Dear Nahla...

... Thank you for having made me realize - or maybe just remembered again - just how amazingly fun throwing pebbles into a lake can be. How simple things and simple days, filled with nothing but play and fun, are really the best days there is. Thank you for making me remember to slow down. To not always be rushing somewhere, but to remember how just sitting and watching ducks swim around can be pretty perfect too.

Having you changed my whole life and turned my world upside down, but in a way so magical I cannot even begin to remember what I spent my time on before you came. What could have possibly been as fun as seeing the world all over again through your eyes. Share your joy and excitement at stuff I probably took for granted. Like the feeling of grass under my feet, how it tickles. Like running really fast and jumping in muddy puddles. Like just sitting still and pointing at buses and trams whizzing by. All those little things.

Dear Nahla, being your mum is the best thing that ever happened to me. It will always the the best thing. The most important, the most fun, the most exhausting, the most energizing, the most amazing. You have made me a better person and more me than I have ever been. You're still so tiny and yet your presence is so profound - to everyone around you. You make the world a sweeter and better and more fun and peaceful place. I have to pinch myself at just how lucky I am - and you have no idea how much I look forward to lots more pebble throwing, duck watching, tram spotting and puddle jumping!

xxx your mummy