Happy Birthday to you...

Ari is one year old today.
A year ago, at 8.30am, our gorgeous little bloke was delivered by caesarean section at Frances Perry House, Carlton, weighing 8 pounds, 5 oz.
He had a shock of gingery hair, long fingers and big feet, and when they wrapped him up in a blanket and laid him across my chest, I knew instantly he was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen.
While those early memories are clear and joyful, the months following stretch out like a blur. In some ways it feels like only yesterday, in others, it's been the longest year of my life.
Motherhood has been the hardest thing I have ever done, no question. But it's exactly like Bill Murray says in Lost In Translation: "When they are born, your life as you know it is OVER. But then they learn to walk and they learn to talk and they become the most remarkable people you'll ever know."
And so we have met a remarkable little person - and we are so proud he is ours.
Happy Birthday, my gorgeous little man.