Guus Bosman

We moved into our new house! It was a very exciting week.

The painters finished up the house on Tuesday evening. That night we were packing until 2.00 am and at 6.00 am the alarm went. I drove Nora to Falls Church where she was staying with Lela Snezha for the day. The movers arrived around 9.30 am, a huge van and 3 strong guys. We had packed everything well using the boxes from our previous moves and the loading went smoothly. It was only a 10 minute drive to the new house.

From 12:00 pm through 3.00 pm the movers placed everything in the house. Ever since our first move from Arlington to Durham I am a little wary about movers, but this team from ACE was pleasant and very careful. It's amazing how much space we have! We've lived in apartments for the past 15 years and it's incredible to see how much room we have now. The majority of our boxes are in our "mudroom" in the basement so nicely out of sight.

In the afternoon the electrician came and put our new light fixture in the dining area, and our contractor stopped by for an inspection as well. When the movers were gone we had lunch together and then went back to the apartment. We made three trips by car, for a few loose items and our plants.

We picked up Nora in the evening. She had a great day with Lela Snezha's two grandchildren and the rest of the family. Once home, I put together her crib and it was time for her to sleep. The next two days we brought her to Lela Snezha as well since the house was not quite ready yet, but now the living room is Nora-proof.

We spent the whole weekend packing and preparing our move, but on Sunday afternoon we went to Sophie's birthday party. She turned one year old and John and Juliana had organized a big party for her, with a puppeteer, music, a bubble machine and lots of balloons.

Nora was very impressed -- overwhelmed even -- and it took her a little bit to warm up to it but after 10 minutes or so she started enjoying things. Of course, balloons make everything great and she loved being around other kids.

The movers will be here on Wednesday morning, so we're packing and preparing this weekend. Things are nicely on track. We still had all the boxes from our previous move and by now we're pretty experienced.

In the evening we went to several stores, including Home Depot -- probably the 10th visit there in the past few weeks.

Opa Jaap left today after a fun month. All four of us really enjoyed the time together and Opa's presence was especially useful in the past 10 days.

Nora learned many new Dutch words from "Apa", as well as the ability to make some ugly faces, haha. New words include "pen", "dicht", "mee" (as in, "ga je mee?") and "peer".

Whenever an airplane comes over Arlington, Nora will now lift her finger in imitation of Opa and say "hoor"!

We woke up to a snow-white world this morning.

In the morning Nora likes to watch the school buses with children ("kicheche" -- for "kindertjes") but there were none today, since it is spring break.