What a weekend!
It was one of those weekends that you need a weekend to recover from.
On Thursday night I started packing our bags… Friday afternoon was spent writing an essay at work (I officially finish at one pm but stayed to write until 4pm), then I went home, finished packing our bags and picked Dexter up. Next I picked up Willow and Anthony from school and we drove down to his Mother’s place at McLaren Vale. One of my lovely friends was having a birthday party at Willunga, which is about 15 minutes drive away. We settled the children in and drove off to Russell‘s at Willunga.
My friend is older than me, as were her friends at the restaurant, so it was nice to be the youngest couple there – some of the young uni students make me feel old! The food was amazing, in a rustic sense. It was a delicious, sociable meal with lots of shared plates, laughing and talking. We got back at about 11pm and both children were asleep, Willow in the third bedroom and Dexie in his pram.
On Saturday morning we slowly got up and got ready. It was great for Willow and Dexter to spend time with their Nan and Grandad. We drove towards IKEA, but a bit further north and had lunch at the Findon Hotel in their Rat and Parrot faux British Pub. A liked the meal and he is a fussy eater, so it must have been good! Back to IKEA to order a mattress for the trundle under Willow’s bed. They would deliver it tomorrow between 1 and 6pm. Perfect.
From there we went to the hospital Poppa was at. Only to find that he’d been discharged, after a phone call I found that he was with Nanna at the unit she was staying at. I was not expecting him to have been discharged until Tuesday, so this was a bit of a surprise. There was a wall heater in the unit which I told Dexie was hot - so he blew on it as he blows on hot food – very cute! We had a quick visit with them, organised to pick them up tomorrow (Nanna had booked and paid for one more night) at 10.30am, and went home.
The house was a mess and I had an essay to write, argh! I figured that my lecturer would be less forgiving than my grandparents, so I sat down at the table to write. I stayed there until 2am and was woken at 6am by Willow wanting to come into our bed. I finally got up around 7am when Dexie woke up and turned the TV on for them while I sat down to finish off my essay. I managed to give them breakfast and have some myself. I woke A up at about 8:30am because the kids were getting a bit ratty and making it hard to concentrate. At 9:30am I took Dexie and had a shower. The plan was for him to come with me and have a nap in the car.
Of course, the best laid plans and all that, he didn’t sleep in the car and was excited to see Nanna and Poppa again. I had asked a friend to babysit the children as I had bought surprise tickets for A and I to see STOMP, but there didn’t seem to be much point having her there with Nanna and Poppa. I ended up dropping Nanna and Poppa off and getting ready to go out again. STOMP was a complete surprise for A. I have to admit that I haven’t always bought him the best birthday/christmas presents because he is so. damn. fussy. These tickets were a late birthday present for him and an attempt to make up for past failure.
It was an amazing show, I sort of thought I’d sit through it for A’s sake, but I really enjoyed it. It wasn’t just percussion with every day items, it was mime, music, comedy… It was brilliant. After that escapism, we drove home. Apparently Willow had rocked Dexie to sleep in the pram – she was quite proud of helping Nanna.
My essay was nearly finished, but I had to go into uni to finish the referencing, so I dropped A off, grabbed my laptop and books and left again. I finally finished it – I tend to be a bit of a perfectionist – only to find that the wireless internet had dropped out and I couldn’t submit it there. So I had to drive home and connect to our wireless at home.
I tried to submit it from the driveway. I knew that once I walked in the door I’d be inundated with small people, of course my laptop wouldn’t co-operate so I went in and handed it over to A. He connected it and I finally sent it off. I’d come home to the house smelling like mouth-watering roast beef. Nanna had put it in the oven before I dropped A off and A had done vegetables while I was gone. It was really lovely to share a meal with and spend time with my grandparents. It was fantastic to see Willow and Dexter interact with them. The children had a bath, A put Dexie to bed and I put Willow to sleep in our bed.
The mattress had been delivered while we were at STOMP, so we made up the bed and Nanna and Poppa went to bed. It was good to see how Willow’s trundle bed works, so now she can have sleep overs!
My aunt and uncle came up to pick them up on Monday. No doubt they are glad to be back at home in their own house and own bed, with their own dog.
A melted my heart the day after when he said that it was a pity they couldn’t have stayed longer – he knows how much it meant to me to have them here for the short time that they were. It was the next best thing to having my mother with us.
