Saturday, January 22, 2011

Singlemomdom

When Joe got accepted to Erasmus, and I decided to live in Zoetermeer, I realized this would mean Singlemomdom for me for a year. Although the days can be long, and of course the kids occasionally drive me absolutely bonkers, it helps to know in advance that I'll be the only parent. See, if the kids were driving me up the wall, and I was expecting Joe's help, it would all seem much worse. When I know it will be a long day with the kids at home, I can plan activities to break up that day.

Today's plan was to go to the local petting zoo, but when Talita invited us to join her to the zoo, I gratefully accepted. We bought a year membership, so more Saturdays and Wednesday afternoons, and vacation days can be spent at the zoo. The Blijdorp zoo in Rotterdam is very large, and has most of the typical zoo animals. Today we even saw a 7 week old Gorilla. It was super cute to see the interaction between the mom, baby, and the older brother/sister. The older sibling kept trying to get mom's attention, and climbing all over her and the baby. The mom lovingly but forcefully put the older sibling to the side.

There's a large walk-through aquarium with sharks etc
My and my cousin Talita
You don't see the love between these two too often
Six monkeys

2 comments:

Stillman and Michelle said...

Hey Jessica, I have been enjoying reading about your adventures in a foreign/home land. I would love to see that side of the world one day. Keeping myself and the kids entertained is how I handle it on my Single days. It helps them go by so much faster and I end up looking forward to the time I spend with the kiddos. Luckily those days a few and far between nowadays and as long as I have advance warning of those late work nights I handle pretty well.

Anonymous said...

Somehow I completely missed your move. Cannot believe you're "here" now too. Welcome!

If you ever want to share some good old American stories, just shoot me an email!

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