Too good to be true

The past three evenings Soufyan and Yaesseen (especially Yaesseen since he decided that he was the leader of the gang) have been testing my patience at bedtime. On Monday it took me until 21.30 to get them to sleep, whilst I brought them to bed at seven, which is their normal bedtime, on Tuesday they didn't shut up nor fall asleep until half past eight, which was an hour and a half after I put them to bed and yesterday was as bad as Monday. It has cost me sweat, blood and tears to get and keep them (again especially Yaesseen) in bed. Today's different though, I put them to bed ten minutes ago, a quarter of an hour earlier then usual, on their own request... I cannot believe my luck!!! I'll still wait for about twenty minutes to really believe it, since it might be a trick of some sort... ;)

But if it stays quiet for twenty more minutes, I'll start doing my ironing, which I planned for Monday evening, I could have done that on Tuesday, since I had some time then in the evening, but on Tuesday I had another mission: talking to my absolute dearest friend in the world. I had a brilliant night on Tuesday, just talking on the phone! :) But that conversation has done me a world of good. Yesterday nearly drove me to insanity, since Yaesseen kept climbing on a chest and then jump down from it onto his bed, and I couldn't explain to the little fella that he might break his neck doing so...But tonight might be a good one, tonight I might be able to iron my summer clothes (they've been in the cupboard for ages, so they could do with a bit of ironing), and just have some me-time...

unfortunately I finished reading my book and don't have another one yet... so it'll have to be television tonight... hope there is something good on! :D

Some pics of last weeks party...

Yeah, so they've said I'm getting a big boy now, so I thought I'd stand up on my feet for that...
(or for the ones who know the "is mijn kont"-song: "is mijn kont niet te dik in deze broek???")

Father and son... Both Soufyan and Ilyas take after their father... :D Good thing there is still grumpy, moody Yaesseen who takes after me (and who's inherited my morning temper ;p)

But, look at them... :D

Yeah, the dealing starts early in this family...
Ilyas to Yaesseen: "hey bro, that's a nice car they gave you, can I have it??" ;p

House for sale

The sign is taken down... hoorrah!! The oficial paperwork has yet to be done, but nonetheless: we've sold the house! The official selling date will be end of September, beginning of October, so by that time we should have moved into another place, hopefully something close to the afterschool care, so we don't have to take a bus there! :D

I'm kind of excited about it all, we'll be buying some new furnature for the new place as well, new table, since our table is getting too small to seat us all (it's for four people, and we are five already, so it's kind of inconvenient if we get dinnerguests) and a new sofa since our cats destroyed our old one...

Three years ago

Today was Yaesseen's due date, I remember Sunday April 4th 2004 like it was yesterday. Since Soufyan was born on 03-03-03, we thought it would be funny that Yaesseen would actually be born on his due date 04-04-04.

 

That time there were a lot of docu soaps about giving birth and a lot of those women accidently wet their pants and thought their waters were broken and they got induced, so we were doubting to do the exact same thing. But something held me back, I think it was the fact that I didn't want to make a fool of myself or didn't want to take the risk of not getting induced and then having to go to maternity when it actually happened and being there with red cheeks ;-)

 

So Yaesseen's birthday got delayed as well, fortunately enough not as long as Soufyan's, but the induction was not really interesting. However, I had fun though, after the epidural kicked in ;p

 

But the little man is already turning three, if you ask him how old he'll be, he'll try to convince you his fifth birthday is coming up ;-)

 

This weekend we're having a double birthday party, since it's really tiring and chaotic for both us and the kids, we decided to throw just one for Yaesseen and Ilyas instead of having one this Saturday and one next Saturday.

 

Damn, time is going way too fast, within 12 days I'll having a four-year-old, a three-year-old and a one-year-old son. It feels like I've just grown up myself ;)

Yaesseen lets women do the hard work for him

Ilyas

Here are some pictures taken of Ilyas yesterday. We were at a baby drink and our youngest showed his best side...

Home boys

I just made pancakes for Soufyan and Yaesseen. I kept them home from school today. I used the "because then they can rest a bit" excuse for myself, but just realised that I was kidding myself. OK, they have slept two hours and a half longer then any other day this week, which did them a lot of good, and they are still a bit tired, so they get an afternoon nap as well. And it does them a world of good to have an extra day of rest, because their life is even more tiring then ours. During a normal weekday, they wake up at 5.45, they are dropped off at daycare at 7.00, from daycare they are brought to school at 8.20, and school starts at 8.45, it finishes at 3.15, but they stay there until 3.40, then they are picked up by daycare, where one of us picks them up between 5.20 and 6.00. And then their day isn't over yet, first, they are taken home, then they must have dinner (which they have to wait for, since food doesn't cook itself when you are on your way home), get a bath and go to bed.
But quite frankly, I just realised that it does me a lot more good then them. So I spoil them a little bit, in small ways, to make sure they enjoy their day at home then they would enjoy a day at school. That's why I made them pancakes for lunch, which should beat sandwiches... I've been singing and dancing with them, I've played games with them, I jumped when they asked me to, I've carried them to the potty, sat next to them when they were on it...

Funny thing is that usually I am not really aware of the fact that I am a working mum with three wee boys, it hardly occurs to me that I've given birth three times in just six weeks over three years. Sometimes people ask me how we do it, combining work with family life, especially without a car, and the fact that we are both working in shifts, and I always say: "you just close your eyes, dive and start swimming", because quite frankly, that's what we've done the past four years, sometimes we were lucky with the tide and we hardly had to swim, but we've had bad luck as well, and at those points we had to hold on tight to everything and everyone we passed. Don't get me wrong, I am not at all complaining, because everything that ever went wrong or everything that ever stood in our way has made us stronger and everything that went wrong brought along something good as well. I am all too well aware of the fact that it takes rain to make rainbows.

But today I have realised that I kept the boys home for no other reason than that I wanted to spend my day with them. And please, don't make me sing the Piet Piraat, Bob the Builder or any other tune, but if one of them looks at me and asks me to, I'm quite sure I'll do it again... :-)

The scare of a lifetime

My colleague was reading an article from an online paper out loud, there is a bombalarm going on in a school in Lier, in Koninklijk Technisch Atheneum, our boys go to a primary school in Koninklijk Atheneum. I did not hear her say Technisch, but I heard Koninklijk Atheneum, I have never ever experienced a similar feeling, I died a million deaths in just one minute.

The actual alarm is going on in the street that is parallel with ours, it's just around the corner, but still, I honestly don't mind, if our house gets blown away, everything can just blow up in my humble opinion, as long as I know our boys are alright...

I'll be so happy to see them, I'll hug them to death, I won't sigh tonight if Soufyan asks why for the twentieth time in a minute.

Who the hell calls a bombalarm in a school??? what kind of sick mind does that???? What's the use of it? Is it not getting a bit out of hand?

Ok, I admit to be a worried mum, but I bet I am not the only one...