Day 22 & Day 23

My parents bought Mirthe an early (very early) birthday present this week, a bigger bike, lavendar blue with little glittery butterflies, and Mirthe and Pake have spent the last two days learning how to ride it. Because Mirthe is DYING to ride it to school, just once, before Pake and Beppe leave for home.

The first day didn't go too well, as I expected, as Mirthe expects to master everything within seconds and that usually doesn't happen. Also, I had forgotten that we had gymnastic lessons that afternoon, didn't give her enough warning (Mirthe doesn't do well with unexpected changes in the schedule that she has in her head) and so we had to cut the practice session way shorter than she would have liked. After gym she and Pake headed back out to practice, until dinner. She came in with glowing red cheeks and had learned how to get off the bike.

Today they headed out again together, this time with Pake next to her on my bike, and were gone more than an hour (yes, in this weather!) They biked along the old shipping canal, which runs almost directly from our house to the village where Pake and Beppe were born. It was getting cold(er) and they had to bike back into the wind, so Pake said that they had reached the village (which is what Mirthe wanted) and it was time to turn around. Mirthe didn't argue this time. She learned how to step up on her bike and get started, and stopping also went well. With some more practice and a dry day next week, we might try biking to school with the new bike.

This all reminded me of the trip we made to Holland in 1976, when my Tante Roos got married. We were gone for six weeks, and my dad stayed home by himself, because he couldn't get off that long from work of course. When we came home he had bought every kid a new bike, and my mom a digital clock -- I loved my bike, but I was fascinated by that clock. I used to watch it flip over (it wasn't really digital, kind of a forerunner) for what seemed like hours.

My mom said that my dad missed us so much, he left for the airport the night before we were supposed to come home, just to be sure that he wouldn't be late :-)

Another big big big BIG event today, Day 23, is that Anna pooped on the WC for the first time. And that makes her officially pottytrained! We had kind of halfheartedly started a couple of times, and would give up after a day of accidents. But she woke up one morning and decided that enough was enough, and has been pretty much dry since -- with the exception of one day where she was pretty sick and spent a lot of time dozing on the couch. And now today she managed to do the Big Job on the WC. She picked out a new Barbie (sigh) and 24 PAIRS OF BARBIE SHOES as a reward (because the good Lord knows she doesn't have enough of THOSE :-)