Hot on the heels of all the fun and festivities of Christmas came Rose's birthday on the 27th so we are officially partied out - the house is a small concession of Hamleys, we've done more presents, cake, the annual birthday trip to the pantomime and Simon and I are lying at the bottom of a big pile of discarded wrapping paper begging for mercy! It's all been just fantastic albeit in a disabled-access-to-everything kind of way with massive attention paid to parking, seating and exit points and Simon and I both trying hard to maintain the Christmas amnesty on physio and exercises - and succeeding most of the time!
Consequently Rose has done very little except open presents for four or five days remaining firmly on her bottom and maintaining her rights to refuse food, drink or unnecessary movement of any kind! She has been spoiled rotten with continual present drops, a stretch limo to the pantomime, her birthday read out on stage and her party still to come. She is well and truly seven with bells on and along with all the piles and piles of presents come all our hopes for what this next year will bring her - huge things for Rose, everyday things for other seven year olds. All our hopes are pinned on you sweetheart - take that first step and the rest will all fall into place for you.
We longed for the Christmas period at home and we've had it - and I am pathetically grateful for that mainly on behalf of the children but for us the special significance of Christmas and birthdays has been painful as well as fun and we are secretly glad it's coming to an end. It has been just wonderful to be at home together and for Simon and I to feast on the children all day long but looking forward will be easier when we are not playing 'this time last year' constantly in our heads and intruding on each other's pain a hundred times a day. We've still got to get to the other side of New Year's Eve with all its blank-page-scariness and yesterdays and tomorrows but nothing more stressful is planned than a big fat bottle of champagne and a Bond film in front of the fire with the kids!
I am drowning in thank yous unsaid and unwritten not just for all the presents for Princess Pink in the last week but for all the fundraising, the childcare for Felix, the food and wine drops, the visits to hospitals day and evenings, for wading through these self-obsessed reams to keep in touch and for forgiving us for absolutely never asking how any of you are. We have been unbelievably selfish and high maintenance friends and could not have done it without all the help we've had - please don't stop! We're going to have a stab at normal life - God knows how that's going to work out and we're all terrified but if all Rose needs is a tidal wave of our love and hopes to send her flying into next year she's going to be fine. Happy new year amazing Rose - we're all right behind you sweetheart.
