Today’s the day the teddy-bears have their picnic…

I had a lovely day today, one that memories are made of and come along all too infrequently.

It started with tears before nursery for S, as J spent long minutes deciding which teddy deserved the honour of accompanying her to the annual teddy-bears picnic at their nursery. In an effort to comfort her, J even offered to take S’s teddy as it doesn’t have chicken pox; unsurprisingly, this didn’t cheer S.

But I did! I promised her sandcastles on the beach, followed by cake baking and a teddy picnic of our own. In fact I did such a good sales pitch the other three went off to school with long faces; unsurprisingly, this added to S’s cheer.

I can’t remember the last time I dedicated an entire day to just one child, and it was a revelation. I had forgotten how easy and rewarding being a parent can be when you’re not constantly being asked to play referee between the endless, pointless squabbles that normally smothers my time with the children.

Of course the house looks like a bomb hit it, and the family ended up with pizza for dinner, but everyone was impressed with S’s left-over cookies.



Sandcastles,