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What's Wrong With Grandad This Time?

Blog: Norfolk Single Dad
Posted by: Eddie2sox Sunday 4th March 2007, 2:32pm
Last edited 04/03/2007 2:32pm by Eddie2sox

Was the question Sam asked as we drove up to pick up Nana and visit Grandad in hospital on Saturday....

But more of that later.

Friday Night, Saturday Morning

Friday was good, visited my CADS worker and things are still going really well. Picked Sam up from nursery for his weekly overnight stay. Sam's mummy has always made Friday night a "treat" night, which basically means Sam has a chip butty for tea, with "real chip shop" chips. Last week we went out to get the chips and it wasted some of our time together, so this week I got the chips while I was in town and microwaved them at tea time - Sam thought this was a good idea too! Before his tea he had a big bowl of grapes to eat, and as a reward for eating all the grapes and chip butty he had a Penguin biscuit for his pud. After tea, during a performance of The Old Bamboo dance from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Sam came a comedy cropper over his armchair (see pic), which led to us both lying on the floor laughing and unable to do anything for a few minutes....

A friend in America sent Sam a parcel full of puzzles, postcards, a teddy bear etc, and we had good fun unpacking this and looking at all the items. There was so much in there that it will last us a few weeks exploring the contents. Thanks Farah!

Friday bathtime was great - one of the "baddies" was spotted lurking on the edge of the bath so a plot was hatched that I'd run the bath and then Sam would sneak up and push the bad guy in.....baddies HATE getting clean. The plan worked like clockwork, resulting in one very disgruntled axe-wielding troll. To add insult to cleanliness, Sam noticed that the green one appeared to be wearing boxer shorts made of chainmail, and now that particular bad guy has been christened Metalpants - he's not happy as you can imagine (even his Bad Boss the Minotaur has been taking the mickey about it). Bedtime went nicely, despite Sam getting up a couple of times on dubious grounds, and Sam was soon in the land of nod.

Saturday morning and Sam didn't pad into my bedroom until after 6, bargain! We didn't do anything special all morning, just had fun together, and popped into town to visit Poundland (long live Poundland) to find Sam a motorbike. Had a drink and some muffins in Costa Coffee (Sam "pulled" ANOTHER of the girlies in there, Georgette I think her name is, how does he do it?) and then home. We had some time on the Interweb, mainly browsing the online Lego shop, as Sam has been saving up for something special from there. More progress with his computer knowledge, we learned how to open and close windows on the screen, what the Back button does, and how the vertical scroll bar works (and Sam made a valid point, when you click on the up arrow on the scroll bar, everything appears to go down, and vice versa!). I made Sam's picnic dinner, we set off up the A17 to Sleaford, and picked up Nana at twenty to two.

Sam And Saving Money

For a few months I've been developing the idea of saving up money with Sam. He didn't really appreciate the principle at first, but as his savings have increased we've started looking at things that he can buy with his money - WHEN it is enough. So we've spent quite some time drooling over lovely Lego sets on their website, Sam especially fancies the Ferrari team lorry, which costs £49. I updated his building society book on Friday, and we counted the money in his piggy bank, and the total was £45. NOW Sam suddenly seemed to "get" the whole point of saving up - the lorry was suddenly within his grasp. Indeed, he explained about saving to Grandad when we visited!

Hospital Visit

Sam's Grandad (my Dad) is in hospital again. Fluid's built up in his abdomen again, and needs draining - exactly what this fluid is nobody seems sure. Dad had heart problems and a cancer diagnosis last year, and we were told in Novemeber that he has between a day and a year left. Things have seemed to going well though, and Dad has been talking positively about next Christmas etc. So, to hospital, us kids take it in turns to take Mum to visit Dad, and of course to see the old boy ourselves! Dad's looking really gaunt, with a swollen tummy, but seemed pleased to see everyone. Sam was an absolute star, telling Grandad lots of things about his life (the fair, Lego, nursery etc), plus his cow joke, and Grandad loved hearing it. When we'd been looking at the Lego website we were pretending we were making a Lego model, looking for the next piece to add, looking if we'd dropped it under the table etc, and Sam told Grandad all about this too. I hope Dad's procedure happens sooner rather than later, so he can get home again as soon as possible. Just before we left, Sam needed a wee so we popped into the toilet opposite Dad's bed. There was a cardboard bedpan on the sistern, and Sam said "Look Daddy, someone's left their hat here". Of course I had to try it on, and we opened the door to show Grandad which made him laugh. He seemed really sad at the end of the visit and appeared to be close to tears when he said "Goodbye Sam", so sad.

As an aside, on the way out of the hospital we met a lady who had been visiting the patient alongside Dad. She stopped us and complimented Sam on being "such a good little boy in there". He was of course, but it's lovely to hear it from a complete stranger.

So, we took Nana home, and Nana gave Sam two toy motorbikes that Grandad had told her to find (we didn't know until we got there). Sam was obviously delighted, even more so when Nana gave him some pocket money - enough to take his savings up to the amount that he can afford his Lego Ferrari lorry! Yeeee-Haaa! We got home pretty late, I chucked Sam's tea on (Hidden Veg Sauce Bolognaise), Sam played, then we watched You've Been Framed together before heading back to Sam's mummy's house. Sam switched off everything in the car, and our time together was over again....

We had a good time together this weekend, despite the circumstances of the hospital visit. Sam was really loving, and hugged me a lot this week. I guess I must be doing something right. Sam can do no wrong in my eyes at the moment. Roll on Tuesday evening, see you soon Sam xx

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