Happy 1st Birthday Florence! (+ 10 Fun Facts About Florence)

To mark Florence’s first birthday today, I wanted to share ten fun facts about her that I can reflect on in years to come.

Little Florence Catherine Broadbent has enhanced our lives tenfold (make that ten thousand fold), bringing us all so much fun and joy in the short time that she’s been here. Bursting onto the scene 3 weeks and a day early on the auspicious date of November 11th 2021, on Remembrance Day, no less, Florence is one magnetic, loveable, intense and funny little firecracker we all adore! Florence is no wallflower, that’s for sure!

Below I share ten fun facts about Florence:

1. Florence’s contagious toothy grin never fails to make us or anyone she meets, beam. It’s why so many of her videos go viral on Facebook. I call it the Florence Effect. Her infectious energy is no doubt why millions have watched the videos of her I’ve shared on Facebook since she was born! She was even recognised in the street by a mum in Windsor. Florence also appeared on The Jeremy Vine on 5 TV programme with me when she was 13 days old (sleeping through the entire feature)! Florence wakes up smiling with a cheeky little twinkle in her eye, ready for adventure, chatting and playing with her best friends, her older brothers before they leave for school then it’s non-stop activity before the end of the day. Florence doesn’t do boredom or playing solo well.  She loves attention and relishes life with an intensity Scorpios are famous for (if you know, you know). This girl wants to be entertained 24/7 and is the reason (coupled with her brothers) that I’m so tired (ha)! Her energy knows no bounds. I don’t think I’ve sat down in an entire year! She’s hangs on to me everywhere I go. We’re besties and I’m blessed to have her as my shadow! Florence is a Mummy’s Girl for sure.
2. An affectionate little girl, she loves nothing more than to plant sloppy, bite-y kisses onto my cheeks and after playing Peek-A-Boo behind anything she can find (pillows, my laptop), her favourite pasttime seems to be feeding me from her plate whenever she eats. A feeder aged 1 is quite the feat ;)!
3. She equally loves her food and would gobble up finger-food based meals even before her first tooth cut through (six finally arrived at once at ten months old, poor thing) and her latest meals du jour span creamy porridge with blueberries, scrambled eggs on toast, pan-fried salmon stir-fry and my Dad’s famouse Greek chicken soup. She also unflinchingly loves to gobble up quarters of fresh lemon, skin on and all (we have to hide the lemons from her) which baffles us! Greens are another go-to for her, with sugar snap peas, peeled cucumbers and steamed beans regular features at mealtimes. I wish her brothers would take note.
4. Florence isn’t a fan of sleeping solo and one year on, she’s still co-sleeping with us in a ginormous Queen size bed in my folks’ spare room. We’re all wishing for more sleep (and our own home) in her second year, please!
5. I was adament her wardrobe wouldn’t be pink-heavy but that dusty almond pink really suits her so while her wardrobe features other colours, pink, florals and velvet bows have become regular features on Florence!
6. Little Miss Flo has become quite the chatterbox with a growing vocabulary mostly peppered with commands (Florence, the Boss Baby, likes to be in charge) as well as animal noises for dogs, ducks and sheep. I’m not sure there’s anything cuter than a baby bleeting, to be honest!
7. Which brings me to her beloved sheep who live in the farmer’s fields behind my Mum’s garden Florence gets to greet most mornings as the sun comes up. Magic. We also spend most of our walks in the countryside searching for dogs at people’s feet. Florence likes to call dogs, ducks, currently so we might need to work on that! If I wasn’t so exhausted with three kids, I might consider a dog! Maybe one day.
8. Dance time with Daddy is one of Florence’s daily highlights. Peter holds her, with her arms out and together they waltz around the kitchen hand-in-hand. Maybe if Florence gets married one day, they’ll dance like that at her wedding. Aww.
9. Bath time with Mummy, filled with gentle bubbles and a daily hair wash has become another daily ritual for baby Florence. The hair washing can take some time since her long locks need shampooing, conditioning and detangling but it’s something special we do together. She was born with a full head of thick hair and never lost any of it, and it’s now down her back when wet, springing into sweet angelic curls when dry. Her fringe is so long, she has to wear a half pony tail every day to keep it out of her eyes and her locks have morphed from dark and straight to light brown with cinammon highlights streaking through, just like my own hair was at her age.
10. Florence crawled at 8 months old but is yet to walk. She’s desperate to (and so am I as her clothes are constantly messy from all of the crawling) but she’s not quite there yet. She can hold herself up but isn’t confident enough to launch. No pressure but I feel she will soon!
11. A bonus point for a bonus baby! The strongest baby I’ve ever known, Florence once lifted up part of the sofa. Really! Her arm strength is unbelievable and thank goodness, because you have to be strong to be a woman in this world!

Argh, what a sweetie, our much longer-for, utterly adored rainbow baby Florence who reminds us to bleet at the sheep, eat our greens and appreciate every moment of this gift that is life. Happy birthday to our darling daughter. I never lost hope you’d enter our lives and here you are, bolder, louder and wilder than we could have ever imagined. Never change sweetpea! We can’t wait for your little party on Sunday to celebrate you!

Thank you to Petite Amelie for this beautiful gifted doll’s house. It’s 3+ so we are supervising Florence when she plays with it.

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