I’ve been expecting this to be a trouble, after two weeks of being with daddy 24 hours a day.
Rob had to leave for business in Austin right on Monday morning.
But this time was worse then ever before. Maarten would not sleep; he would unexpectedly without any single reason burst out crying. Therefore, his uncontrolled emotions mostly influenced his tempestuous and disobedient behavior.
The first morning he was looking out of the window upstairs, staring into the horizon while exclaiming:
There! Very very far away is ‘tata’. Working!
Behind the hills and cows.
Very very far away!
Paaaaaapa! Paaaaapa! Paaaaapa!
There was a 'Dad's Night' at Maarten’s school last Thursday. Because of our trip to Utah, I missed the 'Mom’s Night', so I joined him in the class now, instead of his dad. The teachers assured me there would be other mothers too.
I didn’t realize it may make things even worse for Maarten.
When we arrived at his class there were already some children but...
Ach ouvej! Oh dear! They were, all of them, accompanied by their dad.
You want to go home! It took a while before Maarten felt comfortable showing me his class and all the interesting attributes, objects and materials with which they are working daily. Now I understand even better why Maarten loves his school so much.
Friday afternoon Rob was back from his trip and Maarten got back to normal.
I was relieved.
Because of all the last few weeks trips Rob didn't study much and therefore was still busy on Saturday.
This was pretty disappointing for Maarten and me of course. To make it up a little, I promised Maarten a day at a lake. With ducks and boats.
The
Sokol San Francisco organized a picnic at
Lake Chabot Park.
I’d already met some of the people at
Mikuláš party last December.
When we arrived at the park, a friendly man came to welcome us asking me if I had parents there.
I was quite confused by his question, but then I suddenly understood.
There were only elderly people at the tables.
Never mind. Those who we’d already met before were happy to see us again and we got acquainted with others.
Those Czechs have already lived in the States for at least forty years.
Especially
Eastern Europeans would understand that they are the old-communists-regime emigrants. And they all have their own interesting story.
Well, you know, I love history, so I really enjoyed myself ;-)
And so did Maarten. All at once he had so many nice uncles and aunties. And they had such a wonderful food and a lot of meat, Maarten’s favorite! And of course various kinds of delicious homemade Czech cookies and cakes.
One man was playing the accordion we were all singing Czech folk songs and Maarten was drumming with two sticks and dancing!
Later in the afternoon I took Maarten for a walk around the pleasant lake. There were geese, ducks and boats as I promised and also many fishermen.
Maarten is really fascinated by fishing. He would stay there for hours staring at the fishing poles.
One guy had already caughed two trout and Maarten tried to pet them...
After this cold spring the summer seems to have arrived to the
Bay Area.
So a splash in the pool at a friends house was very welcome. And not just by the kids!
