Some rare Daddy Daughter time

I love spending time as a family and I always love 1 on 1 time with my girls. It is very rare that I get to spend quality time with Belinda but equally, as I work, A and I don’t get a lot of 1 on 1 time either. This weekend I got that time.

Belinda went to Renswoude to take on the challenge of the Renswoude to Apeldoorn (40km) walk. I had planned to meet everyone at the end but it was difficult as I have just started the process to transfer to my Dutch license which means I have a period without a license altogether. So after a nice dinner in Amsterdam with Belinda, Miss A and I waved goodbye and headed home. Just the two of us.

We had a great adventure on the train and then Miss A rode on the front of the bike. From the front seat on the bike she feels like she is steering the huge Oma Fiets herself! We had already had our family adventure on Saturday so Miss A and I had an early night so that we could be ready to have some fun together on Sunday.

Sunday morning Miss A woke a little earlier than her usual 6am. As there was space in the ‘big’ bed we tried to go back to sleep for a little while. It was little too exciting though and after 20 minutes Miss A asked Daddy if she could play and hide under the covers. That wore thin so she grabbed Daddy’s phone and asked to look at the ‘Pickert -tures’. After watching a video of herself crazy dancing with Mummy and Aunty Rachel in the living room 100 times, we moved onto baby dancing on the Samsung Tablet and then Playschool game on Mummy’s iPad. It was technology overload but it bought me an extra hour in bed! Somewhat blissful.

When we did get up we were blessed with some beautiful weather. It was too good to stay inside for long so we decided we should practice our bike riding. Miss A jumped on her bike and we headed out to the shopping strip where there was a Sunday market on. Usually the shops are closed on a Sunday so this was a nice surprise. We walked down as the the strip looking at the stalls as they started setting up around 11. It was a big walk for little miss so we decided to take a break and recharge with a hot chocolate. Miss A lit up when she saw the huge mug with more cream on top than she has seen in her entire life! Being the Father of the year that I am, a let her have the whole thing, and while it took nearly an hour to finish drinking with a spoon she loved it!

Chocolate biscuit to allow time to think about where to start on the cream

A spoonful at a time all the way to the bottom

We then moved on to the toy shop to see what fun we could pick up and take to the park. We opted for a balloon helicopter. It was good cheap fun and both of us couldn’t wait to get into the park to play with it. Well maybe Daddy was a little more excited.

We headed for the park and put it together. Daddy to blow up the balloon and Miss A would launch it and chase it. She would grab it then bring it back to start all over again.

After a quick sandwich with chocolate sprinkles Miss A took her queue and march upstairs. She demanded to go to sleep so that she could go back to the park. She is a wise soul at 2. She had already realised that to enjoy the park again she would need to recharge the batteries. 3 hours later I had to wake her so that she had enough time to get to the park before we had to organise dinner.

Basically our evening was running around the park, picking up some groceries, cooking dinner together then bedtime. There simply wasn’t enough hours in the day. We could have done this forever!

Miss A was so excited that she couldn’t sleep. She eventually went down at 930pm, about 10 minutes before Belinda got home. Which was great for me as I look like the model parent having everything under control, with dinner keeping warm in the oven and the glass of wine at the ready.

All in all it was a pretty simple day for Miss A and I. Having her enjoy herself so much with such simple activities and just generally enjoying each others company was good for the soul. I know I feel better having had such quality time with my beautiful little girl. I am sure it was lost on her just how special it was, but at 2 it just needs to be fun, and fun it was.