St David's Day is a day we celebrate our Welshness and remember to 'do the little things'. And six-year-old Esther Gwyn Ellis will be doing exactly that.
In 2015, Esther spent the first month of her life in a special care baby unit after dropping to a dangerously low 3lb 7oz. But thanks to her amazing doctors and nurses, the tot was able to recover and return home safely.
To mark her first ever St David's Day, her proud parents, Bethan and Luke Ellis, originally from Swansea but living in Manchester at the time, decided to dress their daughter in the smallest traditional Welsh costume they could find on eBay.
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Six years on, the family has now moved to Penarth near Cardiff and Esther will be celebrating her first St David's Day in Wales.
"Six years ago, I remember we had to roll up the sleeves of the dress she was wearing because it was huge on her," the mother-of-two told WalesOnline.
"This year, Esther has her Welsh costume ready! We will be celebrating the day with a bit of baking, with daffodils and the works, which we are so excited about."
Following an emergency caesarean at Wythenshaw Hospital in Manchester, Bethan gave birth to Esther four weeks and two days prematurely on December 8, 2015.
She was only able to hold Esther in her arms for a couple of hours before doctors discovered the baby had hyperinsulinism - a deficiency of insulin.
Esther was immediately put into an incubator and given life-saving medication to help raise her insulin levels and improve her weight, which had dipped by nearly a pound since her birth.
"We didn't have the usual introductions," Beth explained.
"Within the third trimester, it was about eight weeks from when she was due to be born, the doctors found that she was really small. They were keeping an eye on me and checking the measures to make sure she wouldn't have to come out early and she would have a fighting chance.
"But at the end of the two-week monitoring process, I went for a scan and they told me that she needed to come out that day at 35 weeks. We went for an emergency C-section and then she was born.
"She was four pounds five when she was born. The doctors didn't think she was too small in the end, and said she would be ok. It was only during the final check that they discovered her blood sugar was too low - not that it was low but it wasn't even on the scale. She was immediately admitted to NICU [Neonatal Intensive Care Unit] at the Wythenshaw Hospital and spent a month there.
"It was a very traumatic time and sometimes I thank that I've still not quite gotten over it. It's still something you think you can't quite believe you've been through that."
Luckily, Esther managed to make a full recovery.
Last year, the family decided to move back to Wales in order to be closer to family, and little Esther has fully immersed herself into Welsh life by learning the language.
According to Beth, who is a Welsh learner, Esther's abilities in the language has brought the family closer.
Her mother said: "Her progress has been fine, you wouldn't believe that she had that start in her life. She has bounced back phenomenally and she is doing incredibly well in her education, mentally and socially - she's an extremely bubbly outgoing young girl.
"She is now learning Welsh and she is doing brilliantly. We took the plunge and as we have a family here in Penarth, it made sense to send her to a Welsh medium school with her cousins - Ysgol Pen-y-Garth.
"Thanks to an administrative unit, within a term, Esther was able to speak Welsh fluently. She is able to converse in Welsh with her dad, which has astounded him.
"My dad, who Esther calls her 'Bampy', is an out of practice Welsh speaker and was quite apprehensive about her being put onto this form of education. But now, she is drawing out the Welsh in him. Whenever they have their chitchats, they have a bit of banter in Welsh and it's just so lovely to see that being brought out of my dad. It brings a sort of different connection to the family."
Now Beth is encouraging other parents, including those that are not Welsh speakers, to send their children to Welsh medium schools.
"Even if you're just considering it at the moment, I say go for it," she said.
"If you're apprehensive - don't be. The beauty of what the Welsh language learning unit is doing is that it’s government-funded, it hasn’t costed us anything.
"They've made it as accessible for non-Welsh speaking parents as possible. Everything is sent home bilingually - you do understand what’s going on and I do think it’s an absolute gift for a child.
"To give that opportunity to learn something is a gift and Welsh is such a beautiful language.
"I’m actually learning Welsh myself with Dysgu Cymraeg - I have a singing background and to me it’s like a song, the way that it mutates and the letters alter to make it flow, I think it’s very beautiful once you get the grasp of it and I do think that it’s something we need to keep alive. That’s important."
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