Cookie conundrums

September 24
Oh, that silly silly Grandma…she has been acting quite interestingly lately. I mean, I think it is her sort of way of expressing affection perhaps, but it is quite an intriguing and irritating brand of it. Maybe she is enjoying babying and mothering me, but it manifests itself in constant harping. I don’t know how many times she says “Oh yes, you’re a big girl, you know how to take care of yourself.” Yet every other minute she is proving that she doubts this very much, telling me what a long day I had, asking if I’ve washed myself, congratulating me on eating breakfast, commending me for taking my vitamins. I mean she seems happy enough about it, calling me “hon” or “that’s my girl.” It just gets old fast. Like six weeks ago. Six weeks, look at that. I have survived one and a half months with them!
And I think she’s also quite jealous of Grandpa. Last night I was starting to make Allie her favorite cookies and Grandma came in to tell me I didn’t have to, that it was getting late and I didn’t need to make anything. So I told her I’d stop if she wanted me to, but then she comes back with, “well, I don’t mean to be bossy, I just don’t want you to think you have to…” for someone who doesn’t mean to be bossy, she does it quite well, I must say. When I explained that I enjoy baking and was doing a simple recipe, she yielded. But only after telling me some of my cookies have been burning. And that I shouldn’t use the top oven. And then she proceeded to hobble in every five minutes to comment on my process. Finally, at the end, she came to inspect. Now let me add that this was a recipe I made a week ago for Allison, leaving just a few extras which were gobbled up quite quickly and left Grandma asking every day if I was making more. So this time I made a double batch. This turned out to be a very wise move. She eyed them greedily as soon as they were cooling on the counter. Then she reached out a shaky gnarled claw and snatched up a cookie, rapidly shoving it into her orifice and sprinkling the ground with crumbs in the process. She growled voraciously and grabbed another, then another and another. Apparently these were satisfactory. I commented how it was good that I made extras, and she said, “oh, that’s all I need…” Then took another. She was quite concerned today about whether I would be taking all of them, and made sure I promised to leave plenty for them. Goodness gracious.
So I suppose I’ll try to look at it as her way of care and attention. I must say I prefer Grandpa’s methods, but whatever. I’ll live either way…