S-a-t-u-r-day

Does it have to be 5:30 am EVEN on Saturday?

We usually take our time on Saturday mornings because there is no race for school and the hubby's job is right around the corner from home.  Lily and Papa usually make some gauffres or corn pancakes together and everyone sits outside on the patio playing and having breakfast together.  Didier is still at work by 9 am, this all starts REALLY early over here, and I am left for the day with the girls.  In truth, I hate Saturdays.  I am exhausted and on the day that I imagine most families are together, I have both girls and all their craziness all by myself.  I like to take a nap with Virginie during the week if I can and that is DEFINITELY NOT happening with Lily at home.  Lily likes to swim and run and play...and she should, but I feel like I am not giving her all the time and attention she wants.  We do as much as we can.

Saturdays, especially, make me miss New York.  I want a real bagel with cream cheese and lox, a good coffee, a stroll, meeting other mommies and papas in the street, never knowing how the day is going to unfold.  I want the kids to meet other kids in the playground and make later playdates or meeting times.  I want to commiserate with mommies when the kids do crazy things. I want to drag my stroller down the subway stairs wearing the baby in the Bjorn so we can go downtown and DO something...OK, maybe not that.  But I want to let the city guide my curiosity and share in the culture with my kids.  Go to a museum, to the park, listen to music, go to the zoo.  All within walking distance or some form of public transport.  I want to see my friends, talk to my friends, have a coffee with my friends while the kids play.  I want them to see me laugh more.

I want delivery, not take-away as they say here in Barbados...and of any kind of food I'd like.  I want Chinese food, Japanese, a falafel, a good deli sandwich with a pickle!  I want something that makes life a little richer, a little easier.  Yes, we do have the pool and we have hot weather all year round.  The views of the sea are breathtaking and a visit to Barbados would make anyone smile.  But I am new here and I live here and it has yet to charm me.  To show me that I am not missing anything by not being there.  And it is no worse than on Saturdays when the loneliness of being a mom in a foreign country with no real friends is most apparent.  Let's see how the day unfolds.

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