16. Beautiful daughter

Our eldest turned 11. She wanted a swimming party. After years of the noise and chaos of treasure hunts inhabited by pink, glittery, screaming girls this is a whole new deal for us. Several girls arrived (and left) without their parents. When she realised that the one friend who wasn't such a strong swimmer had an ear infection and was not coming she said to me 'Now you don't even have to come Mum!' They were calm, quiet and perfectly civilised. And so kind. When they realised that one of the group wasn't so keen on going on the slide, or in the deep end, they quietly (and without conferring) rearranged themselves so that one of the others would always be around to hang out with her. They shared, waited for each other, encouraged each other and bigged each other up. It was an absolute pleasure to hang out with them.

We talked about the sort of birthday cake she wanted. She realised several of them had given up various things for Lent - chocolate, pepperoni and cocoa being among them. So, she reasoned, she couldn't have a chocolate birthday cake. That would be unfair to those 'fasting'. She hit upon rice krispie marshmallow cake (though her own credentials as a vegetarian are more than compromised when it comes to marshmallows!) which seemed like a winner all round. But of course both of us had forgotten the party was going to be on a Sunday which as the traditional 'feast' day of the week has not usually been counted in the 40 days of Lent. Pepperoni was back on the pizzas, chocolate party favours were not refused and the hot chocolate on the bus went down a treat!


(The pic is rather randomly placed on a baby change unit at Britannia Leisure Centre. But it's quite a nice reminder that once my 11 year old was a baby who I didn't strap into such things. Does anyboday do this??! And it won't last long if last week's one at Kings Hall is anything to go by. It's a bit depressing when I find out that a sticker has been removed...)