Playing Mum

Last Monday, my fiance David and I looked after The Cheeky One (my friend Jennifer's little girl). This was so her mum and dad could spend some time alone celebrating their 2nd anniversairy. She came for dinner and stayed the night.

I love it when The Cheeky One comes to stay. I get to play at mum, although I think she thinks of me more as her friend (which is fine by me!). Jennifer and I often have to work at her house, and if The Cheeky One is about she finds it hard to accept that I haven't come around simply to play with her! I used to look after her at least once a week when she was very small, but I don't do that so much anymore, which means that I really relish every opportunity of playing with her. She is such a little character, at times as stroppy as a teenager, and at others so small and little girly that it just melts my heart. When she stays over David and I both play with her and look after her, it's like owning my own small family for a few hours.

This last visit just gone we spent some time painting mugs as a present for mummy and daddy. The Cheeky One had a great time, as you can tell, even though she took it very seriously too.

Afterwards we all went out for a walk in the early evening light. We meandered around the town walls and played for ages amongst a mass of skeleton-dandelions, blowing the seeds away.



At one point The Cheeky One fell over and grazed her nose and head, but after the shock had worn off, and I had wiped her tears away (and David had distracted her with a dandelion), she insisted on contuining the walk and we ran around pretending to be horses.

I think we all had a great evening and following morning, including mum and dad! And as lovely as it had been to have her stay, it was also quite nice being able to hand her back. Cheeky, charming, micheivious and beautiful, but most of all exhausting!

Rosie xx