Cheekster is 10

My gorgeous niece was 10 years old today so we went down for tea. It's great going down to see Charlotte - she always gets a choice of what she wants to do for her birthday and she always says that she wants the family to come around for tea. And then she hates it when we have to leave and tries every trick in the book to stop you leaving.

I can't believe she's 10 already - double figures! She is the oldest of my nieces and nephews and it doesn't seem like 10 years ago she was born. Rob and I had just moved into our first place together in Greenwich when she made her appearance. It's lovely to see what a great kid she has grown up into and every time we see her she seems to come out with more smart and cheeky answers to things and you can see her mind working to question things you tell her.


Ten is a brilliant age though as you are young enough to still be a kid and misbehave and have fun but old enough to also be treated as an adult and join in the adult games. Charlotte is still happy to just come and sit on you and curl up in your lap and have a cuddle but she is also so grown up in many ways with her fashionable clothes ('don't mess up the hair!') and her mobile phone. This evening she was dissing her Barbie tray which she had her tea on and it made me laugh because two years ago we were all chasing around at Christmas for Barbie and Brats dolls and accessories and here we are two years down the line and they are discarded as 'baby' toys, soon to be sold on eBay. She leaps from child to adult and back to child in a few moments and that's just the beauty of being 10 years old.

Two more years and we'll have moody teenage Charlotte on our hands and then it'll be even more fun and games for sure ha ha. I love it that her favourite shop in the world is Waterstones and I hope that doesn't change too much as she grows.