My Girls in Scottish Meanderings

Haven’t written about them much lately so thought I’d devote an entry to them.

I still feel incredibly lucky that they only live half an hour’s drive away from me and that I get to see them so often.

The little village Nikki lives in has no supermarkets so Nikki still does her shopping in the ASDA just up the road from me and if she’s there, will occasionally ask if I’m needing anything. She did that on Wednesday last week and although there wasn’t anything I needed, I decided to go on up and help her out because we all know shopping with 2 toddlers can be fraught at the best of times :)

I didn’t tell her I was coming and it so happened they were at the far end of the shop beside the freezer when I arrived. I could see Lily dancing about beside the trolley and Lilah sitting in the trolley seat so started to walk towards them. Lily was facing in the direction I was coming from and although I was still some distance away, I saw her suddenly stop and stare. She couldn’t see me properly because there were too many people in the way but I heard the excited “Granny!” and saw the wee face bob about between legs desperately trying to catch sight of me and make sure it wasn’t just a mirage!

Then a space cleared and she came hurtling towards me wrapping me up in a great big bear hug of delight.

And when I looked up there was Lilah almost popping out of the trolley in her excitement at seeing me, gabbling away furiously in Lilah-speak, trying to tell Nikki “Look who’s over there Mum!” in her own sweet way.

They do my heart good.

Swimming on a Monday is finished for the summer now (Nikki used to take Lilah in the morning while I looked after Lily then we all did something together in the afternoon) but Nikki still wants to keep Monday as our day even though I go out to hers every Saturday and stay till late evening. I’m okay with that for now - if I ever get back to work it’ll no doubt all have to change - but I’m going to miss the times I had with just Lily on our own. There’s something special about being with just the one child rather than both of them - and when we’re all together it can sometimes be rather fraught with the two of them vying for my attention (and occasionally three!!).

When Lily came on Mondays I would put out the colouring pad, pens and paper on her wee table then just let her decide what she wanted to do. There’s a little park just down the road so if it was nice we sometimes went down there or we might draw stuff, or make stuff, or play hide and seek with teddy, or chalk pictures on the paving stones out the back, or play shoppies and do a pretend food shop, or dress the rocking horse up with layers of tinsel, or do jigsaws, or bake cakes or play games or play with the dolls or play the piano or ....... just have fun.

It’s fabulous watching her own unique personality develop and be part of her world for a little while. She stammers a little when she speaks when she has something she desperately wants to say - it’s like there are too many words all wanting to come out at once so she has to take a deep breath sometimes and try and take her time and then it comes okay.

I’ve noticed a difference since she started school nursery. Things have to be done very precisely and correctly now and I often get told “You’re not doing it right Granny”. I’m hoping that that’s just a phase! On the flip side I can see her conversation expanding and her curiousity piqued about a lot more things so on the whole I think it’s a positive experience.

And she seems to be doing well there. She was chuffed to bits to get a golden ticket one morning - only Nikki doesn’t seem to know what it was for and now Lily can’t remember!

Last week she had her first nursery sports day and was chuffed to come in third when she ran but was even more chuffed when Nikki ran in the mums’ race and won it so that they could both proudly display their stickers together!

Nikki has a good friend in the village, Tracy, who has a daughter same age as Lily, Emily. Emily and Lily pal about together and have been away on holiday together and although they get on well you kind of get the impression they’re not going to be best buddies or anything.

Nikki & I were observing the other day that she tends to make friends with boys more than girls - her absolute best friend is Cole and her best friend at nursery is James. Perhaps - going by this pic of her and James walking home from nursery together - it’s because she can boss the boys around more easily!!

She went to James’ birthday party on Sunday - beside herself with excitement because it was a ‘hero’ theme and her favourite comic hero at the moment is Spiderman so Nikki had managed to find a Spidergirl costume at Argos. She wore it all day on Monday as well when the four of us went out for the day and kept showing it to random strangers everywhere! (complete with biker boots)

Her and Lilah get on better now that Lilah is able to be more interactive in play etc. It wasn’t that they never got on before but I think Lilah was viewed as being a bit of a nuisance rather than a playmate whereas now Lily will chat away to her in the car and make her laugh and play a lot more with her around the house. Nikki came through from the kitchen the other week and found them like this:

Lilah is a totally different personality. She’s a real character and pretty headstrong - when she has a tantrum you know about it! It’s not that she’s loud or anything - it’s more that the world has very obviously just ended and no-one seems to have noticed :¬)

She’s definitely going to be musical though. Right from the get-go she danced to anything which made a noise - the instant she heard any sound she was jigging - even it meant jigging on the spot cos she couldn’t move yet! And every time she comes round the first toy she goes for is either a little trumpet which plays tunes when you press the keys or a drum which plays a tune when you bang it. Nikki says she even dances to her printer when it’s going!

She’s recently discovered the piano and her wee face lit up when she realised this great black lump of a thing which always sat in Granny’s sitting room actually played music when you touched it! She approaches it in an entirely different way from Lily though. Lily used to bang both hands down on the keys when she was sat in front of it - the more noise the better - whereas I noticed Lilah very deliberately picks out specific notes with her finger.

She has the cutest cheekiest smile with a little dimple in her right cheek making it even cuter!

Her and I had a rocky start because I was so ill when she was born and I worried that it might affect our relationship but I’m glad to report that that doesn’t seem to be the case.

I remember when this was taken. For no apparent reason I suddenly felt well for that entire day right up until teatime which happily coincided with a day when the girls were here. Nikki took this photo of Lilah and I as she was laughing away at me and as I look at it it brings back the feeling I had of being so grateful for just one day of feeling normal and being able to enjoy my granddaughter.

Yep my girls are growing up.

And my big girl has matured a lot since she had babies of her own. The cheeky imp who caused me so much stress (don’t they all) is now holding her own very well as a Mum and dealing with her responsibilities in a way I didn’t think I was ever going to see. I can honestly say now that I’m proud of her :)

Last updated January 09, 2018