Back to nursery…on a sleigh

Haarlem, Thursday 11 February 2021

Even though the lockdown is still ongoing (a lot of shops, hairdressers, etc. remain closed) as of this week, the day-care centres and lower schools have opened this Monday the 8th of February.

This also happened to be one of the coldest days in ages, with some kind of snowy stormy winds creating feeling temperatures of -15°C., with more cold days to follow this week. Snowfall followed by frost creates icy roads.

These are no cycling conditions, so we decided to bring Yaron to day-care on a sleigh. Brilliant idea at first, he really enjoyed the novelty on the way to the day-care centre 1 km away, normally a 10 min. bike ride. Except we’re speaking of a teenager-toddler with a strong will of his own, who considers the outside world as one big playground, not a path towards a goal – our warm home in this case.

This period also coincided with the beginning of the repair work to our studio, our work space at the back of the house which got severely damaged in the storm of June 2019 and has been empty and waiting ever since to be seriously rebuilt. Our Corona year couldn’t be more cramped with regards to ‘work space’ as well as ‘toddler in the house’. Among others, a foundation needed to be made and the roof replaced, still a work in progress, now frozen because of the weather conditions.

Needless to say this is a rather stressful time. Imagine then collecting your sweet toddler son – full of smiles – from nursery with the sleigh – in order for him to walk around exactly the wrong way, further from home, with sub-zero temperatures, darkness falling in, hungry, a resolute “NO!!” with subsequent tantrums when merely suggesting to go on the sleigh, or even just being carried.

We got there in the end, and with the soothing cartoons on TV with trucks, cranes and flying dogs he nearly fell asleep on my lap – nearly. Dinner & bath first.

Welcome home