The school run.

Who would have thought that about 28 years after I did the school run with my own children we would be back at the same school, even standing chatting with the same person, waiting for our granddaughter! It seems as though the clock has been turned back or we've been on a time machine or something!
She loves school does our granddaughter, she comes trotting out, hands us her book bag and sandwich box, and when you ask her what she's been doing she says "I can't remember!!"
She likes to cross with the lollipop lady, though goes all shy when we prompt "say thank you", smiling and giggling until she gets over the road.
As soon as she gets in its "can I have some pink milk, I want a sandwich, can I have some fruit?" Obviously school makes her hungry, which isn't a bad thing, and she's not asking for sweets though we do have to make sure we have melons in the house, and strawberries, grapes and bananas are also on the list, though not as high as melon, melon is definitely the favourite. By the way pink milk is milk with one of those small pots of fromage frais stirred into it, crafty, but it gets the calories into her!
Yesterday as grandad walked down to pick her up from school the heavens opened, as they always seem to at 3pm, strange but true, and he had to shelter under a tree until the last possible moment but still got soaked, despite holding the small child's umbrella above his head before she came out of school and demanded her umbrella! He must have looked really silly with a children's umbrella, might have been worth getting wet just to see it!!
He got so wet he had to completely change, he was wet through, and I mean all the way!
Then today, as we were almost home, low and behold the rain started again!
Why is it that it almost always rains when school is due to finish for the day?

School!!!

I find it hard to believe when I say this, Poppy started school!
She's four years old, four!! Today is 3rd October, the day she was actually due, instead she was born ten weeks early on the 29th July, so you see miracles do happen. Poppy is walking proof, she is a little (cheeky) miracle. Love you Pops, happy birthday.
XXXX
I ask you where on earth did the time go? It's flown by, and gone past slowly if that makes any sense. She's grown up so fast I can hardly believe that the beautiful bright intelligent chatty little girl who stands before me today, is that oh so tiny, oh so delicate little baby who I held in my arms and handled so carefully I was afraid she might break! She's now so tall, in fact very tall for four, but then we are a tall family, and everything about her is long and slender. Long legs, little thin legs that look like they could break, long arms which are so delicate, long body, thin so her skirts and trousers often slip down, she has to have a tuck sewn into her waist bands. She is beautiful, with a cheeky smile and eyes which look at you and make your heart melt, long blonde hair just like her lovely mummy. Our little Angel, our pride and joy, she is so loved, so cared about, and she is so caring. She adores animals, dogs, rabbits, cats, horses, all kinds of animals.
She loves to play, she loves to talk, chatter chatter chatter! Unless she's tired, then you can barely get a word out of her!
She goes to dancing too, tap, ballet and acro. On a Saturday morning, with her cousins. She won't show you any of her moves though if she arrives to visit after dance with her mum. We've seen her do a forward roll, but that's about it. "No grandma, I'm too tired. I can't remember"!!
And school. Poppy loves school, apparently she has so many friends she can't remember all their names! She's been on the sunshine the past few weeks, apparently you are on the sunshine if you are good, start to slip down the rainbow if you are a bit naughty and can end up on the rain cloud! The rain cloud is obviously a disguise for the naughty step! In my day if you were naughty you were made to stand in the corner facing the wall! I can remember being told to stand in the corner aged about five though I have no idea what I did wrong and just remember feeling scared and bewildered, maybe frightening young children is not the way to do things! By Thursday Poppy is shattered when we fetch her from school. She's usually hungry as soon as she arrives so has a very early tea then might watch tv for a while to let her food digest. Yesterday she then decided to play and I think virtually every toy came out arranged all over my lounge floor! The object is to try and keep her awake as her mum and dad don't want her going to sleep at 4.30pm, it's not advisable if you want her in bed at a reasonable time! So it's operation 'keep Poppy occupied'!! Going to bed late only results in a very tired Poppy next day which then makes the situation worse and is then on going!
Poppy tired = grumpy Pops.
Poppy awake and alert = happy, chatty Pops.

Been a while!

I know, I know, it's been ages since I wrote the Poppy chronicles. I seem to have been really caught up with other things, and not found time or the motivation to write. Unlike me though it is not to write, I lost my mojo, lost my love of writing, something which has been life long and now I'm attempting to get my mojo back!
Poppy has started attending nursery every morning, she finishes nursery at noon then she comes to visit grandma for the afternoon. Grandad works in the building the nursery is housed so he picks her up and drops her off to me, it's only a few minutes from our house, and then he returns to work until his finishing time of 2.30. Poppy has lunch with me then we find something to keep occupied until grandads return when, weather permitting, we walk the dogs in the woods with Poppy looking for butterflies, squirrels, fairies, the big bad wolf, the Gruffalo, or whichever game she wants to play on our walk. I say walk but to be honest I can no longer walk far at all, in fact I've not been able to walk far for a long while now, so I use a mobility scooter these days, out of necessity. I didn't want to, I fought against it for a long time, but then came to the conclusion that I could either stop in the house a lot while grandad, Poppy and the dogs have fun, or I could bite the bullet and give in! I can honestly say it's changed my life, now I can get out, go through the woods, thankfully the paths are usually quite good, except if the rain has been particularly prolonged and heavy causing a fair bit of mud! I can get to the shops, library, park, go round the lakes, I have regained independence, and wish I had done it sooner. I refused to use a scooter for years because I thought someone had laughed at me and my confidence was shot. I stopped in the house a lot of the time, only going out if someone took me in the car, that's not living! I'm glad I can now get out and join in with the world.
Poppy has grown up with me using my scooter and it doesn't bother her a bit, in fact she loves to hitch a ride with me, we sometimes find we are riding a horse, at times we hide from grandad behind a tree, we hunt for butterflies, squirrels and fairies, we have fun!
I can't get down on the floor to play with Poppy, I would never get up, but we adapt and do puzzles, draw and paint, read books, play with her dolls, all kinds of things, and she is so good, she realises I can't run around chasing her, can't throw her about and do the rough and tumble play, but we occupy ourselves and grandad and especially daddy are very good at all the more physical games! Daddy is very good at holding her upside down which she finds hilarious!
Poppy has mostly grown out of her afternoon naps, I say mostly but on the odd occasion she drops off for an hour like she has this afternoon, hence giving me a little time to write this! I must admit her not having her naps has made it a little harder for me and I'm sometimes struggling at the end of the day, only because of my physical difficulties, not because she is any problem to look after, she's very good. She's woken up now and asking for a drink and biscuit so I had best go and see she's OK.
I shall try and keep up to date a bit more often from now on!