This morning Nora and I watched the arrival of Sinterklaas. I brought out the Sinterklaas books and we read a few of them.

We went for a long walk in the afternoon. We checked out Mom's, a new grocery store at the site where Bergman's used to be. It was a great walk.

After dinner Nora put her shoe at the fireplace, together with socks for Leo and Adrian. We sang three songs. A little later she went to Sasha and asked her: "let's look outside!". She remembered from last year that at one point there was a big bag with presents outside. We explained to her that wouldn't be the case tonight.

"De eerste winter was er een zak. Maar niemand klopte! Toen we de deur open deden zagen we niemand".

She was very excited and I was surprised she fell asleep at all.

Today Oma Groen passed away. She was 89 years old.

We all loved her deeply and she was a wonderful grandmother, both when Ettie & I were little and in later years. When I was born Opa & Oma lived in Velsen-Noord and while I have a few memories from there, they are hazy. Opa was a dentist and after his retirement they moved to a farm in Witteveen, Drenthe. We would stay there often and for long visits. Years later they bought an apartment in Hoogeveen, later Oma moved to Heerenveen. Oma Groen has been a loving presence for me all my life and I'll miss her.

I last saw her in person in the summer of 2014. We frequently talked on the phone and she was always very interested in her great grandchildren. I'm very grateful that she and Nora got a opportunity to meet.

Right after the bicycle arrived I left on a trip to California but now I finally fully assembled the bike. It's a Workcycles Kruisframe, a sturdier version of the classic Omafiets.

It's great to have a coaster break again (terugtraprem). Coaster breaks are not popular in the USA, but that's the type of break I've had on my bike for 24 years. My previous bike had hand breaks -- which makes it much harder to bicycle with only 1 hand.

This morning Nora and I went to Whole Foods on the bike and we both enjoyed it a lot. I don't have a crate on the front carrier yet so I temporarily used an Ikea plastic footstool to hold our shopping bag. I made it up on our big hill on 13th street, even with Nora and the groceries, so that's great.

I'm very happy with the bike.

My new bicycle arrived today! I put the big components together tonight but didn't have much time because I'm leaving to California tomorrow. Nora helped.

Today it was Leo's turn to get his first bit of solid food.

He wasn't impressed.

Adrian had his first solid food today. We made him carrots with milk and he ate several bites.

He liked it. Nora told him, in Bulgarian: you'll have to finish your plate.

We brought the kids to the pediatrician this morning to get their flu shots. Nora went first and took it well. Leo was already a little tired and cried his lungs out, while Adrian cried just a little bit and shortly thereafter smiled again. Went went to the German bakery and got a bread and in the car ride home Leo fell asleep.

It's good that I fixed the gutter because it has been raining for two days in a row and the weekend won't be any better due to a major storm on the Atlantic.

Nora wore her Jip & Janneke boots to school.

Every now and then the boys are smiling at each other, especially now that they're in highchairs. And when they drop a toy, Nora will pick it up and give it back: "hier, jongen!"

The colds are mostly over, thankfully.

We're all pretty tired. Nora had a cold first, and then slowly but surely all of us. Lots of interrupted nights.

On Wednesday I woke up at 4.10 am and was back home at 10.30 pm, and on Saturday I worked from 9.00 am to 4.00 pm.

But last night we went out for a nice dinner. We went to Woodside Grill -- the first time since the boys were born. We had our favorite outside table near the door -- separate from the other diners so we don't bother anyone and with lots of space for the stroller.

This morning Nora woke up at 7.00 am. After I brought her downstairs etc we agreed that she would play and I would go back upstairs, and so we did. She played for at least 45 minutes by herself, making a big convoy of her Lego and Playmobil. One of the boats she made from the Duplo blocks reminded me of the boats I used to make when I was little.