Gen 2 - Chapter 6: Circle of Life.

Time has flown by so quick, it has already been a few weeks since my baby's birthday. She is learning so quickly, she has already taken her first steps and is learning new words everyday. The only thing she seems to be struggling with is potty training, sometimes she will have no problems using the potty, whereas other times she will down right refuse to use it. I know it's probably scary having to go from nappies to using the big girl toilet, so we are trying to encourage her as much as we can.

After giving Kayleigh her tea and putting her to bed I had a nice relaxing bath before joining Jacob in bed. I was planning on reading for a bit, but....he had other ideas. It wasn't long before we were wrapped in each others arms sound asleep.

When I awoke the sun was shining, I thought today would be the perfect day to take Kayleigh to visit her Great Grandpa. I got Kayleigh fed, bathed and dressed and put her in her room to play while I got myself ready. I chose a pale yellow sundress with some gold pumps, there wasn't much in my wardrobe that fitted me. I was already fairly big with this pregnancy and hadn't time to buy myself any new maternity clothes yet.

We left a little after 10AM, as I had wanted to spend most of the day there. Mum answered the door and said Billy was in his room resting. I placed Kayleigh on the mat with one of her toys and chatted with mum for a bit. She told me that he was slowly getting worse, he could barely get out of bed most days. she said it was strange seeing someone who was so full of life a year ago as weak as he was now. Having come here for the day I knew I had to see Billy, but I didn't know if I had it in me to see him such a state.

Mum said he had been calling her Lizzie, which was Grandma's name. I knew it was common for someone as heavily medicated as Grandpa is to become slightly delusional. She told me that he had been reminiscing about when Dad was a boy too. She had more worrying news about Dad however, the fact that he seemed to be overdoing it, doing a full day at work and then when he got home wanting to take over Billy's care. Mum said he seems to be running himself into the ground, she told me she knew Grandpa wouldn't want Dad making himself ill from looking after him.

Our conversation was interrupted by the sound of giggling coming from Grandpa's room. We both went to check it out and was shocked to see Grandpa out of bed playing with Kayleigh. I could see his illness had taken it's toll on him, his once powerful physique had withered leaving a frail husk of a man. "Lizzie" he said, "Little Claudie has come to play." He had a half hopeful, half proud expression on his face, which as he looked at me seemed to turn into confusion as I realised he had no idea who I was, and that I did not fit into his fantasy. The energy he had displayed just moments ago seemed to evaporate before my eyes as he placed Kayleigh on the floor, he mumbled something incoherently before tottering unsteadily back to bed. Kayleigh looked unsure as to why her new play partner had suddenly lost interest.

Mum's face didn't give a lot away, I'm sure she was used to being called Liz by now, but it was a frightening thing to see first hand. She gave him his medication and stroked his hair and told me to take Kayleigh into the living room to play while she got Grandpa comfy, she came out a moment later and whispered that he was asleep and shut the door behind her. After making us both a cup of tea she joined me on the sofa and we talked a little bit more, mostly about Kayleigh and my pregnancy, neither of us wanting to talk about Grandpa's health.

We left shortly after that, I decided to go to the store, as earlier on in the week I had seen a gorgeous dress for Kayleigh and I needed some new maternity clothes. I'd got into the habit of anytime I bought myself some clothes, always buying Kayleigh something aswell. I tried on a few items and decided to buy a blue dress, a pair of jeans and a long-sleeved top. As we made our way home I couldn't get Grandpa's face out of my head, I knew that the image would haunt my dreams for a long time.

I put Kayleigh down for a nap when we got home and curled up on the sofa to watch a bit of telly before Jacob got home. I was flicking though the channels when I heard his car pull into the drive, I got up to greet him. As I was making dinner he went upstairs to wake Kayleigh and get her ready to eat. I served dinner and we chatted about whet our days had been like. I told him about how Grandpa was, and how sad I felt seeing him like that knowing there was nothing I could do to help him.

After we had finished dinner I took Kayleigh upstairs and played with her for a while, so that Jacob could get his reports written up without being disturbed. I was about to get Kayleigh bathed and ready for bed when he came in and said that he wanted to do it, I kissed him lightly and went to relax with a book before bed. I could hear her giggling as he bathed her, it was her favourite thing to do with her Daddy. I heard him come upstairs and place her in her crib, I went to kiss her goodnight.

I felt so emotionally drained after today, that once she was asleep I just collapsed onto our bed and fell asleep. I stirred when Jacob finally joined me and I rolled over to snuggle against him. I was awoken by a loud knocking on the door, I looked at the clock and saw that it was just past midnight. I wondered who it could be, I climbed out of bed and sleepily made my way downstairs. When I answered the door I was a little shocked to see Dad standing there, but the fact that he was in tears, in his pyjamas, and bare footed made me realise exactly why he was here. He collapsed into my arms releasing all of his pent up emotions onto my shoulder, I could not muster any words of comfort, I just held him for what seemed like forever.

Stay tuned for chapter 7 :)