Sarcasm explained by a five year old
Yesterday, I was walking Miles and Zella to school and it was horrible weather, windy and wet. Miles said “Het is leuk weer vandaag. (It is nice weather today.)” and Zella replied “Nee, het is helemaal geen mooi weer vandaag.” (No it is not nice weather today, it is horrible.) So then he explained sarcasm to Zella. “Soms als het slecht weer is dan zeg je dat het mooi weer is. Het is een grapje” (Sometimes when it is bad weather, you say that it is nice weather. It is a joke.) I think it is great that Miles understands sarcasm, however, I do fear it also says something about our parenting style…
Zella can ride a bike
We went to the playground in the park around the corner of our house and bumped into a former class mate of Miles. He had his new bike with him and was practicing riding it. Miles, who is a head taller than he, asked if he could ride the bike. So Miles rode around on it for a while. Then Zella asked if she could also ride the bike. I said that it lacked training wheels, but she wanted to do it anyway. I put her on the bike gave a her push and off she went. I was surprised since she could only just reach the pedals and had never riden without training wheels yet. She has been riding a “like a bike” which lacks pedals and which has given her a good sense of balance.
I guess never underestimate what a little sibling rivalry can do 
Arno can walk!
Arno can walk, he is still a little intimidated by this discovery and often still prefers to crawl as a faster and more reliable mode of transport, but we caught him on film walking and falling. Miles and Zella love this little clip. It makes them laugh every time, even when they have just seen it ten times in a row.
First day of School
First day of School, originally uploaded by Lewis Dijkstra.
After two months off, school started again on September 1st. They were excited to see their friends again and, of course, dressed up for the occassion. The summer holidays have been fun; two weeks on an island off the Dutch coast, two weeks with Granny and Pake in France and a week of circus school to finish it off.
Zella turns three
Zellabday_08 08 30_0016, originally uploaded by Lewis Dijkstra.
Zella had a polka dot birthday party. Her friends Nina and Ada came over, both decked out in polka dots. They played in the yard and ate icecream cake. The flavors were raspberry and chocolate. Raspberry because it is pink and chocolate because it is chocolate
Arno’s first Birthday
Hi everybody,
I am one! I have kept this crown on just long enough for my dad to take a picture. Then I got to open my cool presents! Toys for in the bath. I like to take baths with my brother and sister. Colorful blocks which turn into animals with the help of my siblings and I turn them into random piles of blocks again. We have so much fun. My mom made chocolate cake, which is nice, but I am still too little for chocolate cake, that is not nice. I also got a fun toy to put different shape blocks in. I haven’t figured all them out, but I am working on it.
Go away dark cloud
Miles really wanted to ride his bike. I told him he could if it didn’t start to rain and I pointed to the dark cloud in the sky. So he grabs a towel and tries to fan the cloud away. When he noticed that the cloud was still approaching he also started to blow with all his might and fanning harder hoping that this may turn the tide.
I love the way a child’s mind works.
Pictograms are confusing
We recently went for a walk in a nature preserve near our house. Peppered throughout the park are signs like the one you see here, with relevant information on the local flora and fauna. Each sign also includes this series of pictograms, which Miles decided to decipher for me (from right to left, nb) while we were waiting for Lewis, Zella and Arno to catch up:
“Kijk, mama: we maggen de vogels niet aankomen,
we maggen geen bloemetjes plukken,
de mama’s en de papa’s moeten bij de kindjes blijven,
we maggen de paarden niet knijpen…”
(”Look, mama. We’re not allowed to touch the birds,
we’re not allowed to pick the flowers,
mamas and papas have to walk together with the kids,
we’re not allowed to pinch the horses…”)
at which point I burst out into laughter. He got all huffy until I explained to him that he was more clever than the person who had designed the pictogram and that it indeed was a picture telling people not to pinch horses, even though the text underneath reads, “Do Not Feed the Animals”
And then he still told me No Dogs, just to make sure I got it.
Arno is four months
Arno turned four months today and thought he should share his impression of the day with you. For his age, he is a particularly articulate young man.
chick magnet
Dear Abby,
I am having girl troubles at school. Two of my classmates, Yasmin and Sarah, are making me choose between them. Nothing I do is right: if I tell Sarah I want to marry her, Yasmin cries. If I tell Yasmin I want to marry her, Sarah cries. If I tell them I’m too young to get married, they get mad and make me pick one of them. Last week Yasmin started crying so hard that our teacher pulled me aside to see what had happened. When I told her, she laughed and said I should marry her instead!! I told her she was TOO OLD. The next day a bunch of the other girls in my class ran up to her and said, “Miss, Miss! Is it true?” When she asked what they meant, they said: “Is it true that you’re in love with Miles?”
I don’t even want to think about how Sarah and Yasmin responded to that…
I feel bad, though, because Yasmin’s mama told my mama that she has started trying to fix her hair in ways I will like, and she cries at night because I never say she is beautiful. Her older brother Younes (who used to be my friend!) has started threatening me about what he will do if I don’t say she is beautiful. But I’m afraid of what Sarah will say if I do that. I don’t know who’s more scary, Sarah or Younes!
Could you please help? I’m beginning to think there is no solution to this impossible situation.
PS Don’t tell Maya about any of this. Then I will really be in trouble.
Chick Magnet in Anderlecht
