Finally this morning I slept till 6.30am!  Hooray!  My body clock might finally be adjusting...  We've been having a nice time at Tante Bertha and Oom Ben's house, as you can see :

Maddi and I have been made to feel very welcome and it's very nice to see my mum's side of the family too.

Hardenberg, where I am at the moment, is probably not so big, but it's got plenty of shops.  I've already ridden the bike into the centre a few times, but I still haven't seen everything.

You might just be able to see the teddies in the basket if you look carefully.  Sorry teddies, you haven't had much opportunity to go out lately because it was a bit rainy, but it is a beautiful day today (Thursday).
It was really good weather today and Oom Ben and Tante Bertha were out, so I decided to visit Tante Gea again.  She is mum's sister and she lives in a nursing home called Clara because she has Alzheimer's.

On Tuesday I went with Oom Wim (Tante Gea's husband) at lunchtime.  He goes there everyday at lunch and dinner time to make sure she has enough to eat (the nurses are very busy).  It was very sad to see how she had changed but it was also beautiful to see the way Oom Wim looked after her.  He has really kept up his promise at marriage from "...in sickness and in health..."

Today I walked there and their daughter made this photo (above) of Tante Gea with Maddi.  Today apparently she was really "helder"or clear in her mind compared to more often.  She really responded to Maddi well.  I brought some bright sunflowers as well, which I thought she might "see" and some pieces of wool that we tied to some elastic attached to her chair (Steve's oma had the same and she enjoyed winding up bits of wool etc). 

On Tuesday night, Tante Bertha and I went bike riding till about 10pm.  She showed me some of the roads where some of my relies lived and also where Opa and Oma Kuipers (mum's mum and dad) used to live on JC Kellerlaan.  The house and shed were bulldozed a few years ago due to the council wanting more land.  It would have been nice to see because I can remember being at that house fairly well from the last time I went to Holland when I was 8.  There was a corn field right next door and we picked a few cobs for the chickens.

I didn't think I'd be getting up to a tiny bit of mischief with my Auntie in Holland when I left on this trip!

Maddi has a very comfortable bed (can you see her?) and I sleep next to her.  Maddi is so cute, she's really copying so much - clapping, coughing, dancing with her upper body, peekaboo etc.

This is Tante Bertha and Oom Ben's car.  Cute isn't it?  It's a special car that's only allowed to go 45km/h or less and I'm pretty sure you don't need a license to drive it.
And for now, the last thing I want to tell you is that Tante Bertha's is the first house I've been to so far (I'm pretty sure) that had tissues in a box...
Maddi is awake, so I will tell you about my day yesterday (Wednesday) at Tante Gerry and Oom Gezinus' house.