These are a few of my favourite things | Theo Bailey Greene

In true style of the Von Trapp family and Julie Andrew's sweet voice, I want to start doing a series of blog posts solely dedicated to the things that make me happy.

Rosy red cheeks and massive blue eyes,
Forever stained clothes and able to womanize, 
When you are scared, it's to me that you cling,
These are a few of my favourite things


Ladies and Gentlemen, today's topic of discussion is one of the many loves of my life, but definitely one of the more significant.


For those of you that don't know me personally, Theo is my nephew, my godson. Chloe, 9 years my big sister, laboriously gave birth to Theo Bailey Greene, on our mother's birthday, the 31st of May of 2016. When he was born, the term 'bouncing baby boy' was never mentioned owing that to his weigh-in at an impressive 10 pounds and 1 ounce. Due to his dramatic entrance, there was a significant lack of baby smiles that I was expecting to see from the get go. But since then he's definitely made up for the days when I was too scared to hold him because he was so fragile. He is an abundance of baby (if I can call him that anymore) giggles and cute cackles now, with the demeanor of a young mischievous child that I never knew one year old's could adopt.

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As I said earlier, Chloe is nine years older than me. When I started to actually acknowledge life, she was already in her teens, so we never really bonded until it was my time to grow up. She reached that age where you want to go travelling and be anywhere but at  home, which I'm struggling to find at the moment, but I think the comparison between the me she had before she left and one she came home to was a stark difference.

Although the adventures and globetrotting across the South Pacific and Indian oceans stopped, another one surely started when she was home. Five years later, but nevertheless.

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Theo's only been around for a year and nine months and already I struggle to comprehend how many memories I have of him. Thinking back to when he was born, or even when I was told about him seems like forever ago. But that's where I'll start anyway, to the best of my ability. 

For my 18th birthday in 2015, I was amazingly surprised by Chloe with a trip to Amsterdam, in the following month which was to be November. It wasn't until the two of us were sitting in Terminal 1, munching on a full Irish breakfast that this wasn't my only present. I would be receiving the other part in 7 or so months. To say the least, I was very surprised. It's so hard to get around the fact that pregnancy becomes everything the minute you're told someone is carrying a baby. It was all I could see and I had no idea how I hadn't noticed it before. 

Months and months went by and she did not stop getting bigger. I don't really remember any of her pregnant days apart from the day before he was born. That's a lie, one of the scans we went to, I totally saw a willy on the ultrasound machine if that's even possible. Important that I say now, Clo chose not to find out the sex. I was always betting on a boy, probably out of pity for my dad having to live with only us two and my mam for as long as he had. I mean, it was almost overlooked that I was little girl. I was clad head to toe in sports gear up until I was like 12, encouraged to go on a lot of fishing trips and gaelic matches with him. So I think everyone was secretly rooting for a little boy. 

We had been at an event the day before Theo was born and Chloe had already planned to stay in our house that night. I was woken up at about 6 or 7, I think it was. If the word nonchalant was a person, at this point it would be her. My brain was trying to get around the fact that by the end of the day there'd be a baby, whereas she was concerned with the fact that none of the clothes I had would fit her. We all waited a while and slowly got ready to visit the hospital. Fair to say that I shat my pants in the car with her, when the pain started showing itself physically. We stayed in the Hospital for a while, before I left to go, because the big bad LC was coming up and I just couldn't waste any time not studying. My parents came home a good while after me and we all played the waiting game.

They certainly don't call it labor for no reason, for Theo and Chloe it was a lot of hard work. I didn't see him until he was three days old. And even then I preferred to watch from afar. He was sore and tender and it wasn't until he was a few weeks old that we could start to give him raspberries on his chubby baby neck and throw him about the place.

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I always thought I would be much older before I would ever become an auntie, no offense to Chloe.
But if theres one thing that makes me instantly happy, it's Theo. It's impossible to stay away from him because he honestly is the most charming person to ever grace the planet.

I cannot wait to be around for the rest of his life and I'm so grateful that he's around for mine because it would be far less amazing if he wasn't here. I love him so much, and I can't believe Chloe was lucky enough to give birth to a real life cherub angel baby with the most amazing eyes and softest skin and cutest smile.

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When myself and Chloe were growing up, documenting our lives wasn't all the hype that it is today. There are only a few photos of me as a child and for that I have been inspired to encapsulate every single time Theo does something new or just in general makes my heart burst by looking a particular way. 

I frequently read over my own blog posts, so if I can't manage to remind him how amazing he was and always will be. Then at least I can rejoice in these memories myself. 

So Theo, at 1 year and 9 months old you can (and like to) ...

• Open the front door 
• Maneuver yourself up and down the stairs 
• Messily eat your dinner with a fork and a spoon 
• Turn the tap on in the bath 
• Tell people where your nose is 
• Turn on the dishwasher 
• Shoplift 
• Give 'thumbs up' while saying 'good job' 
• Aid the sometimes impossible process that is you getting dressed. i.e attempting to put on your own socks and pull up your own trousers 
• Eat my beauty blender 
• Blow kisses 

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Now that everyone has been introduced to him, I'll be inclined to write more about what he gets up to.

Thank you reading this long overdue post which I always drafted because I wasn't sure what to say.

I love him a lot and I hope you all do too.