Guus Bosman

software engineering director


You are here

dailylife

Enjoying Sinterklaas

We slept in this morning so we weren't downstairs until 7.45 am. Nora said: "hoe kan dat nou?" when her shoe was gone. The presents were on the living room table. A coloring book with stickers for Nora, and mandarins for the Leo and Adrian. The boys loved it: they got to unwrap a present and eat a mandarin, too. ("pompoen! aar'bei!" -- they learned "ijn" today).

When the boys were sleeping we made a paper boat.

In the car on our way back from the Bulgarian store we had Sinterklaas music on and Adrian recognized the words. "piet! klaas!"

dailylife

Thanksgiving 2016

On Wednesday night the Zane family arrived, late at night. Ilana finished her last homework at 1.00 am. We saw each other in the morning -- the boys were up at 7.00 am -- and it was great to see everybody.

I finished the last cranberry sauce and decorated a cake in the morning, and after the turkey went in the oven Sasha and I took the kids to Hayes park. Julian took Leo by the hand and held him really well.

Judy joined us at 12.30 pm and the turkey was done shortly afterwards. We had lunch around 2.00 pm and it was a lot of fun. My cooking experiments worked out -- the green bean casserole was a big hit. The full menu is visible on the last photo below. For dessert we had Irena's brownie, a Dutch slagroomtaart and two other pies.

After dinner we walked to the Quincy playground and on the way back Leo reached out for Julian's hand, who happily took it.

dailylife

Cooking

Nora has vacation and I took a day off today. It was fun to take care of the kids, and I had time to prepare some components of the Thanksgiving meal.

Nora and I made speculaas cookies. Judy came over in the afternoon.

arlington

Opening of Quincy park

After a renovation the Quincy park playground reopened yesterday. We went to check it out, as did many other families -- it was very crowded. The next day it was cold and very windy and we went again, and it was virtually empty.

It's a beautiful playground, with equipment that is fun for bigger kids too, which is nice because Nora is starting to get a little too old for the things at Hayes park. Adrian loves the music equipment. Not so much to make music yet, but there are "sticks" there to play with, and he loves grabbing those. Leo enjoys playing with the gate of the playground.

dailylife

21 months old

Being away from home and in an airplane gives me time to write down observation of the boys and today they are 21 months old.

A few months ago, around that time that my parents left, they stopped taking their second nap. Slowly but surely their first nap is moving a little later. With Lelya Snezha they go to bed around noon, when we're home a little earlier. They still sleep a good two hours, Adrian a little more. When Leo wakes up he is immediately fully awake and wants attention. Adrian takes things easy when he wakes up and we often find him awake but lounging in bed.

Sinterklaas gave them spout-less drinking cups. Another step towards adulthood.

The love their big sister and each other but also are learning ways to hurt each other. Leo has the habit of taking his cup and hitting people with it, mostly Adrian on the head, with the predictable teary-eyed result. They don't really fight, they just accidentally hurt each other. Adrian was biting Leo in his leg yesterday. Leo still has the tendency to try to bite us in our big toes when we are sitting on the sofa. With his cup-hitting, Leo managed to make his 3 year older sibling cry. But most of the times they get along very well, the three of them. They enjoy playing in the empty box of our new printer.

Their vocabulary is expanding, though they don't speak as much yet as Nora did as this age. One of their favorite new words is "eten" (eat) -- when we're ready to serve dinner they'll run to their highchairs and yell "eteeee" or "stoooeel". Other words they know are molen and of course mee! Their Bulgarian has improved a lot in the last few months.

They love their jackets (a present from Ruth). Leo always wears the blue one, Adrian the black one and they don't allow us to mix that up. They often point to each others jackets and say "trekker" (Loe: "ti-tiew") because pretty much all vehicles are "trekker" or "odo".

dailylife

38th birthday

Time is flying by... 38 already! I celebrated it low-key and that was great. The kids loved seeing the birthday decorations (as did I), and the cake in the evening was a highlight for Nora.

Thank you everybody for the nice gifts and messages.

dailylife

Bluemont Junction

We were at Bluemont Junction yesterday. Nora had been there once before but she didn't remember it. First time for the boys and they loved the train. Adrian in particular was mesmerized and didn't want to leave the caboose.

When I took their hands and we walked further, Adrian escaped a happily turned around and started walking back to the "trein! trein!".

Walking with the boys is slow so we didn't walk far but they got a good amount of exercise and we had a very nice walk together.

Recent comments

Recently read

Books I've recently read: