I've just come back from a long weekend with Daughter 2, SIL 2 and Littlest Granddaughter, the latter seen here removing the money from my purse. Littlest is such a sweetie but not a good sleeper. They've tried everything - the method that I thought infallible wasn't, in her case. Currently they're trying the soft approach, which involves (among other things) having slow Mozart playing on a loop - quite restful (for the adult) as one sits with a lightly dozing baby in one's arms in the stilly watches of the night. As Daughter 2 says, when Littlest's grown up she might inexplicably find herself dropping off when she hears this particular piece of music. Or, on current evidence, she might not.
We went out for coffee. You know that piece of film when you're asked to count the number of yellow balls (or something) and this causes you not to see the man in the gorilla suit walking through the ball players? Well, that was me with this photo. It's only now that I see the couple at the table behind Littlest. What were they talking about? Littlest appears to be finding it interesting, judging from her expression.
I took her to a playgroup. I've been to this one before and was shocked, both times, at the behaviour of some of the child-minders, who sat in a row chatting and looking at their phones, more or less ignoring their charges while other mums/carers kept an eye on them, helped them down slides and stopped them bashing other children (or other children bashing them). I'm sure there are lots of good child-minders out there too, but these ones certainly don't do their job properly. It's not that I can't see the temptation to view playgroup as a little break in their hard days, but I wonder what the parents would think if they saw this behaviour. And it's just wrong.
We went for a walk at Chingford. Do you see that white, three-storey building directly to the right of Daughter 2's head? Henry the Eighth built it in 1543 as a viewing stand from which to watch deer-hunting. It was restored for Elizabeth 1 in 1589 but she seems to have gone there only once (bit of a waste of money, then). We didn't see any royalty though, or deer. We would have visited the lodge but it's shut on Mondays. (Our family does rather specialise in visiting places on the one day of the week that they're not open. You'd think we'd never heard of the internet.)
And now I'm home and rather in the dumps because I'm missing my girls, but I'll probably feel better tomorrow.
I hope you soon feel lighter of spirit. From all-encompassing activity to quiet can be a shock.
ReplyDeleteI'm in the dumps too over a couple of things. But we'll both feel better. The roller coaster of life goes up and down! That couple looked like they were sharing a juicy secret. I wonder what it was. I've done that too--shown up to a place on the only day of the week it was closed. I always assume places are closed on Sundays, not Mondays or Tuesdays. :)
ReplyDeleteI have to admit to noticing the couple in the background before I saw Baby. Such intrigue!
ReplyDeleteBaby is special though.
They grow out of that poor sleeping. (Though it's tough until they do.) Both of my granddaughters were in studies at Penn State University for this. Now they sleep wonderfully. Their mother was the only one of my children who would come to me and say, "I'm tired now. I think I'll take a nap."
ReplyDeleteAh, my family does that too. See also turning up to restaurants on the one day a week they do not open. And, just for some variety, in my youth we spent time in Saudi Arabia (where my Dad worked) and there we specialised in approaching the checkout in Safeway with a full trolley of food just as the prayer call sounded. We were then locked in the supermarket for 20 minutes until prayers ended and had to put all of the fresh shopping back in the fridges and freezers while we waited otherwise it would spoil in the heat. Prayer times were posted in the newspapers. Did we ever check them?......
ReplyDeleteGood to know that we're not alone!
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