A few days ago we had a little celebration. Alex indicated all by himself that he needed to pee, and after getting his potty he sat down and peed away. Mommy and daddy were o so proud, but Alex himself was even more impressed. Halfway he got up and started running through the room while cheering and continuing to pee.
Again we see another step taken by Alex towards his adulthood. He is still developing very very fast and we all wonder what will be his next big advance.
Alex his mother sometimes mentions that there are quite a large number of differences in the Dutch and Spanish culture. In Spain we cannot cross the street with Alex without hearing compliments and remarks about Alex. Here in Holland we hear absolute silence. No compliments, no remarks, nothing.
Until yesterday when there was an event that left us speechless. Two little girls rang the front door bell. They were around 10 years, and they only asked about Alex. They wanted to know if he was coming out to play. He was asleep, but when I told the girls that after his sleep he would probably go out and play they left very happy. Ana and I were baffled. Alex’ not even two years old, and already the girls are seeking him out. It did however leave me with a proud feeling.
After just one week in Holland the changes we notice in little Alex are quite big.
He has adopted to a Dutch timetable very fast. He goes to bed much earlier, he wakes up more early and his daily routine has changed a lot. Normally Alex would start to show signs of being tired around 10 or 11 o clock at night. but now he falls profoundly asleep at 8.
It´s not really clear what is causing the change. Maybe its the Dutch light, or the climate of because we are are doing more activities, or maybe it’s just because Alex sees a lot of people around him all with different timetables.
Alex is clearly missing his Spanish customs. He is slowly adopting to Holland and every now and then he even has some fun.
In Spain driving a bike is not nearly as natural as it is in Holland. There are very few bike lanes and if you are one of the lucky few with a bike you will find yourself on a dangerous spot. Other users of the roads are not used to bikes and they just don’t take into account there might be bikes around. In Holland it cannot be more different. Here you are the king of the road on your bike. Everyone knows you are there and you can drive everywhere on your bike.
It was a good moment to introduce Alex to this great concept. Together we drove a few laps and Alex did quite enjoy it. At first he had to overcome some of his anxiety, because we were going quite fast, but he got the hand of it quite fast en even enjoyed himself. Still, it was his first time and after a few lats he started asking for mamma. Still, the bike seed has been planted and now the biker in Alex can start to grow.
Who would have thought it possible that Ana would be the main news in the local papers thanks to Angelina Jolie. Ana does research and screening for generic markers related to breast cancer. A topic that recently became world news thanks to Angelina. The current awareness resulted in interviews, newspaper articles and publications.
Of course it makes me feel very proud of my Ana!
Then and now, Bert and Adrie. Both pictures were made on the exact same spot, 35 years apart, but you cannot stop progress so everything has changed.
7 young rabbits are playing in our garden. The left their nest about a week ago. All seven are as black as the night, which is strange because their mother is red-brown. Clearly they are having a lot of fun in the garden.
Emotions are a very personal subject. Writing emotions down on a piece of paper is even more difficult. Still, it seems that it is possible to use mathematics to calculate the emotional values of written texts. In this context I was asked if would agree to allow two texts from my website to be used in an investigation.
The texts the researcher was interested in were the two texts read on our wedding. One text read by my brother Bert and one read by our friend Miguel. Ana and I were both very moved by the texts so clearly there is a good amount of emotion there. I am very curious as to the results but I will have to be patient because the results will probably take a few months.
At my parents place there are always a lot of animals walking around. Thanks to the rabbit the number of animals has just gone up a lot because the rabbit has a nest full of young ones.
