The Joy

A lovely afternoon at the beach, picnic dinner with friends and ending with icecream! To quote Nelson:

'ice cream, ice cream. happy. happy.'

'Breakdancing'

The boys are quite obsessed with breakdancing, incorporating various styles of modern, tap, ballet, gymnastics, jazz into it!

A lot of pictures are going to follow: it's been a long time! Nelson is nearly two, he loves nijntje/miffy and was stoked to see the invitation: 'Nijntje! Nels! Nijntje! Nels! Partay!!'. Also Amah and Kongkong visited, and we had a great time! Food, Laundry, Book reading, babysitting they took care of everything :)

Koninginnedag, Zaanseschans

Spring, Keukenhof, Postel.

Living in the bulb growing district is so lovely, every year it never fails to stir up a little excitement... yes they are just flowers, but there are so many of them, and they are so fragrant when we drive/ride past, it's quintessential Holland. Throw in wooden clogs and windmills (see photos below!) and you have it all!

Aunty Doris, Kinderdijk

Good Friends

A good friend is one that you can open the door to wearing pajamas, bed hair, eating a mid-morning snack of noodles without embarrassment. Timo, Yara and Marjolein visited and we had a divine time playing, picnicking, relaxing! If only we could do this more often....

Spring....

It's time: the heady days of too-cold sunshine. Stubbornly putting away the woollen tights. Freezing because of it. But it's sunny, for the love of all things yellow, it's SUNSHINE. Hanging out the laundry in chilly 8 degree mornings. Bringing back damp clothing that have half-dried by the end of the chilly sunshiny day. Shifting the garden chair to keep up with the shrinking sunshine wrapped up in a fleece blanket because it's SPRING. It's really fabulous, it really is!!!


Our first Spring BBQ

Finally out in the spring, what a relief!!!

Our eating club

Kinderdijk; Ma, AUnty Doris & Kaemon in the Hyacinths; Family; me & the boyz

Douwe's Banana Choc Birthday cake (copied from Zang Toi's in Sungei Wang), Hot cross Buns, Kaemon's Easter Breakfast @ Kindy (he was the only one to stay seated and eating the entire time...), @ Kinderdijk.

In memoriam

When Aunty Lena took me as a student, I had already been lazily drifting through many years of piano lessons with the periodic burst of last-minute, pre-exam panic. When Aunty Lena took me as a student I woke up. Her music lessons were one of the significant influences on my adult character.

A good music teacher is never really just a music teacher. The majority of children who receive music lessons don't carry on their relationship with their instruments into their adult life, and even fewer become professional musicians. But, as any good teacher will know, that's not the aim of teaching. Naturally, the love of music is something desirable to foster but the most potent characteristics and skills learned through music (or another discipline) are the ones we hope our for children.

Discipline, and a focus on your goals: for someone who is by nature not disciplined nor focussed I actually enjoyed the repetitive exercises bar by bar to perfect difficult passages. Aunty Lena shared her passion for music by introducing the stars of classical music to me (Itzac Perlman, Murray Perahia, Jacqueline du Pré) and the lesson that music is not just created by the composer, but also a living creation of the artist...her lesson was that I could be that artist too! With such grand motivation those mindless bar-by-bar exercises were transformed to clearly representing the steps towards achieving that goal of playing that piece perfectly.

Passion is something that will take you a long way, personally it's ranked higher than my will power! It also is infectious. For a teacher it is a weapon that disarms and inspires students. I once followed her to a performance that was a marriage of music and art from the Impressionist period. It remains one of the most moving and illuminating experiences in memory. Aunty Lena showed that learning was just a part of studying: learning is fairly prosaic but to studying something is to appreciate its beauty and intent. She explained WHY this had to be repeated this way or that, she created exercises that were not mind-numbingly boring but enjoyable. She was a gifted and intelligent teacher that turned learning into studying. This is what I try to show my students.

Aunty Lena was a strict teacher and that meant disapproval if promises to practise were not fulfilled. Perhaps back then I might have appreciated it a little, but in hindsight, I definitely value the pressure of expectation she exerted. After all, without potential, there is no expectation. Expectation, is the embodiment of someone else's faith, hope, concern, love for you. Without it, they don't care.

These characteristics and factors- discipline, focus, passion, expectation, care- are things I've come to value in people, want for our children and strive to develop in myself. Aunty Lena was instrumental in teaching those things to me.

