Tomorrow, mummy says, we are going to Grandma and Grampa’s house. She knows how much I like to go there, but quite often when I ask if we can go she says no. Sometimes it is because they are going someplace else or are busy. Sometimes it is because Grandpa isn’t very well, and doesn’t want too much noise and fuss.

It was about a month since we last went. When we got there and stopped our car in the driveway and I got out, I felt a bit shy. I know that they like me, and I like them too, but it takes awhile for me to feel really comfortable. I forget a little bit in between, what they are like.

Grandma says she has had her hair made curly, like mine. She always goes on about how pleased she is that one of her grandchildren has curly hair. My daddy’s hair is very short and curly but my mummy’s hair is long and brown and straight. My grandma’s hair has been straight but not very long, but now she says it will be curly, just like mine. I wonder if I will know it is her. What if I don’t like the way she looks? I’ll have to be polite and smile and pretend even if I think she looks awful.

I do have fun at my Grandma’s house because she lets me do all sorts of things that my mummy doesn’t let me do - like rolling the grapefruits up and down the dining room table. She sits on one side and I sit on the other and we roll it back and forth and laugh and laugh. Mummy says it is wrong to play with food, but Grandma says at her house it is okay. Sometimes we play with tangerines too, and apples, but they don’t roll as well.

Best of all is going upstairs and looking in the cupboards and drawers. Grandma always puts things in there for me to find that are different - so I know that there will be a surprise. But she also keeps the things that I have found before that I like. I especially like the boxes with the little silver spoons in. It takes quite a time for me to open the boxes, and then the spoons are all any which way, and I have fun putting them in their little spoon shaped holes in the box. It is sort of like doing a jig saw but because it is spoons, it is different. Last time we had necklaces in the drawer and Grandma put a turquoise one around my neck and showed me what I looked like in the mirror. She wore a long one with black and blue and red beads on it.

Grandpa hasn’t been so well and his hair all fell out, but it is growing in again now. When I first saw him when it was all gone, I was scared of him, because he looked so different. But now he has a sort of fuzz on his head and looks better. He likes to read me stories and tell me jokes. Sometimes he teases me and I don’t know what to think. He pretends I am a dog and whistles for me. Mummy gets mad at him.

Food is a big thing when we go to Grandma’s. I am pretty fussy about my food, and my mummy is forever trying to make me eat things that I don’t want and don’t like. I like milk and would be perfectly happy just drinking milk and having a bit of cereal, but she makes all sorts of fancy things and then she gets very upset when I don’t like them. But at Grandma’s house we always have the same thing. Chicken and mashed potatoes and gravy and carrots. She makes the best mashed potatoes which are rich and creamy. She told me she puts lots of butter and milk in them, but I don’t think mummy knows that. But once when we went to visit, there was pasta instead, and I cried and cried. I had so looked forward to my special grandma potatoes, so mummy went and boiled some for me and mashed them. But it wasn’t the same.

Mummy talks about me and she thinks I don’t understand, but I do really. Just because I’m not able to talk all that well, she forgets that I can hear and know what she is saying. I know she thinks that I am allergic to something, because my nose is always running, and she is trying to find out what it is. For this month, she is keeping me away from milk and things like that - my favourites. She gives me some substitute milk made from soy, which I drink because after all, I have to have something, and I do get hungry, but it is not the same. And the mashed potatoes have to have substitute butter in them. I do my best, but it just isn’t nice when your favourite things are taken away. I am not to have milk, cheese, butter or yoghurt, or anything with any of them in. Mummy says I get grumpy, but wouldn’t you too, if you had to stop eating all your favourite things?

Grandma made me some special food last time I visited and she says she will make it again for tomorrow. She said she had it when she was a little girl. It is made out of peanut butter and cereal and has chocolate on top. I do like it very much, but mummy will only give me a tiny bit because she says it makes me hyper if I have too much sweet stuff.

We do lots of things - jigsaws, playing with the doll’s house, and the toy cooker and scales. And sometimes we play in the yard - and I throw the balls under the bushes so Grandma and Grandpa can go and fetch them. They do enjoy that.

But after lunch, when it is time for my nap, we get in the car and go home again. I don’t mind because I know that I have lots of nice things to play with at my house too, and Daddy will be home soon after we get back. And as much as I like seeing Grandma and Grandpa, I think it would be hard work trying to entertain them all day long.