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On the last Wednesday in January, we went
back to school. We have been cycling
down the ramp for a while (technically not allowed). Emma had been proudly wearing her dress during the holidays and was
pleased to start school with her best friend
Katy. She is in a class of 18 kids, three of whom speak Dutch and have Dutch fathers (and Australian mothers). As Emma was only attending school for two hours a day for the first week,
auntie Bell stayed with us a few days to help mum out and probably also to see
Juliana.
Year 1 chaos
Piet went back six hours a day, but probably did not get more work done. All classes are remixed each year, partially because Kinder class sizes are smaller, but other schools manage the logistics of this during the holidays. Unique to Manly Village Public School, the mixing is decided during the first weeks after the holidays. This means that only the Kinder classes have their proper teacher, all other classes keep their previous year teacher for a week except the Year 1 classes (like Piet's) who get the Year 6 teachers and have to be split up as there are fewer Year 6 teachers than Kinder classes. This confuses absolutely everybody. Fortunately, Piet's class got determined within a week and he stays with his good friends Koen and Phoebe. And obviously he sees all his other old class mates during the school breaks. He has one boy in his class with a Dutch mother, but she never taught her son Dutch.
Just before his sixth birthday, Piet lost his first tooth (front bottom left, hole not visible in picture). As one of the younger children in his class, he had been one of the last to get a wobbly tooth in December, which made him very proud. The tooth came out during Dutch school without Piet noticing, but fortunately the toothfairy left him a dollar anyway. He had been thinking a while about what to spend it one. Initially, he wanted to buy someting in the school canteen, but in the end he decided to save it, so that he could buy someting bigger once he had lost all his teeth.
On his birthday, Piet came down early to inspect his presents, yet he waited for the rest of the family before opening them. His sisters had also bought their brother a present. They chose lego, as did various other family members and friends. This was fortunate as he no longer considers books a real present. This attitude is affecting some of our friends' children too - they must all have shelves full already. But lego is a big hit: when he opened his parents' present - a rather big lego castle - he exclaimed:
We wrapped it all up in time for dad to go to work. In the evening, we ate pizza with fries (first time mum tried making these at home) and ice cream in a cone as dessert. Piet wore his new shirt. He wanted a drawing-themed party, which caused his parents some headaches. The cake was a minor headache: Piet made a drawing, which mum replicated, in part, on icing. We held the party on Collin's beach, which is not directly accessible by car. To our surprise, some parents had never been there despite living in Manly for ten years. We hadn't been able to think of a way to implement the drawing theme, so most of the time was free play with only a treasure hunt as an activity. Before blowing out the candles, Piet wanted to be carried around on a decorated chair, something he must have seen at another party and we could easily arrange. All in all, Piet seemed very happy with his birthday and the party.
Dad hung up a picture in Juliana's room with ducks painted by oma Bep as a birth present (in May 2009, Emma got a chook painting). We all got head lice again. Piet might have picked them up during the holidays and in order to make the de-nitting easier, we convinced him that he needed a haircut like pappa: number two clippers, so really short. He bought into it to the great delight of his parents. Piet and Emma are still really sweet to little sis.
Juliana continued drinking her bottles (just formula from 9 weeks on), growing and in general being the most placid and adorable baby imaginable. Emma, Vinnie and Jaxon visited us from Melbourne. Piet and Emma enjoyed making real Italian pizza with Vinnie.
