Scenes From A Week...

It's been a hectic week, filled with traveling from one end of the county to the other, more paperwork than I suspect I could shake a stick at, children who have surprised me in more ways than one, and structural changes to our home which lasted all of six hours before going disastrously wrong (although that has - fingers crossed; touch wood - been remedied for the time being!). It has also been a week filled with introspective contemplation as I've hurtled from one place to another in my beloved car, 'Daniel'... but perhaps more on that when I've reached a decision one way or the other.

Perhaps.

Most importantly - to me, anyway - this week has been the realisation that my children are growing up. The Boy, who will turn 8 in November, lost his first tooth on Friday morning. It had been wobbly for almost a month, but he'd been warned that if he prematurely yanked it out 'The Tooth Fairy' would not leave him the one pound coin he'd been coveting since first discovering it was loose in its socket, so he left it as alone as any normal little boy possibly could... When it came out, unlike his sister in previous years, he did not cry, he did not wail, he did not almost faint at the sight of blood dripping down his chin (because there wasn't any... yes; The Girl was a premature yanker of loose teeth!). The loss of his first tooth marks a rite of passage though; my youngest child is no longer my baby (although he always will be...) and I may have sighed a little over this fact when he'd been safely delivered to school and I was waiting in traffic...

As for The Girl? She will turn 16 in August - and has just left my house to attend her first date with her 'boyfriend' of the last four months, S. A quarter to nine on a Sunday morning and they are going to meet up in the local Park where they will... no, actually, I don't even want to contemplate it. I really don't. It was bad enough when she asked me permission to allow him to kiss her before she left, actually. What was I supposed to say?! "No, and if he tries, I will leap out of the nearest shrubbery and bludgeon him to death!!!" is apparently not an appropriate answer (no, I didn't tell her this - although I darned well felt like saying it!). I know that I am ridiculously over-protective of The Girl. In part, this is because (a) the world is no longer the safe place it once was, (b) I know several of her friends and what they get up to, and (c) I know perfectly well what I and my friends were getting up to when we were younger than she is now... Plus, the 'boyfriend' went through a phase when they 'dated' last year of being... not abusive, per se, but certainly getting there. He raised so many red flags that I'm surprised he wasn't staked by one of them by either myself, M or G. It did come very close a couple of times. But, she's  growing up... and I have to let her make her own mistakes, as difficult as I am going to find that to do. Having to tell her "if he does, or says anything that makes you feel even remotely uncomfortable, you get the hell out of there immediately!!!" rather than "if he does or says anything that hurts you in any way, I will rip him limb from limb and feed him to (The Dog)" was incredibly hard. I want to wrap her up in cotton wool and keep her safe... but I know that I cannot do that. I have to let her do her own "thing". I have to step back and allow her to become the brilliant young woman that she actually already is in so many ways... and I have to try to be the mother I always wanted but wasn't fortunate enough to end up with.

More introspection. Perhaps typing this out to distract myself in the wake of The Girl leaving on her first date wasn't the wisest of ideas (although it has stopped me from bundling The Boy and The Dog into 'Daniel' and heading off to track my baby girl!).

Where have I been this week and what has been happening?

We looked at Roman remains being partially reconstructed for a museum display.

Viewed a Medieval mill.

Threw stones for The Dog and tried not to laugh when he returned brandishing a fallen branch.

And caught glimpses of rainbows when I least expected.

 

 

All told? It's been an interesting week. They usually are. Especially now that 'Silly Season' (as I like to call between April and October) has arrived once more...