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On 4th May, we celebrated Emma's fifth birthday. This is an important birthday, as five years is much older than four. First we opened the presents in the morning. Next, we decorated the cake. Emma does not like chocolate cake and, unfortunately, that is by far the most popular choice at birthday parties. For her own party, Emma got to choose and strawberry cake it was. Mum found a recipe on the internet and tested it the weekend beforehand. It was delicious. As Emma had also made her mind up a few months in advance on who to invite - a rather large group - we held the party on the wharf beach. It proved to be very windy, but sunny, so still nice in the end. While we could not light the candle, we could pretend to blow it out and we sang just as well.
Solids
During the week, the weather was also good enough for a quick
dip in the ocean after school, but to Piet's disappointment he could not build a sand castle afterwards, as he and Emma were too blue. On Mother's day, mum got a large breakfast in bed and many creative gifts from the local and Dutch school. In the afternoon, Piet and Emma were
excited that their little sister got her first "solids". The solids consisted of baby rice cereal. Juliana thought it tasted a bit
strange.
Juliana still sleeps wonderfully sound at night. Normally she goes to bed before 7pm, we feed her some milk around 10pm and then she'll wake around 4 am for another feed. We do not complain, However, it does mean she is awake for the full day, bar the odd half-hour nap, and she likes to be entertained. She has enjoyed watching the washing machine, but more effective is to put her in a position she can watch her siblings, for example when they play with the old box of Lego Duplo they discovered on the attic. Both siblings give her lots of cuddles and can make Juliana laugh. However, Emma shows the most interest in holding Juultje.
Emma switched to her winter uniform dress. The winter also allow us to light sparkles after dinner.
Juliana enjoys sitting upright in her bumbo and looking around, watching her siblings eat, her mother cook or just to reflect. At school, Emma received her first merit award, together with Katy.
On the weekend, we did a walk with the five of us - for the second time. We drove a few minutes up the hill to North Head and walked through the national park to an ocean lookout. As it is the season, mum and dad were able to discern some whale spouts by looking at the right time just beyond the trail of whale watching boats, but this proved too hard for Piet, Emma and Juliana. On the way back, we stopped at a cafe. Piet and Emma ran a large part of the way back to the car, while Emma insisted on walking all the way home.
