My baby--Laura

Laura was born very early in the morning after a thunderstorm. It had been a humid night and as the midwife lay her in the crib, Laura held her head up as if to say 'well is this what all the fuss was about.' I knew then that she was going to be trouble and I wasn't far out. She was a bit tetchy as a baby but we had no real difficulties with her. Her older sisters loved her and enjoyed amusing her as she got older. She started walking at 8 months and boy did she get into everything. The one time the stairgate was left open she fell down the stairs, no injuries though. A tiny piece of a plastic sweet wrapper left on the floor and she had to find it and almost choke on it. In fact my father was already in the car waiting to take us to the hospital when a last ditch squeeze did the trick and she brought it up, all over me!

We moved house when she was a year old and the new place had a very big garden, unfortunately it also had a very low wall surrounding it. She was constantly climbing over it and walking off down the road. She usually timed these walks with the school leaving times and various children would bring her home. They got so used to this that they would just dump her over the wall instead of knocking and asking if she was ours. Eventually Mike, with the help of our neighbour, built a fence to contain her. She has always been the tomboy of the family but at the same time very much a daddy's girl. She's the one who could be found sitting beside him with the toolbox, passing him whatever he asked for. If he went for a walk she had to go too.

One year we went on holiday to North Devon and were playing on the beach and the kids were jumping waves. Laura was too small to do this properly so I stood behind her lifting her up until she bounced too hard and her head caught me under the chin and knocked a tooth out. She still reminds me of this and I think she still finds it funny although when it happened she was upset. Especially when we pulled them off the beach to visit the dentist.

Because she had older sisters Laura didn't have to ask for anything, all she had to do was point and someone would fetch it. This led to her not talking until she was about 3 and we were getting worried until my mum told me that I hadn't spoke much either. We took her to pre-school on several occasions but she only stayed once. The rest of the time she would wait until the teacher's back was turned and walk out, catching up with her dad at the Post Office or shop. Luckily there were no roads to cross and Mike got used to waiting to see if she would leave. We thought this might lead to problems with her attending school but she really loved it and started to boss everyone around, even the teacher.

She was a bright girl and soon learnt to read and write and when she changed schools at 7 had no problems. The new primary school was great for her, they were hot on drama and sport, both of which Laura liked. She took part in the school pantomime each year, taking the leading role usually, and was house captain in sports. She played netball and did gymnastics regularly with some table tennis and trampolining thrown in.

At 11 she decided to go to boarding school which she enjoyed but due to bullying had to leave two years later. I hasten to add that she wasn't the bully. This gave her a good grounding for the local school and she did well in her exams. Now she is training as a receptionist / secretary at a firm in Plymouth and seems to be enjoying life.

She is a good kid with her heart in the right place, sometimes though she forgets to smile when she's doing a good turn. She is headstrong but still willing to listen to her mum's advice and she calls me if she has a problem.

Out of the two girls she is more likely to actually listen to other people as she would rather not be the centre of attention. At one stage she was considering nursing as a career, but boys got in the way. Her only bad points are that she has the typical teenager's attitude of I'll do it later.