Skip to main content

It's oh so quiet...


 
It's oh so quiet without Abi in the house, and we are missing her! Yesterday I set off to Salisbury with my little baby - all ready to embark on her first properly independent trip without us and it felt far too soon for this. Izzy was at a sleepover with Aran which meant Abi and I had some lovely time to ourselves before she went. We had a long chat about how she was feeling - apprehensive but excited as you might imagine. She had butterflies in her tummy but was also looking forward to a whole week of horses and all things horse like. We talked about Imposter Syndrome - she was amazed that the rest of us aren't ultra confident all the time - I wish! As we got closer to Angie's Abi turned to me and said "You're not going to be weird Mummy are you?!" As if! As it was despite the nerves as soon as we arrived she was out the car like a bullet and straight into Merlin's stable to start grooming him. It was as though she had been there only 5 minutes ago. We agreed that it would be best not to ring yesterday evening (for her not me) and so the first time I spoke to her was this evening when I got home from work. She came to the phone very clearly smiling from ear to ear, full of what she'd been up to. The weather hasn't been brilliant so they didn't ride today and when I asked whether that was a problem she said "Of course not, we've been too busy!". I'm sure I'm paying for her to be a slave for the week!

I do appreciate that this will be a brilliant experience for her. One of my jobs as a parent to help her stretch her boundaries and give her the confidence to believe she can do new things. I would hate to have her clinging to me, unable to face the world, so this is a great way of helping her build not only new skills and confidence, but also a network of people which she may maintain for life. She will always be my baby though and I will freely admit the house feels less whole without her.

On the other hand, Izzy is loving having lots of time with us and (in between the tears of "I miss Abi!") she has been making the most of it. This evening I took her up to bed and I will admit it was very relaxing to lie on her bed with her chatting and not feeling the pressure to split my time between the two of them (they measure exactly how long I've spent in the other's room and then complain about favouritism...). While I miss Abi, it's nice for Izzy not to be competing - I think it will help her to be a bit more grown up - she's inevitably the baby as the youngest in the house - and a bit more individual. She's also milking it with friends - she has a number of sleepovers lined up, play dates and trips out with Daddy while I'm at work - she could get used to this!




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Snow!

After a beautiful day of sunshine yesterday, today it snowed... but more of that in a minute. Yesterday actually felt like a day of much progress. Despite Covid we managed to arrange a visit to Taunton School to have a look around with the girls and to meet the Headmaster. This was a massive relief as I had got to the point of thinking we would have to accept a place without ever stepping foot inside the school. In the end we had a very comprehensive, if a little deserted, tour of the school and the kids loved it, as did we. There may even be a small chance they might squeeze us in if we are there by the summer term - that is of course if the kids are back into school by then. The other news was that I managed to speak to Mr &Mrs Tucker - the people buying our house - and we tentatively agreed that we will try and complete during the Easter holidays which could have us moving in the third week of April. This does require everyone to have got all of what they need done, and that of ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Busy, busy, busy

Full English brunch for these two! Life is VERY busy and I don't feel like we have stopped for weeks (or is that months?) It seems like the 'to-do' list is endless and while I know we don't have to do it all at once, I have taken on the unenviable task of trying to get the Muppet to finish all the work he promised / we have paid for and that has been like pushing a mountain of water up a very steep hill. We've got to the point where I think we have got all of what we are likely to get and the rest we'd rather finish ourselves anyway. The electric gates are clearly a work of his imagination based on the gates / the electric cables he spec'd and the cheapo motor mechanism - there is no way they'll work so we have decided to not bother and source proper gates that do the job and look better as well. Knowing that we are almost at a point where we sever the ties feels very liberating. Looking back this last 6 months has been incredibly stressful and just didn...
Post a Comment
Read more

Frustrated!

Argggghhhh - give me strength! 9 weeks I've been saying "where is all your uniform, have your tried it on, what needs replacing?" The stock answer - "it's all fine Mummy, stop being so annoying" Cue this evening and (a) we can't find half of it and (b) the half we can find doesn't bloody fit. I don't know why I bother. I have one in tears (Abi) and the other (Izzy) faring better because of course she can just inherit all of Abi's cast offs. To top it all Abi has also just informed me the school shoes she has had for no more than a week are too tight. I may explode. Having just gone to the school uniform supplier's website they are also out of stock of everything we need. Abi will be going back in whatever she has to hand. It doesn't bode well. h well, iof I can't buy it at least I don't have to go through the whole conversaton of how they can justify charging so much for a school shirt - I'm about to start campaigning f...
Post a Comment
Read more