what a girl

 

5 years ago we had a great Indian wedding

Jaipur wedding 4-5/11/2004 from jeroen willem on Vimeo.

Time flies... the first 11 minutes of this video depict our wedding from an australian perspective. The rest are travel stories.

schommel schommel

May 2009

March, March, insulating the roof and Easter party at Mira's school, ...

Time flies with little kids growing up. Especially if both the parents have to leave home for work (Vietnam and Paris) and you are insulating the floor and roof of the house. It makes you realize how quickly everything is changing. Luckily my wife made some notes when she was in Paris. It is a good summary of what the kids have been up to recently.

Mira

• Started going to school in Jan 2009. Loves going, copies her teacher very well. At home play is almost always playing teacher, sitting in a circle, reading out a book to her students, come to think of it- I used to do that as well!
• Wants to pick Malini up often, doesn’t realize how careful she needs to be with her.
• Her friends at school are many, when I ask her. The teacher says she plays a lot with Erin.
• Still has play dates with Lemoni, and occasionally with Greet´s kids.
• Loves rhymes and songs- mostly brought home from school
• Still sucks her thumb at night, and when she is tired or overwhelmed. Uses her scarf to sleep at home, but not when napping at school. Is completely toilet trained since May 2008- so a week after her 2^nd birthday.

Malini

• Stopped breastfeeding right on 11 months, while Jeroen was in Vietnam for two weeks. As with Mira, I started with watered down cow’s milk when she was feeding very often during the day, and also started getting up at night to feed, an indication that the amount she drank per feed was reducing. Within a week she has totally switched over, and now has 200 ml morning and night, and a couple of times another bottle in the middle of the night.
• Is very fascinated by boxes and putting things in boxes/ cups etc; and pulling them out again. Also any musical sounds interest her eg spoon tapped on glass, as well as musical instruments of course.
• In a few weeks she will be a year old- very fast!
• She loves her sister- seeing her always put her in a good mood.
• Malini started at a new crèche today. Het Egeltje is cheaper, and bigger . She had a real tough time at the previous place- Jaxijozi. Of course it was learning to drink from a bottle, eat solid food, away from mum, not being able to freely crawl around… a big mix.
• Slow weight gain was also a big issue between 6 and 9 months…. Very worrying, K&G were not impressed, and she was under all growth curves, even breastfeeding ones. Happy I didn’t stop bfing her as K&G wanted.

2008

novemberdagen November days Sinterklaas & Xmas

These photos of the last two months of 2008 remind me of how much our daughters change every week, new expressions, new tantrums, new steps, new words or sounds. Mira went to school (kindergarten) for the first time in her life this week and is now the youngest kid on the playground. She was excited and not scared. She hardly noticed mama and papa say goodbye as she walked off into the class room on Monday morning. Malini continues to be stubborn, especially if you try and feed her something other than mother's milk, but she is adorable and happy 99 percent of the time. Crawling at high speed and screaming at her sister if she's being smothered! She is beginning to try and put lids on pots, screen the floor for bread crumbs and stand up with minimal support. The photo of the bike trailer shows how we transport them to school and creche in the morning, 3 days a week. Parul's parents visited us at the end of last year. We had a great time with them and the rest of the family.

Malini is 9 months old today

Malini is er vandaag negen. Even lang uit als in de baarmoeder, dat wil wat zeggen. Is het daarom dat ze 's avonds niet meer zomaar haar bedje in wil? Het is 8 uur en ik ben alleen met haar beneden. Ze speelt en kruipt babbelend rond. Af en toe zoekt ze met haar ogen de mijne op. Ze geeft me een warme glimlach en huppelt op en neer (in zithouding) uit blijdschap, gewoon blij om te bestaan.