Abi & Izzy - the next 5 years

All together again...perfect, well almost. Abi came back from her week away from Angie's just a bit out of sorts and the first 24 hours was a bit fraught as she and we settled back into normality again. She's so much like Glenn in so many ways - he's exactly the same when he goes away, albeit he now appreciates his home comforts enough to generally be more than ready to come home. I have had to have a number of little chats with her about the fact that she's very lucky to be able to do something like this. Her initial response - "its not fair that Usma is allowed to go for 2 weeks and in the summer she's there for 6 weeks!" Hmmm - and that's why her mum is having problems with her I suspect. I think a big part of the problem was that she was tired and hungry - more so than last time. Once we'd got a hot meal into her and a good nights sleep it all started to come back into focus. Good job really as Izzy was so pleased to see her home and to sta...

So half term has arrived at break neck speed with hardly a moment since they were last on holiday - can that really have been 6 weeks? This half term we have 2 weeks so today we packed Abi off to riding down with Angie and Izzy now has a friend for a sleepover. We rarely do sleepovers - generally (much to my relief) they go to their friend's houses. This therefore is very exciting for Izzy, and a little less so for us. Actually the friend in question, Effie, is lovely and they have eaten all their tea, watched SCD, had a bath and now tucked up in bed reading to each other. The bath did include an entire can of bath foam which turned everything pink and made them itch - lesson learned - but so far so good. All evening they've been asking if they could have a midnight feast so (against all parenting instinct) I made up a bowl of grapes, blueberries and a couple of small packets of haribo. I know, I know, its hardly pushing the boat out but really - what would you give two 8 yea...

It's not often I have a rant on here but I will because I want to look back in years to come and either congratulate myself on being right, or laugh at myself for being so wrong. Yesterday I picked up the girls from school - not a normal occurrence on any day and rare for a Thursday. I got chatting to one of the Mums who I know reasonably well and she asked whether I would be going to the Year 4 drinks later. I replied no because I have to be in London this morning for a client pitch and so it's an early night for me. She then complimented me that unlike some working parents I don't have a phone permanently attached to me - I seem to be able to separate work from home. I'm clearly not perfect and there are far too many occasions where I'm juggling kids / friends / phone / emails etc but I do try and be mindful of where to draw the line. She then started to say her husband is particularly bad at this and has his phone with him even at the dinner table. I said our...

This weekend we have mainly been doing our own stuff. Well that's if you are Glenn, Abi or Izzy. I've mainly been running Izzy around while she basks in the attention of it being just the two of us at home this weekend. According to Abi the original plan was for she and Glenn to leave for Somerset and Lympston respectively at the crack of dawn. As it was after a play date on Friday night and a late finish she couldn't quite get out of bed and so they set off about 9:45 leaving Izzy and I to our own devices until Sunday afternoon. Sunday was mostly planned - riding lesson followed by another trip to Go Ape with Izzy's friend Chloe. Saturday however was slightly more free form and our plans of getting crafty and making a notice board were scuppered by almost completing it on Friday evening. Instead we had a lazy but cathartic morning sorting through paperwork from my study, before heading off to the gym for a swim and lunch. Typically the one person we meet there is a...

Sometimes being a Mum is the best job in the world. Other times it sucks. Luckily there are far more moments like the former than the latter and that's the key to a happy life. This afternoon we had a very happy couple of hours in the garden - Izzy playing with Mia in the pod and Abi and I weeding the path (a cathartic but constant task). While we weeded we had a long talk about Abi's burning desire to be a farmer / shepardess, and how this is different to what her friends want to do. We talked about the fact that if everyone wanted to be the same it would be both boring and competitive, and she needs to be confident in her choices and ability to achieve what she wants in life. Abi often lacks confidence and so it's good to have a pep talk - she's at that age when it would be really easy to start to lose her self confidence and with it her self esteem. It was a really good discussion and she came away all buoyed up by the concept that 'this girl can'. It obv...