Not read back fully, it's moving so quickly.
Sunny glad your parents house purchase has gone through
Need yes we do travel a lot but we're so used to it, coming from opposite ends of the country. Good to have a family base in The southwest for holidays & weekends too, we are lucky.
Em your pic of ds in his cot is lovely, something so peaceful about a baby sleeping
MissA good luck with POAS, hoping for positive news...
Sorry I haven't got to grips with all the new "faces" yet, I will try to remember who's who.
It's been an eventful couple of days, we're in Devon now for a quick festive visit with the pil. Travelled down last night after a bad day for ds 
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I took him to the dentist in the morning to have tests requested by the max-facial surgeon. It turns out the nerve supply to one of his teeth is dead so he needs root canal work done before they will operate to remove the cyst in his jawbone. He needs that cyst removing before they will put him on the list for all the surgery and bracing he needs to sort his teeth and bite out. Then dh took him to the GP in the afternoon. He may be starting with tonsillitis again (3 weeks after the last time) and the cyst on his eyelid is infected again. So he's on antibiotics again but the GP suspects glandular fever. All in his GCSE year. I kept strong for ds and then shut myself in our bedroom and had a sob! He is feeling sorry for himself unsurprisingly but still smiling. So hard as a parent I just want to be able to click my fingers and for it to all be sorted. On the positive side, it's all sortable. He's due back to school on Monday so whether he goes in or not I'm going to ask for a meeting with the year head about his coursework & studies. School have been really supportive so far, ds has had more time off school since September than in his whole time at primary & high school. He's very motivated and will do anything asked of him as its only 6 weeks until he goes to play cricket in Tobago for a week so he wants to be okay for that 
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Another plus from yesterday was seeing how capable dd(13) is. After a hectic morning with ds, I had to go in to work for the afternoon. Dd asked for jobs that would help. She returned library books, ran an errand at one of the local shops and sorted out beautiful flowers for mil, what a star! Girlie she really is an example of what can happen when you find a like minded group of friends. She's a year ahead of your dd but had very similar sounding issues and is so different now, really blossoming. I really wish the same for your dd.
Sorry, that was a long story but it helps to vent sometimes and it did impact on our frugality as we ended up eating at the services on the way down, not something we would usually do £15 spent. Root canal work will cost £500 I'm guessing (private dentist) so I'm glad I'm working extra hours at the moment, we'll be able to cover it without interfering with our regular budget.
Given the circumstances, we are going to have a very restful couple of days, just family time here so spending should be very low. I have a couple of books with me to try & read, here's to a day of not doing very much, it will make a welcome change.