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For New Years eve we were in Manly, unlike last year. While the fireworks at the harbour bridge at midnight were clearly too ambitious, we decided to try the 9pm fireworks at Manly on the harbour beach. Friends had experience with this event. As the wharf beach closest to home would be absolutely packed with revellers, we found a relatively quiet place a bit further down where we met up with various friends. Juliana had her feed unperturbed. The kids had a swim, we had a picnic, the kids played a card game, had a play on the sand and another quick swim. They entertained themselves with glow sticks once it got darker around half eight. We counted down to nine o'clock and we saw lovely fireworks fired from a barge in the water. In the distance, we could also see 9pm family fireworks at various other locations.
School dress
Back home, Emma proudly showed oma her
school dress. She has been wearing it quite often recently, for example on the weekend, eliciting comments from passers-by on going to big school next year (as school age kids are unlikely to wear their school uniform during the weekend). Juliana had her
second bath.
More on the name Juliana
The Dutch queen Juliana was named after
Juliana of Stolberg (1506-1580), who gave birth among 17 children to
William the Silent (William of Orange), who led the rebellion against Spain and is considered the father of the fatherland. The Dutch national anthem is dedicated to him. Hence Juliana (of Stolberg) can be considered the grandmother of the Dutch nation.
What makes our experience with Juliana different from Piet and Emma's is the adorable behaviour of her siblings. They want to hold her all the time, read her a book and be silly with her. Before bedtime and at any other time, Juliana will get a kiss.
The rest of the day, Juultje likes to sleep, especially on someone else, drink, be held, ponder the world, lie on a mat on her back or on her tummy.
Art
Piet did some
watercolouring with oma Bep and drew some
inspiration from a tree he had painted in an arts class. He is precise and his art school is
realism. Emma has been consistently more
abstract than her brother.
The three siblings had their first bath together - Juliana was in there only briefly. She sometimes seems to smile; this has been confirmed by grandmother and a friend, so it not just the imagination of her parents. She has also engaged in I-stick-my-tongue-out-you-stick-your-tongue-out contests with her brother. She wakes a little bit more again and we sometimes walk her to sleep. After a three week stay, in which she helped out a lot with Juliana, we took oma Bep to the airport.
Finally, thank you for all your cards.
Piet wanted to help hang up the washing, so he hung up a notice that no one else was allowed to hang up the washing. Piet and Emma camped in the backyard with dad and had their dinner in front of the tent. Friends (from Piet's old pre-school) came over to pay Juliana a visit. She had a frown and a bath.
Camping
A major breakthrough in the second half of January was Juliana starting the sleep through the night. We never imagined that could occur to us this early. We decided to join some of Piet's school friends for three nights camping an hour north of Sydney. Juliana was not a hassle at all and Piet and Emma had great fun. For pictures, see this
