I am about to pour myself a recovery drink. We have been in charge of the grandchildren and they are hard work.
I rose at 7am, downed some breakfast and drove to Maidstone. There was a hard frost there (-2°C at 9am according to the car's thermometer, compared to +1°C in Southend at 7.30 am). I drove back with the GCs and arrived home at about 11.15. Our GCs are on the HSC* time zone, which means that they are ready for lunch at 11.30am. We had garlic bread followed by pollo ad astra pizza. Thereafter we went to the park, which was muddy. After walking for a while I took the GCs into the children's area (no dogs allowed) while Mrs. Wow waited with Morphy. He wasn't having any of that and started making Various Loud Sounds in protest at missing out. Mrs. Wow took him home and then walked back to help me.
I had both GCs on swings and was pushing them alternately for quite a long time. Some time before this, GS (aged 21 months) had found a puddle to jump into. I had read his mind and was just not quick enough to prevent him. He was up to his ankles in liquid mud. We had been supplied with only one pair of his shoes.
After a while we set off home just in time to meet Mrs. Wow. On arrival we had drinks and GD set about a colouring book purchased for precisely that purpose wheres GS played with Brio. It was a major achievement Mrs. Wow finding this. Our house is too large for us and functions perfectly well with three or four rooms not in daily use. Whereas most people have to deal with TPCs (© Crinklylion) we have two entire rooms devoted to them and it is in one of these that our children's old, unused, but much treasured toys reside.
Some time towards the end of the afternoon the topic of tea came up. We had bread and things to put on bread, but our daughter and her husband were returning around 5pm and fish & chips were mooted, followed by ice cream. The latter required a visit to Waitrose for a couple of tubs of Mackie's finest organic Scottish ice cream.
As is often the case, the presence of our daughter raised the tension levels by a few Newtons (is that how you measure tension?) and, with their increasing tiredness, the children became fractious, the GD especially so after the GS had found a kazoo amongst the valued items that Mrs. Wow had retrieved from the TPC room and he played it noisily whilst she coveted it equally noisily. Even the presence of a descant recorder as a poor substitute for a swanny whistle didn't cheer her up as much as you might have expected. Eventually they were changed into their night clothes and bundled into the car with a big pile of blankets while we collapsed with a sequence of cups of tea.
A short while after they had left, our daughter phoned us to say that they were both fast asleep in the back of the car and to report that within 50 yards of them leaving our house our GD had crumpled into floods of tears. "I miss Morphy!" she wailed.
I think we will count that day as a success - the first time we have looked after our grandchildren all day other than at their house.
*Hyperactive Small Child
