You cwazy Claire - Antwerp

Lost in translation - I say 'Smile', Arin hears 'Impersonate a Velociraptor'

I am sooooooo glad that school holidays are over and Arin goes back to school tomorrow! Its been a long week, I have still been very tired and weak from being sick, and the energy levels of nearly-five-year-olds are freaky, that munchkin is on the go from the moment he wakes up until the moment his bedroom door finally closes for the night. And even then he probably gets out of bed and plays with his dinosaurs some more anyway. I was really losing the plot on Wednesday, I had a really bad day of "No, I will not brush my teeth/have a shower/get dressed/put my toys away/go to bed" and I was looking after him the whole day, like all 14 of his waking hours, and I lost the plot a little bit. Jan and Koi were out for the evening at some meetings, and after Arin and baby Alice were finally asleep I collapsed onto the couch. Of course Alice wouldn't let me stay on the couch, and I spent half an hour getting her back to sleep only for me to sneeze the most enormous sneeze ever and wake her up again...

Jan and Koi's attempt at getting a sleep in. Did it work? Of course not

So I took Thursday off and went into Antwerp. My days off are my only chance for sleep-ins, so I was a little peeved that it coincided with the builders installing and sanding a new wooden floor on the landing outside my room, but they made up for it by calling me princess and flirting with me, in english, all morning as I was mucking about, and then they even noticed that I was google mapping Antwerp on my computor and three of them, all middle-aged rough men, came and stood behind me and gave me the low-down on Antwerp, telling me where the best streets for shopping were and where I would find the European equivalent of Glassons and Just Jeans, I found them hilarious. I took the bus in, worked it all out by myself (ok with the builders instructions) and found my way around to shop for a little bit, the clothes I brought from NZ were all dresses and stuff I used to wear to the office, not really sandpit/trampoline/drooling baby friendly. But really, I was just too tired to do much, I had intended on exploring a lot more and taking photos of the pretty buildings and stuff, but I just came home and had a nap instead. But again, the glimpse I got of Antwerp was pretty cool.

'Sigh, I guess you can pull my hair, but only coz I'm your big brother'

Arin's current phases seem to be, "No. I don't like you anymore. Stop look me/go away" said with all the furiosity a nearly-five-year-old can manage and accompanying hand gestures and stomping, and "you cwazy Claire/mama/papa" or "cwazy (insert name of household object/toy that he can't get to work or is frustrated with)". Calling people crazy seems to be less of an insult and more an expression he uses when he doesn't understand anything, but the way he says crazy (cway-zee) it really makes me laugh all the time - a reaction that then offends him and gets the "I don't like you anymore, stop look me" command. At least now he's taken to calling me 'cwazy Claire' he's learnt my name - until recently I was just 'cwazy you'. We've also had a couple of really sweet moments, like when he tells me my cooking is 'this good' and spreads his arms as wide as they go and gives me a high five, and when he does a drawing for me or makes me a sand-dinner, complete with a dumptruck 'glass' full of sand 'wine'.

cute even wearing PJs and before her bath

Alice has a new phase of her own too. On Easter weekend we had guests, or rather Jan and Koi had guests and I had a nap. They taught Alice how to blow raspberries, which she finds so funny that she blows them and then laughs at herself. All day long. The saying 'simple things amuse small minds' definitely applies here. Arin then finds it funny that the baby is constantly emitting fart noises, and fires them back at her. The house sounds like its inhabited by a pack of geriatric dogs with bowel problems. Its also makes feeding her solid foods way waaay more fun.

That's Arin's 'I don't like you anymore' face

Easter here has been boring. I don't think that that's a reflection on Belgium itself, it is a Catholic country and I know they do celebrate it, we've had all the public holidays and stuff, but there isn't the crazy aisles of chocolate eggs in the supermarkets like in NZ, and in this particular family we did nothing, it wasn't even mentioned, probably because Koi is Thai and Easter doesn't exist there. Part of me feels sorry for Arin, because Easter is always heaps of fun when you're a kid, but the other part of me is very glad that I didn't have to deal with a sugar-hyped and consequently, tantrum-throwing kid all day.

bath time!

I feel like I've suddenly been transplanted into the life of a housewife. My days are now filled with juggling baby on my hip while folding laundry, trying to make sure dinner doesn't burn and yelling at the nearly-five-year old to stop pulling the curtains down during his T-Rex impersonation and to put his pants back on. My only intellectual stimulation is re-learning all the dinosaur names and whale species, and inventing answers for why putting sand in your mouth isn't a good idea. Not only does my english now have a permanent speaking-to-people-with-english-as-a-second-language thing going on, but whenever I open my mouth babyspeak comes out. Its now instinctive. I haven't spoken to a guy between the age of 5 and 50 in two weeks and I haven't drunk more than just a got-through-the-day-beer. The last time I went this long without an evening of much more substantial drinking was a long time before I came to Europe.

Mostly, this has been quite fun, its like playing at being a grown-up but with the security of knowing that at any moment I can throw in the towel and bugger off back to my nomadic backpacker lifestyle, and that at the end of the day they aren't my kids and they aren't my responsibility. There have been a couple of moments when I've been close to calling it quits, but I think things are improving now, Arin seems to have learnt the sound of my warning voice, and that when I start counting he really better move-it, and he isn't pushing the limits as much. I've also stopped trying to spend all my time playing with him, instead just setting him up to do something alone and then watching him while I do housework, it doesn't wear me out so much. Now that he's going to school I should have a bit more time to think of activities for us to do (if anyone has any good ideas, please leave them as a comment below!) and start planning craft stuff or the ingredients for things we can bake. And at the end of the day, its pretty cool being paid to sit in the sun making daisy chains and have water fights, and it's quite satisfying to finally teach a little person how to use a sieve and write the letter Q, and to watch the baby learn how to stand using only one hand to hold onto something for balance.

Tomorrow I've got another day off, and Im going to hitch a ride into Brussels with Koi, last minute decision of about ten minutes ago, but hopefully I can catch up with someone my own age there! Hopefully someone that will understand my english-as-a-second-language baby-speak!