The ‘phone rang . . .

 

The ‘phone rang . . .

. . . but Barry couldn’t find it, He could have answered it on his watch, but that’s not very satisfactory. He found his ‘phone in the shower room. He’d taken it in there to clean his teeth, or, I should say, while he cleaned his teeth. He uses it to time the tooth-cleaning ritual. Technophile? Never!

Anyway, it was our grandson calling to say he’d just dropped his wife off at the railway station and was travelling on to see us. He would be with us shortly. We just had time to tidy the major muddles and put clean covers on the chairs before he arrived, one little girl in his arms and her older sister following.

The first thing Melia did was to remove her shoes. She’s such a competent little girl. Little children’s shoes just melt my heart.

Hailey sat on my lap and gazed at me, as if trying to memorise my face. It’s a toss-up with babies if they’re going to cry or smile. She smiled and then she giggled. Well, I’m enough to make a cat laugh!

Melia is an observant and helpful big sister, giving Hailey a toy to play with if she seemed to need something.

Roxy was delighted to see Callum. He’s her favourite person in the entire world and she stayed very close to him all the time he was with us.

Gilbert had seen the little girls before, but he was so careful, particularly with the baby, sniffing her cautiously, so worried about doing the wrong thing.

 Arthur had not experienced small humans until today, and he was excited to discover how tasty they smelt. Hailey enjoyed having her toes and fingers gently licked.

Herschel and Jellicoe were indifferent, as is their wont.

Young children are so photogenic. They know when they are being filmed or photographed but are unselfconscious, natural subjects.

All too soon, it was time for them to go home. Hailey fell asleep as soon as she settled in her car seat. She had missed her afternoon nap, but wasn’t grizzly, as some often are when tired. Callum had the unenviable task of preventing Melia falling asleep on the journey home. I hope he managed it!

It was an unexpected visit and so lovely to see them.

 The bonus was that they were able to take their Christmas presents home with them, plus a couple of other things. It wasn’t quite a garage clear-out, but a few things have gone to new homes. The most important was a small upstairs dog crate for the puppy they’re collecting on Friday. Their young dog died unexpectedly three months ago, and their older dog has been missing her. There will be much excitement!