How I spent my Easter weekend.
Friday: forgot it was Easter.
Saturday: forgot it was Easter. Fell asleep at half past six in the morning
Sunday:Woke up at 10. Levered self out of bed and into coffee cup. Drove with dad to Point Roberts to see my aunt Tena (sidebar. Her mother thought that Tina spelled with an i was an obligatory nickname for peoples named Christina and had no idea that Tena (10-ah) is a brand of incontinence pads) and my Uncle Terry. Tena is undergoing chemo for colon cancer but is doing unbelievably well.
Tena has three kids who are all married or engaged. Krista, the eldest daughter, has four children with her husband Vince. The kids go like this: Sophie 7, Sean 6, Sam 4, and Christopher 1. They are very very blonde and their brains turn on dimes. I was introduced to Vince's mother Vicky, who was there for Easter brunch. The kids call her Yaya, which I will suppose is cute.
It will require a scale model of the house and some lasers to recount the running around I did, but at some point I ended outside with Sophie, Sean (or possibly Sam), Yaya and Tena to hunt eggs. Dad was helping the menfolk hack a wireless signal from two houses down. (Is it hacking if you have the permission of the signal owner?) As the waist-high and below population screamed around the yard, Yaya asked me how many kids I had.
Now, I'm used to people asking when I'm getting married or if I am married. Or, if I'm thinking about having a family. Old hat.
I think my exact reply was. "Oh, none. I'm not married or anything" (Caveat: I *know* that marriage isn't a prereq for kids. I just have found that "I'm not the parental kind" sparks a conversation by the middle of which I want to hang myself). I thought that was a good answer. She didn't know me well enough to get on my back about marriage and kids so I thought we'd go back to the egghunt.
"Oh, you mean you aren't his wife?"
*Blink Blink* [that sound you hear is my brain trying to commit seppeku]
Said, with only about half the horror I felt: "No! I'm his kid!"
Thanks Yaya. I had no idea I had an Electra complex.
Tena, thank her alacrity, quickly explained how she was best friends with my mum and I hunted eggs with the kids with frightening determination. I hunted them like they had jumped bail.
The kids then wanted to go to the swings at the park. So Sophie took one hand and Sam (Sean?) took the other and we walked to a field with a swingset. On the way there, we identified duckweed, a waterlogged crate, a secret trail and some bramble. I asked if their dad knew where the park was. (I was running out of things to say!)
They asked me where my dad was. I said "Back at the cottage with your Grandpa."
"That's your daddy?"
"Yup."
"You're not married to him?"
*brain sighs, gets katana off the wall*
"Nope. I'm not married. Actually, I'm not that much older than you guys." Boy, that was a tactical error. Counting from seven to twenty-two has *never* taken so long.
And then there was sand and swings and a lot of pushing and not much pumping at all and walking home with Sean and Sam and much squeaking when they pulled me in two directions and lots of little-boy giggling and me somehow carrying a bicycle because Sean didn't want to ride anymore.
And then there was chocolate, and a lovely walk with Tena, who told me stories of my mum, so it was more than worth it.