Monday 30 May 2016

Dreaming of Ants (Grandma Moments)



Little G and I are sitting in the garden. It is Thursday, 'Grandma Day' under the new regime. The sun is pouring down, we have a plate of chocolate biscuits between us and Little G is doing maths. She is proving, via visual evidence, that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

When I have wiped unbelievable amounts of chocolate from her face, hands and left ear, we progress to philosophy. 'I cried yesterday,' she tells me. I ask why. 'I was sad.'

Yesterday, Little G returned to nursery as SIL's two week paternity leave finished. But you like nursery, I remind her.  And you know you come home at the end of the day. You don't stay there. She considers this. I don't cry when you go home, I tell her, because I know I will see you again very soon. She agrees that this is probably true.

It strikes me that we never used to have this sort of conversations. Mainly because Little G didn't do 'yesterday'. Or 'sad'. It is another reminder that she is growing up. The cat now joins us, keeping her distance. Little G comes under 'Small Fur Puller' in her list of people to avoid.

How's your baby brother? I ask Little G, to lighten the mood. 'He cries,' she says. Oh well, can't win them all. The cat rolls over in the grass. What do cats dream about? I ask. She considers this for a while. 'Biscuits,' she suggests, eyeing the last one on the plate hopefully. I break it in two. Little G has a propensity to turn into Little Hyde if she ingests too much sugar.

I point out that cats don't speak, so how would they know that a biscuit was a biscuit? Little G finds this concept interesting so we bat it backwards and forwards for a while. It's like your baby brother, I say to reinforce my argument. He doesn't know any words, so what does he dream about? 'Ants,' she replies without hesitation.

I have no answer to this, so we finish our biscuit in companionable silence.

11 comments:

  1. Very, very pleased to see it's going on (especially like Kitteny's appearance). Très grand merci Madame.

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    1. thanks M. It may be sporadic...as per title.

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    2. frequency is not important as long as it exists.

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  2. I agree with Marcus. Little G's reflective mood is a huge new development...rather poignant too!

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  3. Oh the logic of children. One of the twins, aged about 3, saw a squashed worm on the pavement. Poorly worm, he said, he need to clean his teeth and go to bed for a bit!

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    1. They do become most interesting once they start to speak and reason...

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  4. welcome back you two, missed you like crazy...

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    1. we will be here on an ad hoc basis! and thank you.

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  5. This is such a lovely little scene. I can just picture it. I'm going to try that "cats dream of biscuits" line on my wife and see if she'll buy me some.

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  6. I'm still trying to figure out whether sheep dream of electric androids.

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