We're just back from a four-day holiday with the grandchildren. We took them to visit my sister and her granddaughter in Suffolk and managed to fit in all the same things that she and I used to do with our own children when they were young.
The weather was kind and enabled us to be outdoors the whole time. We sailed boats on the boating lake in Aldeburgh which the boys loved. We ate fish and chips straight out of the sea and ate ice-creams galore – so many, indeed, that the youngest announced that his parents 'won't believe how many ice-creams we've had'!
We jumped waves on the beach, collected pebbles, and visited the Aldeburgh life-boat. We took a boat out on the Mere in Thorpeness and taught the boys to row.
I've said it before but I'll say it again that one of the great joys of grandparenting is being able to re-enact all the happy times you've enjoyed with your own kids. It's like an unexpected bonus that you get to be able to do it all over again.
But there's the added bonus that we seem to have more time to enjoy them now. Although the four days were hectic, I felt able to stop and appreciate it all. Small children are such enthusiasts for anything and everything that they really are a joy to take out and about. You see everything through fresh eyes with them in tow. They run everywhere and attack everything with gusto yet they feel so precious at the same time, and their childhoods are so short, that it's a real delight to be able to share some of it with them.
