September and October have always been known as ‘the birthday season’ in the Lighty household. With 5 out of the 6 of us in one of our close friendship groups having birthdays between 16th September and 25th October, and both Mummy Hatchy and Mummy Lighty having birthdays at the end of October, it really is a busy few weeks.

What’s more, Mr Lighty and I have our own birthdays just 3 days apart. Yes, Mr Lighty is Mrs Lighty’s toy boy by 3 days!! This is great for celebrating purposes, particularly for big birthdays, as we can always celebrate together. And this year we had our very own little Baby Lighty to join in the celebrations, too!

It was last birthday when we got the best gift we could have asked for: a positive pregnancy test. Just a few days before we were turning 31, we took the test and passed with flying colours. Prior to taking the test, after 18 months of trying for a baby, we were feeling pretty damn depressed at the thought of getting another year older with nothing much more to show for the last year of our lives. As we came to the conclusion therefore that 31 was definitely going to be more depressing than 30, we decided to escape our everyday lives into a world of fantasy and imagination, and booked to go to Disneyland Paris for the weekend.

Mr and Mrs Lighty turning 31 in Disneyland Paris!

Little did we know that we’d actually have more to celebrate than first thought! We were so delighted to discover that our third trip to Disneyland Paris that year would be completely different to the previous two trips: no Kir Royales, no brie and definitely no Space Mountain for me! All of which I gave up so happily. I don’t think I can even put into words how ecstatic we were that weekend last year, so much so that this birthday has mostly been spent reminiscing about what we would have been doing a year ago, and how happy / excited / nervous* we were feeling (*delete as applicable, depending on the mood that took us at the time!).

A Kir Royale for Mr Lighty and a non-alcoholic cocktail for a newly pregnant Mrs Lighty!

This year, not only have we had the pleasure of taking Baby Lighty along for the birthday ride, as we celebrated with a few days out, but we’ve also added another couple of birthdays to the birthday season, in the shape of Baby Lighty’s twinnie friends’ first birthday. Something I’ve always looked forward to are the children’s parties that having a baby of your own means that you’re invited to, so the twins’ first birthday party, Baby Lighty’s first invite, was a big first in itself for Mrs Lighty! How things can change in the space of a year! So many happy returns, one and all! I’ll look forward to hopefully many more years with my little helper to help me with the birthday candles!