Guus Bosman

software executive and technologist

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dailylife

Zebra

Mon, 11/25/2013 - 9:57pm

When I put Nora in the car tonight she said: "zebra! zebra!" and she pointed to our neighbor's fence. I was wondering what she meant: did she mean a striped pattern of shadows? And then I saw it...

We went to pick up Sasha and when we parked at home I asked Nora to tell mama about the zebra. Nora pointed again to the fence and said: "zebra! zebra!" Sasha kept looking for the zebra but couldn't find it.

Nora is starting to learn the letters of the alphabet and Lelya Snezha teaches those letters with names. So there is 'м' for мама, 'O' for Oma and 'т' for тати (that's me). She is learning the Cyrillic letters, so she knows that Я is for ягода (strawberry). When she saw the letter R on a box, she told me: ягода. I explained that this was the R -- and the first word that came to my mind was rommel so I said "de R voor Rommel". She misheard that and the next day said "R voor Trommel", which she then later correctly translated as "барабани"...

So tonight, she saw the З for Зебра...

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dutchusa

Speelgroep

Sun, 11/24/2013 - 3:03pm

The other day Nora and I went to a Dutch play date, or "speelgroep". We met at Carla's house in Vienna and there were 5 kids and their parents.

It was fun talking Dutch and sharing experiences. Nora played a little bit with the other kids -- there's not a ton of interaction at that age but she had a good time. She ate a whole stroopwafel and tried gevulde speculaas for the first time.

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dailylife

Chopsticks

Sun, 11/17/2013 - 10:32am

Saturday morning we went for a walk in the Bluemont Junction Park where we saw the red caboose ("het rode wagonnetje", in Dutch). Nora just read a book about the caboose and it was nice to see a real one. Bluemont Junction used to be a railway junction, before the rails were converted into trails.

In the afternoon we went to a Korean supermarket in Falls Church. They have a great selection of fruits and vegetables. For example they carry 8 different types of pears and many different types of cabbage.

We had dinner there, Korean dishes combined with some salmon sushi. Nora enjoyed eating from all of it. She used chopsticks for the first time and got a fair amount of attention from the Korean ladies working there.

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dailylife

English sentences

Thu, 11/07/2013 - 6:34am

We only talk to Nora in Bulgarian and Dutch, and she is getting more vocal every day. Everybody says that this is the way to go, since she will learn English here from everybody else. In fact, in a few years Dutch and Bulgarian will be the minority languages for her.

Still, it is a little scary to not explicitly teach Nora English. Will she be okay in school? Will she be able to talk to her friends?

A week ago, we heard Nora make her first real sentence in English. When we met Tristan and Calla on the street, Nora told them: "balloons! there!"

And toddlers have a great memory for language. Yesterday we overheard her talking to her self and saying: "happy birthday to you". The only place she would have heard that was when we sang at Ingrid's birthday, two weeks ago.

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dailylife

Walk to Washington-Lee

Sun, 11/03/2013 - 1:55pm

This morning we went for a walk to Washington-Lee, the high school near us. It's less than half a mile but we took our time since Nora was walking with us. Since a few weeks we let her walk longer distances, without the stroller, and she loves it. She stops and looks at everything: flowers, stones, carved pumpkins ("poes!").

At Washington-Lee we saw the build-up for this afternoon's political rally when President Obama will speak to support Terry McAuliffe, the Democratic candidate for governor. The elections are this Tuesday.

We walked back and did some shopping at Giant. This was one of the first time Nora was walking in the supermarket and she enjoyed it. I had to remind her a few times not to touch the merchandise but she did well.

A nice Sunday morning. Nora went to sleep at 1.00 pm, which is quite late for her especially since today is the first day without Daylight Savings Time.

Last night we had a common meal with several of our neighbors at the 'taverna', which was great.

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dailylife

Musicians

Sat, 10/26/2013 - 9:33am

The other day we where at Clarendon Commons and a group of musicians was performing for toddlers. There was a man in a gorilla costume and someone playing the guitar, both quite memorable for her.

She makes funny connections between the languages.

"Hoe zeg je klappen in het Bulgaars?" "браво!"

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dailylife

Bosbessen broodje

Wed, 10/23/2013 - 8:53pm

Last weekend I made blueberry scones. We call them "bosbessen broodjes". I'm not sure if that's the right Dutch translation but in any case, Nora loves them.

It is rewarding to cook for Nora. Tonight we had pasta with bolognese sauce and she devoured it.

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dailylife

Crayon

Sun, 10/20/2013 - 9:00pm

Sasha bought crayons for Nora and yesterday we went to try them out.

Nora didn't need any explanation and loved drawing on the street. We brought two chairs and sat in front of our house and had coffee while Nora was playing.

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dailylife

Nora 20 months

Fri, 10/18/2013 - 9:26pm

Nora is 20 months today. We went for a long walk tonight and she walked hand-in-hand with us.

Back home she enjoyed the present that mommy gave her.

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dailylife

Found Giraffe

Fri, 10/18/2013 - 9:07pm

We lost Giraffe the other day. First we didn't think much about it -- Nora has the tendency to put her toys in random places so we figured we'd find it soon. But today we realized it really wasn't in the house, so it might have gotten lost in the playground.

Anyway, we went for a walk to the same playground and as usual we would stop to look at the "house with the owl" on the way. And look and behold! Giraffe was there!

It must have fallen off the stroller and somebody put it on the fence where it was visible. Nora yelled: "giraf!" and we are all very happy that we found it back. It was a present from Ilana on Sasha's baby shower.

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