Queen's Day

It is Queen's Day again. A year ago, I remember it well, we walked along the braderie, it was very warm. This year my Papa is home, and we walk the same strip. Lot's of nice things this year. I get books, duplo and a puzzle. And a new coat. We take the tram to the Bredeweg. There are lots of things for children there: a fancy fair, an animal farm and our puppet theatre from my birthday party!

We start the tour eating chicken sate, that is what you do on Queen's Day.

There were some horrible men too. I was very scared, just hearing them. They came by even twice, I don't like them at all.

But look at all the bright pictures and lots of people. My mama saw a very nice roof tile. It was very heavy! She has to drag it home herself. Wow. We make a stop in the park and play in the sun with my new second hand toys.

My garden

My new garden! Today it is ours. I am with grandmother and grandfather, but my mama tells me that we have gold fish, frogs and salamanders in our two ponds. Exciting!

More monkeys

It is the day after, but we are still in a party mood. The sun is shining so we go to Artis, the zoo. We come for the monkeys and birds, of course.

I like birds because they always move and flutter. We look at the penguins, quails - they always run, and at a height (the ground) that suits me fine - and lots of other birds. My mama says: perhaps papa should build a quail run in our new house? But she wants to adopt all the animals.

First we visit the Kuifmakaak that mama saw before I could see them, see little-babies. Those babies grow up fast too: they still have short hair, but their faces have gone from pink to black.

I can't remember much from the previous times I was in Artis, but this time I really wanted to make contact with the animals.

It's my party!

And I smile if want to!! Today is my party for my first birthday. I am so excited, I could barely sleep. We have sent out invitation cards to everyone we know. There is a big birthday cake. Our house is much too small to receive so many children, and across the street is the puppet theatre: Koos Kneus, that is where we celebrate it. This is so exciting!

It was a pity that Orel couldn't come: he was not feeling well and we are sending regards to him. But other than that it was so much fun. The puppet show was very funny: how to make a monkey disappear, and how the mouse found his house.

After that there was champagne for the parents, that were not pregnant and we could let our faces be painted. My mama set me up for that too, stupid! Now I have a blue nose. I think Rokaya didn't like it either.

There was one little minor point: there was a very scary witch puppet hanging from the wall. I didn't like her. She made me cry. Luckily Grandpa was there to comfort me. It was very funny to see Grandma and Grandpa in a different place than their home. I didn't know that that was possible.


And I got so many gifts, now I can play for a long time.





And the terrible hat, again ....

Quinn from Australia

Our friends Manfred and Inez from Australia are in Holland. I am meeting their son Quinn. Here he is. He is pulling faces in the picture, that is funny!

When we meet him, he looks like a true Ozzie bloke, sunnies and all. But he knows how to speak dutch, I heard it myself! That is really good, to speak dutch and Ozzie. It is a warm day and we have lunch in Leiden.

We go for a bit of sightseeing, but there are everywhere strange looking young lads with beers sitting outside. Are these students? Shouldn't they be studying?

Well, we eat icecream, I eat mama's ice cream cone. Quinn also loves ice cream.

Walking

It is all the rage, putting movies on the weblog. But it will be rather good to show you how well I can walk. Fast, am I!

Baptism

It is a beautiful spring day, and today my cousine and cousin Loes and Koen are being baptised. We want to be fresh when we get there, so my mama brings me to the swimming pool in the morning. All freshened up we go.

It is very quiet and peaceful in the church. The only sound I hear is myself. I am drinking a bottle, and it tastes so good I am groaning. Then I am finished and ready to play with the knee benches. In the meantime I say "Blablablabla", as I always do in my own confident way. My mama is acting a bit nervous, she forces banana in my mouth, even gives her phone to play with. But the people don't mind: they are laughing.

But Loes and Koen are baptised and then I can run around in the big place. And I get cake and chocolate and crisps and the whole family is there. My diapers are changed in the open air in the forest around us. When we go home, we feel very peaceful and happy.

Shopping

Mama, my cloths hurt me! They are too tight! Yes, we go shopping. But the only time we have is on Saturday, and who wants to shop in town on a Saturday, with the rest of everybody? My mama decides we go first thing in the morning. Right at ten o'clock we will stand at the shop, Hennes & Mauritz.

We are there at two past, but the doors are still closed! Bang, bang, my mama does on the door. Open up! And then she grabs stuff and stuff and more stuff and when we pay a queue builds behind us.

But, after an hour we're done and we deserve a refreshment. We go to De Jaren and mama drinks two cups of coffee while I explore the bar stools.

My friends at day care

I am learning to play with other children, a little bit by bit. These are my friends at day care. With Minke in the sandpit.
	Playing with Felice.
	Building towers with Casper.

Tools

On Wednesdays I am at Grandmother's and Grandfather's house. Grandmother is very sweet, and Grandfather likes playing with me.

Grandmother likes me eating the proper way. Not like mama does, with hands and in chunks. So, Grandmother has bought a spoon and fork and now shows me how to use them. This is very exciting! I like doing it. I can pick up a piece of carrot, if I concentrate very hard on it, as you see in the picture my face of concentration.

By the time I have managed to pick it up, I have forgotten what to do with it. Oh yes, put it in my mouth.

