Opa Kees and oma Nel came by for a visit. We all enjoyed it very much. Alan was talking all the time about visiting opa Kees to play football and Alex wanted to drink warm chocolate and play with the tablet with oma Nel. We were very happy to see the family again. Until next time!
Alan turns three years old today and that is a great reason to celebrate! For Alan we selected a nice big car as a present. He is obsessed by cars, so we thought and expect that this present will make him very happy. Alan moved mountains in his development the last year. He went from being a small child that liked to observe to a small child dominating his environment. We are very satisfied by all the improvement he is showing. At school he is still a bit quiet but we expect that this will get much better soon.
At home Alan is a great kid. He listens very well, he likes to play with his big brother or even alone with his car, and he learns new thing with ease. The last year he learned very fast how to spend the day without a diaper.
If we look at the ‘big picture’ we can only be very happy. Alan shows great improvements and great potential and in addition he brings loads of happiness into our home.
Every day Alex is getting more mature. Today he needed to go to the doctors office and give some blood samples. He has been walking around some time now with irritated eyes and his doctor thought it might be related to an allergy. It seems that now a days they can verify an allergy with a little blood. Previous times then Alex needed to give some blood always resulted in a bit of chaos. I had to restrain Alex, and an additional doctor would restrain his little arm. It did not happen much but was always a bit traumatic.
Today things went very different. He did not look, but he remained very calm. After giving some blood he lied down for a little while and then I took him to school. As a reward for his very good behavior I treated him to a small bag of candies.Next week we’ll hear the results and if Alex is allergic to something we should find out what that is.
As of today we have been together for eight years. In eight years we build a beautiful family and handled our share of up and downs. In the end we are still together and have a good hope for the future. The party will have to wait because Ana is following a training in London.
Once again I ran a 10K and this time with a pretty good result. I finished in just over 50 minutes. Up until two months ago I was following the perfect training schedule. I was running three times a week between 6 or 7K. A very good preparation for a 10K. Then my family came home from spending the summer at the beach, and my running activities decreased from 3 times a week to 0 times a week.
Still my foundation must be good, because even without running for two months I still ran the 10K in a very good time, 50 minutes and 10 seconds. I ran together with the father of one of Alex’friends, so that maybe added some motivation.
We should have known, because if something looks to good to be true, usually it is, and there is a catch. Today we went to a local event where they were selling some cows and organizing some games for the kids. There was also a picnic area, and we were in luck. There was still one table available. Well, we thought we were in luck, until we got closer. Alex was the first because he set of running once we had spotted the table.
To my surprise he came back running even faster. Wasps! Wasps! he was screaming, and he was right. Alex had found a wasps nest, and they had stung him three times in the legs. Au!
Luckily there was an ambulance nearby, and Alex got some cold ice cubes applied to his legs, and the pain quickly subsided. Add a gift to make things better and the rest of the day was spend without incident.
Lose Yourself to Dance
Daft Punk
I know you don’t get a chance to take a break this often
I know your life is speeding and it isn’t stopping
You take my shirt and just go ahead and wipe up all the
Sweat, sweat, sweat
Lose yourself to dance
Alex has his seventh birthday today and that calls for a big party. At times we have some difficulty with him, but if we look at the big picture we can only conclude that he did very very well the last year. At his school we turned out to be a very good student, even getting selected to be the personal aid for his teacher. At his music classes he turned out just a bit better than the other kids, so that as a reward he was selected to sit in the spotlights all the way up front at the closing concert. At taekwondo Alex got promoted two times within the year. First to white-yellow and a short while later to yellow.
Alex has worked hard and made tremendous improvements this last year. We have a boy that in situations of authority (like with teacher) is a very disciplined boy. In all he has deserved a birthday with a nice stack of presents.
Alan is a source for inspiration for all of us. Every day he inspires us to be the best we can possibly be and to work for a better future.
Even without being physically present his image has inspired an artist, who made this beautiful painting.
The painting was inspired by this image:
We have received an official email from Alex and Alans school. In this email the school states they will finally act against the debtors, parents that fail to pay up the tuition of their children. This sounds like a very good step to ensure the financial future of the school, but things are not so simple. Even though we pay everything we need to pay I can still understand that in some situations it might be logical not not pay up without putting up a fight. The context of this email is in this case very important.
It seems that the school is targeting the students to force the parents to pay up. I really doubt that this is the correct manner to act in this case and frankly I suspect this email will not result in the end of the debtors.