In Times of Need, Call Grandma

I had one of those wake up calls yesterday; literally, my daughter called and woke me up, needing a favor. Seems her daughter had been up frequently in the night, coughing, complaining of a sore throat. It had been going on for more than a week, so I think it was more a case of Mother’s Guilt than anything else. And we all know how heavy a burden that can be.

My daughter was doubting herself because she hadn’t taken her sick kid to the doctor, and here she was heading out of town, for an appointment of her own, feeling stress, and compounding it with Mother’s Guilt. So a call to Grandma was needed. How nice it is to still be needed.

The aforementioned child was dropped off to me and I was to take her to a doctor’s appointment, and watch her until her Mom could pick her up later in the day. I love these one-on-one days with the kids.

We started off with snuggles in bed, and watched the show Master Chef Junior that I had taped on my DVR. These are some amazing cooks, and some of them are only 8 or 9 years old. As I used to cook, more bake, with this girl, we had lots of comments about food, shopping and kitchens.

We dressed to go out and started our morning at Tim Hortons, for tea and a donut, its availability limited to the season, covered in candy cane sprinkles. We still had time before her appointment so we dropped in to Home Hardware. I found a couple of things, perfect for Christmas gifts, and as we weren’t so enthralled with the paint and hardware we didn’t risk being late.

Still early, we sat in the waiting room going through the fashion magazines, looking at pictures, selecting which item was our favourite dress, hair do, nail polish colour, you get the picture. Then we were in to see the doctor, very nice and understanding, who declared, of course, that our girl had a virus, and yes it’s going around, it will have to run its course etc. But he did give us a script for puffers that would help with the night time cough.

Next stop, get the prescription filled. I chose Walmart over a conventional pharmacy, so much more to do and see while we waited. And wouldn’t you know, it was lunch time and there was a McDonalds right there.

We had lunch and conversation and then toured the store. I picked out a couple of additional gifts for those on my list, but got tired and decided to sit on the bench in the aisle not far from the pharmacy. I had the pager thing and was waiting for it to signal our prescription was ready.

My granddaughter became my personal shopper as she flitted around picking up ornaments, hooks and other Christmas decorative items for my perusal. She brought me singing ducks, bears and penguins that had us laughing. She found one item that we agreed was perfect for her uncle, and we had to get it, figuring it to be the hit of our holiday get together.

We picked up the prescription, paid for our selections, including some grocery items, and came home. I was tired and glad to sit. We watched a movie and played games on the computer, a nice and quiet end to a busy day.

After she was gone I looked about my place, surprised at how much mess there was, or maybe more disarray is a better word, when we had spent so little time here. My crocheting was stuffed away and out of sight, the wrapping paper, tape and tags all set aside, the TV table pulled from the closet. Oh well, it was worth it.

First thing I did was check Pinterest. She was looking at hats and I showed her how to pin the ones she liked to my Knit and Crochet board. But she’s a smart kid; she started searches of her own and found sweaters, scarves, slippers, and moved on to kids’ rooms and decor.

I feel I owe her mother an apology; I may have created a monster. Next thing you know she’ll have her own boards and her own pins. It should be interesting, she has very eclectic taste.