Hippo House

Happy Valentine's Day! Last week Nora made 28 cards for all her classmates. She wrote her name in Bulgarian.

"Dat betekent 'Africa'", Nora told me yesterday when we were discussing the continents. There's a puzzle at school that teaches her the continents and she's starting to learn their names, in English.

It's one of the first times that she knows a concept in English first -- and then learns it in Dutch or Bulgarian.
I know this will happen much more often in the future but it's a strange thought.

In any case, we'll be practicing those names in Dutch and Bulgarian for the next few weeks.

Yesterday was Nora's first hour at school. She was in class from 9.30 am to 10.30 am and we brought her to school together. At 10.30 am Baby Lilyana picked her up and they played a little bit on the playground.

Nora seemed pretty happy about her first "day". She played with the blocks again and had a snack (сос не беше сладко не беше солено, беше за деца).

She didn't want to go to bed last night and woke us up around midnight again, with a lot of drama. Turns out that she has a runny noise, proving all our preconceived notions about going to school, haha. It's always a relief to find an explanation for why she didn't want to sleep though. This morning was pretty hectic but we managed to leave for school on time. We walked together with Eli and Lori.

She started at 8.30 am today, her first regular schoolday. The drop-off is very effective and I only had time to yell a quick "dag meissie" before she disappeared inside. A good thing.

My little girl is going to school tomorrow. I am very happy for her, but I'm sad too. She is growing up and somehow I feel that she'll be gone to college in no time.

Her "school" is wonderful and she's looking forward to it (though we didn't mention today that she'll be going tomorrow). It's a wonderful and loving environment and she'll have a blast. She'll learn about waiting for her turn, about interacting with other kids, speaking English and she'll have many new friends.

It's important for her to spread her wings and explore the world and going to school will be fun and rewarding for her. But I wish I could freeze time!

On this picture she is reading to her teddy bear from her self-made book.