What a weekend!
I had the brilliant opportunity to fly home for the weekend, so I did! And I loved every minute of it (except for travelling to airports at unreasonable dark hours of the morning).
This term has felt very long, as we had a two week break after the first four weeks of the semester, leaving eleven weeks for this term. I knew it would feel long, and it has!
To add to the feeling of a long time away from home, one of my sisters was due to have her second baby at the beginning of May, so I knew I would be missing some pretty amazing things. This was the second time I would be interstate when a niece or nephew was born, and the third time I would become an aunty. With one nephew and one niece already, I didn't have any significant preference for boy or girl, but I am thrilled that my two year old nephew now has a baby brother! And he can even say his little brother's name (well chosen, sis!) which I think is totally cute!
So, having handed up an assignment on Friday afternoon, I drove to the airport at dawn on Saturday morning, praying that we wouldn't have heavy fog like we had for Thursday and Friday mornings - which only cleared at midday on Friday! What a blessing a fog-free drive is! The funniest part about the drive was the moment when the street lights turned off (about a microsecond after my GPS turned to day lighting), but a few minutes later (driving west) the street lights were still on!
My sister and my one year old niece picked me up at the airport. I spent the rest of the morning with them, and then my Mum and eight year old sister joined us. Mum went to a baby shower, and the rest of us relaxed around the lounge room then took the girls outside to play in the backyard. My niece is at the 'I can eat anything!' stage - I watched her lick the water on the trampoline, then put my sister's sandal in her mouth!
Back to Mum's for dinner, then I borrowed Mum's car to visit my sister and her new baby (and husband and two year old). Unconventionally, I had bought a new book for each of my two nephews, Cars 2 for the two year old and Toy Story 3 for the newest member of the family. My two year old nephew was delighted! He 'read' his new book with me, pointing to almost every car on every page and saying, 'Who's that?' He turned each paper page carefully! Every time I spoke to my sister and brother-in-law, he reminded me to pay due attention to him by saying my name! Once he had worked his way through Cars 2 about five or six times, he was ready to read 'Buzz!' Then it was time to actually play cars on his car mat in the other room.
By now I was holding my three week old nephew, asleep and snuggled up in a cute baby koala kind of way. This made it difficult to sit and play the way my two year old nephew wanted, so my sister brought me a chair, and my nephew dragged the car ramp over to me so that I could put the cars on it. Until he decided he needed to have a chair as well, and he tried to drag another one over. Once the second chair was set up he had me move the car ramp so that he could put the cars on it from the chair like I had been doing!
The next morning I had the blissful opportunity to sleep in! I spent time with my eight year old sister, then headed back over to see my baby nephew again, as we had a minor family reunion happening! My cousin and her four children had come down to visit my sister and her boys, my other sister had taken my niece around as well, so my last sister and I headed over after lunch time! Quite the full house! It was great to have a chance to see so much of my family while I was in town for two days!
That evening I watched my brother-in-law and one of my sisters play mixed netball - always great fun to watch! And they won! Every now and then I think it would be fun to join them, and then I watch one of the guys run through someone else on court, and think maybe it wouldn't be such a great idea after all!
Finally I got to spend some time with my Mum! And then my time at home was over too soon - a drive to the airport in the dark pre-dawn thanks to an extremely generous sister! A beautiful sunrise visible through the windows at the airport, then it was on the plane back interstate, to collect my car and drive to my house, grab my books and rush to class!
Back to study and assignments for another five weeks, and then home again! I'm so glad I had the chance to see my nephew before he was nearly two months old by the time the semester will end. Ah, budget flights! How did people cope before this?
How was your weekend?
This term has felt very long, as we had a two week break after the first four weeks of the semester, leaving eleven weeks for this term. I knew it would feel long, and it has!
To add to the feeling of a long time away from home, one of my sisters was due to have her second baby at the beginning of May, so I knew I would be missing some pretty amazing things. This was the second time I would be interstate when a niece or nephew was born, and the third time I would become an aunty. With one nephew and one niece already, I didn't have any significant preference for boy or girl, but I am thrilled that my two year old nephew now has a baby brother! And he can even say his little brother's name (well chosen, sis!) which I think is totally cute!
So, having handed up an assignment on Friday afternoon, I drove to the airport at dawn on Saturday morning, praying that we wouldn't have heavy fog like we had for Thursday and Friday mornings - which only cleared at midday on Friday! What a blessing a fog-free drive is! The funniest part about the drive was the moment when the street lights turned off (about a microsecond after my GPS turned to day lighting), but a few minutes later (driving west) the street lights were still on!
My sister and my one year old niece picked me up at the airport. I spent the rest of the morning with them, and then my Mum and eight year old sister joined us. Mum went to a baby shower, and the rest of us relaxed around the lounge room then took the girls outside to play in the backyard. My niece is at the 'I can eat anything!' stage - I watched her lick the water on the trampoline, then put my sister's sandal in her mouth!
Back to Mum's for dinner, then I borrowed Mum's car to visit my sister and her new baby (and husband and two year old). Unconventionally, I had bought a new book for each of my two nephews, Cars 2 for the two year old and Toy Story 3 for the newest member of the family. My two year old nephew was delighted! He 'read' his new book with me, pointing to almost every car on every page and saying, 'Who's that?' He turned each paper page carefully! Every time I spoke to my sister and brother-in-law, he reminded me to pay due attention to him by saying my name! Once he had worked his way through Cars 2 about five or six times, he was ready to read 'Buzz!' Then it was time to actually play cars on his car mat in the other room.
By now I was holding my three week old nephew, asleep and snuggled up in a cute baby koala kind of way. This made it difficult to sit and play the way my two year old nephew wanted, so my sister brought me a chair, and my nephew dragged the car ramp over to me so that I could put the cars on it. Until he decided he needed to have a chair as well, and he tried to drag another one over. Once the second chair was set up he had me move the car ramp so that he could put the cars on it from the chair like I had been doing!
The next morning I had the blissful opportunity to sleep in! I spent time with my eight year old sister, then headed back over to see my baby nephew again, as we had a minor family reunion happening! My cousin and her four children had come down to visit my sister and her boys, my other sister had taken my niece around as well, so my last sister and I headed over after lunch time! Quite the full house! It was great to have a chance to see so much of my family while I was in town for two days!
That evening I watched my brother-in-law and one of my sisters play mixed netball - always great fun to watch! And they won! Every now and then I think it would be fun to join them, and then I watch one of the guys run through someone else on court, and think maybe it wouldn't be such a great idea after all!
Finally I got to spend some time with my Mum! And then my time at home was over too soon - a drive to the airport in the dark pre-dawn thanks to an extremely generous sister! A beautiful sunrise visible through the windows at the airport, then it was on the plane back interstate, to collect my car and drive to my house, grab my books and rush to class!
Back to study and assignments for another five weeks, and then home again! I'm so glad I had the chance to see my nephew before he was nearly two months old by the time the semester will end. Ah, budget flights! How did people cope before this?
How was your weekend?
Comments
Post a Comment