The wonders of raising a bilingual child

“¿Aló? Koekiemonster? ¿Cómo estás? In de was? Sí, goed. Tot gauw!”

One of my daughters pretended to be talking on the phone with Cookie Monster. She had just turned 2 years old a few days before. This was probably the first clear example of her already acquired knowledge of both Spanish and Dutch, and her ability to use both in the same sentence in a fluent way and without hesitating. From that moment onwards, language skills have been developing at an impressive pace, and both of my girls keep surprising me every day with new acquired words and sentences, in both of their languages.

Language development in early childhood is always something wonderful to witness. The quick changes from baby sounds to first words to a toddler who speaks (and understands!) more and more every day are quite impressive. But when there are two or more languages involved, it is even more amazing to see how small children adapt so easily to a multilingual environment and develop their language skills in all involved languages at the same time. 

Half marathon training program for running moms

After my previous posts for running moms with some general advice for beginning runners and suggested training programs for 5K and 10K distances, this is (at least for now) the last post in this series with a suggested training program for a 21K run, also known as half marathon. As already mentioned in earlier posts, please use this program as a guide only and adjust where necessary in order to make you feel as comfortable as possible with the level of activity as well as with the selected days for each specific session.

MOM

Mom. Such a simple and small word, but with a huge significance. I find it wonderful how a word with only three letters can have so many different meanings and can cause so many different feelings, depending on who says, hears or reads it. If you ask people what “mom” means to them, you will most certainly get as many different answers as persons you asked the question to. Some people will talk about their own mom and what she means to them. Others will talk about themselves as a mom and how that is a blessing, a challenge, or both. Some will tell you what a wonderful mom their wife, sister or best friend is. Some will talk about that special person who is like a mom to them, even if she isn’t really their mother. Others will be sad as their mom is no longer with them, but will remember how wonderful she was in life.

10K training program for running moms

Following my previous posts in this series for running moms with some general advice for beginning runners and a suggested training program for a 5K distance, in this post I’ll include a suggested training program for a 10K run. As mentioned in earlier posts, please use this program as a guide only and adjust where necessary in order to make you feel as comfortable as possible with the level of activity as well as with the selected days for each specific session.

TEN YEARS

April 18, 2005

My two suitcases are full to the brim with my most important belongings, as well as the things I will need first. Eight boxes full of other carefully selected things will be sent as cargo. Anything that doesn´t fit in these boxes and suitcases has been thrown out, given away or sold. Buying the airplane ticket is easy, but once your organizing, selecting and packing it turns out it’s actually quite an undertaking, packing all of your things when planning to emigrate. What do or don’t I need, what would I like to keep, what can go, what would be better to buy anew once I’m there? Rather difficult, all those choices. And once everything has been selected and packed, mixed feelings. Happy and relieved that it all worked out, but at the same time it becomes a lot more final once you see first all those boxes and then also the suitcases standing in the hallway.

5K training program for running moms

I know it’s been a while, but here is finally my second post in the series for running moms, with a suggested training program for a 5K run. As mentioned already in my previous post with general advice for beginning running moms, it is important to only use this program as a guideline and to make your own adjustments where necessary taking into consideration your available time and energy levels. You can increase or decrease activity, try to do a shorter program if you’ve already been active previously (e.g. by starting in week 3 or 4) or take much more than the suggested 8 weeks to prepare for a 5K distance, even take a break for a week or 2 if needed – just make sure you feel good with your level of activity! 

Mirror Twins

Saturday, 28 March 2015. Tonight when I said it was time to brush teeth, A. was the first to run into the bathroom, like most evenings. She climbed up the step stool in front of the sink and looked at me in the mirror with a beautiful smile on her face. I looked back… and saw N. For a moment I felt confused, maybe I was wrong and it had been N. who had entered the bathroom just a moment earlier? I looked next to me and saw very clearly that it was definitely A. who was standing on the step stool beside me. Again I looked in the mirror, and again I saw N. there. Next to me, A. In the mirror, N. A really strange experience, which confirmed what I already had been thinking for some time. Our girls are mirror twins! I had read something about it a few months ago and I had already been almost sure that our girls were mirror image twins. Their hair naturally parts on opposite sides. We can’t be completely sure yet if our girls are right- or left-handed, but it’s getting more and more obvious that N. prefers to use her left hand to eat, draw, etc. while A. in most cases uses her right hand. And if I remember correctly, their first teeth came in on opposite sites, too! Enough reasons to think about mirror twins, but today it just suddenly got very clear. Pretty strange to see N. in the mirror so clearly while it was really A. who was standing in front of it. But also very special. Identical twins are not very common (about 1 in 285 pregnancies, or one third of all twin pregnancies) and mirror twins are even rarer: only around 25% of all identical twins are mirror twins. So really a lottery ticket, with the first prize: two beautiful and special girls. I’m so proud of them and happy that I’m allowed to be their mom! :)

Running moms: training programs and some general advice

Are you a mom and have you ever tried to find a training program for a specific running distance (e.g. 10K, half marathon, etc.) that would fit into your busy daily life? If you have, it’s possible you stopped right there when realizing that you would not even be able to complete the first week of the program, let alone continue with it for several weeks or months. Most training programs you can find online have only 1 or 2 resting days per week and at least 5 workouts per week including runs as well as cross training sessions. Some lucky moms might have enough discipline, energy and family support to be able to actually complete these training programs, but for most of us it would not be realistic to set a goal of 5 or 6 training sessions per week. This is why I’ve decided to dedicate several posts to suggested training programs for moms who would like to start running, train for a specific distance or increase their running distance in general, but who do not have time (or energy!) for so many training sessions per week. In this first post I’ll give some general advice for beginning runners / beginning running moms. In following posts, I’ll be including training programs for 5K and 10K distances as well as for a half marathon (21K). 

Time for Big-Kid beds! – Part 2

It took some time, I know, but here’s finally the follow-up post to Time for Big-Kid beds? – Part 1. There are several reasons why it took me so long to write this (or any) post, including of course the Christmas and end of year activities, the two weeks of December "holidays" with no daycare, bad weather outside and two snotty and coughing toddlers at home (I should probably write a post about those two weeks at some point…), but also the transition to the Big-Kid beds – as my precious two hours of silence during afternoon naps are now gone, and apparently won’t come back anymore. But for those of you considering making the switch to toddler or Big-Kid beds soon: don’t worry, it’s not all bad news! Read on for our experience so far with the transition of our twin girls to toddler beds: the good and the bad, the successes and the disasters…

Pepernoten

Today it’s 5 December – time for the Dutch ‘Sinterklaas’ celebrations, lots of presents, happy children and of course: PEPERNOTEN! But what to do if you don’t live in Holland and can’t just go to the supermarket for a bag or two (or twenty) of pepernoten? Here’s your answer:

You will need:

• 500 gram wheat flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 150 gram sugar (preferably raw or brown sugar)
• 100 gram honey
• 6 tbsp milk
• 4 tbsp ‘speculaaskruiden’* (see below)
• 160 gram soft butter