My Little Chatterbox

 Like her Mum, and her big sister, Jess has developed a good vocabulary already, at 2½ years old. We've been in London looking after the girls while Liz and Jon were away. It's been exhausting but fun. Arriving Thursday afternoon, I went on the bus to collect Jess from Nursery. It was already dark. I said to her that we would see lots of pretty lights on the way home. First time the bus stops, she says “Grandma, lights! Orange and red and green". I hadn't been thinking about traffic lights - but they are pretty colours.

The Novello Theatre is where Mamma Mia the Musical is on. But Jess looked at the turquoise sparkling lights and told me it was "Elsa's Frozen Castle" 
She is obviously well up on this particular Disney offering. She looked at some snowflake lights hanging along a hedge, and declared "Let-It-Go-Flakes"

Jess began to sing Let It Go (I didn't join in) and the other bus passengers smiled happily.

The first evening, Jess missed her Mum and Dad, and didn't settle very well in her cot. Rosie came down and said she was crying a lot. I went into the room. A little voice, sobbing, said "I'm in a mess, Grandma" 

She had pulled a lift-the-flap book through the bars of the cot, and ripped two pages. And absolutely shredded the flap that was a garden gate. How many children have I known who have been really upset about something and torn a page or two? I gathered the shreds and put it all to one side "It's OK, Grandma will fix it" 

Then Jess and I cuddled in the big bed and I told her Mummy loved her and she would be home soon. We talked about all the people we loved. "I love Grandad so much, because he cooks me sausages" she declared

After that she was OK - and Rosie was a brilliant Big Sister. I stuck the book back together [recreating the gate with a rectangle cut from cereal packet] And I will post photos of some of the things we saw later. Jon and Liz got back safely last night and today we go home visiting another relation en route. 

What a privilege to spend time with the children. But I shall be glad to be back in a bungalow - stairs are exhausting [especially when carrying buggies up and down]