Zephyr had not long turned one when we arrived in Southampton and was still a crawling baby. We didn’t know at that time that we would be spending her second birthday here and that she wouldn’t remember ‘home’. The nurses here have pretty much seen her grow up. So much revolves around Romy, and Zephyr’s needs often come second, so for her second birthday we wanted to make a big fuss and make the day all about Zephyr. The day started with a breakfast of croissants and fun opening her presents with the help of Romy. After trying three nearby swimming pools we managed to find one that was open for one of us to take her for a swim (it was not an option to do this together of course because Romy can’t get her central line wet). It was a bitter sweet feeling as what should be such a normal experience for a parent and child was so alien to both of us. In a normal life we would not have had a year without visiting a pool or beach, we would be going as a family- including Daddy and Romy, or at the very least meeting up with friends for company. But we explained to Romy what would be happening and she was very grown up about staying with Daddy while Mummy and Zephyr went swimming. Zephyr was so excited and even the changing room environment with all its lockers was all new to her. Getting into the pool however was an anti-climax as we both realised how terrified she was. She kept crying and shouting that she wanted to get out. I started to feel even more sad about the whole situation, but I decided to persevere and luckily after 5 minutes she started to relax and then enjoy it, and even started exclaiming ‘it’s fun’ to me repeatedly. When Daddy and Romy came to pick us up in the car we even found a tiny play area just off the carpark which turned the outing into something Romy could take part in too. Back at the flat Romy helped me decorate a shop bought chocolate cake with some home made decorations of Zephyr’s favourite theme, The Wiggles. The cake smelt especially chocolatey and while adding the decorations Romy got very tempted by the smell and announced she was keen to eat some. Reaching 9 weeks now without food, bar the nibble of berries 2 weeks earlier, this was unusual. Cue Tom and I rushing to remove the untouched main course from the table, getting the candles lit and happy birthday sang as quickly as possible and the cake cut so that Romy could try some while she still fancied it (such is the excitement of a parent who has not seen there child eat for a very long time!). Romy took one tiny nibble of the cake and one lick of the icing and was as disappointed as we were to find she didn’t like it. But it was worth a try and Zephyr didn’t mind skipping the main course one bit!
Helen & Tom
