Suddenly everything my mama and papa say seem silly: I say no. I say no again. And do I have to repeat myself: no. I shake my head with it and watch for their reaction. How will they take it? Perhaps I am a bit surprised about me saying no.
My mama starts laughing: ah, a bit early but the age of saying no has started!!
You know, it is just that I am a little girl but wanna do grownup things. I can lift boxes with beer bottles!! (Empty ones)
On this last day of the year we had a small business to do in Amsterdam. Nice to be back in my old town! It was a lot warmer there than in my own town.
We went to the big garden of Amsterdam, the Hortus. It has a green house with butterflies. But there were only four butterflies!! They, too, must like the sunny days more than these dark winterdays. But the other green houses were a lot of fun. There were little walkways that I could run over. I liked that. I ran over the pathes and over the bridges, climbed up and down stairs. All through the green plants and past prickly cactuses. Slowly, Ces!! my mama yelled all the time. She hoped I wouldn't fall in the plants! At last I fell with my face in the mud and then we went for lunch.
You see I am wearing my beautiful red skisuit from last year! Why didn't mama think earlier to try this on again? It is a bit small, my legs stick out. But warm and comfortable it is! I like it very much! Much better than my horrible new coat.
We brought the monkey with us. I have just learned the word for monkey: 'ape'. I am very proud I can say it, I walk around the restaurant with the monkey and say ape all the time. The gays compliment me on my suit.
I take the pants off my puppet and walk to mama. Mama, the puppet has poo. Oh, Ces, then we must clean the puppet. We take the wetties and clean the puppet, backside, nose, eyes, everything needs to be cleaned.
I see mama so often cleaning, I like cleaning too. I like cleaning mama's nose and papa's nose - not my own nose, but in my enthusiasm I will do even that. And then I clean the table, and the ground.
I am now totally wild of cooking. 'koooken' I say in good dutch. Everytime I hear a sound from the kitchen, I say 'koken'. And at the best times, I stand in the kitchen with my cups, bottles and a bit of running water. I pour water from the bottle into the cup. I drink a sip. Then pour water from the cup into the bottle (difficult!) and then back. It is a lot of fun to cook.
I also like cleaning with a rag. When I spill water I clean. And I get into the mood and start wiping everything with my rag.
Another busy day! More family: grandpa, Koen, Loes and aunties and uncles. Papa and mama cook a lot again. 
After yesterday's success I invite Koen to draw with me. We have fun together and are holding conversations.
 | But Christmas Day is the real busy day. Mama starts cooking early in the morning, and then Grandma and Grandpa arrive, Auntie Klara and Uncle Ronald are back from their hotel and they all also start cooking. And also Simon arrives! At start he is a bit shy: so many people at once! |
 | But then he sees me and we play together, with the horse, and we do 'drawing' together. |
And then it is finally Christmas. My mama has been busy shopping and phoning for the last couple of weeks and tonight Uncle Ronald and Auntie Klara have arrived from Germany. That is a real party! On Christmas Eve we eat light with fish and shrimps, but a feast it is nevertheless.
And I learn to drink from a real glass. Now I can 'prost' with them!
When we get home we are too lazy to cook: pizza and tiramisu.
Do you like our Christmas star in the window?
And this is what I look like after the tiramisu!!
We are driving. And it is my sleeping time, I sleep in the car. My mama says I have cute pouty lips when I sleep.
Yesterday I was not feeling well: warm and with a running nose. But today I am my usual energetic self again - when I don't sleep.
We are going to the holiday home to check it and then on to the airport to pick up my daddy!! Yes!
This is me in the holiday home.
Today I am not feeling so well, a bit hot. Mama reads books with me and I get to see Teletubbies and Sandcastle. Not such a bad day after all.
You remember this puzzle? Now I can make the whole puzzle on my own. We have just come back from Grandma and then the puzzle is all fallen apart. I can put it back together.
And I can name all the animals. My pronounciation is not perfect yet, 'eep' means sheep and ho means horse. But I know what is a horse and what a sheep and a goat, and pig and most of all, a chicken. My first animal. And car and bicycle I know too.
My mama says I am going forward so fast, my papa won't recognise me. He is coming home Sunday!!
This is a large box! Mama says: shall we make a toy house of it? I like that: with windows please! Let's see when this will happen.....
Grandma and I play with the Niffy memory cards. The game is to put the same cards together. But not blind! I am good at it. For a little while, then it is time for something else.
Reading the newspaper is soooo grown-up. I sometimes look at the pictures. Mama reads the newspaper aaaaalll the time.
This is the view from our breakfast table. It is still a bit boring, but we have planted the apple trees in front of our house. So it will become much nicer when the trees grow.
Look, mama, birds! I am pointing at the two birds that huddle together on the roof of the house across. Cute!! Are they looking at me?
My mama doesn´t want to cook. I cook everyday and today I don´t have inspiration she says. We order greek from our greek deli. Exciting, how nice will the food be?
But my mama says it is excellent, very nice. I only like the olives, the rest looks so strange! But our grapes are good.
Mama is busy with boxes, lights, shiny balls and shiny paper. I like the shiny paper. I sit on it and dress myself with it.
Ah, a gift, my mama says. Dootje!! She says I am the gift!! Do you like it when I pop out of the paper?
