Dinner with My Sis and Bro-in-Law

Here they are!!!! They are here!!

We have had a lovely few days so far. It has been STINKING hot and of course my air conditioning is out (did I mention that? :-D) They have been to the beach and the city centre. They have had a swim in our pool. Tonight we went to Glenelg for dinner.
The Baby Angel wore one of her new dresses from Christmas although this was not without angst.

"Mum. I don't think it suits me, I look fat in it."
Mum *thinks*: If by 'fat' you mean gorgeous or jailbait then ....
" Sorry darling? Fat? I think not."
"Well, I don't know (thinks)...maybe its too...too....plain! That's it! I feel like I want to write a slogan on the front!"

Having established that T-shirt transfers were not going to appear magically at 7pm before we went out I suggested another outfit. Ever the sensitive one she was determined to wear her new dress so as not to disappoint the giver. (ie Father Christmas) We decided to 'break it up' with a belt and lots of necklaces.

I am having so much trouble with the appropriateness of her dress of late. The thing is she is such a baby really. She skips up the street dressed like this and jumps on Grandad's back. She hangs off my arm and pseudo disco dances to unheard music. She wants to look lovely and Lord knows she does and I think if she were walking along with a pouty face and fluttering her eyelashes left right and centre, perhaps I would object more strongly. As it is she is blissfully unaware of how gorgeous she is.

Should I be wrapping her in a neck to knee and protecting her from prying eyes? Perhaps as I see her awareness growing I will caution her as to the 'effect' her dress choices may have. Certainly, recently I have put my foot down over the appropriateness of outfits such as skimpy stretch sports shorts and bare midriffs when on our way out to netball. School events, occurring as they do in a fairly fundamental community, always demand a more discreet code of dress....

It is a tough one. Tonight it was stinking hot and no one wanted clothes on their shoulders or legs particularly. We are talking the kind of heat where there is sweat running down the back of your legs in a restaurant. I think she is beautiful and she was out with her family so all was well. I may have to rethink what is acceptable when she starts going out with her friends on her own but hopefully we are looking at another 18 months before we have to deal with that. Fortunately, as a rule, she is happy to go anywhere in shorts or jeans and a T shirt.

Meanwhile, it is SO great having SmokyJo and Big J here. I wish they lived here. They are such good company. The BA has been appreciating having her family here enormously. She sees differences in the way we do things as opposed to the way Himself and his family approach things. These differences are exacerbated by Himself's absence.
"Mum, it is really nice for it just to be 'us' again for a while," she says.

And while I am missing my lovely husband, I am also relishing the ability to make family decisions from a position of mutual understanding. There is no having to pussyfoot around politeness or make allowances for different ways of doing things. There's no having to explain the behaviour of teenage boys to those unused to the phenomenon or assure people they are not intruding on us as we ask them to share a meal. *sigh*

We are in an unusual position in that we are recently married (2 years) and my family lives 12 000 miles away. They do not get to experience us on a daily basis and they did not know Himself before we married. Himself's family are less cohesive and his parents are both gone now. This is my parent's third trip if you include the one where we got married so everything is a little 'new' still.

I am thoroughly enjoying this 'holiday time' with my family. Small Boy will not be back with us for a few days so I do not have the usual crowd of local 'lads' in and out of my back door. BA is self sufficient enough to entertain herself with her new things and I have some serious reading to do!! I am three quarters of the way through the final Harry Potter and I have at least 3 more Christmas novels to attack after that!!! It is such luxury as I never get to read during term time.

My non-crafty BA surprised me yesterday by cutting out a huge no of pix from magazines and creating a collage on the back of her bedroom door.! Who would have thought? She is full of surprises!

Have a great week everybody.

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Me and Mam on the Glenelg foreshore after dinner. Captions invited!