2007 is summed up for me with this photo. My life changed almost beyond recognition on 23rd July 2007 when we were so lucky to be gifted with the most precious little babe to nurture, raise and love. It continues to be the most incredible journey, and I am so thankful that Sophia is part of our lives. I don't know what we ever did to deserve having such a beautiful little creature placed in our care. She is wonderful beyond description.

Here is to a happy 2008 for all of you who read my words; I wish you good friends, laughter and contentment in whatever you do or wherever you are. If you find one hundreth of the happiness we have found with Sophia, then you will be very blessed indeed.

Christmas 2007 - happy, heart-warming, relaxed, peaceful, everything we wanted our first family Christmas to be!

Cooking up a storm with Ma on Christmas lunch

Christmas cuddle with Daddy

Playing with wrapping paper on Christmas morning (mmmm, tasty paper)

Taken on Boxing Day of our little giggle monster...

Waiting for a train at Finchley Road tube station to go and see the brilliantly curated Terracotta Warriors exhibition at the British Museum last weekend. The warriors were positioned at eye level less than a metre away in some cases, enabling a close study of the level of detail that was put into making each one by hand. Sophs has a new noise - blowing raspberries, and as Stu and I were admiring the workmanship on one of the warriors she decided it was an appropriate time to blow a loud raspberry in the quiet exhibition space! An art critic in the making??

Sunrise across the park taken from our bathroom window by Stu.

Loving this outfit :)

Soph's hair is so long now I keep getting told off by Stu for giving her mohawks and other interesting styles!!

Well it's been an interesting few weeks. Sophs had a really awful cold and didn't sleep properly for the best part of a week, and just when I was feeling smug that I wasn't going to get it I have been knocked sideways for over a week now and it's morphed into flu resplendent with sinusitus, chills, fever, aching, throwing up, insomnia, violent headaches, an ear infection, just been stacking up the symptoms and pretty much feeling like complete cr*p, utterly devoid of energy and lifeless. Still having to dig deep to find energy reserves for night soothing and feeds as Sophs gets over her cold as well. Pre-baby I would have taken to bed with my duvet and slept for ten hours straight; now...4 hours in a row is a pretty special night. Bah Humbug but big kisses for my little girl.

I delight in my daughter daily, hourly. She brings such joy and peace and comfort into my world and I cherish her beyond words. I feel so lucky to have been given the gift of carrying, birthing and raising her. She is slowly but surely emerging as a little person, less baby and more individual with the beginnings of definite opinions on where she should be, who should be with her and what she should be doing! She is a marvel to me.

(from Sophs) So...Mummy took me to see this fat guy in a red suit this week, and got all misty eyed when I was sat on his knee and he was talking to me in a deep voice and saying weird things like 'ho ho ho' (and they say babies make strange sounds). Between you and me, the sparkly lights in the trees around him were far more interesting than he was and I couldn't take my eyes off them (plus he smelled funny, eau du reindeer)!

Tis official - Sophia is now an Australian Citizen (by descent) - and here she is partying with her Aussie mates in celebration! The certificate arrived out of the blue this morning and cheered me up no end after two nights of very little sleep as I've been up cuddling and comforting my poor little girl who has a hacking cough and violent wet sneezing fits - she's crying in her sleep, it's breaking my heart not to be able to take the discomfort away, so I just hold her as close as I can and whisper to her and stroke her hair and do all the things my Mum used to do for me when I was sick and needed comforting. Get well soon my dearest girl.

So, now we have the citizenship, next stop is the passport!

Trying something new on blogger with my fabbo new super duper computer - a video! It's 12mB so might take a while to start up if you're on a slow connection... I started giving Sophia tastes of foods every other day as she's feeding every 2 hours during the day and is so hungry so frequently, and wasn't going to start weaning fully until 6 months as the government over here recommends, but, following Soph's lead, I think she's ready to do it properly. We filmed this the second time she tried solids (this one was banana mashed) and well, you could say, she was getting into it! Not expecting to do this so soon I'm taking a crash course in weaning your baby this weekend, got some books to read, and will plan a menu for next week, something exotic like Monday - sweet potato and baby rice, Tuesday - sweet potato and baby rice, Wednesday- sweet potato and baby rice and then Thursday we'll try something new! I already know she likes pear and banana, but everyone says not to start with the sweet stuff (and let's face it, the chances of Sophs not liking sweet things given her mum's sweet tooth are pretty slim!)

You know you live in a big city when you have to pre-book tickets in order for your child to go and have a photo taken with Santa. Harrods is completely booked out for this year, Selfridges has no more weekend slots available, and our local shopping centre had a massive queue today and we didn't feel like waiting in line for upwards of an hour. I think Sophs and I are going to have to go back on a weekday when hopefully the queues will be smaller.

In the meanwhile our tree went up on Saturday with some special new decorations just for Sophia including a gorgeous hot pink customised hanging ball with Sophia's name written on it from Aunty Ros :) Christmas has become something special and magical again now that we have Sophia in our lives, and we are so looking forward to spending our first Christmas together as a family.

Sophs and I will be back in Perth Jan 20 for a month for belated Christmas celebrations with family and friends, we look forward to seeing you all then!

We're used to having all sorts of small birds on the feeders stuck to our kitchen and bedroom windows, but this green parrot was a bit of a surprise! Clever chap that he is, he landed on top and was determined to get in at the seed. After this initial reconaissance visit where he tried to pry off the lid (while he was sitting on it!) , he worked out he was too large to sit on the perch, so he flew off then flew back again and landed with one claw clutching the perch, the other clutching the base of the feeder, which enabled him to stick his beak through the hole to get to the seed. He was beautiful to watch!

Autumn has been and gone and we're now in the depths of winter, though we're still getting sunny spells, and the walled garden has beautiful pansies nodding their coloured faces in the gusty chill winds. We spent many hours on these benches in the summer but at the moment we tend to hurry past them on a powerwalk through the park so we stay warm!

We received a letter from the government this week informing us that our details were included on the two discs which were 'lost in the post' by the government's Revenue Department - us and 25 million other people who receive child benefit each month had our children's and our full names, dates of birth, address, National Insurance number (Medicare number), bank account number and sort code (BSB) saved onto these discs, ie enough information to potentially clone our identities. Brilliant. And this government wants to introduce identity cards and have declared they can keep our personal data safe. Not if this fiasco is anything to go by...