Happy 15th birthday to Daniel

It’s Daniel’s 15th birthday today. It’s hard to believe I’ve now been a mother for 15 years. It seems like such a long time but then it has also been the best years of my life and seems to get better and better with each year.

Daniel was a very cute baby; born 3 days overdue and very quickly. He came out so fast there wasn’t time for me to have any pain relief and it was an excruciating birth albeit, thankfully, a quick one.

He was a very difficult child as he was always running off trying to leap into rivers or dash into the middle of a road. I couldn’t take my eyes off him even for a second. I think he was on another planet for at least the first five years of his life. He’d also sometimes throw his toys in the toilet.

Here he is on a trip to Brisbane visiting his great grandmother and great uncle in the photo on the left; and his great grandmother and grandmother in the photo on the right.

This next photo was taken in spring in the Christchurch botanic gardens where he was always trying to throw himself into the River Avon. It was exhausting going out with him.

He had a toy kangaroo he would take to bed and one night he fell asleep with it like this. He couldn’t pronounce “kangaroo” properly and instead called it, “Carl Lewis”.

Here he is with his papa in Christchurch not long after Elizabeth was born. It’s nice to see Freud (the cute furry creature with the wet nose) in this photo too.

When we visited York in 2013 he got his photo taken with a Storm Trooper.

York is where we bought Busby and here the kids are trying him out with a visit to the supermarket. Busby looks so nice there. He’s a bit old and rusty and currently in need of repairs. I haven’t used him for quite a while.

When Daniel first started school in Aberdeen he won the “guess how many sweets are the jar” competition at the school fair. As you can see he’s very proud of himself. His face is painted as a Minecraft Creeper.

In 2015 we went to my sister’s wedding in France and I’ve always loved this picture of him and Elizabeth all dressed up. The second photo is of them both with their cousins and is also a favourite of mine.

Here’s another photo from Aberdeen with his gran making gingerbread men and another older version of him with gran and Peter when they came to visit us.

Here’s Daniel’s first day of high school back in August 2019 posing with his Grandad.

And here he is today, with friends, for lunch followed by a walk up Creag Choinnich in Braemar.

Happy birthday to a lovely, kind, funny, clever boy called Daniel. I can’t wait to see what the next year brings for you.