Yesterday and today the little one had a bad cold and this affected us dearly. Drinking his milk posed a problem because this nose was so blocked up that he could not drink and breath at the same time. The entire time he was coughing and he didn’t sleep for even a second the entire night. The immediate result was that we also did not sleep during the night. The poor boy, but it didn’t seem to bother him that much. A few times, just after a cough that sounded horrible, and sounded like the worst yet, a beautiful smile appeared on his little face.

The solution we are trying now is Rhinomer. A salt solution that we spray directly in his nose. Alex does not like it at all, but it works very well to get his some temporary relief.

I don’t think Alex will realize it, but his shoe is set and it contains a nice big carrot. The only attention point is probably the distance from Holland, but Alex is hopeful that the Sint will make a detour and also provide half-dutch children with a present.

Alex has been a good boy, that’s for sure and the horse on which the Sint rides will surely like the carrot because it is a nice Canarian one.

It is a faith that cannot be avoided. Our little one well be raised in both Dutch and Spanish. Luckily it seems that raising a child bilingually can have positive results. For us it was easy to reach this decision.

• My Spanish, be it fluent is still far from perfect. Even though a Spaniard will be able to understand me without problems my speech is full of mistakes. It would be horrible if the little one copies my personal adaptation of the Spanish language.
• Half of our family (grandpa, grandma, uncle, aunt, niece and nephew) are Dutch (and Australian) and the little one needs to communicate with this family in Dutch.

The division of responsibilities is simple. I will speak my mother tongue Dutch and Ana will speak Spanish, but only when we are addressing our child. I will remain talking in Spanish when talking to Ana. I am curious if this bilingual education of our child will also have an effect on the mother. Hopefully she will put in some extra effort to at least understand the topic when I am speaking in Dutch.

Of course English is also a very important language, but to not confuse the little one we’ll keep this language for later. I have a wealth of English books and movies so I don’t foresee any problems here.

I never paused to think about it, but using various languages offers additional advantages. I can talk to my son in Dutch without his mother understanding. I can even talk to his mother in English without the child understanding. Clearly knowledge is power.