July 5, 2025
I was up early today for some random life admin, trying to see if our travel insurance will pay for Lenny’s dentist and all the changes to our flights in Asia. The boys were up next for breakfast and the beginning of home school. They did their iPad learning first and then Ollie wrote a letter to his friend and former classmate Delilah. Lenny and I went over his Lenny words, but only after his demands of having a second granola bar, and not having to share half with Ollie, ended. We added another page to his words, those ending in “un“ and “iss“.
After school we got back to our bike lessons. Making it down the building’s stairs, that are basically a ladder, is always the first challenge. Ollie was up first and we did some laps around the block but the best method is just going up and down the road in front of our apartment. As we were going a man walking his dog stopped us and suggested to take him out of 1st gear. He said Ollie was having to pedal too much which was causing him to wobble and making balancing harder. We cranked him up to 3rd gear and he is so close to being able to ride…
Kayleen squeezed in a yoga class while the boys ate lunch and had some Lego/quiet time. When she returned the boys were getting antsy, trying to play hide and seek in our little apartment. Even with only 3 rooms to search they still use their butt joke humor to try and cause the other to laugh and give themselves away.
I took Lenny out for his turn on the bike. Lenny takes more effort than Ollie since Ollie is so close to riding. The bike is a little big for Lenny and he is more worried about crashing so he stops frequently, even though he is usually at no risk of crashing. By the end of our time Lenny was feeling good saying, “I’m doing so much better already!”
The boys were playing Lego’s before we planned to head out to an arcade Kayleen found. After telling them not to smash each other’s Lego’s 10 times throughout the day they smashed each others again after a small fight. I told them the arcade was cancelled and to go to their room. Ollie lost it crying and blubbering various things like “I was so close to the arcade and I blew it!” Lenny was upset but less so. He tried to console Ollie and we could hear them saying nice things to each other through the door, mainly that the other should go to the arcade.
I let this go on for 10 minutes before we left for the arcade. Hopefully they don’t figure out these empty threats for a few more years…
The arcade was about a 20-minute bike ride away, in a warehouse complex. It was 12.50 EUR per person to get in and play unlimited games. There were two floors of mostly older games but the kids still had a blast. Ollie would play a game for longer periods of time, trying to understand them and beat levels. Lenny would play each video game for 40 seconds then move on, bopping around continuously but seemingly very happy about it. I was happy to play a game of Mrs. Pac-man and Crazy Taxi in peace before we left to find dinner.
When we left the arcade after 90 minutes of non-stop playing. Neither of the boys protested at all but both just said they had a lot of fun. I can’t imagine leaving in such a calm manner when I was that age.
We planned to head to a taco shop in hopes of finding some good Mexican food for the first time on the trip. When we walked out of the arcade it was raining lightly. We hopped on our bikes and pedaled to the taco shop but about halfway there my phone flew out of my pocket and I had to turn around to find it. We made it and the number of people outside the taco shop in the rain gave us a good feeling about how good it would be.
The place was tiny with only a few bar stools inside. We ordered our food and waited outside on some stools close to the building trying to stay out of the rain. We started with 8 tacos and 4 Mexican corns. We loaded Ollie’s tacos up with pickled red onions and he loved them. He ate a steak (asada), birria, and pork taco after which he asked for more. Lenny was not as fast with the tacos, he spent some time on the corn, but when done with his two wanted more. I went back in to order 6 more tacos. When we were done Ollie was the taco eating champ taking down ~5 tacos, the most out of any of us. He happily scarfed Kayleen’s last taco that had green salsa and heaps of cilantro on it. Hopefully he’ll now continually eat these things!
It had started to rain harder while we were eating our tacos. We got on the bikes knowing we were going to get soaked on the way home. Lenny loves to scream that he hates the rain but I think he loves it. Shortly into our ride my phone flew out of my pocket again! I didn’t notice it was missing right away so going back to search for it was a bit harder than the first time but I found it. I gave it to Ollie to hold while sitting in the bucket and he promised to keep it safe for the ride. You can see him keeping it safe from Lenny and dry under his jacket until we got all the way inside!
We were fully soaked by the time we got home, the pictures don’t do it justice. The boys stripped off their wet clothes and happily enjoyed another pavlova desert. Then it was off to bed for them, asleep before 10PM! There bedroom stays nice and dark which is a treat after our time on the boat.
