Wednesday 28 March 2007

Being Granny

Dilly and I spent the evening at a friend's house. Last week, she came with me to Gardening Club. She feels that she can see a social life without babies looming. Indeed, I've offered to babysit if she and Al would like to go out to celebrate his birthday next week. This excitement is cheering her up a lot.

Pugsley is a cheerful baby, but he thinks that the days are for playing and the nights are for feeding. He eats small amounts of solid food during the day and wants to be fed by his mother every two nocturnal hours. Last night, they decided not to feed him between 10pm and 6am. Al went to him when he cried - Pugsley and Squiffany share a bedroom - but Dilly didn't. He 'only' woke and cried three times, but for quite a long time...anyway, Dilly says he has had a lot more milk today and so she's keeping her fingers crossed that two or three nights of this will be enough for him to learn to sleep through.

Of course, all good resolutions will go out of the window if they come down with chickenpox.

Apparently, rain is on the way. As we need dry weather to lay our concrete paths, and as I need the paths done before I can fork over the beds, I hope the forecast displays its usual accuracy. It was gorgeous again today, and Squiffany came to help me sow bean seeds in the greenhouse. One of the varieties of french beans is called 'Matilda', bought in Tilly's honour. They are rather attractive black seeds, but when Squiffany dropped a few, they were quite hard to find. "Be careful," I said, "You're dropping them." "Never mind, sweetheart," she said, reassuringly. "It doesn't matter."

She enjoyed getting dirty and, afterwards, dipped her hands into the watering can to wash them. She is looking forward to having her climbing frame, which her father and grandpa are making for her. She is impressed with the thick layer of bark chippings spread underneath. I've explained to her that it makes an ideal hiding place for insects and we can search for spiders and woodlice. She will like that.

8 comments:

Pat said...

Don't say I never listen to you. I have just switched off word verification. I think!

ldbug said...

Oh babies and flowers, sounds like spring:-)

Monozygote said...

Me too. If I get pornadoed, I shall blame you.

This is sooooooooo lovely:

"Never mind, sweetheart," she said, reassuringly. "It doesn't matter."

y.Wendy.y said...

I've just been reading a few of the more 'adult' blogs, and somehow, while they are interesting reading for sure, they leave me feeling a bit jaded and cynical. And sometimes a bit sad about people and life.

And then I come here, and it's like a lovely flowery breeze is blowing through my mind.

You are so refreshing Z. So real and down to earth and just nice.

It doesn't matter what you post - I always come away feeling calmer and more hopeful.

Thank you for that.

Z said...

Pat and Dandelion - you are so lovely to me! I thought I'd have a lot of trouble - I switched it on because of the amount of spam I was getting, but since turning off moderation I've only had one and that was completely harmless. Maybe Blogger has better safeguards now. Thank you, and I'll quite understand if you have to turn it on again.

What Squiffany says, of course, reflects what is said to her, and just shows how lovely her mother is. Dilly says she has taken to calling her father "Al, honey".

Wendy - I tell it how it is, darling!

dharmabum said...

beautiful. u make me miss my grandparents :(

The Boy said...

One of the best things we did was build a climbing frame with swings and climbing nets and a pole and a slide down at the bottom of the garden, then a nice big Wendy house. Some days the kids just decamp outdoors, if its sunny we even eat outdoors. She will live out there I would guess.

Z said...

We've got a stream running through the garden for them to get mucky in once they are older, but they need something a bit more civilized for now!