Guus Bosman

"Wil je mee naar de dierentuin?", Mieke asked Nora. Nora shook her head, no, she didn't want to go to the Zoo. I asked her if it is because I told her there are crocodiles. "Ja...".

But then Mieke asked about which animal she wanted to see: "varken" and Nora got excited. So this morning my parents and Nora are going to the Zoo. First breakfast; I made bosbessenbroodjes.

We told Nora about Uncle Gerben's advice but tonight she still didn't want to give Opa a kiss (or nose kiss), haha. She had a great day with them and her Dutch is definitely coming back. She is still tired. Before she left to Bulgaria she often didn't want to nap but this week she hasn't protested at all and slept every day at least an hour.

We're all pretty tired so going to bed early tonight.

My parents are taking care of the kids during the day while we are at work. Nora is much more fluent with her Dutch know and she enjoys hanging out with Opa & Oma. Last night when we went to bed, she ran to Oma to give her a kiss. Then we we asked: "how about Opa" she run to me instead -- Opa has a prickly beard!

My parents are very calm and patient with the kids.

Nora's Bulgarian has improved greatly. She is a lot more fluent and melodic when she talks and according to Sasha her sentences resemble those of Dyado and Baba. This is a wonderful benefit from her vacation abroad. I haven't heard her say them yet but I know she learned various Bulgarian poems and rhymes also.

Her Dutch had a temporary setback. Especially the first two days she had a hard time making herself understood to me and she would often just be quiet. It was interesting to see how much 8 weeks of virtual no Dutch matter, and it's a good reminder how important constant reinforcement is.

In the car from the airport I asked her, as a joke: "wil je een boterham met boerenkool?" -- she loves "boterham" but obviously not with "boerenkool" so she replied with two words, after searching: "eh... alleen!"

The same day at home she made several grammatical mistakes: "papa, wil je mij in doen?" (instead of "papa, wil je mij er in doen?" -- she wanted to jump in her bed). In bath she talked about: "de wit eendje" and "in de water".

Slowly but surely her fluency is coming back. Yesterday were about to go down the stairs and she said "knuf!" so she hasn't forgotten that. And this morning she woke up yelling "papa ben je wakker?!".

Like Jaap said this morning, traveling internationally and the corresponding jetlag and tiredness surely were a big factor and I'm glad she's becoming more vocal again. We haven't tried her English yet -- but that will happen in full in two weeks when she'll start her school.

Nora is back home!

She left Bulgaria very early on Sunday morning. She stayed with Dyado and Baba in a hotel in Sofia, in order to make the 6.00 am flight from there. She had an amazing summer with them. She told them not to be sad: "не плачете баби. Ще ме видите на Skype. Но в самолета няма Skype!". Nora was traveling back from Bulgaria with Lelya Snezha, Lelya Lilyana and their grandkids and they flew through Heathrow.

At 2.00 pm our time we left for the airport to pick her up and at Dulles we met Silko and Mariela. When they came through the doors we didn't see Nora at first -- she was hidden by the cart with the luggage. She is so little! A tiny human being who is ours. She was very happy to see us.

Lily gave her some balloons and with those we went to the car. Her Bulgarian was very good but her Dutch has faded to the background, especially since she was very tired.

Once at home she immediately grabbed her bicycle, later her stroller and then sat down with her blocks. It took her a while to get acclimatized but after a while she had smiles for Opa and Oma also. She had an early dinner and then went to bed. While we were drying her hair she fell asleep in my arms. In the evening Sasha and I looked at the pictures and some videos from her camera, it was really great to get an impression of her wonderful summer.

Jaap has a birthday today and tonight we celebrated it. We had rakia with our appetizer and grilled sausages for dinner. Then there were presents -- several books -- and we had a home-made apple pie for desert. It's great to celebrate this together.

This is the third time we are celebrating Jaap's birthday in Arlington. The first time was ten years ago and then in 2012 when Jaap and Mieke were here to take care of Nora.

This morning we had coffee with my parents and then Jaap and Mieke took the bus to Georgetown from where they'd take a boat to Alexandria. In the mean time, we hang out with the boys. Around 11.30 am we went for a walk and had lunch together at Le Pain Quotidien. The boys were deep asleep; they were now in their new stroller seats and clearly liked those much better than the small car seats.

While we were having lunch Adrian woke up and we took him our laps. With wide open eyes he looked around him.

The elections are more than 15 months away but yesterday was the first big debate for the Republican Party for their primary. We watched it and had a great evening.

To be sure -- the campaign for the Presidency is no joke and some of the candidates are scary -- but debates like these are entertaining. Donald Trump was in excellent form and dominated the debate; Chris Christie got some singers in as well and overall it was a great show to watch. Again, if you ignore the content of what's being discussed. Some of these candidates are quite extreme.

We had some difficulties finding the right streaming site to view the debate but ultimately we watched most of it through the official FoxNews website.