Our youngest son is aready three weeks.
Alan is doing very well. He is slowly growing and gaining weight. His relation with his big brother is also developing and it looks like it is going to turn out okay. The last couple of weeks have been quite a change for all of us.
We’ll be staying in Madrid for a week more and then we take the plane and head on home.
We are very proud to welcome our new son to the world. Alan was born on the 6th of december, at 11:45. His weight was 3465 gram and his length was 49.5 centimeters.
Our last checkup came acompanied with a date. If all goes well little Alan will see his first light on the 6th of december.
Today we leave for Madrid. The three of us. Ana with her huge belly, Alex and me. We hope to return home at the end of december or the beginning of january. When we return we’ll need four tickets. One for Ana, Alex, Alan and me.
I have been drawn. With a bit of a big head (probably correct) but complete with all the parts. Head, body, legs and arms, and even colored with a nice skin color. Hats off to my son the artist.
The 3rd of October is something I like to celebrate. Even though it is a celebration typical to the city of Leiden, celebrating the departure of the Spaniards, and I an living right in the middle of these Spaniards, it is nice to celebrate the past and a good excuse to go into the kitchen and make some hutspot.
“It was a nice couple of days.”
I have learned a lot the last couple of years. About nature, history, biology, science, and also about my business, IT, apps and projects. Still it is time to move on, and to broaden my horizon. I’ll be looking for something new, hopefully a bit closer home, in Spain, but I’m flexible and I have no problem working across the border.
First I’ll take it easy for a while, and I’ll see how everything goes with our new treasure, and than again giving it 100%.
Sometimes you just need to get something that will work and that’s nice and robust. Something good. It might cost a little extra but quality is not cheap. For myself I had a nice desktop computer that was okay, but I needed something more mobile for my work so I started looking for a nice laptop.
One bit requirement was that the laptop could not have one of those slick mirroring screens. They look fantastic, but are very unpractical to actually use. Looking into a mirroring surface gets very tiring very fast. The CPU does not need to be the top of the line. Anything semi decent will do. I do require a bit of memory for my work so I need to get a system with at least 16GB of memory. In the end I found a very nice system at Dell. These are the specs:
Dell Latitude E5450
Edition: Windows 10 Pro
Processor: Intel Core i5-5300C CPU
RAM: 16.0 GB
System type: 64-bit
Harddisk: Samsung SSD 256GB
Removable: Lexar USB 32GB
With Alex I made a nice wuppie. The process was relatively simple and the result is a nice soft ball for playing. Finally something different than all the ‘vechten’ (fighting) Alex wants to do all the time with his toys.
Step 1:
Cut two cardboard circles and put them on top of eachother. Make sure both of them have a cut across from the outside to the center. You will need this cut later to easily remove the cardboard from the wuppie.
Step 2:
This it the bulk of the work. Use a cord to cover all the cardboard, en keep adding the cord until the entire center is filled with the cord and you cannot add any more.
Step 3:
Once you are done spinning the cord you need to cut open the wuppie from the sites. Put a sharp knife of scissors in between the twee pieces of cardboard and cut all the cords.
Step 4:
After cutting all the cords do not remove the cardboard. First add a few ropes to bind the center of the wuppie. Wrap the rope thightly though the center (in between the twee cardboards) and make a thight knot. Then remove the cardboard pieces. Your wuppie is now done. Some prefab eyes make it even better. Have fun!
Alex is four years old! Time really does fly. We had some great parties to celebrate Alex’ birthday in Alcala and in Torrevieja. Of course with cake and presents.
During our vacation Alex turned out to be a real fan of the pool and the beach. A very good trait for someone living on an island. Alex loves to swim, dive and jump into the pool. Not only his pool skills have improved the last year, Alex improved in every way imaginable. We are indeed impressed by the little guy.
Next year will be a year with a lot of changes. Alex will get a little brother, and will lose his monopoly on parental attention. Still, we have faith that he will manage to adapt, just like his parents will have to adapt.