Guus Bosman

Nora really likes playing with her cousins. Sometimes from a safe distance -- there can be a lot of noise! -- and sometimes close by. To communicate with Julian she has to speak English and slowly but surely she is making some progress.

She knows some short sentences, like "happy-birthday-to-you" and "merry Christmas", and on command she can say "thank you", "hi" and "bye bye", but she doesn't talk independently yet. Listen to her talk here. Unlike in Bulgarian and Dutch, where she will use pretty long sentences and even sing songs.

Over Christmas I noticed her using two specific words: "no" and "thanks". "No" is pretty clear: when her big cousin gets too overbearing or when he takes something that she has, she will try "no!".

She says "thanks" also -- but she means "give it to me". So when Julian has something that she wants, she will say: "thanks!" in the hope that she gets it.