next stage

Elise started school yesterday!! Well, actually it is a getting used to period: five weeks of attending school during two mornings a week. She was extremely excited - as was I ;-D It went very well, she was very social with the other kids and took good part in the classwork (as far as classwork goes in first grade.... (previously kindergarten))

words don't come easy

Vincent is starting to talk and actually knows quite a lot of words alreay, it's just you have to know what he is saying. "A" is apple 'O' is 'op" (finished), e = eten (to eat or food). So no poroblems with the vowels there...!v ;-) But he also knows more: bo/bov = boven (above), doe = douche, ba = bad or bah (yuckk) depending on the context, au is either miauw or actually au (again, context...!), kla = klaar (ready). so basically two syllables is too difficult, but if you know the context, you can actually keep up quite a converstaion with him! ;-)

Determination

Saturday morning, 7:15 AM Vincent wakes up, Rob takes him downstairs to play. Returns to bed. 7:20 AM, footsteps on the stairs. Vincent walks up our (closed) door. Daddie... Daddie... DADDIE... DAAAAADDIEEEEE!! DAAAAAAAAAADDDIIEEEEE!!! this continues for a while, but obviously isn't working. Tougher measures are in order: knock knock... knock knock... KNOCK knock... KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK (using fists now) DAAAAADIIE KNOCK KNOCK DAAAADIEE!! Finally giving in, Rob (he is calling *you* honey...) opens de door and lets Vincent in. With a big smile he climbs up on the bed, hands his father three books and*whispers* 'daddie, book...book...'

Reading again

One of the more depressing side effects of my depression was that I didn't have the peace to read a book. *Was* because this Easter weekend I started to read again! Innocent man by John Grisham. So far, excellent book!

Positive developments for women around the world

Reading the paper today, I came upon two small articles which reported about positive developments for women:

- Uganda ruled that cheating women (in a marriage) as of today would be treated equal to men: no judicial punishement (in stead of inprisonment for up to ten years). Also, a widow now has equal rights to the inheritance as a widower. Go Uganda!! The men in Uganda are less positive: women will now start to cause us lots of head aches... Losers!

- Eritrea has outlawed the circumcision of women, under punishment of inprisonment and fines of up to a few hundred Euros. It won't ban the custom, but will certainly play an important role in limiting it.

Just thought you ought to know ;-)