Today I woke to this email from my Mum, sharing some thoughts on the day before when she had looked after Milly, and Emma for a little while too. Just an ordinary day and a weekly occurrence. With two young kids, Mike's shift work and business to run, life often feels chaotic and overwhelming. We're so incredibly lucky for all the support and help we receive from both sets of parents. But more so, my two girls who could not be more adored by their four loving, involved, grandparents.
Good morning First Born.
I hope you completed what you hoped, and maybe even more, yesterday. Out there it was the first time I had really coloured with Milly. I don’t know how long we would have lasted at this activity as I wanted to spread my time between the two girls, not just leave Emma whilst she was content on the floor. Even that is limited these days as she rolls...and rolls...and is close to the brickwork in no time. I had my phone camera handy in case she got stuck. [Mike and I have started a Facebook photo album of 'Places Emma gets stuck, just like we did with Milly.]
When Milly was packing up her picnic set, she was so adorable carefully folding each napkin in four before placing it in her picnic basket.
On the drive home I told Milly about the black faced sheep I had seen. She couldn’t see them from her car seat as they were on my side of the car. She actually asked me to go back so she could see them. So I turned the car around and pulled off the road, as the sheep were under trees just inside the fence. She still couldn’t see them so I lifted her out.
I had said there were workmen on the road when I drove out and she was interested to know what they were doing. Thank goodness they were still there on my return journey. We talked about the slow and stop signs.
At one point I thought she had fallen asleep; she was so quiet. I lowered my visor and peeped quickly in the mirror. Two solemn brown eyes were staring back at me.
I hope your quiche was as delicious as ours, given they were made at the same time. Even your Dad commented it was the best one I had made in ages. Milly sat on the kitchen bench the entire time I was cooking. Well, I should say, WE were cooking. She ran the spatula over the overfull cups of flour to level them off. She tipped the flour into the food processor. She did the same for the teaspoon of baking powder. We measured out the butter.
When we turned on the food processor it made several large clunks and jerked a bit so I turned it off. It seems when I wasn’t looking the 1/2 teaspoon measuring spoon went in too. We rescued that and proceeded.
Milly helped knead the dough. I heard her say and watched her “you fold it” and she wrapped it in foil, which I placed in the fridge to rest.
When I was cutting the bacon, I asked her to be careful as the knife was sharp. After each lot was diced, Milly’s job was to transfer from the chopping board to a bowl. The first time I kept trimming the fat and rind off the next piece but she told me to stop. “Milly’s fingers are here,” she told me. So I made a point of laying down the knife each time while she moved the bacon.
She tried to grate carrot but it was too long and unwieldy for her.
Milly greased the two pie dishes (which I quickly redid but she had covered most of the base and part of the sides). She watched carefully whilst I rolled the pastry and her inquisitive little finger put a hole in the pastry on the base of a dish, which I showed her how to repair. I even made a second hole that she smoothed out. When I made a mess of the second half of pastry when lifting it into the pie dish, she shrieked with laughter as I had to lift it out, reknead and reroll it.
Milly is my Chief Sprinkler. First she sprinkles the bacon on the base. On your quiche she decided to push bits of bacon into the pastry on the sides of the dish as well. Next she sprinkled the grated carrot across. Then the grated cheese, taking a little for herself as she does.
Milly cracked some eggs for me and as they plopped into a bowl, she would say, “Did you hear that?” She is very interested in sound at the moment. We are still working on her egg whisking skills, but she measured milk and cream into the bowl too.
Your first born remained keen, interested and involved this entire time.
She was back up on the bench later whilst I washed the dishes. She was wiping the bench for me with a sponge and drying a few items. The door bell sounded and it was Rob/your father/Poppa home so he took over and they went into the family room together.
But this is all a long winded way of saying what a wonderful time I had with her. She is so amazing. We had such a wonderful day together. At one stage we are on our bed together. I can’t lift or help her up. She insists on pulling a few pillows off and stacking them, to make a step to climb up herself. (Poppa taught her this on their weekly bed-making session.) She asked for the music when she saw my Flip 4 speaker. I played ocean sounds and we pretended to be on a boat in the ocean. I loved it when she said, “Cuddle me,” when the sharks were close by. We snuggled up with my arms around her, and put up a pillow on edge as a door, until they had gone. After she got off the bed to swim in the ocean, she giggled when I complained she got me all wet when she climbed back on to the bed.
I hope she tried some of the quiche last night, given she had helped make it. But even if she didn’t, we spent another fabulous day together. She is just such a wonderfully delightful little human being.
Lots of love,
Mum/Nanna xxxxxxxooooooo
