Op de Woensdagen kwam A3n naar Rosmalen om ons op te vangen in de namiddag. Het is één van mijn oudste herinneringen. Ze maakte tosti's voor lunch. Ik zat op de kleuterschool en zal vijf of zes geweest zijn. Petra een jaar of drie ouder.

Vijftien jaar later speelde ik gitaar in een bandje. Zomaar opeens stuurde A3n me een foto per post (wellicht met de krant).

"Flowers in a Green Field," she wrote. It was the name of the band, and the lyrics of one of our songs! It was so very appropriate. The photo is taken in Rosmalen's backyard. Possibly shot on one of those Wednesday afternoons.

On the first of June 2022, I spent one more Wednesday with A3n. It was a lovely, warm June day in Boxtel. We walked with Hera in the park, we chatted about this and that, and Aiden and Elsa made pencil drawings with A3n. All of us had such a wonderful time.

A few weeks after our visit, A3n told 'sMam how much she had enjoyed that day, and how "the boy had been cheeky, and the girl really sweet." It was so touching that A3n remembered that day, despite her memory trouble.

Aiden was six at the time, Elsa eight. Perhaps we did not eat tosti's, but reflecting back, I feel we somehow made a nice, full circle.

When the world gives you lemons...

We were talking about making our own playing cards. Aiden asked, "but how do we make the paper hard? Oh we can lemonade them!" (laminate)

A few days ago, he made a drawing that can fold up... The writing on top says: "Toy from Aide[n]":

He proudly told us that when you open it up, it turns out to be a lemonsine! (limousine)

Elsa: "Papa, you know, with a lot of lego blocks you could build one big lego block."
[silence for a while]
[her eyes open wide]
"And then, with those big lego blocks you could build an even bigger lego block!"
[quickly]
"And then, you could build a huge lego block, and then..."

While Oma was in Singapore we roasted a turkey for dinner with our friends PJ and Oliver. There was some discussion about what should be the name of the turkey we were going to consume. Katelyn suggested: "How about Poke, the turkey? Derived from P[J], O[liver], K[atelyn], E[rik]." We realized Katelyn had forgotten "Mom", so we named the turkey "Pokemom".

Our swimming pool water is chilly. Elsa says to Oma, "The best way is to just jump in."
Oma: "If I do that, I will die!"
Aiden: "Yes, that's because you are old!"

Elsa lets Oma borrow her lanyard to keep her bus card around her neck.
Aiden reminds Oma, "when you leave this whole place, you have to give that back to Elsa!"

Elsa finds the car hot, after it was parked in the sun for a while. "Can you switch on the aircon, papa?"
Me: "It's on, Elsa"
Elsa: "Can you switch to 10 please?"
Me: "It's at 10 already."
Aiden: "Can you switch to twenty?"

There is this road sign outside the childcare where Aiden schools (and Elsa used to). It warns drivers that there are children in the area. A few years ago, a photo was taken of Aiden and Elsa at that childcare. Today, I suddenly realized how stupendously accurate the road signage can be at times:

tekeningen van Lisa

Op verzoek van Lisa heb ik de volgende vijf tekeningen ingescand en op internet gezet, omdat ik ze erg mooi vind: