I was thinking of doing a picture-only Day In The Life post this time round, but I can't resist adding a running commentary for posterity's sake and also so this won't just be a huge post of Dulcie photos. Here goes...
Dulcie gets us up at a not-too-early hour and helps me to feed the cats. She likes to have this as one of her jobs, but the cats are so greedy that she often finds it hard to get the bowl past them and on the floor. Help is not welcome, however!
Cats fed, Dulcie sits up at the Easter-themed table and asks where her own breakfast is.
She has an Easter egg with a Peppa Pig breakfast set included so we open it up. I like her style, attacking the enclosed chocolate egg with great gusto.
She eats the whole thing and follows it with cereal and toast. I have toast and peanut butter. Lola manages to steal one slice from my plate despite me trying to hold her back. I wrestle it back off her and throw it in the bin, sustaining a few cat scratches in the process. Graham's sister, who's been staying this weekend, gets up and makes me a cup of coffee. Lovely!
Breakfast consumed, we set about decorating some hard-boiled eggs. I attempted to dye them the night before, but got distracted and left them in the vinegar solution for too long and they came out looking like eggy burn victims. We do our best to jazz them up with crayons and stickers.
I think Dulcie is a bit confused by the whole thing.
The best-looking eggs are these ones that I made using little shrink-wrap jackets. I found these in Sentry Box toys last week and suddenly remembered using them when I was wee, something I had forgotten all about for years.
We all agreed this sticker looked uncannily like Dulcie!
Auntie Dee Dee (Graham's sister) heads off to get the bus home and the rest of us get ready for a day in the sunshiney park. Dulcie, who got a slightly red head the day before, still fits in last year's sun hat. Hooray!
We make a quick stop-off in the shops for picnic supplies then just make it across the road to the park ahead of a procession of thousands of motorbikes, riding to raise money for Yorkhill Hospital (where Dulcie stayed when she was teeny and had pneumonia) we discover later. We set up our blanket under a tree and Dulcie strikes a pose for a photo or two.
Talking of striking a pose... These are the first prescription sunglasses I've EVER had and I'm loving them. No more having to choose between migraines and blindness. Dulcie and I did not co-ordinate outfits on purpose.
We snack on our picnic (le pain, no vin, le Boursin) and play with this bubble gun. Bubbles always make Dulcie happy, although the wind is blowing them off faster than we can make them.
I lounge on the blanket for a while and watch Dulcie and Graham playing football. Dulcie spends most of her time lying on top of the ball. Graham spends most of his time pretending to fall over.
Dulcie stops for some grapes and to recharge her batteries.
She wanders off again, so I start browsing the Observer magazine from the comfort of the blanket. I really like Eva Wiseman, but in this article she is talking about being pregnant. I torture myself by reading it all and realise I will probably never read Eva Wiseman again now, which is a shame because I like liked her writing.
Dulcie appears with a little daisy bouquet for my buttonhole. I wander off with Dulcie to make daisy chains and examine leaf skeletons.
We roll the boiled eggs, starting on the grass before moving to harder ground for optimum cracking. Dulcie starts using Humpty Dumpty as a verb, saying, "My egg got humpty-dumptied!"
We head to the playpark, where the slide and the roundabout are the biggest hits of the day.
Graham's phone rings, so Dulcie takes over the task of pushing the roundabout...
..before leading me off for a game of hide-and-seek. She never gives me long enough to hide very well.
It was our friend Daniel on the phone. He moved to Shetland a few months ago, but is visiting Glasgow this week so he comes to meet us in the park. We hang out in the children's garden, Dulcie's favourite place where she is most easily entertained. I keep Dulcie going while the men indulge in man-chat. Dulcie (with a bit of assistance from yours truly) makes two new friends - Sophie (very bossy) and Charlotte (very chatty). She also sees her nursery pal Wolfy who she sees EVERYWHERE she goes.
We stop off at the shop for a couple of dinner ingredients and head for home.
Once home, Graham gets busy in the kitchen while Dulcie and I watch Rainbow (she loves the theme tune suddenly) as a distraction aid while I cut her toenails. It goes very smoothly and quickly, a total contrast to how it normally goes.
Dulcie insists we switch to Peppa Pig. I am just dozing off when the buzzer goes.
It's my mum and dad. We weren't expecting them until about 9pm. Apparently they texted the change of plans earlier, but I haven't looked at my phone all day. Dulcie is very pleased to see them, especially since my mum has found a Peppa Pig car in a car-boot sale.
Graham, clever boy that he is, manages to make dinner (leek and boursin - leftover from lunch - risotto and salad) stretch a bit further.
Dinner entertainment mainly consists of Dulcie making everyone turn their glasses "side-up-down". I think my awesome glasses still look good, even this way round.
After this, my mum and dad give Dulcie her bath while I try to get my lunch together for the following day and tidy up a bit. I am finding it very hard to continue. I've not been feeling great lately and would like to collapse, but then when will the stuff get done?
My dad does my usual job of reading Dulcie's bedtime stories. My mum and I fold Dulcie's washing even though I still just want to collapse.
Stories read, Dulcie can't go on either. She weeps and wails until I wrestle her into bed and switch off the light, then she almost instantly falls asleep.
I sit and chat to my mum and dad and Graham for a while, but finally admit defeat and head for bed at around 10pm. Zzzz! Sadly, my sleep is not destined to be uninterrupted and Dulcie is up and down fairly regularly, shouting about this that and the other and generally thrashing around. Yawn...
I realise, looking back, that this day seems abolutely idyllic. It didn't feel that way to me (I did enjoy many parts of it, but misery loomed heavily on my mind throughout) but at least nobody nearly died this time around! Ha!
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Here follows a list (I'll update it if more posts are added) of some other people who took part in this Day In The Life. If you took part, plase leave a comment and I'll add a link to your post to.
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