Brother and sisters/Brat i sestre

I am more than two weeks late with this post and the photos but lately things have been kind of hectic around here (lately? yeah, right). The title says brother and sisters which might be confusing at first. As appealing as that might sound, no I am not pregnant with twins or triplets. Or pregnant at all for that matter. In Serbian we refer to first cousins as brothers and sisters (by aunt/uncle) so the title refers to my sister's visit a few weeks ago with her two kids and tons of fun that the three of them, Jana, Pavle and Una had together. They visited us last year about the same time but this visit was way more relaxed and easier on everyone since they are 3.5years, 20months and 15 months old now instead of 2.5years, 10 months and 5 months. Jana is now the sweetest little girl who left toddler tantrums behind (well, almost completely), Pavle is the gentlest little boy you've ever met and Una is, well, still Una :).

It was wonderful to watch them bond, play together, tease each other... When I see that it always makes me sad that they will not be growing up close to each other. And it was wonderful seeing my sister again and this time actually being able to spend some quality time just the two of us. We realised how much the kids enjoyed each other's company when Jana threw a tantrum the day before they left (one of few during the whole visit) that she didn't want to go home and when Una spent the whole day after they left looking for the two of them in every room of the house.

So here is to brothers and sisters and many many years of love, friendship and mischief that lay ahead of them.

And some photos...

***

Srpska verzija ce biti znatno kraca jer ne moram da objasnjavam sta su braca i sestre po tetki/ujaku/stricu... Tina, Jana i Pavle su bili kod nas pre par nedelja i bilo nam je sjajno. U istom sastavu su bili i skoro godinu dana ranije ali je razlika izmedju tog dolaska i ovog bila ogromna. Tad su svo troje bili prakticno bebe i ma koliko nam je bilo divno sto smo svi zajedno, ruku na srce bilo je i jako naporno. Ovaj put je bilo potpuno drugacije, Jana je izrasla u divnu, razumnu devojcicu, Pavle je najpitomiji deckic koga ste ikad upoznali a Una je, hm, i dalje Una :). I stvarno je bilo divno gledati ih kako se igraju, zadirkuju... I bilo je sjajno sto smo Tina i ja ovaj put provele par kvalitetnih sati zajedno, bez neprestanih "nemoj", "sidji sa frizidera", "ne cupaj lutki glavu" itd. I ukapirali smo koliko im je bilo super zajedno kad je Jana dan pred odlazak pocela da se buni da nece kuci i kad ih je Una posle odlaska danima trazila iz sobe u sobu.

I obavezne fotografije...

Aren't we just the coolest? / Zar nismo cool?

Love Jana's way/Ljubav na Janin nacin

Behaving in the coffeeshop/Mnogo smo dobri u kaficu

Red or green crayon?/Zelena ili crvena boja?

Thinking hard or Like mama and daddy like daugther :)/Ne ide iver daleko od klade

Celebrating Tristin's birth with blue and white muisjes (Dutch tradition)/Slavimo Tristin-ovo rodjenje na holandski nacin

In front of De Nieuwe Kerk (The New Church) in Delft/Ispred Nieuwe Kerk (nova crkva) u Delftu

Tristin is here!

Una's little cousin, Tristan Jason Swanepoel made his grand appearance yesterday afternoon weighing in at 2.7kg and 49cm long. Both Mummy (Linda, Mark's sister) and Tristan are doing great and are expecting to be released from the hospital tomorrow.

Welcome to the world baby Tristan! We can't wait to see you in a few weeks time! Congrats Linda and Quintin on the arrival of your bundle of joy!

P.S. I apologise in advance if I spelt his name wrong. I thought it was Tristan (as in Tristan and Isolde) but got an email from Mark this morning that says Tristin. We'll see who was right ;)!

***added later***
P.P.S. TristIn it is! Uncle Mark was right!

Long time no write...

Things have been incredibly hectic on our side lately. In between my parents' visit, buying a house and mastering the incredibly complicated Dutch morgage system, my sister's visit with her two kids and busy times at work no wonder we are not getting to updating the blog as regularly as we should. But there you are, we'll try to do better in the future.

My parents' visit was short and sweet, they were here for two weeks and had a great time with Una. She warmed up to them very quickly and enjoyed the fact that with them she could do anything she is normally not allowed to do. A step back in our discipline path but that is granparents' privilege, right :)? Other than just enjoying their company, Mark and I definitely enjoyed not cooking for two weeks and going to the movies after oh has-it-been-that-long-ago. We went to see Mama Mia (yes, we are the last people on Earth to have seen it) and came home singing. There were a few heavy moments too. One was when we went to a forest/picnic area called Delftse Hout and Una threw a tantrum because she only wanted my Dad to hold her and he is not allowed to do that (he had a massive heart attack last year and can't not lift anything heavy), you could see that this same heart of his was suffering in a different way. The other was when my Mom came to take Una from our room one morning so that Mark and I could sleep in a bit. Due to my Mum's condition (possible primary lateral sclerosis) her walking/balance/talking is severely impaired and even the simplest of actions can be difficult. She bent to pick her from our bed, lost balance and fell backwards with Una in her arms. Mark jumped up, she got up as quickly as she could and started reassuring us that nothing happened to Una as my Mum hold her on her chest. I just felt my eyes filling with tears as I looked at Mark because neither of us was worried about Una, she has suffered much worse self-inflicted falls before and bounced right back, it was my Mum we were worried about. But such is life, I am glad that both of them are here (my Dad's health prognosis after the attack were not good) and are well enough that they can play with Una.

Oh, yes, this is actually Una's blog, so enough of my random rambling. Una is getting cuter by the day, if this is even possible. We have recently discovered her not so gentle side too, in the form of her teeth mark on her cousin Pavle's cheek :(. Her daycare teachers are assuring us that this behaviour is perfectly normal for her age, and they call it something like "fighting for power" which could be the case as Pavle is only 5 months older than her and is the gentlest soul ever. She definitely does not dare doing anything similar to Jana, who is 3 years old and would most certainly fight back :). Other than that, they are really enjoying each other's company and even though it is sometimes challenging for Mark, Tina and I to stay sane or hear each other through all that yelling, it is wonderful to watch them bond, especially knowing that they will only have 2-3 weeks a year to spend with each other :(.

In the spirit of this utterly incoherent post, here are some photos from my parents' visit. The circus photos (a.k.a. Jana, Pavle & Una) are coming soon!

What is this blonde head doing in my deda's and my photo?

High tea for Mama's birthday

Delftse hout

Walking with baka and deka