Ring a ring

This weekend, Daughter 2 and Littlest Granddaughter came up from London for a visit, which was lovely. Littlest is getting quite good at speaking now and she's certainly a character.

Look, Thimbleanna, here she is playing with the train that you brought for Bigger Grandson when he was a tiny chap.

On Sunday, which was especially lovely, Son and Daughter-in-Law came down from their northern home with Middle Granddaughter and Small Grandson so we had all three of our offspring plus two spouses and all five grandchildren. And here are all the little ones sitting on the sofa together! Such an AWWW photo for a granny.

And almost as good, here's Son reading to them all - well, except the baby. Son is the youngest of our children (and is 35, and a doctor) and of course to me he'll always be my baby. But he did look quite grownup here, covered with children. The oldest two are competent readers but they seemed to enjoy being part of the listening heap.

After Son and family departed, Littlest, who has what one might call leadership qualities, started to organise us all. We were spread over two rooms and - a room at a time - she called us all to the bottom of the stairs by beckoning us individually and saying, "Here!" When she'd got us all there, she herded us up the stairs ("Up!"), following on behind. We stood obediently on the landing and she shepherded us into a bedroom. We stood there, hostages, while she stayed in the doorway. Then Daughter 2 said, "Will we sing Ring-a-ring-a-roses?" and Littlest said "Yeah" so we all joined hands and went round in a circle, singing and falling down appropriately for several rounds of the song. Then someone said, "How about a different song?" and Littlest said, "Ba ba sheep," so we had a few performances of that. If ever anyone suggested something else, she said firmly, "Ba ba sheep".

It was all very hilarious and if the chap next door had happened to glance across from his bedroom window, he'd have been puzzled to see us - Daughters 1 and 2, Son-in-Law 1, Biggest Grandson, Middle Granddaughter, Mr L and me - solemnly going round in a circle. Littlest would have been invisible to him, being so small.

Eventually she relented and allowed us to go downstairs again.

It's such a ridiculous, but at the same time wonderful, family memory. She's small and peachy but she knows her mind.