Favourite presents

Benjy got an enormous amount of presents, but only a few really appeal to him at the moment, and I want to record those so I can remember how sweet his face is when he sees them. There's his car, from my parents; Igglepiggle, from Danielle, Andrew and Jake; his laptop from Stacey, Simon, Ollie and Josh; his lego from Gabi (although he really just likes shaking it on the floor and putting the box on his head); and his safari animals book from Adam and Gen, which he calls 'roar', because, of course, there's a lion in it.

Party trick

Remembering a scene from Friends, when Emma turns 1, I said to Benjy on the morning of his party, without really giving it much thought, 'How old's Benjy? One!' and held one finger up. And he copied me! And not only that, but he performed this party trick on demand all day, holding up one finger and saying 'Wa!' when I asked 'How old's Benjy?'. A brilliant timed and perfectly executed party trick.

The party

The day after Benjy's birthday we had a party, for immediate family, but, our families being what they are, that amounted to 34 people! I had been excited for months about baking my first baby his first birthday cake. Nothing too fancy - just a '1', but it turned out just how I had hoped. We had such a lovely afternoon. All the children played with Benjy, the weather was just right, and it only got too much for Benjy a couple of times - notably when he crawled all the way from the garden, through the house, pushing people's legs out of the way, out of the front door and all the way down the street! I kept thinking he'd get worn out soon but he just kept going, and going, and going. All the children followed him, either trying to coax him on or trying to coax him back home. Benjy ate cake, smarties, chocolate, all sorts - for his birthday I certainly relaxed the rules! After everyone went we opened more presents, and for the most part he wasn't interested, until we opened an Igglepiggle. He was at the other end of the room when we showed him it, and I have never seen him crawl so fast to get to something! The look on his face was priceless - utter wonderment not only that such a thing existed, but that it was for him. He kissed it and cuddled it over and over, something he has never done with any kind of teddy before, it was just too cute.

Photos include the party spread; and waiting patiently for the Smarties on the cake - and then not so patiently.

Birthday boy

Eddie and I both woke up before Benjy on his birthday and were so desperate for him to get up that we went in as soon as we heard the first squeak from him, probably a good 20 minutes or so before he was ready to get up. So, he wasn't overly excited to see us, but he soon perked up. We took him downstaris, where we had a few balloons waiting for him, which he pointed at saying 'ball' - which is what he calls both balls and balloons - and then opened his presents. Most of them pretty much passed him by, but my parents bought him a little ride-along car which he instantly loved, and has insisted on getting in every day since. Eddie took the afternoon off work and we managed to grab a couple of hours, just the three of us, to take Benjy to a sandpit for the first time, which of course he loved. It was lovely spending time on our own, we don't get to do it very often, so we were really happy to be able to do so on Benjy's special day.

Photos are Benjy reading in his cot, when he refused to get up straight away; playing in his new car; and fun at the sandpit.

One: vital statistics

At 12 months, Benjy weighs 25lb (11.4kg) and is 79cm tall, 91st percentile for both weight and height. He can say a few words intelligibly, notably ball, gone, bath and dog, and several other words but only a select few people know what he means. Sweetly, he loves In the Night Garden, and called Igglepiggle 'Po' and Makka Pakka 'Mama' - I don't love that! He knows what noise the lion, cat, horse, sheep, cow and - bizarrely - fire engine make, and can correctly locate his head, tongue, teeth, mouth, eyes, toes and nose, which he points to and says 'nose' - well, 'no', but that's what he means. Considering that these words represent his full vocabulary, he has little trouble making himself understood. He will pointedly refuse to read some books, even though he may have loved them earlier that day, and will arch his back and scream when I try to put his book away after his bedtime story. He loves his Pooh, Eeyore and Piglet and kisses them and brushes their teeth. He has a little music box with a king and queen that dance on it, and he insists that they are put upright if they have fallen over. He understands pretty much everything we say to him and can even follow simple instructions - 'Benjy take his dummy out of his mouth' and 'Benjy put his dummy in his cot' takes a while but he does it; 'Shall we get out of the bath so we can brush your teeth' is the only way he'll get out of the bath happily; 'Daddy give Benjy his bottle' means that Eddie can take him off me without Benjy making a fuss, and 'Daddy and Benjy go play piano' is met with Benjy excitedly pointing to the room where the piano is. It's so hard to capture what he is like in these few words, but hopefully this gives a good idea of our lovely little boy.

Morning ritual

Every morning, when I get Benjy out of his cot, the first thing he does is point to his window. Our morning ritual is to open the blinds and look out of the window, to see what kind of a day it is and see what we can see. As I approach the window, he starts to giggle. As I start to open the blinds, he giggles a bit more, and keeps giggling and giggling until they are open and we can look outside. He has the same giggle of anticipation when he has finished his main course and I open the fridge, as he knows it means something delicious is coming. It's the sweetest little thing.

Benjy's full repertoire

At ten months, Benjy knows where his head is, where his tongue is, and will sometimes show me where his nose is but tends to get distracted by his mouth on the way there and 'wa-wa-wa'-ing it with his hand. He can do the actions to Twinkle Twinkle (nearer 11 months), and thinks he can do the actions to Incy Wincy Spider. He loves a dance, usually with one arm raised above his head. He gives great cuddles, and swoops in, mouth wide open, for a kiss.

At eleven months, he is pulling himself up on everything and cruising around, and although he was very reluctant to 'walk' at first, now finds it really funny when I hold his hands for him to walk along, he stomps stomps stomps with a giggle each time his foot hits the floor.

He has loads of toys but is happiest with a stick or a wooden spoon, and a hole to put it in. He understands so many things that we say to him now, including no - he will humour us by shaking his head and repeating 'no-no-no', and then in most cases, carry on doing whatever it was we said no to. He has recently started insisting on having his own spoon at mealtimes, and makes a pretty good job of getting food in his mouth. And he also says 'gone', and 'dog', although to the untrained ear, those words sounds pretty similar.

We love him to bits, are so excited to see him every morning, find him an absolute joy and delight to be around, and although we are always tired and never seem to have any time to do anything, we don't care. We have Benjy.

Holiday no 2 - across the pond

Benjy has gone transatlantic. We took him to Washington DC (actually, Virginia) to stay with Uncle Joel and Auntie Ann. He was as good as gold on the flight, although constantly on the go. And as expected, he was brilliant in Washington too, but boy did he suffer with jetlag. We were there for five nights: he finally got over his jetlag on the fourth. And then we had to do it all over again once we got back! Despite that, though, it was such a treat being able to spend so long with Benjy, and it was wonderful seeing him with Joel and Ann, it was almost as though he knew they were family, as he was instantly happy in their company. There must have been more intellect in the air over there than Benjy is used to at home, because in those five days he came on in leaps and bounds. He perfected clapping hands, started doing actions to two little dickie birds, learnt where his tongue is, and, a milestone event, said his first word! He was just under ten months. The word was 'ball'. I always thought the first word would be a momentous occasion, but actually it was a few days of ignoring it as coincidence, then gradually acknowledging that he really was saying it. At first it sounded like a very pronounced 'boh' - the hard consonant followed by a loud, short, exhalation - very sweet, watching how proud he was of himself, communicating with us.

The photos are ones which Joel took capturing some of these new actions, and a classic Washington shot.