Emma en Piet - december 2010

shoes mum's lap

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tadpoles English gardens

From the Netherlands, we had brought some speculaas spice. Mum and Piet set off to bake some speculaas cookies. Emma liked playing with saint Nicholaas's stoomboot. On the weekend, we put our shoes in front of the fireplace and the next day, Piet happened to be the first to examine the presents. The highlight was the little kitchen, which became as popular as all kitchens they had played with before. However, mum's lap remained the most popular spot of all.

We don't know who started it - it probably came from a Maisy DVD - but both Piet and Emma like to do bird impressions by standing on one leg and stretching the other backwards. We visited Rippon Lea estate for story time, but neither Piet nor Emma could be bothered. Instead, tadpoles and a walk through the English gardens made the visit worthwhile.

dancing garden quickly followed

Leadup to christmas
We had four social engagements during the weekend before christmas. After a dinner with friends at home on Friday evening, we met up with Jo and Pete and Alecia. As rain had been predicted, the planned barbecue had been moved to their backyard. Piet and Emma played in the garden and were 'curious' about their christmas present. Emma was equally equally curious about the book with jigsaw present. After the lunch, we went to the Harding Street playground, which has been familiar since the day we arrived in Melbourne.

On Sunday morning we had Remy's third birthday party. His main present was a trampoline, which doubled as the main activity during the party. After one boy discovered that crawling over the edge outside the trampoline was exciting, Piet and Emma (and many others) quickly followed. For more party pictures, see this album (opens new window). On Sunday afternoon, we were invited to Evelyn's baptism in the Greek-Orthodox church of Forest Hill. After the service, we had dinner in a Greek restaurant, where the kids enjoyed watching the traffic pass by, drawing pictures, dancing on the dancefloor, and admiring Evelyn joining the dancing with her granddad.

Festive period
delighted to find a stack of presents chased snail On christmas eve, we had a picnic in a park in St Kilda with Em, Engin and Ege. Ege, who is between Piet and Emma in age, chased Emma around the park for a yellow ball. The climbing frame entertained all kids in the park.

On christmas morning, Piet was delighted to find a stack of presents under the christmas tree and we opened them quickly. Piet and Emma played the rest of the morning with their extra wooden rails and trains and hungry hippo game, while dad worked out his new, high-definition video camera (see videos). The previous day, Piet had strained his ankle. While it wasn't swollen and he could stand on it, he still avoided using it - commando crawling over the floor - so he went to a clinic with mum. When mum did more than a full circle on a roundabout near the clinic, Piet commented from the back of the car:

"Silly mum!"

He got some ibuprofen and we went on to a traditional christmas lunch (roast) at Heather and Gray's. In general, Piet is developping fast, linguistically. He has taught mum his first Dutch word: slippery ("Dat kleed is te glad"). And he amazed us by looking at a newspaper cartoon in detail, pointing at the four figures and saying cautiously: "Wine, wine, wine, beer". And well before his third birthday, he managed to throw his sister's boot onto the roof...

beer

The next day, Piet and Emma discovered a snail on the driveway. Piet got off his balance bike and had a very close look. Snails are rather common in our garden. On a wet day, Emma might spot dozens of snails and she will proudly point out each and every one of them. Emma brought a creative christmas card home from nursery.

On the 28th December, Holger paid us a visit from London via Sydney. It was a nice pool day. The last day of the year, temperature reached 39 degrees at 4pm and we spent the evening in the pool with friends who stayed the night with their kids.

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