{"id":14803,"date":"2014-06-03T06:46:56","date_gmt":"2014-06-03T05:46:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/?p=14803"},"modified":"2014-06-07T14:38:25","modified_gmt":"2014-06-07T13:38:25","slug":"a-record-time-with-my-wonderful-granddaughter-catrin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/?p=14803","title":{"rendered":"A record time with my wonderful granddaughter Catrin"},"content":{"rendered":"

On several occasions, I’ve looked after Catrin overnight for one or two nights. Last week, however, was something special: I looked after her for four nights and five days as her parents were away.<\/p>\n

It was tiring (I slept ten and half hours afterwards) and sometimes exasperating (she can be somewhat obstinate as can all kids of her age), but immensely joyful because she is so chatty and cheerful. A tickle with her or a hug from her is worth everything.<\/p>\n

The first two days, I moved into her parents’ place, so that Catrin could continue to attend her nursery. It was strange to be woken, not by an an alarm but by a smiling face by the bedside.<\/p>\n

$\"$
\nGranddad makes porridge for breakfast
\nand Goldilocks insists on having it in three bowls<\/center>The next day, I teamed up with a young friend called Jen and her son James who is almost exactly the same age as Catrin. We’ve had several days together since the kids were born and to see them holding hands is such a delight. This time, we started at a park where Catrin and James fed the ducks with lots of special food and then played in the extensive adventure playground. Next we all went to see “Postman Pat: The Movie” [my review here<\/a>], the third film to which I’ve taken Catrin, before eating at a branch of “Bella Italia”.<\/p>\n

$\"$
\nJames & Catrin find a platform in the park<\/center>For the last two days, I brought Catrin home where Nanny Vee could support Granddad Roger.<\/p>\n

The first morning, we went to our local shopping centre where Catrin enjoyed a children’s ride and an ice cream before we bought her a “Frozen” balloon, a “Rapunzel” novel, and a set of four jigsaws. That afternoon, we drove over to a family gathering to celebrate the sixth birthday of little Lucas. His eight year old sister Yasmin was wonderful with Catrin – they played on the trampoline in the garden and did roleplaying in the house. That evening, Catrin had a couple of readings of “Rapunzel” – another girl with long, golden hair.<\/p>\n

$\"$
\nBath time – with millions of bubbles<\/center>The second morning at our home, we tackled the jigsaws. All of them were themed around “We’re going on a bear hunt” but the difficulty increased with 12, 16, 20 and 24 pieces respectively. With a little help from me, she did them all. That afternoon, we went to a fun fair in a local park and Catrin went on lots of rides. Her vehicle of choice was a police motorbike.<\/p>\n

$\"$
\nCatrin admires her 24-piece jigsaw<\/center> $\"$
\nCatrin on her police motor bike<\/center>Catrin is growing so fast and becoming so fluent and so inquisitive, She is an absolute delight to have in my life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Regular readers of this blog will know of my affection for my granddaughter Catrin who is now three and third years old. I’ve been so fortunate that, since the day of her birth, I’ve been able to see her approximately once a week and regularly babysit for her parents. On several occasions, I’ve looked after […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-my-life-thoughts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14803"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14803\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14840,"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14803\/revisions\/14840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}