My meat

At the end of my street there are shops. So it is just a quick walk to do our daily shopping. At the friendly Irakese grocery man, he always makes funny faces at me. Or at the friendly people at the butcher's. They say I should smile at them, but buying your daily meat is serious business.

Today my mama says that I can try walking there, with my new puppet pram. This is so exciting. I have not walked on the street yet. And I must say, distances are much more than inside. I am already tired, and then we haven't really left our house yet. But, the new puppet pram can also carry me.

At the butcher's they always give me a slice of sausage. I love that: this bit of sausage won't fall on the street! You see my sausage in the picture.
But then my mama thinks I should walk a bit again. She takes me out of the puppet pram, takes my sausage and .... eats it!! On top of all this, I have to walk too!

I object, loud and clear. Give me back my sausage! Open your mouth mama, I know that is where my sausage disappeared to, and I want it back! I will try to pry open your mouth!

She says it is gone.... But she apologises and promises to never do it again! Well, that is something at least.

Caught in the act

Oops, mama saw that I am eating dirt from the plant. She always gets so cross if I do that. It is actually funny to make my mama cross. It is my little game.

Building more towers

You see, I can build towers with baby duplo too. I just don't understand why I can't build towers on the puppets, but I can put the puppets on the towers? Strange.... they have a round head too?

It's my party ...

and I cry if I want to!

We are celebrating my birthday, but I hate this hat. My mama came and I cannot sit on her lap, and now this hat. It is too much and I protest. and then they sing these silly songs!

But they sure know how to throw a party. You see Elka and Hortence singing and dancing?

I give the other children a little gift with my favourite food: chocolate.

In Grandma's bathtub

Building towers

I have learnt so much this last week. I now understand that you can pile things up. I have shown you the baby duplo (on March 28th), and now these blocks. These blocks are grandma's block, for me or Simon to play with.

You see! I can put three blocks on top of each other!

Baby pools in Dubai are great!

Hello everybody, I am back from my holiday. I have had such a fun, I have played in the pool every day, sometimes twice a day. There were often other kids, and that was fun, and my mama was always there if I tried something a bit too deep. But I liked the deep, and especially I liked my mama catching me and swirling me around.

It was a very warm place, so I only had to wear one shirt and short trousers. But my mama made me wear a hat and I pulled the hat off. This was my game. We had to walk back to pick up my hat all the time! Haha!

Of course, my papa was there too. He had to work, but he was there in the evenings and he took one afternoon off, on my birthday! We went to the zoo.

One day we went shopping. I got the push car! Now I can walk around without my mama's help! All the other kids wanted to borrow my car, they liked the car too!

We got very thirsty from shopping, so we bought a fresh mango juice at one of the local bars. There were Syrian electrians having lunch there too. They were very impressed that I could eat my bread with my own hands!

I am in Dubai!

Hi all,

tomorrow I am flying to Dubai, to visit my papa and to play in the pool. Perhaps I'll eat some dates. Exciting! I won't be blogging for a week.

Grandpa

Grandpa is visiting us. Grandpa likes playing. He always makes games with me. Here he is crawling around me on the floor. This is good fun!

Building with unoplo

I have just learnt this. You need to take the puppet by the brown hair and then place the puppet on the bobble. It takes concentration to put it right on the bobble.

I like doing this and I excercise it a lot.

The old bloke

Thank you, Protea! I love my shirt with the wise old man. And we love him, too.

Hortus

The Hortus has a butterfly house. It will be warm there, sunny and very butterfly-y. Just what we need on this wintery Easter. We cycle there, through the snow falling. Romantic, but in March? My mama had put away my red ski suit, but now I am wearing it again! And nice warm it is.

Inside the butterfly house it is warm too. I love the butterflies, the colors, the flying, they move so light-hearted. And they think I am a red flower! Which is true, my mama says.

Simon and I go in the tram

Simon is also bored this weekend. Can I come play, Francesca? Of course! Let's take the tram and go into town! In Simon's town there are no trams, so he is very excited to go into the tram.

It is snowing, and cold while we wait for the tram, but inside it is warm. Several people are trying to take a free ride, but without luck. Awell, this is Amsterdam.

We take a drink and go back home. Enough of the outside world for today. See you next time, Simon!

Clap your hands

This Easter weekend is much too early this year. The Winter hasn't receded yet, and so we have a wet, cold, snowy Easter. Not Saturday we plan anything for. We rush to do our weekend grocery shopping and stay inside.

But! Today I managed to clap my hands! I can get them together and I produce even sound! This is fun. Especially if I clap my hands while mama feeds me yoghurt with a spoon. If I am lucky I clap the spoon and the yoghurt, and I get a shower for reward!

Mama has lunch at day care

Today I am a bit ill. We were at the children's doctor yesterday. I am now 9090 grams and 72 cm tall. A little bit taller than what my mama measured two days ago!!

But the doctor gave me the jabs too! And now I have fever and my mama has to come home from work and pick me up from day care. But while she is there, we may as well eat some lunch with the other kids.

Here you see me with Caspar, Fleur and Minke. We are all of the same age. I will miss them in Alphen. We get very dirty at lunch, but I am not climbing like at home. With Elka looking on, we do not dare!! And when Elka wipes my face, I am not screaming like when mama wipes my face. Here at child care we behave!

p.s. later in the afternoon I was feeling much better.