Marking 11 months today.

I suppose when you are a new parent, every new experience is exactly that, an experience.  But more than that really, it is also a milestone.  And so it is today that Luka celebrates his last birthday counted in 'months' (at least in so far as it is the last one prior to one being counted in year(s)).  If this does not quite make sense, today is Luka's 11 month birthday.

For his birthday today Luka got an extra 200g for the past month, which means that he officially (we double weighed to make sure) topped the scales at the big 1-0-k-g this morning.  That's right, our little bruiser is now officially freaking heavy!

To say that he is a joy in abundance, is to lack the words to describe the sheer pleasure we derive from his reaction when we walk into the house from being out for some or other reason.  More often than not we will come home and notice his play room door is slightly ajar, knowing that he is in there playing with books, musical toys, and other stimuli with his lovely nanny, Michelle.  Yet, when he hears one of our voices, he is like a bat out of hell, climbing over the local Timorese-made throw pillows, swings the door open, and leopard crawling at light-speed to get to one of us.

There is perhaps not a more incredible feeling at the end of a long, hard day at the office, than to have 10kg of adorable, smiling, cooing (squealing, really) baby boy come charging in your direction when you walk through the door, demanding to be picked up, cuddled, then promptly put back down so that he can resume the game of annoying the cat by endlessly chasing him around the dining room table.

Pouring the batter into what will be the final installment
of the 'months' cake series

For some reason this eleven-month mark has been quite emotional for me.  I found myself today thinking about our time in Darwin, about the baking, the long hours in hospital, and eventually about how Chris and I used to have to strap our (then still premature) baby to our chests, in bed, shortly after arriving in Cape Town, to ensure he is kept warm, secure and safe from slipping off.  Which, as you can imagine, meant that neither one of us slept for a good few months.  And, as per the tradition, I baked a cake.  This time a simple Vanilla Bean Pound Cake (hey, I'm a full-time mom that does not even have time to buy my own eggs - thanks honey!)  It was not so much for the cake, but for the act of baking that I simply had to be in the kitchen tonight.

The final product 

Chris said tonight that if we did this again, he would surely need amnesia - but I thought it comes with that automatically, hence why I don't remember the 1.5-hourly breastfeeds, or the entire month of October at all for that matter.  And as we enter the last month of his first year, I cannot help but feel incredibly sentimental about our time together in Darwin, Cape Town, Oxford, Scotland, Sri Lanka...and soon to be California, Arizona and elsewhere.  How blessed we are to have been given the privilege of guarding over this little person for a few precious years, how I wish the next few won't go quite as quickly...

Countdown to Luka's 1st birthday family extravaganza starts now....