Multilingual Kids Wanted!

Maarten is fluent in both parents' languages. He still speaks pretty good English and since we have been living in Belgium he gets French classes at school.

It wasn't our intention. That's just happened to us.

Despite all skeptic remarks we occasionally get, Maarten is doing very well so far.

Compared to Czechoslovakia, where I grew up, in Belgium being bilingual is nothing extraordinary.
Also in California most of the children in Maarten's class spoke a second language at home.

I was already informed by his teacher that Maarten and his best friend are speaking English together while playing at school.
For them it comes naturally.

Our society has still many perceptions and prejudices about raising multilingual children. Advantages and disadvantages, various methods, approaches and ideas are permanently discussed not only by the concerned parents but also by the scientists.

This morning we received a message from our school principal promoting a recent study which explores the effects of multilingualism on children's brain development.
This research intends to investigate whether there are significant differences in the brains between one- and bilingual children.
The tested children need to perform three tasks while under a brain scanner. This way the scientists will localize and compare the children's brain activity between one- and bilinguals.

My first reaction was, of course! Maarten will participate!
Till Rob expressed his doubts about the scan's harmlessness.
The tested child will undergo two MRI brain scans over a period of 3 years.

I did a little research on the internet. According to the most Dutch websites the MRI scanning is completely harmless. Nevertheless I got deeper information in English.
I'm usually interested in the actual experiences of involved people. I found this discussion about the safety of MRI scans and I was quite shocked reading their experiences.

Most of the patients were tired, nauseous and got migraine headaches afterwards. Many were complaining about discomfort, pressures inside their head, hearing bad noises, dizziness and some even had affected balance and memory and bad dreams!

Hmmm. No fun! It even doesn't sound harmless to me!
I'm not sure Maarten would appreciate his participating in this experiment.

Believe me, I'm still a big fan of multilingualism and I want to support the scientific research regarding this matter, but not at any price!

Or am i exaggerating?

Ooidonkroute

Today’s weather forecast was wrong and we were lucky.
It hasn't been raining all day and we could finally get out for a warm-up stroll. Even the sun peeked out from around the dark clouds now and then.


Through the picturesque Ooidonkdreef and along the nearby castle, farm yards and wintry empty fields we reached the old side branch of the Leie river.






The river is teeming with bird life of all kinds.





Who knows where the winding path along the river bank will lead, but what a beautiful view along the way!

The breaking news

Yesterday Rob came home with a "breaking news" about his company.
The quotation marks are used for a reason here.
Simply, we get similar breaking news on a regular basis!

I still recall the evening we drove through one of the Brussels tunnels on our way to dinner. At that time, about 12 years ago, I heard this "breaking news" for the very first time.
I have no idea how long we'll end up staying in Belgium but I have the feeling it's not going to be for a very long time.

Is it a feeling or longing?!

One week after my accident

and I'm starting to recover, although I still get tired after just a few minutes of physical activity. The idea of "eating" liquids only for another 6 weeks is less tempting but in general I'm doing much better. Hopefully the severe migraine headaches and night chills will also diminish soon.

I recently took a quiz in one of the popular women magazines, my sister regularly supplies me with. I learned about myself being a hopeless pessimist! This because I believe, somehow, that an event is beyond control.
Would this accident convince me of the opposite?

Anyway, I had no idea that I'm doing so bad.
I don't think that everything is going to be worse. But it's the truth that I always consider both options. Everything I have and enjoy can also get lost in the future. It can get better but also worse. This way I'm rarely disappointed.

Since the accident I'm extremely cautious. I'm scared. It made me realize again how vulnerable our life is.
The sad thing is, that we usually need accidents or misfortune to realize how good life we have had.
For example, my unemployment frustration has almost disappeared at the moment.

The sun is shining even here in Flanders and I can't wait to get out of this crappy place into nature for my usual workout soon.

I only hope you won't encounter me! You might get startled!

What a bad dream. The pain is unbearable. I want to scream and suddenly I hear myself screaming very loud. I wake up.
The pain is still there. In my head or in my jaws?
But where am I?!
My face is cold and wet. I find myself lying on the concrete floor down in our cellar screaming in pain.
I don't understand what's going on.

I manage to come upstairs. Maarten begins hysterically yelling, crying and running around.
One look in the mirror and I know why.
My face is covered with blood and dirt.

I don't want to describe the time spent in the Emergency Room.
Little by little I am able to reconstruct what could have happened down there in the cellar...
The CT scan shows several cheekbone, orbital and jaw fractures. All on the left side.

While the surgeon is busy with the cheek wound... the moment of sewing Maarten's forehead years ago comes up so clearly again.
My poor baby and what a chicken am I!

@@@

I'm even a more awful sight today. My face is bruised and very bad swollen showing all colors of the rainbow.
I hate the idea of Maarten seeing me like that.

