Thank you to lovely Oz Diva who wrote a lovely, cozy scene of Marilla and her grandbaby bonding with each other. : )

It's nice to have a sweet moment now since the next chapter is Anne's secret column being discovered. : )

Anne had been up late writing again but Walter still woke up early. "Mama Mama, geddup." He pushed her shoulder.

"G'way," she grumbled at him, still clinging on to her slumber.

Well if his mama wouldn't get up, maybe Grandma would help. Walter picked up his bear and walked across the room to the door. He remembered Gil-ber telling him not to leave his room in the morning if mama wasn't awake to look after him. But Gil-ber wasn't here right now. Besides, he was a big boy now. He reached up high on his tippy toes to open the door, and left his mama sleeping.

The stairs were tricky, but he always liked the bumpy feeling on his bottom when he slid down each stair one by one, so he did it that way.

Marilla was surprised to feel little hands pulling at her skirt and she looked down at him, "Goodness Walter what are you doing here?"

She looked around- no Anne. "Is Mama still asleep?"

Walter nodded, "Uh huh".

Marilla put down her wooden spoon and swiveled to pick Walter up, "Oof, you are such a big boy now!" She sniffed. "But I see you still need your diaper changed!"

Walter snuggled into her neck, his arms around her. His grandma was his third favorite person in the whole world, after Gil-ber and Mama. She was always so kind to him; with a warm and comforting smell of baking and love.

Walter was getting good at staying dry during the day, but he still slept with a diaper on, just in case.

Marilla laid him down on her bed and told him to be still for a moment. Matthew had made a tiny little carved toy horse for Walter, for the sole purpose of keeping him amused during diaper changes. Without something to occupy him, he'd squirm away at the most critical moment. Part of why it worked is that he only got to play with it while he was being changed.

Walter had a special name for it.

"Do you want horsie?" asked Marilla.

Walter giggled up at her, "Poo Poo Horsie."

Marilla frowned at him but fetched the toy anyway. She did not approve of the name, but the thing had its uses and just as well because he was messy today.

When she had finished she stood up- wincing as her back complained- and asked for the toy back. Walter hesitated; he wanted to play with it for longer.

Marilla knew the last thing they needed was for it to lose its allure, so she insisted, holding her hand out for it. Reluctantly Walter put it back in her outstretched hand.

Marilla smiled at her little grandson as she told him, "Pretty soon you won't have any accidents at all, and you'll be able to go out and use the privy, and use your chamber pot, all by yourself, just like a big boy! Jump up now, shall we make breakfast for Mama?"

Walter forgot the toy and leapt into her outstretched arms.

"I was thinking pancakes this morning, do you think Mama would like that?"

Walter bounced in her arms, and yelled, "Yayayayayay!"

"Shhh," Marilla scolded gently, her fingers to his lips. "Let's let Mama sleep."

Chastened, Walter lessened his volume, whispering, "Yayayayay."

Marilla smiled. "That's better. Now, Grandpa will be in with the milk soon, but I think I have some left over from yesterday," she said, setting Walter down on the table. "But first of all, we have to wash our hands!" She began pumping water into a bowl and topping it up with some warm water from the kettle. Together they washed his hands and hers, and then dried them on a tea-towel.

Walter stood on a chair by the table. Marilla had made him his very own apron and she tied this around him now, it practically covered his nightgown from top to toe.

"Does Gil-bear want to watch us cook?" she asked Walter, who nodded.

Marilla set the little black bear Gil-ber had given those years ago, now affectionately called Gil-bear, facing them.

"Right then, a bowl for you and a bowl for me," she said, setting one down for each of them.

She showed Walter how to crack an egg in and poured in a little flour. Handing him a wooden spoon, she watched as he clumsily stirred the two together, thinking that Anne would get a good lie-in at this rate.

His spoon banged against the side as she whisked her two ingredients together skilfully. She poured a little milk in his bowl and some more in her own and stirred again, wincing when his liquid sloshed out, but smiling and telling him to be a little gentle, "Easy does it, darling," she said.

She had a pat of butter in the pantry, so she left him stirring his batter and went to fetch it. The stove was cranking out some lovely heat. When she had determined that the batter was ready, she dropped some butter into a frying pan and then ladled some batter in.

Walter swivelled around on his chair to see.

"See how the bubbles form and then break?" Marilla said, pointing to them.

Walter nodded watching avidly.

"When they do that, we know we have to flip the pancake," Marilla explained. She wrapped a tea towel around the handle then picked up the pan and half threw it into the air.

"No!" Walter cried, dismayed that his grandma was throwing the pancake away.

He gave an audible gasp when she caught the pancake in the pan and turned to her laughing.

Recklessly, perhaps happy to have an audience, Marilla had a thought. "Do you want a go?" she asked Walter.

His eyes lit up, and he held his hands out for the pan.

"Careful now, it's very hot," Marilla warned, but Walter knew what to do. He grabbed the pan with the tea-towel and flipped the pan just as he had seen Marilla do and smiled when the pancake landed upside down in the perfect spot.

Despite giving him the chance to do it, Marilla never really expected he'd be so good at it first go. She put her hand to her mouth in shock.

The back door opened and closed bringing in a strong scent of the outside, but Marilla never turned instead watching her clever grandson flipping the pancake back and forth effortlessly.

"What's this now?" Matthew said as he came in. "Oh."

Marilla kept her eyes on Walter with his new-found skill and said quietly so as not to break the spell- "Yes."

"Golly."

Walter looked up at them both and said proudly, "Grandpa, I flip!"

"You certainly do," Matthew said slightly in awe. It was a hard-won skill many years ago and one he'd never really gotten the knack for.

Marilla decided that the poor pancake had had enough by now, so she intervened asking Walter if Matthew could eat it.

Matthew looked at it quizzically not sure if he even wanted it, and instead offered it to the maker. Walter was almost sorry to eat his pancake, but dressed in sugar it did look pretty so he contentedly watched Marilla cut it up for him on his plate and picked up the first piece with his fork.

"Yum," he declared smacking his sugary lips together.

As they smiled fondly at him- both siblings thought how much they adored him.

Marilla had been quite petrified to have a baby in the household, but now she couldn't imagine life without him. He was a dear little fellow.

Their reverie was interrupted by the sound of Anne's footfall on the stairs.

Anne had been woken up by the aroma of pancakes- her favourite breakfast. A dim memory of being shoved by Walter played in the recesses of her mind, but it could have been any morning.

Yawning, she cast around for her slippers and fetched her dressing gown from the back of a chair. Rubbing the sleep from her eyes she stopped in astonishment when she saw the tableau in front of her.

Walter looked up at her approach and called out, "Mama, I flip."

Anne looked at them curiously. Walter bounded out of his chair, but instead of running over to her, begged Marilla to give him another go. Marilla obliged, giving him the pan and ladling a dollop of batter in.

Anne came closer and they watched the bubbles form and pop, Marilla practically holding Walter back from the next part.

When it was ready to go, Marilla nodded to Walter who enthusiastically threw the pan into the air. They watched- as if in slow motion- the pancake flipped into the air, rolling over and over. In his eagerness it nearly touched the ceiling but fell back just in time and landed with a distinctive smack back in the centre of the pan.

"See Mama, I flip," said Walter proudly as Anne clapped in amazement.