September 2015

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.