Youngest children.

There are 12 years between Cass & Jossie, 6 between Liddy & Cass, so Cass was very much a surprise addition & one her sister, as the only girl & very much the queen bee, was not sure was a welcome one.

Cass arrived after creating the greatest amount of difficulty for all concerned in the wee hours of the school sports day where I was suppossed to be supervising. It is the only sports day I have ever missed & even now I'm not sure I've been forgiven. My mother, who had agreed to mind the hordes, rushed down from up north, suitcase to hand, straight to the wrong island to take my place cheering & supervising while her youngest granddaughter, who had wedged herself across my pelvis, struggled to untangle the knot she'd made.

When she finally arrived she was so round & dimpled I was seriously alarmed. I hadn't thought you could have dimples in some of the places Cass had dimples! She had red hair & staring into her face for the first time I was struck by how peculiar she looked. Cass had arrived minus her eyelashes & her eyes were overly sensitive to light.

Now we are a house of strong minded individuals so when the children discovered I was pregnant there was great debate as to whether God would provide a boy or a girl, so much so I asked the untra~sound technician to tell me the sex so I could knock all arguements promptly on the head. I'm not sure I would do that again. From that moment on my kiddies would all pile into my lap of an evening to pat & stoke my tummy & 'talk' to the baby~ by name! Cass responded to her name from the moment she was born, her head swinging round like a seeking hound's. She also talked early & prolifically! You know the blurb: THEY COULDN'T WAIT FOR ME TO WALK & TALK; NOW ALL I HEAR IS SIT DOWN & SHUT UP. Well, I wouldn't put it so rudely but you get the drift.

Worse, the poor child inherited a family of wanna be parents. If she cried 6 people promptly rushed to her assistance. Unfortunately Cass usually only cried in temper. Disciplinging her was a nightmare. There would be a chorous of, 'Oh, mum. You've made her cry! You can't let her cry.' Well, I could, but apparently no~one else could. It was so impossible to give her individual time I simply popped her in the sling & kept her with me so that Cass was hardly ever put down. On the rare occasions I did someone else promptly picked her up. It's surprizing the child ever learnt to walk at all. She was weaned sometime around Easter ~ straight onto chocolate! Theo, being helpful & considerate & deciding he knew how to make Cass love him best, would get her up without waking me of a morning & keep her quiet & entertained by feeding her bits of Easter egg. It explains a lot about Cass!

Yet she has turned out remarkably well. She adores her siblings, is a supurbly confident young lady, & so kind & loving she blows me away. She will be 12 this year, almost a teenager. I look at all that self assurance & remember Cass slept in our bed till she was nearly 10 because she was afraid of the dark & cried the one & only time I tried putting her in reins because she could be trusted to behave herself & do exactly as I said, even at 2. Everyone in the house has sheltered & petted her so it is not surprising she is just starting to ask for a little more freedom now. Liddy is of an age to take her to the movies, just the two of them, & she has had the occassional outing with trusted friends that linger as highlights in her memory but I was old enough when Cass was born to know how fleeting childhood really is & how fast they grow up so I made time to enjoy Cass in ways I didn't with my older children. I am so blessed to have her.