Lucy's first birthday...

Lucy turned 1 today, St Valentine's Day. Lucy's mum is my niece Jenny. My little brother became a grandfather last year and I have to admit I'm still a little jealous!

Note the little 'pull along' dog beside Lucy. Both my girls loved their 'pull along' dogs so we bought one for Lucy.

It has been a lovely year enjoying watching as Lucy grows. We hadn't seen her for a little while so yesterday when we joined friends and family at Mudjimba Beach on the Sunshine Coast, I was amazed at how much she has grown. She has lots of little curls which remind me of her grandad's (and great-grandma's/my mother's) hair. She has a number of teeth since I last saw her and she is so close to walking. She reminds me of DD2 when she was just a bit younger...they both moved like baboons with the bottom held up high but the hands still on the ground. It's a bit like a 'walking crawl'.



Four generations of women here but not all in the same family line!



DD2 in the crocheted 'cover up'

Mummy is organising the cake while daddy is holding Lucy up so she can see!

Lucy's dad is Eric who comes from Bingen in Germany...a lovely man! He supervised the cooking of a number of different varieties of German sausages...yum! Most of the guests were friends of Jenny and Eric; in the main young parents like themselves. It was very obvious that all of them provide a wonderful support group for each other. Family was represented by myself (known as Aniria...a corruption of Aunty Maria), DH, Jenny's grandmother (her mum's mother), and my younger daughter and her boyfriend.
It's a 90 minute drive to and then from the coast and that's why we don't see a lot of the family. But then again, another little great niece, Alex, lives in the same city and we don't see her and her parents that often either. We have 2 other great nieces born in 2010 and another great niece and great nephew born in previous years!

DH spent so much time taking photos and a video of the celebrations that he deserves to have his photo posted on this blog entry as well!

This evening DH and I celebrated Valentine's day with a home-cooked meal rather than a restaurant one because we figure that while we are travelling next month we'll eat at restaurants more than enough. We'll probably pine for homecooked by the end of the 7 weeks!