Loving the next generation into being.

Today I spend in the company of my newest sweet great-niece. 8 months old and very adorable.

I'm one of a little tribe of women dedicated to looking after her while her mother is away working  for the day.

Her grandmother is her guardian and we are team aunt and great aunties.

She sits on her play mat and turns the pages of soft books and bashes at buttons on toys that play jingles. 

She sits on our laps and laughs at our antics.

She falls asleep in the buggy that we push in the drizzle

and doesn't know we get lost in unfamiliar streets. 

Her grandma can't read the map on her phone with her glasses which gave gone dark,

one of her great aunties hasn't got her glasses at all, 

the other one, that's me, can see the map perfectly well( with glasses) but still

can't work out which way is up.

We get her back home in the end with a bit of intuition and 

'it must be over there because that's where the woods are'.

We discuss the merits of  To Calpol or not to Calpol?

when she cries with a tummy pain.

We warm up  a bottle of formula in a glass jug of hot water which she drinks very happily.

And then a small pouch of chick pea and sweet potato puree  - she tries a few sips on the end of a  yellow plastic spoon but is more interested in playing with a red heart shaped pan scourer and chewing the end of a clean pink moppet.

In between we  make endless cups of tea which go cold, eat a dhal soup and salad lunch - well some of  us do - her grandma never gets to finish hers - walk her up and down to soothe her or turn the pages of more soft books and bash more buttons on toys to entertain her.

Her best entertainer is her little cousin when he comes back from school. Just throwing a ball in the air, he makes her laugh and laugh, which is wonderful sound. 

 She is very happy indeed when her mum comes home, full of milk and smiles, her grandma can pass back the guardian baton and team aunt and great aunties can have a G and T and make the pizza and garlic bread supper.

And  tonight, after witnessing the sheer hard work as well as the joy and reward, I offer up a prayer of utter gratitude and admiration to all parents and grandparents everywhere who are doing the most important job in the world .....doing their best under all circumstances....loving the next generation into being.