It was raining today, on and off. We take the kids out twice a day, for their and our sanity, haha. So around 6.00 pm I took the kids out for a walk through the town.

We saw several snails, much to the excitement of the kids. Later we saw an advertisement with a baby, and Adrian wanted to see it: "baby kijken! baby kijken!".

It's the first time I'm in Bulgaria with Easter, and I finally get a chance to try the Bulgarian Easter bread, Kozunak (Козунак). It's a sweet, leavened bread that is traditionally made and eaten around Easter, and we've tried three different version so far. All delicious.

This would be a fun project to try at home.

I ran a race this morning, my first one in four years. I ran with Vinayak, my coworker, and several other folks from E*TRADE.

I took Uber in the morning at 6.15 am. Next time I should go a little later, it was cold early in the morning and there wasn't much need to be so early..

Along the route there were several funny signs. Some of my favorites: "You are running better than the government", and, "Bernie would have run!". Half-way I heard a Bulgarian tourist couple talking about a good place for pictures, and I got a big smile when I yelled in Bulgarian "там е най-хубавото!".

I'm happy with the result: 91 minutes -- about a minute slower than four years ago.

I'm so proud of Nora, I'm bursting. She finished her second "real" book today, Aap wil een baan. I sat down with her, in the basement, and while she was munching on apple slices she completed 6 pages in one sitting.

She has a booklet where we keep track of which books she read, and she can rate the book. This one got a 2 out of 3 stars from Nora. Op is op, the other "real" book, warranted a 3 out of 3.

We saw Frozen over the Christmas break. I bought the Dutch version DVD and Sasha, Nora and I watched it over two days. We skipped over the part with the wolves, but except for that Nora loved it (and we had a good time too).

Since then we've been watching "Laat het gaan" many, many times and Nora can sing good parts of it already.

Today she asked me: "Papa, mag ik Frozen in het Engels zien?" "Waarom?" "Nou, we wonen in Amerika..."

But no, that's not happening because she's getting plenty of English exposure already. Later in the evening she asked me: "papa, wat betekent 'verleg de grenzen die ik ken?'" so that explains why I want her to hear the songs in Dutch.

We brought Nora for her 5 year checkup. When we were at the eye doctor a few days ago, her eyesight was fine, but today the test didn't go well at all -- Nora couldn't see anything, except the largest letters. The nurse was a little worried, and we were quite surprised.

Then Sasha looked at Nora's glasses... and they were very, very dirty. After cleaning them Nora did the same test again, and everything was fine, haha.

The checkup was fine otherwise. Nora is 45 lbs, 45 3/4".

This morning we took the kids for a haircut. Tina was happy when she saw us -- three little customers in a row.

It's a long walk for the guys and they were tired and cranky when we came back. Nora too, so for the first time in a few months we had everybody crying at the same time. Some avocado and a sandwich with cheese calmed everybody down.

In the afternoon the boys took a nap. Leo didn't want to sleep at first -- a diaper situation -- but after a quick chat ("Opa kijken!") he finally fell asleep at 2.20 pm. Nora and I later relaxed. Me at the computer, she with her Bobo.

Only a five year old will carefully spend 10 minutes painstakingly writing letter by letter: "I don't want to write letters".

In Bulgarian, appropriately for today's holiday Baba Marta, the beginning of spring. "Не искм да пиша букфите".

When we were looking for a house a few years ago, we always checked out the vent system above the range. Most houses we saw did not have a vent that moves air to the exterior. Neither did the house we bought and love, but that is changing today.

We're getting an exterior vent installed. Initially we will use the microwave -- if that's not strong enough we can always install a hood later. But this exterior venting will make a huge difference.

Adrian has an ear infection again. We all had colds last week, and he couldn't sleep yesterday from the pain. So this morning I took him to the pediatrician.

First we all went to Hayes Park with Baka and Mia, and when it was time for Adrian and I to go I told him we would go by bike -- he was very excited so getting him to leave the playground was easier than normal.

It's a gorgeous day today, 70 degrees Fahrenheit. It's kind of weird for February but we enjoyed it.

The pediatrician saw that both his ears were infected. We biked on to CVS, got the medication and then back to home where he got a well deserved sandwich with cheese. He was very tired so halfway his lunch he said "slapen, slapen" and I brought him in bed.

When everybody was asleep Nora and I started working on the werkboekje from Veilig Leren Lezen. We spoke with Ettie and family for a little while (Nora wanted to know which "kern" Jasper was on -- number 7, he said).