dailylife

Our first meal without Sasha was pasta with red sauce, a favorite. When I told the kids about this in the grocery store, they were happy and Leo immediately remembered: "blote buik!" The previous time we had this dinner I made them take out their shirts, so they wouldn't stain, and they liked that. So Leo got to take of his shirt for dinner again.

Speaking of which -- the boys like to point out: "papa dikke buik!". Obviously they have poor judgement of these matters, being only 2 years old. In any case, they will also point to each other's belly and exclaim the same.

This morning when the boys were eating, Leo all of a sudden said with a very sad voice: "sleutel" and pointed to the window.

My parents had told me that the guys sometimes play with a toy wrench key and try to put it through a hole in the window screen. Apparently Leo and Adrian succeeded in that the other day because indeed, the wrench key was outside -- right on a ledge.

So I left the kids up, one by one, to take a look. We'll have to use a broom to get it off the ledge.

Time flies... my parents are leaving tomorrow. Last night we had a wonderful taverna. We had dinner with Ginny, Gilbert and Judy, and Trey and Baka visited for a while. Jaap had made hamburgers and fruit salad and we had great conversations.

During dinner Leo and Adrian kept saying they wanted to go on the bakfiets. Sasha was staying late at work so after dinner Jaap and Mieke helped to get them ready and we went of for a bikeride. Often we'll go to a store, but last night I just drove them around a bit.

We lucked out -- there was a fire alarm at one of the high rises near Virginia Square so there were lots of firetrucks. Thankfully it was a false alarm but the cars and fireman were very interesting for the kids.

Then on to Clarendon, where we saw the bakfiets from Bike Arlington with two ladies who had been doing outreach.

The kids were watching the world go by and having fun. It made me realize they are growing up to be real Arlington kids, living on the border between suburbia and the urban R-B corridor.

Sasha came with the elevator -- much to Adrian's surprise -- and after being reunited, Sasha and Adrian walked home together -- but not after trying the elevator once more.

The other day Jaap, Nora and I went to H-Mart. We bought Indonesian condiments, and ingredients for sushi.

It's great to see my parents and Nora together.

Jaap and Mieke went to see a music show last night at the Capitol, and Sasha was home a little later, so I gave the kids dinner. They love macaroni with red sauce, "en kaas!"

To keep laundry to a minimum, I introduced the rule "bloot eten".

It has been many years since my parents and Jonathan and Irena saw each other -- well before Julian was born.

Last night the Zane family arrived and stayed for the night, they are on their way to South Carolina to see the solar eclipse on Monday. We had a lovely dinner together and enjoyed catching up on old memories. Ilana is going to college in 10 days, unbelievable.

Last night Sasha and Nora arrived at Dulles. Sasha went to pick her up two weeks ago and so after two months our family is finally reunited.

The girls had a great time in Bulgaria and Greece. We were home around 11.00 pm last night, and the first thing Nora asked for was boterham met kaas. Her Dutch is still very good -- a little slow, but with a rich vocabulary.

This morning at 6.15 am Leo started waking up and he was very happy when his mother was caressing him, so we slept a little longer.

The boys and my parents are very comfortable with each other. When Leo and Adrian wake up, they don't call for me but yell "Oma! Oma!" instead. Which works for me since I get to sleep a little longer.

Oma has a lot of patience, which is good when the boys are having breakfast. They have a routine figured where the first half of the breakfast is independent -- but the second half is with Oma reading a book.

After breakfast they usually go the playground or the grocery store, and have lunch around noon follow by a nap. They are really happy with the fruithapje when they wake up.

Their Dutch is improving significantly. Of course, they are learning appropriate and non-appropriate words alike so Adrian is fond of saying "oh jee!" now. When they count objects, they'll say: "een auto, twee auto's... allemaal auto's".

Last night we went to the Silver Diner. Eva tried a real milkshake, Jaap had the lamb meatballs, Mieke the sliders and the boys had a small hamburger each. It was a fun evening, though we never heard our song by Ace of Base.

This morning Jaap and Mieke went to Barnes & Noble while Eva arranged her cellphone and then went out for a bike ride through Arlington. I took the boys on the bakfiets for some chores -- we returned a book, dropped off a package and did some small shopping at Wholefoods.