I get dropped off at Grandma’s for sleepover night. She’s ‘babysitting’ me, but it’s okay. I love Grandma. Every time I come here we have coffee cake and tea. Tonight will be no different.

I come into Grandma’s and dart to the kitchen. She stays to talk with Mommy. Opening the cabinet I look at the bottom four shelves. They’re the only ones I can reach. I move things around, but the coffee cakes aren’t here. I turn around and grab a chair. Climbing up, I look to the higher shelves. I move things, finding tea bags and bagels, but no coffee cakes. I look around, climb down, and begin to raid the kitchen.

They’re not in the fridge or on the table so I move to the shelf up against the one end of the table. I move around papers and find a metal tin box. It’s the box the newspapers are always in. I open it up. Coffee cakes! I found them. I’m eating a pack when Grandma comes in.

“How’d you find them?” Grandma asks. She can’t believe I searched the whole kitchen.

“They were in there,” I reply pointing to the tin.

“Oh well,” Grandma mumbles. “Do you want some tea?”

“Mmhmm.”

“Come help me make it.”

“Okay!”

We put on the water and wait for it to boil.

“Come here while we wait. Let’s see how tall you’ve gotten,” Grandma leads me to the wall by the cabinet with all my heights lined up on it. She has me stand with my back up against the wall while she makes a pencil mark over my head.

“Turn around and look, Kelly. You’ve gotten taller.” Grandma adds the date to the mark as I turn around to see.

“I’m a big girl,” I proclaim as the tea kettle rings.

“Yes. You’re growing up,” Grandma mentions as she goes to get the tea.

“I’m not gonna grow up, Great Grandma. ‘I’m a Toys ‘R Us kid’,” I sing the traditional line from the song.

“Ha. Okay,” Grandma laughs putting the tea on the table.

I climb up on the chair to drink my tea.

“It’s very hot,” Grandma says dropping my spoon into the tea.

“Okay,” I say picking up my spoon with a little bit of tea. I blow on the spoon to cool it off before I sip the tea. As I take spoon after spoon, Grandma finishes her mug. I’ve never finished one. I only drink it to be like Grandma. It really is yummy though. Grandma adds a lot of sugar.

“All done?” Grandma asks as I put down my spoon.

“Mmhmm,” I answer getting down and waiting by the door.

Grandma picks up the mugs to put them in the sink and finishes my tea. Then she turns and we walk to the living room. I sit in her chair, and she picks me back up. She puts me on her lap and turns on the TV. We watch Scooby Doo, my favorite show, before Grandma turns off the TV and proclaims it’s time for bed.

We go to her room, and she rubs Vix under my nose. Then we lie down, and she tucks me in. She tries to teach me the rosary. “’Our Father’, three ‘Hail Mary’s, ‘Glory be…’”