4/52

A little bit late because we've been on the road for the most part of the last two days. We drove all the way from Cornwall to Scotland. With aching limbs and tired eyes we now sink into the bed of our hotel room and finally I can bring you this weeks photograph of our brilliant little lady.

"A portrait of Queenie Valentine, once a week, every week in 2013"

She wobbles in her new (to us) dress we found for an awesome 35p!

This girl is amazing. She was so content during the drive despite finally popping out her first tooth and having a bit of an earache. She sang, slept, stared at the traffic, chattered, played with a few toys, shed food all over the back seat of the car, read her books and cracked us the most heart melting of smiles. We just wanted to kiss her all journey. I suddenly realised that this girl isn't a baby anymore.

The past week has felt long; we've packed lots in and Queenie has grown in much the same way. She's moving at great speed (not crawling, its a sort of crab-like bum shuffle), she's grasped turning pages in books and has begun chatting to herself as she reads. She claps and has enjoyed playing the piano on her dada's new iPad.

3/52

"A portrait of Queenie Valentine once a week, every week, in 2013"

Today we found some hand-me-down treasures at the back of Queenie's wardrobe. She was very excited to wear her first pair of shoes to the supermarket.

2/52

"A portrait of Queenie Valentine once a week, every week, in 2013"

Just before she threw herself off the sofa, for a wonderful, soggy kiss. 

This week Queenie's been sad with teething pains, but she has found her voice and sings while playing. She's learnt to clap and enjoys pulling the books off the second shelf of my bookcase. We fall more in love with her every day.

Daily drawings

One of my promises for this year was to do a drawing (or drawings) every day. I've found it difficult to set apart time to just sit and draw since our scrummy little lady came along, so it's been brilliant to give myself this challenge... and stick to it!

I'm not very good at actually completing them, so they have a bit of an unfinished quality, which I actually love! Wonky eyes and all!

ps. I treated myself to this lovely notebook at christmas, and it makes the experience all the more pleasurable!

1/52

"A portrait of Queenie Valentine once a week, every week, in 2013"

The cuddles after she's just woken are the scrummiest.

I was inspired to start this project, after viewing Jodi's last year. She is hosting a brilliant competition at the moment over at her blog.

Hello 2013

We decided to ring in the new year eating cheese and crackers, fresh baked bread and butter, and drinking port. We watched Jools Holland and were even too lazy to walk down the road to watch the midnight fireworks. Liam didn't finish work until 11pm. And me? Well I have a rather demanding 8month old who's decided sleeping is really not cool.

2013 began pretty well with a bowl of porridge and honey then a spot of spring cleaning before a blustery walk (so windy I had to cling to a wall at one point!) across the beaches. My mind is whirring with plans for this year and I'm hoping Liam and I will get some time together to actually sit down and write down our hopes and dreams for the year.

I'm useless with resolutions but I hope to become a little better at juggling everything, and to work harder on our allotment plot over 2013. These past months I have had so many things I've wanted to write about, blog posts have been planned out in my head, but I'm still getting used to my new job as a mama and it's really rather tiring! I just don't know how all these blog mama's do it! I have a few simple ideas for this space, including 52; a portrait a week. I love the photographs that Che and Fidel show each week of their children, capturing a memory and showing their growth throughout the year. I'd like to end the year with 52 photos of queenie to put in a book, to sum up her year.

How were your new year celebrations? What did you do? Any challenging (or not!) resolutions?