You are not allowed to go down there anymore, mommy!


~~~
PS: "When Maarten saw your face a mess you should have told him you thought it was Halloween!
hope i make you smile !!!!! love Jim" ~ my dearest Uncle

Maminko, moje ouško už zase fotografuje

Mommy, my ear is taking pictures again!

We both already know what does this popping and crackling sound mean. Since we've moved to Belgium Maarten already has had an ear infection several times.

After nights 'spent with monsters and jellyfishes' this meant another sleepless night in a row.


And this had to happen just before Maarten's big day!
He was looking forward to celebrate his birthday with his grandma and family for the very first time!





Surprisingly Saturday morning he seemed doing much better.
It was a little bit of disappointment when he woke up and went downstairs. He expected Oma and Babi already would be there.

- Maarten, I've told you many times. Babi is not coming!

- But why not?!

How can I explain to him that his Czech grandma doesn't want to travel during the winter? Even not for his birthday!

- Babi cannot come because her house and street is deeply covered by snow.

- So?! She will put her big boots on and shovel a path through it!


Similar discussion followed about Dejda, one of his best friends back in California.

- Why won't he just come by plane?!...


Maarten was so happy when his guests finally arrived.
And although he kept up well with the crowd at first he ended up sleeping on the sofa exhausted and with a fever not even able to say goodbye to anyone.

PS: Pictures courtesy of Hans de Jonghe

Happy Birthday Maarten!

Today is our dearest boy's 5th birthday!

Together we chose a present for the class, a nice tradition of giving something everybody might enjoy.
Giving instead of receiving! It's nice to see how the children like the idea. At least Maarten does.


As every year our house is decorated with streamers and plenty of balloons.


Even the baker did a good job by baking a huge cake for all Maarten's classmates, as promised.








It's a big celebration in the class. They make a crown for the birthday kid, the children can choose what they want to do that day and they sing songs.



And as for me...it's hard to believe...my little baby has turned 5!
Where has the time gone?!

'Krokusvakantie'

The ski trip was fantastic. This shouldn't be that surprising because vacations spent on the ski slopes were always my favorites. But going to the mountains with a kid does involve some more organization and... packing! It is simply impossible to travel with one midsize backpack like I used to years ago.


Even though this is already the 3rd ski season for Maarten I insisted on putting him in the ski school this time. Not because he needed to learn skiing but because it's the most efficient way for him to stay safe.
I believe, even I had to do it in the past myself, that one shouldn't teach his or her child. Especially if skiing supposed to be fun!


Maarten loves skiing but he can use some more discipline on the slope and somehow the teachers do have more authority in that than we do.
While skiing with us, Maarten always thinks we are racing or chasing each other and he would go downhill in a race speed fearless of falling. I was hoping this will change with the age but as he is also getting heavier he goes even faster.
There were other reasons for enrolling him in ski school too. Yes yes! We could ski at our own pace!
But we were also hoping Maarten will enjoy younger ski buddies and get used to the “follow the leader” approach.
Besides, I was convinced that the teachers should have all the patience in the world, compared to me!

Unfortunately, the latest wasn't the case. We actually saw Claudia, Maarten's first day teacher, being angry and even pushing him roughly to the ground, probably out of frustration. He wasn't able to get up and he obviously didn't understand her instructions.
This was one reason I felt a bit guilty leaving him with the ski school instructors who mostly speak only Swiss German.

Afterwards when we picked Maarten up surprisingly he was enthusiastic not only about his first lesson but also about Claudia! On the contrary Claudia insisted on putting Maarten in another class, meaning with another teacher.
You may understand this was quite a relief for me as well.


Since then everything went just perfect. Maarten had fun with friendly Conny's group, and after the ultimate lunch of French fries and sausages we spent the afternoon together on the slopes.




Even though we still don't know the details, Maarten won two medals in 'ski races' during his last lesson. This obviously made his day.




Nevertheless, the only thing was a bit of a downer on this vacation...I had to say Goodbye to my good old ski boots!
Another big piece of plastic broke out somewhere inside and after 23 years of great service I was forced to throw them away at last.

Just one more night's sleep

In the beginning of this week Maarten brought this strange message in his little notebook.
A message from Marie Joski...
Again something quite new for us and especially for Maarten.

According to tradition the last afternoon before the krokusvakantie (spring half-term) his school celebrates Carnival.


Everybody would not just dress up in costumes but also the children may exceptionally eat frietjes (French fries), Maarten's (and Belgium's?) most cherished food!

Maarten can hardly wait.

And then, after another night's sleep we will join the crazy crowd on the way to the mountains...

I don't like an overheated home. If I lived alone I would be happy with 17 degrees Celsius.
However, I don't need to worry about that in our current dwelling. I believe 19 °C is the maximum you can achieve in this house. I doubt there is any floor, roof or wall insulation. And, with only one exception, all the windows are single pane, which is useless in keeping heat inside.
Our rental is not so exceptional since according to a recent study (Verbond van de Glasindustrie) approximately 33% of Belgian homes are still equipped with single pane windows.

Anyway, last Thursday the old kettle finally gave up the ghost and the indoor temperature of 9 °C is too cold even for me.

There has been already enough written about the "famous" Belgian customer service by others so I rather skip this subject. The fact that we are already five days without heating speaks for itself.


This weekend was awful. The weather got even worse and we have had to cancel a planned friend’s visit. Even though there is a nice fireplace in the living room it manages heating the room for only two more degrees.



Our Sunday outing did only little cheer us up. Chasing after Maarten on his bike through the foggy forest was a good way to warm up but returning to our frozen "palace" afterwards really didn't make us feel any better.