Guus Bosman

software engineering director


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dutchusa

King's Day 2016

Nora and I went to the Dutch school in Bethesda today and we celebrated King's Day there.

The Ambassador of the Netherlands gave a short speech but otherwise this was all about the kids. There was a lot of food and fun games. New this year was a booth by the internal store from the Embassy, they sold Dutch goodies and snacks.

Like in previous years, we arrived early and checked out the books on sale. We have a nice collection at home but this is an ideal way to find new books for now and for later. I picked up a few great beginning reader books ("avi start"), several books to read before bed time and two or three books for when the kids are older, such as Paul Biegel's Sleutelkruid.

Nora did several of the activities. She remember the blikken gooien from last year and she was surprised that she had to stand "so far away" this year. I told her it's because she's 4 now! For the first time she did zakken lopen. She was a little too intimidated to try to jumping castle.

We came home with two full bags of books, some snacks and gifts for the Zane family (vlokken and stroopwafels).

dailylife

Boys on the bike

I installed a bike seat for the boys yesterday and took Adrian out for a ride.

It's a little tricky to get on and off the bike for me with these two seats, it will take some practice

dailylife

On language

Today Nora and I spent 45 minutes doing language exercises and it was fun for both of us. She enjoys writing letters and we did a variety of learning drills.

She's four years old now and I've been considering whether to send her to the Dutch language school on Saturdays next year. But our Saturdays are important family time, and I don't want to give that up lightly.

For next year I've decided not to send her to Saturday school -- we'll continue our "homeschooling".

dailylife

A weekend outside

Spring is now truly here. It was nice and warm this weekend and we set up our deck for the summer. On Saturday morning we bought flowers and potting mix and the next day Sasha and Nora planted them, while I assembled our new furniture.

Saturday evening we had dinner with Ginny and last night there was a big taverna dinner.

dailylife

Gate for the kitchen

Last weekend we installed the children's gate in the door to the kitchen.

The boys are getting more mobile and we let them roam around the dining room after dinner sometimes.

dailylife

Almost 14 months

The boys are starting to say more and more words, which is very cool. Yesterday we went to Giant and they were excited about seeing balloons and said "ba, ba".

Leo likes the "b" sound and often says "buh, buh". He calls many things "bebe" -- including Adrian and Nijntje. And of course he still says "mama" all the time. Adrian is quite good at the animal sounds -- "wat zegt... de koe?" "boooeee!". A running joke Adrian and I have is about his socks. When I ask him, "Adriaan, waar is je sok?" -- he'll look at his foot and laugh.

They are socially quite aware. Something when I bring them upstairs they wave and say "dag dag" by themselves. And Adrian often says "ne" or "nee" when something questionable is happening in the household.

Sasha and I are now in the final stages of recovery from cold number 10; Nora and the boys have been fine for a few days now.

dailylife

Leo standing by himself

Last night we saw Leo standing by himself for the very first time. He liked it a lot, and we're very proud.

Hippo House

Cold trip to school

This week we've managed to walk to school every morning so far. When we run late I'll take Nora on the bicycle. She likes that, and it's fast, but I enjoy the walk to school and chatting with her. She is so cheerful. The other day I pointed to a bird and said:

"Kijk Nora, dat is een roodborstje. Mooie vogel he?"
"Ik vind alle vogels mooi! Ik vind alles mooi!"

It's been very cold this week -- frost alerts at night -- so we had gloves and shawls. Nora has a nice green hat, and when I looked next to me I saw she had pulled it all the way over her face -- she can see through the little holes and it keeps her face warm, haha.

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