A Special Surprise
(December 9 – 10, 2017) A surprise was on the way. We almost missed it, thanks to bad weather halting all northerly progress and ultimately turning us back to the south, but after a brief stint in a tiny fishing village to ride out the weather, the surprise was back on.
The girls had no idea it was coming. It was Saturday morning, and the surprise was set to arrive on Saturday afternoon, after having been redirected from Loreto to La Paz. When the girls realized we were headed back to La Paz, rather than to Loreto as we’d planned, the girls asked what was going on. That was when we told them there was a surprise. They were suddenly hyperfocused on returning to La Paz, and figuring out what that surprise might be. They would never, ever guess what it was.
The surprise was scheduled to arrive at the La Paz bus station that afternoon, around 1PM. But, by 2PM, the bus hadn’t yet arrived at its pickup several hours away in Loreto. The girls were refreshingly patient when we told them their surprise was delayed, and we spent the afternoon preparing the boat – for what, the girls didn’t know – until the surprise arrived just in time for dinner.
By dinnertime, though, the surprise still hadn’t been picked up in Loreto. By now, all of us were nearly overwhelmed with excited energy waiting for the surprise, so we went out to dinner to distract ourselves for a while. We continued to wait for updates on the surprise, but by the time we’d finished dinner, we still hadn’t heard anything. Finally, as we headed back to the boat with to very excited but tired girls, we received good news: the bus had finally arrived in Loreto! The surprise would arrive in La Paz around 9PM. We gave the girls the update, and the good news that we’d let them wait up for the surprise to arrive.
Another hour, and more news came: Although the bus arrived in Loreto, it hadn’t yet left. So, the surprise continued to be delayed. It’s ETA was now 11PM. The girls would never make it until eleven, so with great trepidation, I gently explained to them that they had to go to bed, and their surprise would arrive after bedtime – they could see the surprise first thing in the morning. I was shocked when the girls happily agreed to go straight to bed, so that they’d be ready to receive their surprise in the morning.
At 11PM, Rich left the boat and grabbed a taxi to the bus station. The surprise had finally arrived! Another short cab ride, and the surprise was safely aboard. We made the dinette up as a bed – after all, the surprise needed sleep, too – and went to sleep.
Ellie very quietly woke me the next morning. She had crept into our room, almost silently, and lightly patted me on the head. “Mama?” she whispered. “Mama. Mama?” There was fear in her tiny voice, and I couldn’t figure out what on earth she might be afraid of on such a bright, sunny morning. Groggily, I rolled over to respond to her.
“What’s wrong, baby?” I asked.
“Mama,” she half-whispered, half-cried, “Mama! There’s someone sleeping on the table!”
I laughed, delighted that that my surprise had turned into such an unintended trick. She puzzled at my reaction, and her face threatened tears. I quickly stopped laughing and explained, “That’s your surprise! Go give her morning hugs!”
Ellie didn’t budge. Her face was frozen in confusion and near-tears. She didn’t understand, or she didn’t trust me, so I encouraged her. “Remember how we had a surprise for you?”
“Yeah,” she answered hesitantly, knowing she was walking into some sort of trap.
“Well,” I explained, “your surprise was a person. It’s someone you’re going to be very happy to see, I promise. And she really needs morning hugs!”
The look on her face didn’t change, but she glanced back behind her, into the salon, at the figure buried in pillows and blankets on the dinette bed. She hesitatntly took a few steps backward toward the salon, and then stopped to look back at me for reassurance. I encouraged her along, and she carefully stepped into the salon to get a closer look at the figure on the table.
Just then, Morgan came out of her room. She stopped cold when she saw the dinette made up as a bed (I’m not sure if she saw the person on it yet), and looked at Ellie. “What are you doing?” Morgan asked her, assuming Ellie had made the mess on the bed.
“Mama says that’s our surprise,” Ellie told Mo, still wary.
Morgan took a closer look at the table, and immediately her eyes got wide. She knew exactly who that was, still asleep there, and her mind stumbled for a moment in disbelief. But she recovered immediately, and enthusiastically dove onto the bed next to the surprise. “MISS MILANA!!!!!” she shouted with glee as she dove into cuddles and hugs.
Ellie watched all this, still wholly distrusting of the entire situation. Maybe she thought Morgan was in on my treachery, which was clearly not a surprise, but a plot to make her give morning hugs to a complete stranger. It was several seconds after Morgan dove in that she finally figured out what her surprise was, and followed suit.
It was the fun, smiling, wonderful Miss Milana. She had been the girls’ nanny since Morgan was four months old, and since Ellie was only a few weeks old. We had an au pair the last two years, so Milana was no longer the official nanny, but she was was the babysitter of choice on the frequent occasions when Rich and I had work or leisure commitments on evenings and weekends. The girls adored their Miss Milana. For nearly an hour, the girls just sat in bed with Milana cuddling, hugging, and chatting as though they just saw each other yesterday.
After a lively breakfast together, filled with all the joy of that special bond between two girls and their nanny, we cast off the lines and made our way through the channel away from La Paz. It was already December 10, and we had to deliver her to Loreto on the 15th for her flight out, so time was of the essence. The key would be maximizing travel time and playtime as we made the long journey north to Loreto. Hopefully, though, the wind wouldn’t stop us this time.
