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Sloppy parenting


No pressure, but it's our weekend for the year 1 cat 'Mowser'... again.  I know for many of the parents this is the perfect chance to show just how fun filled and exciting your child's weekend can be.  Given each child gets the cat a couple of times through the year along with the Mowser Book of One-Upmanship, having done Abi last year and Izzy this year, I've run out of original ideas and enthusiasm.  The first time we had him we went to the beach, took Mowser kite surfing (queue pictures of cat strapped to a kite about 50 feet in the air), took him for ice-creams and all sorts of other fun filled activities.  We carefully planned what Abi would write in the book, printed the photo's out and lovingly stuck them in.  By this (our 4th time of hosting Mowser), we just got on with a normal weekend, managed to take only one photo and then printed it out at the last moment while I urged to Izzy "just write something and make it legible".  More examples of sloppy parenting but such is life.  Thank goodness we don't have any more children coming up through the school!

This weekend we braved the flood waters and headed to Taunton for a couple of days.  Glenn pleaded rugby and a bad shoulder (he has torn his ligaments falling off his mountain bike - boys!), so it was just me and the girls.  Given the weather - more torrential rain - we were trying to find something for all of them to do on Saturday but quickly realised it was us we were trying to amuse rather than them.  Wonderfully they are still inseparable when together and immediately they meet up are happy just to be in each others company.  It has changed - they used to roar around and make as much noise as possible - now they alternate between playing together (horses, families, snooker) and just chilling out together.  How lovely it is that despite not seeing each other every week they can be so close.   We will have to start making some changes I guess; last night we were having dinner together and so Ben and Laurie were going to bed at Mum and Dad's before being woken up for the quick drive home.  After lots of discussion they decided that Abi and Laurie would start the night off in one bed and Ben and Izzy in another.  Izzy was very specific - she was only prepared to get into bed with someone who will sleep in "pitch black, door closed!" so luckily Ben was OK with this.  I did have a moment of wondering whether they are getting too old for sleeping in the same bed but decided it should be OK for a while yet. I had to smile when I went up to check on them.  I could hear Abi asking Laurie "Do you snore?", while Izzy was getting Ben to read her "just one more story" before the light went off.  Lovely although I'm not so sure about the comment in the Mowser book - "we saw our cousins and I slept with Ben"...!  When we got home the girls immediately asked if they could go round to see our next door neighbours who have 4 year old twins, Oliver and Isabelle.  So off they went at 2pm and we didn't  really see them again until 5pm - peace!

While all this is going on I'm still on tenterhooks waiting to hear about the job I've been interviewing for.  It's been 2 weeks since the last interview and 10 days since the CFO was "definitely going to ring me tomorrow".  I do feel like the last 9 months have been all about being patient.  First for the house, then for the move, then for the job re-organisation, then the redundancy process and now the job.  I want to know I've secured a new role for lots of reasons, but not least it will mean Abi can develop a new introduction for me... her current one goes along the lines of "This is my Mummy.  She's 40 and has lost her job."  Not much you can say to that is there?!? 

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