Happy 1st birthday my princess.

Wow, I can't believe that today, my little princess is 1. It seems like such a long time ago that we calmly drove to the hospital and had a wonderful waterbirth and first met our beautiful Matilda. We had two days of newborn baby bliss before being thrown into the world of hearing loss. I could never imagine what we have been through over the last 12 months, but it has definitely been worth it.

At 12 months, my little girl has been hearing for just under 5 months. Receptive language appears to be fantastic. She understands countless words and phrases, including up, down, outside, swing, park, ducks, Daddy, Mummy, the boys, car, walk, baby, eat, drink, food, Anzac slice, milk and so many more. Expressively, we're getting there. We've heard (on at least a few occasions)

- 'ahh' (aeroplane)

- 'ee-ee' (monkey)

- 'eeow' (cat)

- 'eeee' (food/hungry)

- 'mm' and 'or' (more)

- 'ee-ah' (swing)

- 'eee' (slide)

- 'oo' (train)

- 'bbrr brr beep (car)

- 'wah' (baby crying)

- 'heyo' (hello)

Her favourite sound at the moment is 'ee-ah'. We are still really lacking in consonant sounds, but I'm trying to be patient.

Most of all, Matilda is a happy, cheeky, funny little girl who loves people, but particularly her little family.

We love you little girl.