I have seen at day care how you make cakes in the sand. The side edge needs to be covered with precise care!
Then I put the cake in the oven, which is under mama's leg: door open, mama!
We wait a little while. Very little, because waiting is difficult. Door open again, mama! Yes, it is hot. We wait again to let it cool.
Ready!! I turn over the cake and start all over.
It is my last music lesson again, for a little while. It is getting summer and now is another time.
Here I am running back from greeting "Snuitje", the little hedgehog. He comes out in the beginning. All winter he was feeling cold and was wearing a shawl. We sit in a circle, all the kids on the laps of their mama, papa, grandmama or grandfather, whoever happened to come. And then we sing:
'hello, hello, good morning everyone, hello, hello, glad you came along, hello hello, this is Snuitje, hello hello, who are you?
And then one by we have to say our names, and we can cuddle Snuitje. Sometimes we show him our book with songs.
Saying my name has been the hardest. The first year I didn't say anything. It is so hard to say something when everybody looks at you!! But now I can say my name very softly. But I have always happily run for the cuddle.
Today Gabrielle invites me to play with the dolls. The dolls never wear clothes in day care: too much hassle. Gabrielle and I play a lot together. She is always sweet to me, so I am sweet to her.
A nice day for a walk. Mama knows I can walk really well, so we take the long and straight road. At the end waits a cookie, my mama says!
Nothing to sit on, everything is still wet. With some effort we climb on the fende and watch the people drive, ride, skeeler and walk by. We feel like the three little toddlers from the song and the summer is just starting.
Mama and I are relaxing in the garden now. Mama is diging a bit, while I play baby in the hammock. Now it is mama's turn to be baby. Babies sleep. While my baby sleeps, I'll take the shovel around.
Sometimes mama buys me a magazine with her shoppings. The Donald Duck junior, or Miffy. The Donald Duck is very nice, but why are all these figures in the magazine always beaten? I don't understand that. I prefer the funny stories. Perhaps I'll wait a little while for more Donald Duck magazines.
Mama showed the magazine to me in the car. Then we walked into the house, but suddenly I remembered: my magazine! Mama hadn't thrown it away, had she? 'Mama!!! My pictures!!'I cried. and the tears were in my eyes. 'Calm, calm, Ces', mama says. 'Here it is'. I dry my tears and happily read the magazine.
After a while I tell mama: 'and then I cried a little bit.'. I am quite aware of what I do!
With my friends Gabrielle and Timo from day care.
When we come in at day care, I am usually quiet, I sit on mama's lap and watch what is happening. Then we kiss goodbye, and that is it: now it is time for my friends, and mama should go.
It is the first warm days of the year. We have bought pizza with our Italian take out and are now having a plickplick in the garden with chocolate milk. With our warm woolen sweaters on. I wear the irish sweater that my papa brought from Ireland. It needs washing after this!
And there is Hoghurt for Joke and a spoon for Joke. And Hoghurt for Marita and a spoon for Marita. And a Hoghurt for Ilse and a spoon for Ilse.
While mama is cooking I am preparing Yoghurt with a spoon for all the ladies of day care. I am busy running to and from preparing the yoghurt table.
Saturday mornings we often go to the market for our weekly shopping. It has been a bit tedious these last weeks in the winter cold. All the way on the bike and so on.
Today we treat ourselves on a coffee with cake in a restaurant. I really like chocolate milk these days, just the moustache!!!
We went to the Schoutenhuis, it is in an old house, and the people that run it are mentally disabled.
Mama and don't like sitting down to have lunch or fruit. Standing at the kitchen bench and looking out into the garden is much more fun. And all the food, knifes and other tools are at hand.
I don't think I like pictures of me anymore
The afternoon we have an appointment in the theatre in Simon's town, the nice Pim Jacobs theatre. We are going to the Dip and Dap show again! The two giraffes that always laugh. We go with Simon and with Roos. The show was fun again, with songs and dancing children. Afterwards we meet all the characters. Read also on Simon's blog .
But Penguin is a old favourite. And he deserves a good meal too. But my toys have to cry often, and then I comfort them. I am a mama to all of them.
Is he? I tell people that my papa works on a boat, and then he comes back to me with the air plane.
And this is my mama. Now we reverse the roles and I picture her. Mama shouldn't be the only one who is allowed to make pictures!
Meet Mushka, short for Babushka. She is my new friend. I share my box of raisins with her.
Grandma and grandpa gave her to me, also with her own bottle for milk. She now drinks a lot of milk.
Simon and Alex are back from their holiday in Australia, to visit their cousin Kay.
They have seen so many animals, and swam every day. That is great!
They have brought me thongs (which some of you may call flip flops, but that is soooo non-australian), and that is great for the upcoming summer! The thongs are the real thing from the Australian Surf Live Saving, so safe!
But I am happy we can play together again!
Read about their trip at their blog.
Sterre comes for a visit and bring here papa and mama too. It has been such a long time! First we have some pre-dinner snacks and drinks. Before Sterre came, I had said that I wanted to make a puzzle with her. But I was a bit shy, and hesitated to show her. Then Sterre found my bicycle and then drove one hundred circles around our house.
But when they were about to leave, she hugs my papa and we both get tossed around!
I like sitting on my potty. I get candy if I do. We have just had dinner and mama and papa are doing 'after dinner talk'. I know I have to go to bed soon, so now I am really enjoying myself.
We have just been to the library. All the books needed to be returned. But the good thing is that we can borrow part 2 of the Jip and Janneke stories.
When I was small, I didn't like the stories: only a few pictures and long stories. But now I understand the stories and like them. Jip and Janneke are two little children, that like to play together, but then they get carried away in their play. Just like me.
Grandpa must have enjoyed our visit of two weeks ago as much as we. He is coming to visit us. And while mama and papa are cooking we are playing puzzle and with Muschka.
Papa is cooking and it will take a little while still. We are painting. It's been a little while and it is highly necessary: the clay pieces I made with grandma a year ago are still waiting to be coloured. Now we'll do it!
It is time to visit Grandma Franka! And fun too, because we share a love of eating pancakes.
Mama and papa have been out last evening. But they have brought me a present: An egg holder with a hat. I like eggs; usually when I have finished an egg, I say: 'Another egg, papa!'. Which never comes, of course. With this egg holder it is even more fun eating!
'And then the train didn't ride. And then we had to take the bus.'. I remember that episode clearly, last December. This week mama had it even stranger when she went to work:'Then the train didn't ride, and the bus didn't ride. Mama had to take the car.'.
But now we are really going with the train, yeah! Even though it is in a different direction than anticipated, because they are working on the train again! We buy tickets, great! And there are lots of other kids in the train that I can stare at.
This train direction has nice eating places too.
We are preparing our holiday home for sale. It is a lovely home, but too much work and travel.
So, here we are, and beautiful it is again, in winter as much as summer.
Yesterday I got a new cousin! She is called Noor and we visit her straight away! Ah, she is so small, but she has appetite for a girl who wants to grow. Just one drink is not enough, she wants two! She is a little sister to Koen and Loes. Later Koen and I run around the garden.
It has been a long time since we have visited Grandpa. Today papa and I are going.
We go for a little stroll to the horses nearby and play games with the bench. Then we drink a beer with grandpa, and I show him, I can open them.
