Yesterday was Nora's first hour at school. She was in class from 9.30 am to 10.30 am and we brought her to school together. At 10.30 am Baby Lilyana picked her up and they played a little bit on the playground.

Nora seemed pretty happy about her first "day". She played with the blocks again and had a snack (сос не беше сладко не беше солено, беше за деца).

She didn't want to go to bed last night and woke us up around midnight again, with a lot of drama. Turns out that she has a runny noise, proving all our preconceived notions about going to school, haha. It's always a relief to find an explanation for why she didn't want to sleep though. This morning was pretty hectic but we managed to leave for school on time. We walked together with Eli and Lori.

She started at 8.30 am today, her first regular schoolday. The drop-off is very effective and I only had time to yell a quick "dag meissie" before she disappeared inside. A good thing.

My little girl is going to school tomorrow. I am very happy for her, but I'm sad too. She is growing up and somehow I feel that she'll be gone to college in no time.

Her "school" is wonderful and she's looking forward to it (though we didn't mention today that she'll be going tomorrow). It's a wonderful and loving environment and she'll have a blast. She'll learn about waiting for her turn, about interacting with other kids, speaking English and she'll have many new friends.

It's important for her to spread her wings and explore the world and going to school will be fun and rewarding for her. But I wish I could freeze time!

On this picture she is reading to her teddy bear from her self-made book.

Last weekend we brought back Nora's old highchair and Nora and I assembled the second one yesterday. We haven't seen them next to each other yet but they both enjoyed sitting in the highchair -- there's so much more to see and they're now part of the family conversation, especially during dinner.

Yesterday afternoon we went for a walk and Nora picked up a stick "for the fireplace". On 13th Street a big but friendly dog passed by us and the owner said: "he's jumpy but very friendly". When the dog passed Nora he saw her stick... and grabbed it. Nora was very surprised and didn't want to let go, but the dog was stronger. The owner apologized and returned Nora's stick.

After Nora left for Bulgaria we cleaned up the various piles of sticks near the front and backdoors. Well, they are back.

Two weeks ago Oma Mieke discovered that Adrian had his first tooth.

Now he has two little teeth. Quite sharp.

Two weeks ago I went to a bicycle store on H Street to take a second look at a bicycle that I had seen there. Jaap was there also and it was nice to get his advice. Nora looked around at everything and I had her sit on the Dutch bike for a little bit.

The bike we looked at was an Oma bicycle from Gazelle. It was a 51 cm frame -- too small for me -- but already felt awesome. So much nicer than the leaned-over style of riding. The largest Oma frame Gazelle has is 57 cm which is still a little too short for my 6'2 length, so ultimately I decided not to get a Gazelle. I found a store in Amsterdam that builds great bicycles and ships to the United States for a reasonable cost. So in two months or so I'll see the new bike appear

I was making some noise in the kitchen this evening, and Leo and Adrian were sitting in their bouncy chairs nearby. They didn't like the noise but their big sister came to calm them down. Nora to the boys:

"Dat was vader! Dat is niet erg!
D'r is nu helemaal niet meer geen herrie."

"Rustig jongen, dat is vader.
Ik ben jullie de grote zus."

By the way -- we never use "vader", only in a joking sense, but we do have a few books where the father is called "vader", mostly older books. Nora used it quite seriously though.

We said goodbye this morning to my parents, after five wonderful weeks together. They looked after Leo and Adrian for the first three weeks and then Nora joined their gang. Her Dutch was a little shaky the first few days but she quickly found her mo-yo back. Every morning there would be two new books from Oma on the living room table.

Yesterday my father baked another apple pie -- the fourth one in a month -- and we had sushi for dinner.

I always have a lump in my throat when saying goodbye but this time it was quite literal. My parents like to try various fruits and this morning we cut a "jack fruit". I tried a small piece and it tasted good; a little like melon. It tickled a bit in my throat, just like pineapple sometimes does... and then my throat started swelling up. A weird feeling, but nothing too serious, thankfully.

Around noon I drove my parents to the airport and at Dulles we said goodbye. Nora came with me which was nice.

"Opa, wil je alsjeblieft met mij een boek lezen?" Nora becomes super polite when she wants to be read a book.

Oma brought a huge stack of books, and every day there are two new books for Nora to be read.

The children are getting so much love from Opa & Oma.

Here is Oma reading to them, while in the mean time maneuvering the book away from Leo's legs.