It's me now

While spending a few days with my son, his girlfriend and their daughter, some poetry assembled itself in my mind and needs to be written down.

It seems.

It seems that I am now the mother-in-law
Who cooks and cleans and smiles and doesn't say much.
My world and theirs of YouTube and What'sApp and TV just don't
   have much in common.
Their conversations about rappers and TV starlets don't interest me
So I speak with the grandchild.
No deep conversations, but I do get smiles and kisses out of it.

It seems that I am now the mother-in-law
Who is there to push the pram and buy ice cream and drive the car.
My views of the world are so antiquated and out of touch that they just don't
  fit well with their modern way of life.
So I mind my tongue
And spend my time thinking.

Thinking that maybe my mother-in-law was just the same.
She cooked and she cleaned and she smiled and didn't say much.
Her world and ours, a political world, and intellectual world just didn't
  have much in common.
Her interests seemed to lie with TV singers and stars in the magazines instead
So she spoke with her grandchild.
No deep conversations, but she did get smiles and kisses out of it.

I do wonder though.
Did she spend her time while silently smiling
Doing math problems or writing poetry in her head
As I have been doing these past few days?


Driving home

Driving home after a swim -
son, his girlfriend, granddaughter -
are all sound asleep.

Crazy Easter

Yes, I know. I'm crazy. I have 5 days over Easter, and am spending them in Sweden. That is a rather normal thing for me to do, as it is only a leisurely 8-10 hour drive each direction. But this year I have lots of company. To be precise: WiseKid, WiseKid's girlfriend, WiseGrandkid, and two dogs. WiseMan decided that he didn't want to ride with this circus, so he would stay home, start the taxes, and spend time at the spa. To each his own.

We got an early start, so that we would have something of the first day in the cabin. Amazingly, they all slept for most of the way. We have a two hour ferry ride in the middle, we had a nice place away from the crowds for WiseGrandkid and the dogs to bounce around. I pretended not to notice the poop they had to scoop away.

We unpacked, unloaded the dogs, and set off shopping. Oh my, they were loading the cart like as if we were staying for a week! All this cooooool Swedish stuff we just HAD to have.

They decided to have a family room in the guest house, as I flatly refused to have the dogs in the house. That was actually kind of nice, I had the house to myself evenings.

We went to the zoo the first day. It took ages to get the show on the road, getting everyone up and dressed and fed and lunches made. But the zoo in Höör was just so worth it! Not only did we get to feed the wild boars and pet a horse, we were able to both pet and feed a moose! That was really the attraction of the day, or as WiseGrandkid says: "Super!"

Petting a moose

Day two we had the usual problems getting going, then made our way to Aq-va-kul in Malmö for swimming. It was smaller than I had remembered it, and not all that exciting I thought, but it was just the right size for WiseGrandkid. We first sat on the edge of the wave bath and enjoyed the gentle waves. Then WiseKid loaded her on a floating raft and paddled her around. What glee! We sat in the "hot tubs" that were the same temperature, just bubbly, used the baby elephant slide about 1500 times, and WiseGrandkid went swimming with me. We enjoyed the "whitewater" chute many times.

Easter Sunday we kept the dogs locked in while we hid the eggs. WiseGrandkid didn't quite get what it was she was supposed to be doing, but eventually she figured it out. And she was enchanted with the plush hippopotamus that her parents had hid in the willow tree. We then just chilled, ate chocolate, and went shopping. Grandma went to church in the late afternoon, surprise, no one wanted to come along.

Tomorrow we head back home - wish me a sane and safe trip!