My mama puts me under our tree and makes a picture of me. Then when she has made the picture I run to her to see ´you, you´ - that is what she says when she shows me the picture.
We have just returned from shopping. The monkey went with me: on the bike on our way to the shops, all the way in the shop and back on the bike. I did not drop the monkey! I like taking my favourite things with me wherever I go.
Sinterklaas has visited us at day care. He visited us with his Zwarte Piet. None of us children was really afraid, and I like the doll that he gave me.
No pictures, unfortunately.
Following on from the success of my last visit to the hairdresser, my mama decides that it is time to cut the hairs that are hanging in my eyes. Off we go.
But this time, I am not as impressed as the last time. And I still don't like it when people are playing with my hair. I cry, untill the lady brings me a nice book about little ducklings.
When I am finished, I think we can go. But then my mama sits in the chair!! Oh dear! At least they give me sweets, so I will just go ahead with this strange plan.
We can't show you a picture, because my mama can't get the picture off the mobile phone... Something with the computer again.....sigh.
Ik am in the bathtub, and suddenly we hear somebody walking downstairs. It is Grandpa! He plays for Sinterklaas and brings my mama a birthday gift. This is fun! He can't stay long, but we have lunch together. Grandpa peels the strawberries for me, and I dip them in the sugar. A surprise visit is always fun!
Sinterklaas is still in the country and I am allowed to put my shoe down at night. We put a carrot in the shoe for Sinterklaas' horse.
We sing a song. I sway to the song. I have no clue what this is all about, but fun it is.
Mama has borrowed a book at the library, but this makes it even stranger: he rides a white horse over the roofs? The gifts go through the chimney?
But the next day there is something else in my shoe! I know what this is: 'dootje' (gift). I know this because it is wrapped, and therefore a dootje.
I like putting on my hat myself. But it is hard to put it right. Sometimes I don't see anything!
Sinterklaas is in the country, but Simon and I go to a Christmas Fair at the Castle Haarzuilens. That sounds romantic! The fun starts at the entrance: music! We listen intently.
Mama and Aunt Hannie have difficulty dragging us away from the house. Especially because the weather turned sour in the mean time and we are all getting cold... We sit in the big tent with coffee and sing songs (like in the Maneschijn!). And on the way home, we pass the house again, but we run to our car. Next time more lucky, we hope...
Today I am in a joking mood and I see fun everywhere.
I am twisting in my high chair and suddenly I sit with my foot on the table. "OOh!"my mama says "Do I see a little foot on the table?!". Her voice is stern, but her eyes twinkle. Actually, her voice is played stern. She tickles my foot and says again: do I see a little foot on the table? I laugh and I repeat with my own stern voice "wwwowowwo wwow wo". I cannot talk, as you know, but I can imitate mama's voice. Mama laughs and tickles my foot again "Do I see a little foot on the table?"and I repeat "wwowowowo wwwow wo". We both have fun!
We have found new favourite food: Risotto with onions. I think I must like cooked onions. The other day my mama let me have a little bit to try in the kitchen, and I asked for more and more. The spring beans, you can keep, but I liked the onions. And now I like the risotto with onions too. I did not touch the broccholi. Bah.
After dinner, with our bellies all fat, we sit and I 'cook' the star.
 | In the garden my mama always lets me help with re-potting plants. I help her carry the plants. We have received some plants through the post, and I just know what to do with them!! |
 | I am still developing my skills. This is a pot that had cheese in it. I loved the cheese of course, but trying to put the lid on and off was an added fun of this cup. It is not easy with a soft lid! But I master it. |
Another picture from a couple of weeks back. Did I tell you that I now have a kiwi plant in my garden? Well, it is a kiwi jungle, actually. It grows very fast and climbs against our house. They told us that you couldn't eat the kiwi's. But my mama tried to ripen them in our cellar with a banana, and it works!! We now have three jars of kiwi jam.
Here you see the latest batch we picked and still not all the kiwi's are picked. That is a lot of jam!! But first they need to ripen.
This picture is from a couple of weeks back, my papa made it. It is me riding horse on mama. When mama sits on the floor, I sometimes lean against her back. And then when she gets up - with difficulty - I am suddenly also in the air. My mama whinnies and goes in gallop through the house. More, faster!!
There is now a musical about Floddertje. My mama wants to see it, and I am the excuse baby. It is very exciting though! It will last a long time, my mama says, one hour, and I have to sit still. When we get into the theatre, I am quite impressed by the amount of running kids. But then we sit on our seats.
When the show starts I climb on mama's lap, it is a bit scary with the lights out. But then the show starts, about this girl and her doggy, they cannot stay clean for more than half an hour and their mama have to put them in the bath tub every day. There is lots of music and dancing, and a clown act with ladders. The costumes are beautiful.
I am playing with mama's purse, Skippy. My favourite game. I take the coins out, and put them in other slots back. The same iwth the plastic cards. I read mama's diary. I have my own diary, but mama's is better.
Today Sterre celebrated her first birthday! I have not been at such a busy party with so many people I don't know yet. I was a bit shy. But they were very friendly and there were kids of all ages. 
Also Tom was there, a friend of Sterre. Tom is two days younger than I. Tom's grandmother was very sweet with me: she read a whole story. And then she read it again, because the first time around she hadn't understood the joke in the story.
