January

We always start the year with a beach-walk on the first of January to clear away the cobwebs and think about our plans for the new year with the sea to inspire us. Also,the children like getting wet.

This year we invited some friends along, with their beasts, so we got to wish them a happy new year as well. It was a great start to the year and we rounded it off with pancakes all round.

Falco started having an extra morning at playschool this month:, and it will get him ready for going to school for four days in the autumn. He is looking forward to school very much; when Marjolein takes the others in, in the mornings, she often has to drag him home crying because he wanted to stay in class with his brothers.

Falco had his first birthday party invitation this month: one of his playmates at playschool turned four. He had fun, though the difference with the other friends of the boy, who were four-something, was marked. Falco has decided that he is big, “Mamma I get bigger every day. I am big now surely?” Marjolein cunningly declared that “big” as in not-a-toddler was dependant on being toilet-trained.

Here you can also see Falco’s portrait of papa that he made at playschool: not bad for a three-year-old, eh?.

Daniel is a creative as ever, but at the moment totally engrossed in Knexx. He builds the things at 8+ difficulty without any problems: they have thick books of instructions and he plows through them systematically, asking for help only when his fingers are not strong enough to snap something together. He even made some original 2D and even slightly 3D art with it, stuff that was not in the books…

He is apparently very visually oriented. He is the only one of the three with a pronounced taste in clothes and the only one who spontaneously comments on Mama’s new hairstyle or says that he likes her clothes. Those are highly useful skills and will take him far if he retains that ability past puberty… When seeing Marjolein dressed up to go to a party he asked why she was so nicely dressed and when it was explained exclaimed “Oh, You have friends TOO! I thought only Papa did.

This is an unexpected consequence of Papa being very involved in kiddo-care: I take them to bath and bed, so they really notice if I am out on the town, because Marjolein then does it. If she is out it is not that noticeable, for them.

Daniel also started swimming lessons this month. He is very happy and enthusiastic, so we hope that he will make quick progress. It will be nice when they all have their “B” diplomas and are relatively safe around water.

Matthijs is having a tough time at school. The playground problems have ceased, but he still has a way to go in his work attitude and getting on well with other children in the class. Next month we will have a sit-down with the teachers and the play therapist. He is very nice and responsible at home though: good company and a real help around the house.

 

Daniels first swimming lesson
55 sec. en 4,7 MB .wmv file