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Happy birthday Abi!!

So that's it. Our baby is 10 years old and I have to admit that I have a child who's into double digits. Eek. She's had a lovely weekend and today couldn't have been nicer, except for the weather which was bloody awful. Up and down the country there is flooding and Mum and Dad have been battered by the rain and storms (I know, I tried to sleep through it on Saturday night with the windows sounding like they were coming in at any moment!).

As is my way on birthdays I worked from home today - the only way to protect the time. This meant I could have breakfast and watch Abi open her presents, get lots of work done and still spend time with them both this evening. Abi's main present is her riding for next year, all 5 weeks of it, so it was a few token gifts today. Other children might have expected more but she was chuffed to bits with 2 new hoodies, the 2017 Guinness Book of Records and Ripley's Believe it or Not, and a game of Uno. We've played more games of Uno today than you'd think possible and she's loved it - we all have. We also had our Sunday roast tonight rather than yesterday and as I remarked to Glenn, we couldn't have asked for a more civil family meal. Not always known for being enjoyable, everyone was on good form, the kids were chatting away about their day and we all sang happy birthday at the end to Abi... well, all of us but Glenn of course!

Over the weekend Abi got to spend time with the boys and Fifi and Grumps, unwrapped her most exciting present (a Shepherds Crook which she's nicknamed Steve!) and had a sleepover at Kerrie's - what more could she want? Next weekend its birthday weekend #2 at Angie's, then just a few weeks and Christmas.

So she's 10 and she's growing up and it shows. I've been explaining to her that hormones will kick in at some point and she'll feel horribly grumpy and not want to talk to us and we had a bit of that this weekend. She was tired and hungry on Saturday and just stomped upstairs. I went to speak to her and we had a chat about the fact that sometimes arguing gets out of hand and you realise you don't know how you got to that place and just want to shout "stop, I don't want to argue!", but of course don't want to be the one that backs down. We agreed to have a word that we can use to diffuse just such a situation. Lo and behold we got into exactly this on Sunday with the anti-climax of the weekend and she used the word and I was able to just give her a hug and it worked! If there is any chance this holds into teenage years there may be respite - fingers crossed! I read a really nice saying about forgiveness 'don't forgive recklessly but do forgive generously' - that's the least I can do as the parent in the relationship I've decided.

So while Abi has been busy sorting out her riding for next year, Glenn has been busy buying Izzy a little motorbike. She loves going on his so he has bought her what he would have given his eye teeth for at her age, a little PW80. As soon as I saw it I said it would be too big and too much for her but little do I know. Izzy often surprises me like this - I think she's going to be scared of something but she's made of stronger stuff and (I haven't seen this yet) - went off on it round the garden without a backward glance. Good job really - she'd definitely fall off if she's looking over her shoulder! I asked her what she thought and she was grinning from ear to ear - oh dear, one petrol head daughter who loves watching cars and another who loves riding bikes...

The final high point of the weekend was unwrapping our Christmas present from Mum and Dad - a bespoke, beautifully crafted table for our living room named 'A little piece of paradise'. It's made of ash with a blue glass lake in the middle and just wonderful. We talked about the design this time last year and he's worked so hard to make it come together - I couldn't have asked for a more perfect work of art. To top it off I met the lady who made the glass on Saturday and heard her side of the story - a real craftman's effort and I feel very lucky to have it along with all of the family.





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