Guus Bosman

When we arrived in Holland, Nora immediately learned that people in the Netherlands speak Dutch.

Nora likes to describe the things that she sees around her, especially people. When we arrived at the luggage claim she said -- "die meneer maakt de trap schoon" and I concurred "ja, die meneer maakt de trap schoon". Then he actually answered her! "Yes, I am. Do you want to give me a hand?" Nora was quite surprised that someone understood her.

It was great to see my parents, and it was very special to see them and Nora reunited. Nora wasn't shy at all, and kept talking on the way to Middenmeer.

Once there we slept two hours -- just enough to take the edge off from the skipped night -- and before dinner we made a nice walk. There was the Havenfeest, an annual event, and we had a good time. Nora got a slice of cheese, amazingly delicious, from a kaasboer and later a balloon. We bought some diapers and drop from the drugstore. I saw Vincent, an schoolmate from my elementary school. We were very tempted by beautiful tulip bulbs but bringing them home might be impossible.

Today Dyado and Baba left. It was sad saying goodbye -- we've had a great time together.

A nice Monday evening. Nadya had made dinner and we ate early. Nora wanted to be read to over dinner so I read her de Grote Rode Schuur, an alphabet book, a few pages from the kabouterboek and two short stories: Ik will lekker stout and Het Fluitketeltje.

Later we read Dick Bruna's Bloemenboek and Nijntje in het ziekenhuis, the latter per Nora's request. I don't always manage to read to her every day, but we try.

Then we went for a walk to see the new sidewalk -- it was completed a few weeks ago and looks great.

Yesterday evening we visited the Jefferson Memorial and the Martin Luther King Memorial and had a great dinner at Cafe Asia in Rosslyn.

This morning Nora, Sasha and Dyado and Baba went to the National Zoo. They saw the panda baby and Nora had a blast playing with the water feature.

Nora is growing fast and wants to do everything herself: switching on the light, closing her shoes, filling her cup with water. If we by accident do those for her she gets upset and wants us to undo it so she can do it herself.

The best way of getting her to do something is saying: oh, Nora can't do that. She will insist to prove you wrong.

If I said "Ik ben twee en ik zeg..." she would answer "Nee!" Now she is cheeky and says: "Drie!"

It is cute to see that she is also still a baby (as she insists she is sometimes). When we drove back from Secaucus she didn't want to sleep. The solution? We put a blanket over her car seat, blocking her view. She fell asleep in 5 minutes.