Uncle Biek

Right now she’s doing her very best to play ’sleeping beauty’ and you know what? She’s doing a fine job. :-) This also gives me time to write up the ‘report’ of today’s happenings. When she’s around you don’t have, nor want to take the time to do so.

When my sister, Stefan and Eva came over this afternoon it was a bit confusing for the little girl (Eva ;-). Here she was, in a house she knew reasonably well but the contents had changed somewhat.

No dogs, no chickens outside and huge birdcage in the living room which had also been rearranged a bit. So what happened out here? Well, we explained as she walked in, grandpa (my dad) has moved out and uncle Biek has moved in.

Ah, okay. That makes sense. She seemed to store that piece of info in her head right away and didn’t seem to give it any more thought. Got to love the simple way children can cope with all kinds of things at young age already. Grandpa moved out, uncle moved in. Ok, easy. :-)

The rest of the afternoon Eva played around a bit, or at least tried to, but with grandpa/my dad around there isn’t a dull moment around. ;-) So when she went to bed she slept like a baby, and I mean that literally. Just when we had put Eva to bed mom and Hans came in and before she woke up again dad and Margot had left.

This was again a bit confusing for the little girl. What happened now? While Eva was sleeping grandpa and grandma Vianen had snuck out and grandpa and grandma Vught had quietly come in.

Hmm. Still a bit sleepy she didn’t immediately trust all these new faces, but after she woke up a bit more she was her happy self again and a joy to be around.

In the evening, just before diner, my sister and Stefan left for their home and Eva was sitting on my arm quite happily waving them both goodbye. Not in the least bit worried that this was possibly not okay. After they left we played around a bit, built a nice big locomotive from her Lego blocks and then it was diner time.

Have no illusions that you can actually make diner all by yourself. There’s just no way she’ll let you. She may be ‘just’ a year and a half old now but when she gets the notion of you making your move to the kitchen she’s up in an instant and ready to go with you. If there’s one thing she likes it’s helping out, sometimes to the point where it’s gets tricky to let her.

So what we’ll do is sit her on the sink and let her press a button or two, hold the bag with the pasta, things like that. And if you let her do that she’s just one satisfied little princess.

Once I made the ‘beginners mistake’ of getting her out of bed and taking her downstairs on my arm without letting her turn off the lights upstairs herself. Oh boy … ‘Eva, lights! Eva, lights!’ ‘Oh, those will turn off automatically my dear …’ Judging from her frown up to the lights I’m not sure she fully believed me but I think I was just convincing enough. Pfew. :-)

Anyway, after diner we didn’t spend much time playing anymore as she was pretty tired from a long day with the family so I put her to bed about twenty minutes ago and she’s been sleeping for ten to fifteen minutes now.

I can’t wait for tomorrow … :-)

Oh well, let’s not make too big a deal out of it: yes, I’ve turned thirty five today which means that I’m now, not unlike many people I know, officially on my way to forty.

Trust me folks, this whole forty thing is perfectly okay with me, a few of my best friends are even a little further on their way or even past that and are still in good working order … at least most of the time … ;-)

Besides, I guess we’ve now come to an age where that doesn’t really matter anymore. When I turned thirty my family took that as a milestone and arranged one of the better birthday parties I’ve had so far. While it was going on I was very frustrated, even a little angry maybe, that they had thrown that surprise party for me but later on I came to realize just how incredibly special that one day had been.

But, to be honest, since that party I have gone back to the way I usually celebrate my birthdays: not. Or very simple at most. This year is again going to be a bit different though.

As soon my move from Boxmeer to Katwijk was known among the family they told me that there was no way I’d skip my birthday this year and that they would all come to visit me this time as a couple of them hadn’t been to my place in years and others, well, hadn’t been there at all.

So here’s the plan so far: Bas is coming over tonight and we’ll have a movie evening probably, which is a perfect way to have a birthday for as far as I’m concerned. Mom and Hans are coming over Saturday, as are my sister with Stefan and Eva, and dad and Margot. Yes, that’s a lot of people coming over all at once, or at least to me that’s a lot.

But the best is yet to come as on Saturday evening everybody is going home again except for one special little person: my niece Eva is staying over for the weekend!

I can’t even begin to tell you people how much I’ve been looking forward to this day, it’s just so incredibly cool that my sister and Stefan are trusting me enough to look after their sweet little daughter for more than a couple of hours. It’s going to be such a wonderful time I’m sure. Even though the ‘official’ part of my birthday has yet to begin I can’t hardly wait until it’s Saturday, for obvious reasons.

Oh well, let’s not make too big a deal out of it: yes, I’ve turned thirty five today which means that I’m now, not unlike many people I know, officially on my way to forty.

Trust me folks, this whole forty thing is perfectly okay with me, a few of my best friends are even a little further on their way or even past that and are still in good working order … at least most of the time … ;-)

Besides, I guess we’ve now come to an age where that doesn’t really matter anymore. When I turned thirty my family took that as a milestone and arranged one of the better birthday parties I’ve had so far. While it was going on I was very frustrated, even a little angry maybe, that they had thrown that surprise party for me but later on I came to realize just how incredibly special that one day had been.

But, to be honest, since that party I have gone back to the way I usually celebrate my birthdays: not. Or very simple at most. This year is again going to be a bit different though.

As soon my move from Boxmeer to Katwijk was known among the family they told me that there was no way I’d skip my birthday this year and that they would all come to visit me this time as a couple of them hadn’t been to my place in years and others, well, hadn’t been there at all.

So here’s the plan so far: Bas is coming over tonight and we’ll have a movie evening probably, which is a perfect way to have a birthday for as far as I’m concerned. Mom and Hans are coming over Saturday, as are my sister with Stefan and Eva, and dad and Margot. Yes, that’s a lot of people coming over all at once, or at least to me that’s a lot.

But the best is yet to come as on Saturday evening everybody is going home again except for one special little person: my niece Eva is staying over for the weekend!

I can’t even begin to tell you people how much I’ve been looking forward to this day, it’s just so incredibly cool that my sister and Stefan are trusting me enough to look after their sweet little daughter for more than a couple of hours. It’s going to be such a wonderful time I’m sure. Even though the ‘official’ part of my birthday has yet to begin I can’t hardly wait until it’s Saturday, for obvious reasons.