Now we are 8.......

How do you go from this


to this


well via some of these...








Wow, what a beauty. Georgia, you make us sooooooo proud.

On the eve of Georgia's 8th birthday and therefore the 8th anniversay of our lives being transformed forever into one of chaos, love, mewling, bickering, joy and pain (and that was just her birth ha ha!!), it's a good time to reflect a little on what being a parent is all about. Somewhat serendipitously (if that is in fact a word) this week I received from Mum the letters which Granny Creek wrote to her parents, from India, which Rosemary has been typing up. They are facinating, engaging, full of detail and interest , but most strikingly to me, they have revealed how, whilst our methods of parenting and the lifestyles were very different from ours, the funadmental preoccupations of being parents haven't changed in the slightest. One of the funniest passages was,

"We took the family out, and it seemed to grumble and whine all the time. George said we’d better re-christen them “Lollipop”, “Gimme” and “I wanna”, or perhaps the first word should be added to both the second two, then Liza could be called “T’isn’t”. She’s in a beautifully contradictory stage nowadays of self-assertion, so everything anyone says must be the opposite according to her."

This could have been taken from anyone of our recent family scenes and Stanley would be Liza! He is in a stage which can be very trying as he says "T'isn't" or words to that effect to practically anything Raff says, without any malice or indeed having any idea what he is saying, but Raff takes it to heart and so answers a back and a circluar "tis/tisn't" goes on for hours!! We have tried to coach Raff to ignore him, but he does it by saying " Stan, you don't mean it, I'm going to ignore you" to which the reply comes "no you're not" " yes I am " etc etc etc !! aaaagh

To be fair they all bring us so much joy and pleasure as well as a pretty good dollop of frustration, but we wouldn't be without them. I'm getting soppy but there you go.

Here are the boys so they don't feel left out