I can’t
believe my little ‘baby’ is nine years old today- it just doesn’t seem possible
that all that time has passed since we welcomed her into the world, and into
our family. This morning she comes bouncing into our room before 7o’clock, and
we share a lovely warm ‘just woken up’ hug before she bounces after her sister
to spend some time with her before she disappears off for her school bus. Once
Mike has taken the older girls out, she’s back for more cuddles and we share a
lovely half hour with her reading from her school book to me- something we
rarely seem to find the time for these days.
I don’t want
to waste precious time with my littlest girl today, there won’t be many more
birthdays while she still feels like my little baby, so for the first time in
over a week I venture out of my bed and downstairs at only eight in the
morning. I still don’t have any appetite since being poorly, so I sit with her
while she has her breakfast and chatters excitedly away- it’s obvious that for
a bright little spark with lots of friends, school is the place to be on your
birthday!
Of course,
it could also be that she’s faced with the prospect of having to wait a very
long day before she gets anywhere near her presents- one of the hazards of
being a part of a large, busy family is that there never seems to be any time
earlier in the day with everyone around at the same time to share the tradition
of present opening. Over the years we’ve all grown used to spending the whole
day waiting for our gifts, only to get them shortly before bed. Maybe we should
adopt the approach of opening them the night before the big day, in the way
that some continental countries open their Christmas presents on Christmas Eve!
The first thing her friends will ask this morning is what she got; by tomorrow
their interest may have waned, a new approach would solve that…
With her
safely taken down to school today by her sister, who dragged herself out of bed
early on a non-college day for the privilege of a walk with a very hyper little
sister, I decide that I’m not ready to go back up to bed so I’m going to have a
go at ‘being up and about’ today. Mike has done the drying up from last night,
but the morning washing up’s waiting for doing so I begin with that- it’s
amazing though how tiring my usual tasks are after a week off, and it’s not
long before I realise that I’m still going to have to take it easy today. With
Tesco due soon though, I get dressed- the first time in over a week that I’ve
got up and dressed properly, and it feels really alien to be so!!
Back
downstairs I set a load of washing going, and thankfully second eldest daughter
is here to help unload all the shopping. I cheated with my littlest’s birthday
cake this year, I decided that given how poorly I was last week I probably
wouldn’t manage to make her one so ordered a pretty butterfly cake from Tesco-
which fortunately arrived in one piece. Its decoration is fairly plain in
design, so I also ordered a tube of pink icing and thought I’d enhance it a
little for her by adding her name, age and some extra flowers- a job for this
afternoon, after her Parent-Teacher interview which also happens to be today.
After a
brief sit down I head off down to the school, the first time I have made this
walk in nearly two weeks, and have a very enjoyable chat with my daughter’s
class teacher. She’s flying through her lessons in school, scores very highly
in her six monthly reading and spelling tests, and is working at an age way
beyond her nine years. One extremely proud mummy, I wander slowly back up the
hill to conserve my energy for cake decorating.
I have to
say I’m pleased with the way the cake turns out, and I can’t wait for her to
see it after tea. In the meantime though, I can’t wait to see her and hear all
about her day at school, and to tell her how proud I am of her! Very soon she’s
back home and chatters away about all she’s done in the day, while I start
preparing her requested birthday tea of home made toad-in-the-hole with peas and
beans- she never even once asks about when she’s going to get given her
presents, such is the life of a sixth child!
With
everyone home at last my dear little girl happily eats through her tea, and
then finally gets to open her presents. The living room is soon lost under a
mountain of shreds of pink wrapping paper, but the look on my daughter’s face
is a picture, and says she didn’t mind waiting one bit for her presents as she’s
delighted with each one. When presented with her cake she beams even more and I
can’t help feeling a little pleased with myself. It’s been a good day, my baby
girl has had a lovely birthday, and for the first time in a while everyone is
actually well and happy!
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