Poor poorly Amelia.

 Unfortunately, although Amelia is still beast fed - she has had her fair share of illnesses in her first year of life. It seems she picks up childhood viruses quite easily, which would not be so bad if it were not for the fact that every time she gets sick, she gets a fever and has febrile seizures. Her fevers tend to hover around 38.5-39.5 degrees (normal is 36.5-37 degrees) and only Neurofen will keep them under control. They last for days and as soon as the Neurofen wears off, she starts seizuring again. She has had quite a few hospital visits to our big childrens hospital and stayed over night, lots of drugs, frequent visits to our lovely Peadiatrician, an EEG to rule out epilepsy (which it did thank goodness), IV fluids and whatever else it takes to keep her temperature down. Now although febrile seizures are usually harmless, it is very worrying for us and not particularly pleasant for Amelia. We are hoping that she grows out of them quick, but in the mean time, we will keep our fingers crossed that the viruses leave her alone!

 A stay in hospital, with her IV cannula in.

This was 3am, she was so tired (as was I!) but the cannula was bothering her and she kept waking, in the end she refused to sleep, so she raided our overnight bags and we went and chatted to the night shift nurses!

An invasion of small furry creatures ... and this time they aint' cute!

We have a giant Cape Lilac Tree bordering ours and the neighbors property. It had a huge canopy of lush green leaves and berries and it provided our car with a lot of shade on the lower part of the driveway. Then suddenly, one day ... and i kid you not - it happened overnight - the tree was BARE! Naked, from the trunk up! It appeared to have been munched on and devoured by something surely sinister ... but on closer inspection, we see millions, yes millions of hairy caterpillas (I am quite sure they have a proper name like Hairus Horribilus Caterpillus!) have voraciously annihilated (not to be too dramatic here) every single leaf on that tree!

No more shade and a rather denuded looking Cape Lilac!

Amelia's 1st Birthday Party

Amelia had her birthday party at home surrounded by her family. It was a hot January day and more fun was had in the pool. She got her first taste of rich chocolate cake and of course she loved it!

Pretty little fairy princess.

Mmmm yum, chocolate mud cake!

Loves her Nanny.

Oh look what Torna gave me! A pretty angel. Torna is my Midwife friend who caught Amelia on her birth day.

Ladybird cake, made by mummy and daddy.

Our two beautiful fairies.

Family fun in the pool

Happy 1st Birthday precious girl xxx

Amelia's 1st Birthday.

It's hard to believe that one year ago today, our second daughter, our delightful, funny and happy little girl - arrived quickley, peacefully and surprisingly .... on the front seat of the car in the driveway! She came out a happy, content, quiet little cherub and that's how it has stayed. The last year has been full of turmoil, stress and heart ache and both our girls have coped exceptionally well, especially Amelia who had very stressed parents as the fire hit us when she was only 4 weeks old.

But here we are now, 1 year ahead and we are so fortunate and happy that we have been blessed with this beautiful little soul.

Happy 1st Birthday to our gorgeous Amelia Zoe!

 I tell ya, it does NOT get any cuter!

 Oooohhh Nanny, what did you get me?!

 A new BIKE!!!

 Amelia takes her birthday cards very seriously, she reads them back to front and even kisses the teddy bears!