 18 year old version of Master H, but hey, it was always a story that would haunt the both of us!)

Throughout it all those big beautiful blue eyes have twinkled back at me, that cheeky, impish grin has shone and my heart has expanded to a size I never before knew.

From Day 1:

Despite the inevitable days peppered with tedium or tantrums on this parental path I can only sincerely say THANK YOU for the privilege of overseeing those precious firsts where you blossomed from baby to little boy.