Welcome to the happiest time of our lives

We're now in the midst of the happiest days of our lives, heady days of unbelievable moments with our sons which years ago seemed such a dream too full of obstacles to realise. We have conquered the highest peaks to get here and our muscles are worn, we're just catching our breaths, exhausted in a deliriously happy way, we're on the precipice. We see below us the peaks we've surmounted and can recount the aches and pains each of those individual peaks exhausted from us. We remember thinking when we would get to what we thought was the summit and found to our dismay that another peak had surreptitiously planted itself in that own peak's backyard, how much more can we deal with? And yet the human spirit can draw such powers from within. Its boundaries are limitless. Now today, on Callum's first week birthday, we can stand back and admire the view. And wow, it's spectacular!

I'd always imagined having girls, I'm a girlie girl, with an obsessive passion for Jane Austen and now I need to draw upon the expertise of Auntie Lisa, cousin Karen, friends Janelle, Maggie, Vanessa and Sharon and their own brooding houses full of boys for advice. My sister Anne-Marie reminds me that part of this will entail standing alongside freezing football pitches on winter nights. Ah, but that's when Dads come into their own. They were built for freezing football pitches on winter nights. My parents are now blessed with 5 children (2 sons, 3 daughters) and 5 thriving grandchildren (2 grandsons, 3 granddaughters). There's a lovely symmetry in that.

As a gift from friends at my baby shower, we thought how amazing it would be to have some maternity and newborn photos taken by Jill Hardin who did the pregnancy shoot with Reuben. A gift for a lifetime. We have enormous thanks to give to everyone who made this shoot and tomorrow's newborn photo shoot with Callum possible through their kind donations. Click here and type "client proofs" then "dodd" and "maternity shoot 2" to see the maternity shoot. Reu was in his element playing in front of the camera. And it'll be lovely being in front of the camera again to capture Callum at one week old. PS I think this is women's only territory by the way!
Thanks too to everyone for your extremely kind comments. I hope you don't mind those sent to email to be posted here too as I'd be lovely to cherish them for years to come.
In lieu of any gifts for Callum, we'd be delighted with donations to Children's Hospital Los Angeles who are in the process of building a new wing and to whom we are eternally indebted for giving our Reuben a second chance at life. Click here or call 323 361 3850 or e-mail. Reuben kindly handed down a mostly unworn wardrobe to Callum, those clothes I meticulously kept folding and unfolding during nesting and all his newborn toys are joyously being given a new lease of life. Our little boy wants for nothing. He is the picture of absolute contentment, sleeping day and night, cooing, yawning, offering a little cry when he's hungry, coming at me with his mouth open wide like a little chick in the nest, searching for the nipple. I can't believe he's with us today. I can't believe our blessings in life.