Day with a Grandchild

My grandaughter, aged five, has been here since 11.30 am. It's now nearly nine and I've just got her to bed. I still have my kitchen to clean up and I can hardly keep my eyes open. Hubby's gone off to bed too, since he was up as usual at 4.30 this morning.

Before he went upstairs, he noticed I looked tired and asked why. He doesn't know what we've packed in while he was sitting around in his taxi waiting for a fare. Here's the list.

Tomato soup for lunch and leave the kitchen in a mess.

Drive to Shaftesbury to spend some Xmas money she had left. Visit a couple of charity shops and W H Smith. End up with 2 reading books and a colouring book. Also went to Boots for some child's toothpaste as directed by her mother, who is taking the weekend off to live it up with a friend in Bristol.

Head back to the car but check out Gold Hill on the way. (It's famous, very steep and cobbled, and has appeared in a UK TV ad for Hovis bread.) Decide we have to walk down to the bottom, she careering down the centre and me stepping gingerly at the side next to a handrail.

Go along the bottom road to a zig zag path back up to where the car is parked. It just happens to be next to a swing park, so we detoured there before climbing.

Drive home and get her scooter out of the car. Visit local shop to buy more milk. I walk, she scoots.

She entertains herself while I clear up the kitchen. Then we get out my chocolate brownie cake mix and make it up together.

While it is baking, we put on The Wizard of Oz DVD she has brought. I go and clear up the kitchen again, while she watches, at the same time as playing a game on her Nitendo DS and doing some colouring in the book we bought.

I come back in and sit down for two minutes before the cooker timer pings and I get up again. Cake removed from oven and left to cool for 5 minutes. I sit for that period. Get up and cut the cake into 16 squares and put it onto a cooling grill. Put the tin to soak and sit down. she goes to see if it's cool enough. It is, get up and find plates and eat one each.

Look at the clock and find it's time to cook her supper. Get that on the go and do some more kitchen cleaning up.

Eat with her and put up a meal for hubby. Clean up again.

Get out one of the reading books we bought. It's called Penny, The Pony Fairy. We sit together on the couch and she decides to read to me. She's improved no end in the last month, but it still takes for ever to get through a page. She reaches the word "whole", says "hoolee" and dissolves into giggles. That sets me off. Now she finds the silliest way to say any word she doesn't recognise and we are in stitches. After a while we get into trouble from hubby for making so much noise while he's trying to concentrate on soemthing else. It's hard but we manage to cool it and I take over the reading. I stop at the end of chapter 1, insisting she gets ready for bed.

I've just tidied the lounge, but there are still pots and pans to clean in the kitchen. Will the day never end? And how on earth did I manage to bring up two of my own?

Sorry, no EC dropping for me today. I have to preserve my energy to take her to see the local Amdram panto tomorrow.