One

*Blows out candle* *Eats slab of cake*

Yes, hard to believe it, but this little blog of mine is one year old today.

Like most, I suspect, I started blogging on a bit of a whim. It was the last day of a week off work, the last week I'd have off work before becoming a father. It was raining. I was bored.

I wrote this post, hit the publish button and commenced my journey. I was quite surprised to find a few people actually read it. Whoever you were, thanks.

Those first few posts were awkward, stilted. They make me cringe when I look back on them now. A review of a TV programme? For funk's sake.

I don't know whether the posts got any better, but more people started reading them, which was nice. I even started to get some comments. I went out and met some other bloggers on a night out in Bristol.

Perhaps I shouldn't have been surprised that the best thing to happen to this blog was the birth of Cam. I wrote about his arrival, I wrote about his first night at home. I had two months of writing posts for my baby blog without a baby. It was much easier once he turned up.

Babies do loads of stuff that's great for blogging about. Some of which is pretty staple stuff. For a long time, my most read post was this one about poo. I've also done dummies. Standard.

As much as I love talking about Cam, I'm also (increasingly, it seems) a grumpy lefty, so on occasion I blurt out a bit of a political post too. By blog's bestest ever day in terms of stats was the one where I posted about David Cameron's parenting classes.

Time has marched on, and Cam has become ever more mobile and demanding of attention (selfish, these babies). The prolific early days of posting something nearly every day seem a long time ago. I've considered stopping this blog completely at times. But I still enjoy it when I write a post, still enjoy the comments I get. Still love being part of the enormous community of bloggers.

I really didn't think, when I wrote that first post, that I'd still be doing this a year later. I'd like to thank everyone who has read a post, everyone who has ever retweeted something I've written, subscribed to the blog, left a comment or said something nice about it. This little corner of internet has been a big part of my life for the last twelve months, but it wouldn't have been if no-one had engaged with it.

Oh, and I suppose this is probably a good time to mention that I'd quite like some nominations in the MAD Blog Awards please. New Blog or Baby Blog seem to be the ones for me (although if you want to nominate me for best writer or just outright best blog I wouldn't complain...) The nomination form is here. Vote for me and earn my eternal love and gratitude. I'll also throw in your choice of a hug (I'm good at them) or an emphatic high five (I'm good at those too) should we ever meet.

*goes back to chasing a baby around the house*