End of Summer

I haven't been keeping this up to date but I think most of you are likewise summer-busy anyway.


Summer school is over. Luckily there are so many fun activities for kids in the area. The trains are recently very popular with Maarten. Even the train table is back in our living room.

And of course visiting the historical steam train on narrow gauge railroads complete with whistle and steam was very exciting to him and his little friends.


He was only a little disappointed at the petting zoo being not allowed to pet the rabbits and geese. Yet he always may cuddle them with ‘babi’!


Oakland ZOO is just ‘around the corner’ and we are visiting almost every week. Therefore we naturally became members. Although the merry go round and the ZOO train is what Maarten lately prefers above the animals.


You can already smell fall in the air but it still gets pretty hot in San Ramon every afternoon. Luckily there is the cool ocean within one hour.


Maarten has a new friend. We have known his parents for years and coincidentally they moved to San Ramon a week ago.
Surprisingly the boys got along with each other despite speaking different languages.
Like Maarten, Anton is also half Dutch but Portuguese is still his strongest language.
Can you imagine our babble when we all get together?

After Lassen...

Coming home from the beautiful mountains means laundry laundry laundry…nothing exciting to write about.

Unfortunate Maarten had another fever attack this Thursday. No other symptoms and it lasted just one day again! I hope it’s nothing since I’m already worried about the PFAFA.

At last we’ve managed to get together and ‘organize’ another Czech play date on Friday. I was not very comfortable to take Maarten there. He was very quiet sitting on my lap most of the time so I was feeling pretty guilty. He might still be tired or was he really that shy?
Probably since Friday he has got a small aphthae in his mouth which makes him very unhappy. I don’t recognize his behavior. He does eat very little and he fights back when we try to brush his teeth.

I was planning another hiking trip for this Sunday. However my proposal was accepted with little enthusiasm so we ended up at the Oakland ZOO.
Nothing changed from the last time we’ve been here. Maarten is still frightened by the goats and sheep at the petting ZOO.

His favorites are the bats (Malayan Flying Fox). I’m never much impressed by this ZOO but I agree the bats are interesting to observe.







PS: Tonight Maarten graduated to a big-boy bed. And surprise surprise… he stayed there the whole night! He still fits in his crib easily but since he is jumping out and climbing in for a while it’s not that safe anymore. Considering our trip to Europe next month and being without a crib out there I believe this should spare me a lot of trouble.