Baby # 3!

Another miracle in the making....

All you needed to know, and then extra:

• Everything looks in place, and growing the right way.
  
• Due 11 October
• will be called Mack if Kaemon has his way
• 5 cm from top to tail (and the tail is still there!)
• already in maternity clothes, let it all hang out yeah!
• Nelson loves babies, so have high hopes for him to babysit responsibly
• Finished 3 bottles of Gaviscon antacids to battle the nausea
• when nausea is over, will celebrate by going to the best Thai in leiden
• all of a sudden craving for sashimi, rare beef, raw things.
  

Long time no post....

Everyone's been under the weather, Douwe's been to Miami and it's finally Spring!!! We survived the coldest winter ever...

Nelly cooking up a storm

Kaemon helped with these Nonya pineapple tarts- put the jam on and the ball on top! NO photoshopping!

While nelson was sick, the pineapple tarts were practically the only things he ate...(or alternate caption: we'll have to start saving for an orthodontist)

Kaemon's usual get-up for breakfast

Brotherly Love

Gong Xi Fat Xai!

This year we got together with Nicoline and Edi fellow Chinese foodies to celebrate the new year with the important element of Food: theme? Lots of it!

The laden table

1st row L-R: Peking Duck (Douwe brought from Rotterdam); Peking Duck pancakes; Lobak (bean curd rolls)
2nd row: pickled cucumbers, beef n black beans; Salt and Pepper calamari
3rd row: Mixed veg with prawns and scallops, Roast Pork, Steamed Bream


Kaemon and Nelly getting ang pows/red packets from Edi and Nicoline- which was very exciting as it was filled with chocolate money (and the real thing too, but they just give that to mummy).

Happy New Year! Wishing everyone the most important things in life: happiness and health. We can't ask for more :)

Big Bang!

Kaemon's Birthday Celebrations ended with a big bang- we all went out (with family) to a Japanese restaurant (all sorts of sushi, nigiri sushi, teppan, saradas, katsu, deliciousness). Kaemon's face lit up when his black sesame and green tea ice cream came complete with a firework atop! The icecream melted to milkshake, but that didn't stop him from slurping up every last drop.
 

Joy!

When they are not pulling each other's hair or landing a mule kick to the face, they play quite nicely together!

Kaemon's Birthday!

Our little Kaemon ain't so little anymore!  We are so blessed and love our K-monster: bright, luminous, sweet, affectionate, relaxed, epicurean, funny, cuddly.

He turned two three!! The curse of the birthday cake struck again, Like Nelson's 1st 'Birtday' cake flubble, Kaemon's cake had 2nd birthday 2x and 2 candles before I realised my mistake... Lucky he didn't notice

THanks to all for the birthday wishes, presents, cards, thoughts! We had a fantastic birthday!!!  Lots of friends, food, pinata and fun. 

Winter has been beautiful and therefore, tolerable. The frozen ground and white frosting beats the soggy wet continuous drizzle of winters past.

Yum Cha/Dim Sum in the Hague. Joy of joys, the boys sit down for a lunch and eat their fair share of the spoils. No left-overs to take home... Giant prawns in the siew mai, fluffy steamed char siew pau mmmm classic goodies!

A chinatown goodie: the memories- Darlie AND astroboy in ONE gift box. Darlie used to be Darkie with the negro face as the symbol, and Astro boy is the coolest with a laser beam hidden in his bottom.

Kaemon's new preschool

Nelson, we are in love with him! He's cheeky and lovable, loves people and extremely kissable. He regards blowing raspberries as his solemn task, responding to the request with a grunt in accordance 'mmp'. When douwe gets home from work, he is often greeted by an insistent Nelson who is clear in his wordless demands to lie down, pull shirt up and let the belly out...

Kaemon's started at a new (his first preschool is closing down, hence the switch) preschool- and loves it! Sometimes he falls asleep unexpectedly...

*Brr Cold*

 
We had a good family weekend (tidying up, eating together, sleeping in till a luxurious 8:30am, having visitors). Erik, Simone & Julia (10 months) visited from ol'Nijmegen. We had a lovely time and was first time I've seen snow on the beach. Odd combination lik chocolate and fish. but nicer!

1 year in photos

More than 2000 photos in one year, no time for making albums! Click on the photo to see an enlargement.