Guus Bosman

We saw Frozen over the Christmas break. I bought the Dutch version DVD and Sasha, Nora and I watched it over two days. We skipped over the part with the wolves, but except for that Nora loved it (and we had a good time too).

Since then we've been watching "Laat het gaan" many, many times and Nora can sing good parts of it already.

Today she asked me: "Papa, mag ik Frozen in het Engels zien?" "Waarom?" "Nou, we wonen in Amerika..."

But no, that's not happening because she's getting plenty of English exposure already. Later in the evening she asked me: "papa, wat betekent 'verleg de grenzen die ik ken?'" so that explains why I want her to hear the songs in Dutch.

This morning we took the kids for a haircut. Tina was happy when she saw us -- three little customers in a row.

It's a long walk for the guys and they were tired and cranky when we came back. Nora too, so for the first time in a few months we had everybody crying at the same time. Some avocado and a sandwich with cheese calmed everybody down.

In the afternoon the boys took a nap. Leo didn't want to sleep at first -- a diaper situation -- but after a quick chat ("Opa kijken!") he finally fell asleep at 2.20 pm. Nora and I later relaxed. Me at the computer, she with her Bobo.

When we were looking for a house a few years ago, we always checked out the vent system above the range. Most houses we saw did not have a vent that moves air to the exterior. Neither did the house we bought and love, but that is changing today.

We're getting an exterior vent installed. Initially we will use the microwave -- if that's not strong enough we can always install a hood later. But this exterior venting will make a huge difference.

Today was a 'bring your parent to school day' at Nora's school and we happily took this opportunity. Ginny came over to take care of the boys and Sasha, Nora and I walked to school.

It was great to be in her classroom again. Everything is so small there -- the chairs, the sinks, everything.

For several weeks Nora has been telling us about the hot chocolate she made at school, so that was the very first thing she showed us. It was pretty cool to see how she was dealing with boiling water (she was wearing mittens) and carefully preparing the drink.

Then she did a exercise with beads and counting, in bars of nine which was interesting. Then an exercise with shapes and finally she showed us a little bit of the reading she can do. She read a sentence "I dust a box" and all of a sudden she disappeared -- until we saw her, actually dusting a box.