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What Can You Teach Me Today, Emily?
By Karen Vally on 29 Jul 2025
I have often thought about what I would wish for if I could have one wish. My response is always the same. It is to experience becoming a mother all over again, right from the beginning. You see, I didn't enjoy the first two years of my children's lives. It was only as they became more independent that I began to experience the wonder of children.
But since I cannot relive those years, life decided to give me a second chance in another shape and form, two beautiful granddaughters, Emily and Sophia. Recently, we spent 3 weeks in Belgium, fully integrated into the lives of our daughter, Janine, our son-in-law, Alistair, Emily, who is almost 3 years old, Sophia, who is 5 months old, and their two dogs, Nacho and Chobe.
From the first day that we arrived, Emily asked us to bath her, and what fun we had that evening, and every evening thereafter.
What a privilege it was, to wrap her in a warm towel at the end of each bath time, (which often consisted of shrieks of laughter from her as she created her own games in which we were willing participants), to dry her, apply her body lotion, according to her precise instructions, dressing her and then reading to her, while we waited for Janine and Alistair to appear, after they had put Sophia to sleep.
To my dismay, on the first night and every subsequent night, Emily chose a Dutch book, as the first one for me to read. Fortunately, I managed to pronounce most of the words correctly, although she did correct me on one occasion. To my relief, she also selected some English story books.
Every morning, I would read to her when she came downstairs, especially when Janine returned to work, or we would play with her vast selection of toys, both old and the new ones that we had given her. In the afternoons, we would visit the local park or Alistair would take her on an outing. The highlights were visiting a zoo and going to the market on a Saturday morning, where we enjoyed pancakes and waffles.
She loved spending time outdoors on her trampoline and dancing to her favourite songs. She loved painting the wooden owl masks that I had bought her and making pancakes with Kevin.
Whenever I asked her, "What can you teach me today, Emily?" she would fetch her "noise machine," select a disc and play me an episode of her choice. Often, it was about various shapes or different types of fruit, or, a favourite of hers, were the lullabies, and then we would have to lie down and go to sleep.
These activities brought back vivid memories of when, as a young mom, I sold educational toys for a toy shop in Westville, and the fun we had as a family playing with the samples.
During the 3 weeks that we were in Belgium, I was totally absorbed with taking care of Emily and Sophia and helping with the household chores. It was as if the rest of the world had ceased to exist. I was in "the present moment," no longer consumed by thoughts of the past or future. I was living my dream. I was being given "a second chance" to enjoy now what I had not enjoyed then, and to treasure those memories forever.
It is little wonder that several icons, such as the late President Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, loved being in the presence of children.
"Not seeing them may be why I've developed such an obsession with children...I loved playing and chatting with (my) children...feeding them and putting them to bed with a little story..."
"Children are a wonderful gift. They have an extraordinary capacity to see into the heart of things..."
"Children are so naturally curious and in awe of the world around them, the small moments that we may deem unimportant are when they are learning the most about the world around them."
"Today's little moments become tomorrow's precious memories."
Thank you, Janine and Alistair, for giving me "a second chance," an opportunity to experience the joy of being in the presence of our two precious granddaughters, Emily and Sophia, and discovering the joy that I couldn't see when I was a young mother of two.
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