On the 20th of February the newest member of my family is due to arrive with the birth of my third nephew (6 grandchildren my Mom will have, only 1 is a girl!) to Anton and Julie. My lovely sister in law, Jules was humongously pregnant when I saw her in the middle of January and the baby's due date was only early March! She was just all BUMP and horrible discomfit in the height of the Cape summer and very relieved that a Cesarean means that she wont have to go full term.
Anton and Julie are a very hardworking couple and despite everything, had decided that they needed their living room and dining room painted, and sharpish, in time for the new curtains that were coming. The fact that Anton was going to try and get it all done in one weekend, but also had to attend a braai at his bosses house on the saturday night, meant that Mom and I leapt into the breach and got our painting rags on. It has to be said that Ant did the most of it, worked his arse off, and got it all done (just in time for another full week of work!), but Mom and I did what we could to help.
James will be 3 in May, and is such a little cutie. I was lucky enough to be able to spend some time with him, one on one, as I offered to have him for a sleepover - selfishly, so I could spoil him and cuddle him and read to him, and do all those things that I would if we lived nearby, and selflessly so that Ant and Jules could have some much needed couple time. The first night was absolutely fine, until it came to sleep time, and then he really struggled to settle. I was lying on the bed with him (he had decided he wanted to sleep with me rather than in his own bed), as he explained how he was going to get up and put his clothes on, and then walk home to daddy! Bless him, he was most insistent that he was going to his house, but eventually I bored him to sleep with my own very long version of the 3 little pigs, and he was asleep by 10pm. His sleep was very unsettled though, and he tossed and turned all night - so much so that at one point he threw himself off the bed! He woke up at about 7:45, and was raring to go almost immediately - a lot like my own little Tom, zero to full throttle in seconds! Despite his reluctance to actually sleep that first time, he was still very keen to come back for another night a week later, and it was amazing the difference. The early part of the evening was, again, great fun as we played and built a meccano break down truck (the first time was a crane) and this time bed time was much easier. He was unwilling to sleep but this time it was much more down to his desire for more stories than wanting to go home, but once again I bored him to sleep - with an even longer version of the 3 little pigs (this time they all ended up being friends, living in a village together and doing various chores for each other...). When I was younger I never would have imagined that in my life I would not know my niece and nephews, and they would not know me.
 |
| My ability to build meccano vehicles gives me major street cred! |
So who knows how old my new nephew will be before I get to meet him, but I hope that when I do, I will get the chance to get to know him in the same way that those brief, intense times allowed me to do with James. It was so wonderful to spend time with Anton, Jules and Mom as well. And that is what makes a trip to SA on my own so worthwhile, because if I was there with my own family, there is no way I would be able to devote myself to my brother's family and my mother.
Bittersweet. Always bittersweet.
No comments:
Post a Comment