October

We installed a safety hook on the outside of Falco’s door some time ago to prevent him from wandering the house at night. Unfortunately we seemed to forget to close it quite a few times and were thus often awakened by Falco trampolining on our chests in the early hours. I was starting to think I was demented until I saw, while getting ready for work that the little monster was pushing the door ajar, getting his board-books and throwing them straight upwards between the door and the frame until he knocked the hook open. I had been wondering why I kept finding his books just outside his bedroom door. We both marvelled at his fiendish cunning.

This month we finally reached the end of our jogging schedule and managed to jog for 35 minutes straight (yay!). We were extremely proud of ourselves, given the fitness level we had started from. When we began we could not imagine being able to run that long. Unfortunately we were then immediately felled, one after the other, by a really rotten flu-thing. What with us taking turns being ill (I was off work for almost a week) and looking after the monsters we then did not jog for a couple of weeks, so we will have to go back a couple of steps in the schedule and build up again.

The autumn school holidays were pretty tiring too, but fortunately the weather was good, so Marjolein took the kids out to the playground and when I was home we did a trip to Artis with one of Matthijs’ school friends.

The kiddos were rather restless and difficult after the autumn holiday. The other parents at school say that their children have been difficult too so it is probably the season, or the changing of the clocks, or the prospect of presents in December doing it.

We went to a goodbye-party at the end of the month: one of Marjolein’s friends and her husband are going on sabbatical/holiday to South America for four months with their two little daughters. I admire their courage, given that I have misgivings about taking the boys as far a France for more than a week.

Daniel went in for an ear check-up. It looked clear and they will operate next month to check whether the cholesteatoma has grown back and replace the two ear-bones that were damaged. We hope that the operation will restore some of his hearing. He has been very good about putting in his ear-plugs at bath time. He makes sure they do not fall out and he tidies them away carefully.

Matthijs’ teacher put him into a special fast reading group with three other children, because they always finished first. She also applied the system we set up for Matthijs (regular progress tests, compressed material, shorter units) to a group of children who are good at maths. We are hoping that Matthijs’ “honeymoon period” will last: he is generally at his best when adjusting to a challenging new situation: when things are too easy and obvious for him he gets bored and mischievous.

Falco is have a wonderful time at playschool. He amazes the teachers with his prowess with jigsaws and generally trundles around in a most contented fashion, waving Marjolein goodbye with “bye ‘amma, see ‘oo ‘ater” (in Dutch of course). He has real social skills too: he knows the names of all his brother’s friends and greets them, by name, with a big smile and hugs: if they will stand for it. This melts even the big boys and they all like playing with him. I reckon we have a salesman in the making there…

All three brothers are very fond of each other. Not many days go by without some kind of conflict, but not many go by without a big hug either (a “teletubbies” moment) and given the chance they like to all sleep together. So much for making sure they had their own rooms….

 

Franckendael estate
in Amsterdam, afternoon out
with friends with kids
3.3 Mb, .wmv