We’ve been talking about seeing Grandma and Grandad for weeks. It’s so exciting! Yesterday morning, as Babess snuggled next to me in bed (on a rare morning visit), I said, “Who will we see today?!”, and she replied, “Grandmadad! And I will kiss him!” So sweet.
And so, and so. The day passed. Bags were packed (by me), unpacked (by Babess), re-packed (by Babess), re-discovered (by me), unpacked and repacked again – by me. And locked. Bedrooms were tidied, then turned upside down again 30 seconds later. Dishes were done, only to pile up again just as we thought we were finished. It felt like we would never win. But we did, eventually. Finally, the house was vaguely presentable – I like to come home to something at least vaguely presentable! – and we were all in the car.
We had two hours at the airport, then four hours on the plane (with 200km/h headwinds!), then a transfer, then another 90 min or so in the airport, then nearly 90 minutes on another plane. The kids were good, but oh so tired. There were tantrums, as they struggled against the sleep which inevitably overtook them. They woke up thirsty, disoriented, and grumpy. We landed in full darkness, rumpled and disheveled, owl-eyed and wrinkling our noses. There have been floods here, and the debris is rotting – it smells nasty. You do get used to it quite quickly, though!
Waiting patiently for us at the airport, as promised, were Grandma and Grandad, as well as uncles and aunts. Pearl gave them enthusiastic hugs and kisses. Fainjin and Babess, sleep-fuddled and shy, regarded them silently, shrugged under the hugs and tolerated the kisses.
We didn’t spend too long at the airport – it was already about midnight in our home time-zone, and we needed to get the children (and ourselves!) to bed, knowing full well that we were likely to wake at 4am local time with small ones wanting breakfast. So we had the briefest of catch-ups with gathered family and took our leave.
We got lucky: Fainjin was the first child to wake, just after 5am local time. I got him some breakfast, and talked about the day to come. “We’ll go and see Grandma and Grandad,” I began, and he looked at me in surprise.
“Again?!”
I explained that we didn’t have to go on any more planes to see them, we’re here now and they’re just down the road so we can go and see them lots of times before we go home again. We can see them every day until Christmas! He nodded.
A little later, when everyone was up and dressed and fed, we were ready to go. “Come on Babess, time to see Grandma and Grandad!” I said.
She looked up at me, frowning. “Again?!”
© UpsideBackwards 2010.
Like this:
Like Loading...