Opa and Oma are busy during the day. They take care of the kids, make meals and also find time for things around the house. We're very grateful and they are having a good time.

Tonight I brought a spade, I actually borrowed it from the library. We've been doing some yard work and now we hope to plant two small trees.

I brought the spade home on my bike, that was fun.

At the checkup the pediatrician asked us to estimate the boys' vocabulary. I said "30", which the doctor thought is respectable, but when we came home I wanted to be sure. So here it is, in all its glory -- the Dutch words Leo and Adrian know so far. Their Bulgarian is a little behind since they've been immersed in Dutch for the past month.

Leo actively uses 32 words, Adrian 27.

Sasha and Nora are back -- I'm very happy. Their plane landed at 7.00 pm and an hour later I met them at the international arrivals. It was so great to see them.

Last year when Nora returned from her summer in Bulgaria, she had forgotten a lot of her Dutch. Not this time.

She talked and talked and described how she had made a cake (we heard the whole recipe), how she had a kyufte with fries in Kopritsita, how she liked the trampoline... it's wonderful to talk with her. Some of her words are a little rusty. Instead of "speelgoed" she said "de dingen voor spelen" en instead of "verdrietig" she used "muchno" but otherwise she was fluent.

When we came home she was "shy" for maybe 5 seconds with Jaap and Mieke, and then she started talking about the ferryboat.

After dinner we went to the library where we picked up a book by Raymond Briggs.

When we came back home Leo was very tired, and Adrian didn't want to be alone either. Oma started reading "Bas", and they liked that, while I made them their bottles.