My smiling and beguiling one.

 Marie Aibhlinn was a year old on the 13th of October.

For a whole year our family has revelled once again in the special sweetness a new baby brings to the home.
  
My dear ones, my darling ones, my smiling and beguiling ones.

How much I love them all.

To live this life, with these people, is such an incredible gift. My heart is so full I can feel it. It sometimes feels as though it might burst .

My husband and children are an immense blessing.

I know God has been kind to me.

Another birthday.

Observant Catholic apparitionistas will recognise the 13th of October as as the anniversary of the day on which the sun danced and spun in the sky at Fatima in 1917.

An auspicious date on which to celebrate the anniversary of our own little darling ray of sunshine.

Inspired by this post at Catholic Cuisine, I made my own version of a spinning sun cake:

 It's not easy to see the icing in this picture, but there were psychedelic swirls of acid lemon and orange in the buttercream.

And for extra razzle dazzle I put a sparkler in the middle along with the candle.

 

Always safety conscious, Pat was worried that an enthusiastic little hand might reach out to grab the sparkler so he made everyone stand back.

 

Honor wanted another blow at the candle (  Marie-Aibhlinn wasn't keen on going anywhere near the cake after the mini fireworks display)

 And we sing another chorus of "Happy Birthday!"
Cheers and applause, slices of cake, lots of jammy crumby messes around the high chair and on faces, slightly queasy full up tummies and happy hearts. Bathtime, teeth and pyjamas. Sleepyheads carried and chivvied to bed.
Simple birthdays at home are the stuff of beautiful memories.

She's my dear my darling one 

Her eyes so sparkling, full of fun

No other, no other, is like the likes of her

  
Oh she's my dear my darling one
My smiling and beguiling one

I love the ground she crawls upon

My darling Irish girl