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August 14, 2006
Changing of the guard
My mom and Andy left Edinburgh and a few days later Bestemor arrived for the second shift of kid duty for the days I go to work. Between Bestemor and Britta, we are in good hands. The other day at the dinner table Karsten asked, "can someone get me some milk please?" Britta hopped out of her chair, ran into the kitchen and opened the mini fridge and brought the big jug of milk out to Karsten. She’s looking out for Babu.
In the day and half Bestemor has been here she’s fixed the washing machine (found that some of the water valves weren’t all the way on and we weren’t running the spin cycle correctly, etc), rearranged the furniture in almost every room, and made some gourmet meals. All this while jet lagged. Impressive, but really I'm sure if you know my mother-in-law you wouldn't be surprised.
My mom had to fly home on the day that terrorist were plotting to blow up UK transatlantic flights mid-air. Andy had left a day early for a day in Amsterdam so he’d already gotten out of the UK, but my poor mom couldn’t even bring her book on the flight or any carry-ons. She even had to take off her bracelet and ditch her camera. Andy said as the flight pulled into Seattle the passengers had to discard any liquids. I had a brief thought before I went to sleep that night that thank goodness nothing happened to that flight because my life would be pretty crappy if those two people were missing from it.
Anyway, I’m not going to dwell on the negatives that didn’t even happen….We’ve been so busy that finally on Saturday we just hung out in our flat waiting for Bestemor to arrive. I had to take care of the mundane things like cleaning the bathrooms. I had a few days as a single mom in a foreign country but it worked out fine. I dragged the kids out to a fun part of town to have dinner with some people from work. Russell and Kim had just arrived from Romania (sans luggage due to the UK terror issue) so we joined them for a late dinner. The kids and I caught a cab home so that was fun for them.
Quincy has been staying with us for the last few days too. We’ve been checking out more museums and the botanical gardens again while she explored the major tourist spots.
Sunday we were back on track though. We met up with Terry, Magda, their kids and their Polish friends and went to Fringe Sunday at the Meadows. It is like the Edinburgh version of Bumbershoot. We caught a super scary version of the kids’ play of Hansel and Gretel (mom is getting rid of the kids so she can have more food for herself) and saw some dancing acts that re-enacted late night drinking. The Meadows is a little like the Seattle Center in that there are some rides so Karsten and I went on the roller coaster together. I let him pick one more ride so he opted for the Fun House.
Quincy spent the weekend running around with Nick and friends. She's been plotting her UK exit strategy but it hasn't been going well. She thought she'd take a boat to Northern Ireland until I told her I'd heard the IRA had blown up a bomb and the routes to Dublin were closed. Now it looks like she'll make Edinburgh her home for another week, which will be fun for me. She came to work with me today to use the wi-fi. She's horrified that I could be staying at a place without any internet connection. She did find some free wi-fi at Andy's former office: the bus stop.
The kids have provided me with non-stop entertainment. Karsten wanted to know how he got into my belly so he could be born. I defaulted to the cop-out answer, "God planted a seed." Later he asked me if God sent him as a seed in a spaceship into my belly. Ah ha, we'd just watched the original Superman last week on Andy's laptop and I can see where he's getting his ideas. He tried to run as fast a bus yesterday but it didn't work. I told him I'd draw him a picture of how he got into my belly but he's forgotten for now though. I'm hoping he won't remember for another 5 years!
Britta is talking more and more in full sentences. She'll run into the other room and say, "I'll be right back!" I've heard her say to Babu, "That's not nice." She's also the master of onomatopoeia. I see a future in Shakespearian study -- or at least future blogger for her. Cats are "meows", swings and slides are "wees" and babies crying are "baby whah." I love learning her secret language.
Posted by jana at August 14, 2006 5:04 AM