Back to previous page
On the night of 30th April, oma Bep arrived in Melbourne. Piet and Emma saw her the following day. After a short timid start, both relished the attention that was showered on them during the rest of the day.
On Monday, we hopped into dad's bike trailer, which was his birthday present, in which we happily sat side by side and went off to take Piet to his nursery. The rest of the day, Piet enjoyed the play dough, Emma enjoyed spending time in the garden with oma (apart the occasional fall), and both enjoyed listening to Olivier's story in their rocking chairs.
On Tuesday, we celebrated Emma's first birthday with a homemade rabbit cake, lot's of presents, even more presents, even a present for Piet, singing lang zal ze leven, brother blowing out the candle and eating our cake. Mum still found time to pop into the neighbours for a flashy new hairdo.
The beach
On Wednesday, Emma got her induction at the nursery and on Thursday we left for a six-day break at the beach. The first two days were overcast, rainy and fairly cold, so apart from the occasional
windy
beachwalk, we played a lot inside. Emma enjoyed
crawling through the
salon table just as much as Piet had done in the past (and still does in the present). We
hung around on the floor and got Piet excited about the
ring-a-ring-a-rosy song, which ends in falling on the floor. In the bath, he enjoyed the
torentje-torentje-bussekruit song with oma. Special details oma enjoyed were the
wombats and
plaque on the
bench in front of the beachhouse. Emma tried, succesfully, to walk
up and down the short and rather steep driveway on the side of the house.
On Saturday, the weather improved and we went for a walk near the split point lighthouse in Airies Inlet. We could watch the surfers below or enjoy the sun. For a change, mum carried Piet in the rucksack.
The remaining days were brilliant weather, so we enjoyed a lovely sunrise and played on the beach and in the dunes. Emma loved tasting the sand. Oma and Piet stayed a bit longer on the beach and returned together. We visited the Anglesea golfcourse, locally known for the kangaroos on the course, for lunch and found ourselves in the middle of mother's day celebrations complete with raffle.
