What a big surprise! Totally unexpected, althou I should have seen it coming... the city is full of commercials for the presents one should buy for "Moedersdag" ... somehow, I thought that does not include me. Well, for the first time in my life, this year, I got my children to acknowledge me as their mother ;-) I'm so proud of them!
The kids already brought the presents with them on Friday evening - drawings they made in the daycare - with strict instructions to NOT open them till Sunday. When I asked them what shall we do for the "moederdag", after a while we came up, mostly based on Alisa's ideas, that
they will make me a breakfast on Sunday, and bring it to bed. We agreed they have to make something that does no involve cooking - so, sandwich, no tea.
So I prepared it a bit for them: I left the sliced bread where they can reach it, and the small bottle of fruit juice. They found a plate and a cup in the dishwasher. And indeed, at 7:30, they brought it to me to bed - bread with cheese spread, and cup of juice. Absolutely wonderful! They were so sweet, with their presents, and proud of our reverse roles, and being so grown-up and responsible, making a breakfast by themselves!
It didn't come as a
complete surprise, thou, because Charlie was in my bed already at 6:30; I had to get up ad instruct Iris (my niece who slept over) and him to quietly play in the living room while Alisa and me sleep a bit longer; and from 7 onwards Charlie was coming every 5 minutes to inform me of the progress ;-)
The rest of the day was nice too -- three of them were (mostly) playing nicely together, building huts from unfinished furniture, and cloth; I made them breakfast, too, and while we were having a second breakfast, KC and Tim came to visit, joined a bit with eating, then went with us to the little playground just in front. After they both tried the "bakfiets" (transport bike), we walked with them a bit in the direction of Vondelpark, then went to another playground, waited for Nana and Thijmen, then cycled together to Amsterdamse Bos to have a picnic - in the sun! Ah - it was warm, the grass soft, and them playing by themselves ;-) We were also tossing and tickling each other for a while, laughing like mad :-D
Saturday was great, also: we did all the things they (or, Alisa) wanted: had pancakes for breakfast; went to the swimming pool; then with Nana and Iris to two playgrounds in Vondelpark, including the "springkussen" (bouncy castle), and a long chat with Johnny and Dragana, parents of one kid from Charlie's creche. I didn't do much in the house -- in fact, nothing: Nana did the shopping for bread and carrots; I had some food already from before, bought by Angel; the only thing I did was cooking dinner, putting them to sleep & cleaning-up afterwards.
All in all, a very satisfactory weekend. I was quite scared before it started, what with being tired from a week of RIPE meeting, Angel being in Madrid, and me not seeing kids for quite a while already -- but it was fun, more then I could imagine.
And I am still doing OK, although the crazy week is ahead: trip to Madrid early in the morning; giving a talk there in the afternoon; course the whole day Tuesday, theatre & dinner; flying back early on Wednesday, picking up kids from school & creche, dance school, cooking dinner... then work again! (maybe only Friday, but maybe not...). But -- I am grateful that I am at least healthy, and strong, and still happy and in love :-)