Close Encounters

It is 10 PM here in Waterloo.  I can still hear my three-year-old talking/laughing/singing to herself.  Not that unusual* really, but because we are all in a tiny space together, I'm fairly certain the other two are awake as well.  This apartment/hotel is very nice and actually we have plenty of room, but we are used to having more space and more beds and more bathrooms and the togetherness is challenging.
*Unusual that she is up at 10 PM, not unusual that she does this before going to sleep--we got to bed late---again. 

With a daily cleaning and a good friend allowing us access to her washer and dryer while they are traveling this week, we are staying pretty organized and managing fairly well in this space.  I don't feel like we've been here that much or that we are coming and going at consistent times really at all, but somehow we've managed to be here almost every time the cleaners have come.

One of the first nights we stayed here I was in the bathroom with Hannah helping her brush her teeth (the one at a time approach works best for tooth brushing in the small space with one stool) and this is what we saw: (actually she saw it--I didn't really notice--and I recreated the photos for the blog--I know I'm a dork).

Hannah: "Oh dear, that will cause germs with all of the toothbrushes in the same cup like that!  How did that
              happen?"
(For the record, she did not learn that from me.  I'm a lot of things, but germaphobe is not one of them).
Me: "Well, I guess the cleaners must have done that when they were cleaning up for us."
Hannah: "Oh, I guess the cleaners don't know about germs."
Me: "They just wanted to make it nice for us."  (Never will I criticize a person cleaning up after me!)

Later, I came in and found this:

Yes, the purple princess toothbrush all alone in the cup belongs to this girl:

Note the other toothbrushes are left to fend for themselves. ;0)

Today has been a long and draining day.  We spent the morning at a playgroup for the girls while Nathan enjoyed some male bonding playing basketball with some other older brothers.  We took on the shopping all together and then lunch at the apartment.  We went on to take care of some laundry at our friends' house and then went to see a late evening movie in Brussels.  We would much have preferred to see the movie at the theater less than 10 minutes from us, but because seeing the movie in English was a priority, we drove the 30+ minutes to see it there.

The kids are doing as well as can be expected with the chaos we've created here, but I'm still not fully recovered from that two week solo assignment complete with illness, moving details and Easter party planning.  I'm tired and impatient and absolutely crabby.  This little person is especially challenging:

She looks so innocent doesn't she?  Would you believe this person ran from me today in a parking lot?  Would you believe that she whined excessively today about pretty much everything?  Would you also believe that last week on our first night here, this person took a pen and scribbled all over the bottom of the duvet cover on the hotel bed?  Would you also believe that she chose to do that just a few hours after I stood in another mom's driveway talking about how my kids don't really get into things when I'm not around?  Yeah, she did that.

This guy refused to be "towel boy" after his bath a la his sisters.  He preferred a much more dignified pose for his picture.  Actually he was not posing or even aware of this photo shoot yesterday afternoon.  I was just taking pictures while they were all calmly playing and reading and the peace was being kept. 

We have had good news for this little guy today.  His daddy just called after a successful inspection (he said the house is just what we expected) and a very successful visit to the future school for both (hopefully all 3--we'd like to stay put for a while, y'all) kids.  Good news on the school.  Good news on the house.  Daddy has had a very successful trip so far.  God is so good!

We have 11 days left in Belgium.  Definitely taking an emotional toll on me.  I have moments when I feel I could burst into tears.  I've had multiple outbursts with the kids and I'm so not proud of those.  The latest one was just a couple of hours ago when we got home from the movie and I was rushing the kids through a quick dinner since they'd only had junk at the theater.  For what seemed like the millionth time between the three of them today Nathan said: "Mom".  That's all.  He wasn't even whining.  My response?  "WHAT, NATHAN, WHAT!?!?!" 

In a very small voice he said, "Thanks for taking us to the movies".

I was almost in tears immediately, "Oh, Buddy,  thank you!  That is the nicest thing anyone has said to me all day!  I'm so sorry for being such a big grump". 

And I am really sorry.  Thank goodness these kids are so forgiving and loving.  So now, I'm off to bed myself.  Now that I hear the lovely sound of silence coming from the bedrooms, I need to join them.