Bindi Irwin's joy as Grace Warrior turns one: 'Greatest blessing'

Grace Warrior Irwin Powell is one year old and to mark the occasion, proud mum Bindi Irwin Powell has shared a series of gorgeous family photos on Instagram.

The daughter of Bindi, 23, and hubby Chandler Powell, 25, Grace is of course the granddaughter of Aussie wildlife warrior Steve Irwin and wife Terri, and the niece of wildlife photographer Robert Irwin.

Capturing Grace in a cute peach-coloured party dress, the Instagram pics also feature a cake topped with the words "wild one", several animals from Australia Zoo and even a shot of the late Steve.

Bindi gushes over her 'graceful warrior'

"Happy birthday to my graceful warrior," Bindi wrote in the accompanying caption. "One year of watching your beautiful heart bloom into the most extraordinary person. Grace, you have been an old soul from the beginning.

"It is the greatest blessing to be your mama. I love you eternally, unconditionally and infinitely."

Living up to the family legacy

So far, Grace is living up to her legacy. As part of the Irwin clan and with father Chandler, a fearless outdoor sportsman (he’s a former professional wakeboarder), it's little wonder that the cherub is already discovering a love of animals and the great outdoors.

When she was born on March 25th 2021, Bindi announced her birth on her Instagram account, explaining where the choice of name had come from.

"Our graceful warrior is the most beautiful light," she wrote. "Grace is named after my great-grandmother, and relatives in Chandler's family dating back to the 1700s.

"Her middle names, Warrior Irwin, are a tribute to my dad and his legacy as the most incredible Wildlife Warrior. Her last name is Powell and she already has such a kind soul just like her dad."

RELATED:

• Bindi Irwin invites fans to celebrate Grace Warrior's first birthday

• Bindi Irwin pays tribute to late dad Steve on his birthday: 'Legacy lives on'

• Robert Irwin praised by fans after Celebrity Gogglebox appearance: ‘Beautiful’

And since then, the whole family has continued to fill their social media accounts with pictures of Grace, showing how clearly besotted they all are.

"I think she's got that determination that Steve had and that connection with wildlife," Terri, 57, told Entertainment Tonight about how her granddaughter is carrying on Steve's legacy. "Because it is weird to see animals just gravitate to her. So she'll go out in the morning in the stroller, and all the kangaroos just gather around her like they're having a meeting."

"Oh my word, the koalas... literally climb out of their trees to come see her," Bindi said in agreement with her mum.

Robert also shared what he thought his father Steve would think of Grace.

"He would have been over the moon, to be honest, we keep saying, ‘If dad was around we would never see Grace, he would be taking her on all of the adventures so he’d be stoked.’" Robert, 18, told Fitzy & Wippa on their radio show.

"I see a lot of that passion that he had in her, she definitely got the Irwin genes and the Powell side as well. She’s going to be an action-packed kid, when she starts walking, watch out world.”

Being a mum has also understandably changed Bindi. "Becoming a mother changes your perspective on life, and being a girl mum brings its own set of obstacles," Bindi recently wrote in an essay for Stellar magazine.

"I feel a sense of enormous responsibility to raise our daughter to be an empowered woman.

"Our Grace Warrior is a girl on a mission already, and I admire that," she added. "I also don't want her to lose that."

Bindi and Chandler also have back-up on hand with Bindi's mum Terry and brother Robert.

"It's amazing. They are honestly... the best parents. I'm just proud to be part of the journey," doting uncle Robert told Fitzy & Wippa.

Now as Grace has mastered crawling and is almost walking, having taken her first steps, Bindi watches in awe as her daughter discovers the world around her and spends time with her "best friend", a 180kg Aldabra tortoise named Igloo.

"He’s massive and the cutest," Bindi shared in the Entertainment Tonight interview. "When he sees Grace, he runs across his paddock, which is huge. If you're a tortoise, you can't really run very fast, but he does his best, runs across the paddock to see her and just sits. She tries to pat him, and she just ends up kind of like hitting him on the head."

Bindi added: "They love each other! It's the funniest thing you've ever seen. I love that my daughter's best friend is a tortoise."

This is all just the start of what Grace may grow up to become as her parents impart their love of wildlife and conservation on her. But no matter what Grace does in life, Chandler is thrilled just to watch his little family develop.

"It has been amazing to watch my wife become the incredible mama she is today and Grace grow into the determined person she is," Chandler gushed on Instagram.

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