Teenager alert!

Boris & Bean, the fat boys!

Last week before Abi turns 13 - eek, teenage daughter alert! This may be a major milestone, however I can't see that it's going to change much. Yesterday she and her friends were planning a get together in town for today and all we were asked to do was drop them off at the same time and then be back 2 hours later to pick them up. In between times no parents were required to hang around and so I went home and ran my normal 10 mile Sunday run - perfect time management! It does make for an easier weekend when this happens. I am conscious that we have our own things we want to do and I do feel very relieved that we haven't ended up with kids that do a host of clubs and practices from Friday evening through to Sunday afternoon. Izzy is trying to sort out a sleep over with her friend and between Stagecoach and a play rehearsal she's hardly free to do anything non-scripted. There's probably a happy balance between this and lazing around watching You Tube but lets face it, I'm OK with a little bit of mindless TV surfing if it means we all get to do something of what we want at the weekend.

Another good reason for not racing around this weekend is that Izzy is full of cold. She's been coughing a spluttering for most of the week and although it's shifting it has been pretty grim, not helped by the fact that she is the only one in the family that has it so limited sympathy. For her the extra pain is that a cold often brings out her mouth ulcers (still suffers horribly from time to time), and then on top of that blowing her nose meant her lips got chapped and cracked. For anybody else this would make it almost impossible to open your mouth, but my little chatterbox wouldn't let that combination stop her and she's managed to keep talking regardless!

 As if Abi knows she's moving closer to adulthood, she woke up this week, stretched and said "I wish I could wear a baby grow again!" Apparently she remembers the feeling of stretching and feeling the tightness over her feet. She'd also like, she informed me, to cry and have us pay more attention than we do now. Apparently the silent tears of a pre-teen aren't anywhere near as arresting as the howls of a  baby and so we just don't come running quickly enough. Hmmmm - I wonder why! I think for the moment we will celebrate the silent tears and hope for equally silent teenage tantrums!

We are sitting here watching Gogglebox in front of the fire with Bertie at our feet. I say we, obviously Glenn has disappeared into the garage because he never agrees with our TV choices! Googlebox is something that has passed me by until now - why on earth would we want to watch people watching TV??? In fact it's incredibly funny and (apart from the copious swearing and sometimes slightly inappropriate content) it's great fun to watch together. That said this one is the Stand Up to Cancer episode and it's had us all in tears, not least as we've just lost a friend to cancer and so it's all a bit close to home right now. Abi in particular has been very conscious of what it means for her friend who is the same age as her and now coming to terms with a life without her Mum. A horrible thought for both of us. It has definitely made me appreciate the little things - being able to sit with them both and just laugh, walks, cuddles, the little moments. Life can be cruel and you have to make the most of what you have.