April

The first thing that happened in April was that Matthijs got his Swimming Diploma A. He had done a test-swim two weeks earlier so we knew that he could do it easily, but it was still quite exciting for him and us. I was struck by how demanding the test was, they had to swim through a hoop under water, tread water, float face down and on their backs and do several lengths of backstroke, crawl and breaststroke. The only certificate I have involved me doing a length and a width in any way that did not involve drowning. Still, if large parts of your country are under water it makes sense to be good at swimming…

The other surprising element was what a tremendous big deal it was. Perhaps it is part of the "cult of the child" but there was not a single kid there without at least one parent and probably a grandparent taking pictures and cheering them on. There where so many "encouragement moments" that I started to feel as if I was giving the responses in Mass. I suspect that now that we have in all our fine rationality abandoned most of the old "coming of age" ceremonies that innocent occasions such as a swimming exam are becoming invested with ritual magic.

It is of course (pontification over) impressive to see all those little thin bodies manfully (girlfully) cleaving through the water. Matthijs was doing his best so much that I would not have been surprised to see wisps of steam or a slight glow coming off him.

Having secured the piece of paper (more glowing from Matthijs) we are now going to continue the lessons, and start Daniel sometime next year, in a rather cheaper and handier swimming club.

Just for the statistics, Matthijs now weighs 23.4 kg, Daniel is 19.9 kg and Falco comes in a close third (chunky monkey) at 15.9 kg.

Soon after that we lost Matthijs completely for a whole afternoon. Marjo was out and I had let Matthijs play outside in the little playground on our square with strict instructions not to go anywhere else while I locked the house and went to the shops. When I came back he was nowhere to be seen. After biking round the neighbourhood in considerable trepidation and mounting anger we found him playing upstairs in his room. Apparently he had scaled a two-metre high gate (with a barbed-wire top) to get round the back of the house and in through the unlocked back door. He naturally felt that he was in the right: he had just come home. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAArgh.

It was Marjolein’s birthday this month. It is hard to buy a birthday present for a lady who (while fond of perfume and nice clothes) is mainly tempted by updates to website administration software and digital cameras: end-stage geek. Fortuanately by doing some phoning around and frantic biking I had actually succeeded in fixing up a baby-sitter, dropping off some little fun things at a favourite Italian restaurant and thus arranging a surprise evening off.

After that it was Daniel’s turn: he became five whole years old on the 2nd (of May) and celebrated it before the school holiday started on the 29th. You have to hand out snackos at school on your birthday (cult of the child again) and Marjolein cheated by buying a stack of waffles at the supermarket and was subsequently embarassed by several mums asking her for the recipe.

Next he got to invite five children home. Of those invited one (unfortunately Daniel’s best friend) could not make it and the otherwise sturdy girl of the group was so frazzled by the boys bouncing around that she burst into tears and had to go home. That said the remaining three guests went with us to the big playground at Ijmuiden and had a fine time. It was nice weather and they ran and climed to their heart’s content, rounding it off with big plates of chips and bags of sweets.

The last Saturday of April was Queen’s Day and Matthijs was on fire to sell stuff so we set up a blanket on the big playing field. I taught him sales basics – identifying an approaching "mark", catching their eyes and presenting your goods. I taught him to sing "nice things for low prices" and with his cheerful smile and head full of curls he did very well at generating traffic. We sold some old video tapes and the boys set off with the profits and a little extra to encumber us with still more junk. Daniel in his thoughtful way went off and bought a rubber dingy big enough to sit in – and excellent choice which he then had to defend from several people who wanted to buy it off him.

 

Swimming for diploma (Matthijs)
.wmv file, 8.7 M

Verjaardag Daniel op school
.wmv file, 3.7 Mb