The blog that is. The new address is mettheovo.wordpress.com so please come and check us out over there. Thanks!
***
Tj. blog je na novoj adresi, mi smo i dalje na staroj :). Novi blog je mettheovo.wordpress.com pa svratite i pogledajte!
Monday, 21 December 2009
Friday, 23 October 2009
Nature vs. nurture
Last night at bath time Una was splashing ever so happily in the bath for half an hour, giggling while playing peekaboo with the towel while Daddy was drying her off, giving us random hugs and just generally being so happy and loving that it got Mark and me thinking "terrible twos, what is that?". Lo and behold, the last piece of clothing to be put on her was her pajama top when all hell broke loose. Una started screaming, tears streaming down her face, stamping her feet - you know, the definition of a proper tantrum. It took us a few seconds to make out what she was yelling and then when we did, both of us burst into laughter which is one of the biggest parenting sins, laughing when your child is so upset that is. But when you hear what the reason was you might forgive us. All that grief and tears were because the pajama top did not have a cloud on it. Yes, a cloud. We realised quickly that our laughter is not helping so we tried pointing at the pretty flowers on her pajama, the sun, there was even a bird. She wasn't having any of it. She wanted a cloud.
So back to the title, I think this pretty much solves our nature vs. nurture dilemma. Her genes might be all southern but this kid is so clearly Dutch. Sun - nah, birds - nah, flowers - nah. Give me some clouds.
Not that we have a problem with this, the Dutch have some great characteristics. But heaven help us when she is old enough to become interested in fashion.
So back to the title, I think this pretty much solves our nature vs. nurture dilemma. Her genes might be all southern but this kid is so clearly Dutch. Sun - nah, birds - nah, flowers - nah. Give me some clouds.
Not that we have a problem with this, the Dutch have some great characteristics. But heaven help us when she is old enough to become interested in fashion.
Thursday, 15 October 2009
Me? Biased?
Yesterday Una had her regular consultatiebureau (child health centre) check-up. This is where they check your child's physical and mental development and where they get their vaccinations. I always get anxious around these appointments because some health visitors tend to really follow The Book and if your child is not exactly where The Book says they should be (e.g. sleeping through the night by 12weeks 4days, crawling by 8months 2 weeks, walking by - well, you get the idea) they, well, let's summarise it a. make you feel bad/worried about it b. give suggestions on how to "fix" the problem and sometimes their advice is not only questionable in its effectiveness but outright ridiculous. I have two great examples that have nothing to do with the post but are so hilarious/disturbing that I can't miss the opportunity:
1. When a friend of a friend's baby did not sleep through the night at the age he should have the health visitor told his mum to let the baby cry it out. The mum said she would do it if she could bear to listen to her baby crying. She was told to leave him in the garage so she wouldn't hear it.
2. Another little boy was apparently too small for his age both height and weight wise. The mum tried telling the health visitor that both her and her husband were petite so the baby should not be expected to be in the 95 percentile. The health visitor seemed to not take this in and told his mum she should make sure she spreads a thicker layer of butter on his bread. The mum got annoyed and tried getting the message across again: "Yes, but we are Italian and we are petite. Look at me." The health visitor: "I see, you should put a thicker layer of butter on your sandwich too!".
I just thought that these gems were too good not to share but truth be told this is not the norm, they are normally very helpful and we certainly have never been given advice like the above.
Back to the original story, well, I was curious to hear what they would say about Una's language development. She chatters all day long, switches easily between English and Serbian when talking to Mark and me and we think she is doing great but we still get strange looks when we tell people that we are raising her trilingually. And I was sure that they would comment on her height/weight (she's always been in the 95 percentile for both and at some stages off the charts). And as I am sure like most parents of 2 year olds I sometimes dread she would throw a mother of all tantrums right where and when it is really not convenient. So here is the summary of what happened:
- Overall impression: Una behaved like an angel throughout the whole ordeal in the waiting room (undressing, measuring weight, length etc). She actually wanted to sit on my lap in the health visitor's room which given the fact that Sanja was with us was just short of a miracle.
- Physical development: The health visitor was happy with Una's length/weight and she said that she expected her to drop in the weight percentile a bit since it normally happens at this age and Una is eating a lot less than she used to, on same days she barely eats at all. She also told us that Una is developing as she should given her birth weight and that she still could not believe how big she was. I told her I certainly could since I was there while all 4.55kg of her were coming out. She also looked at the charts and told us that Una's height is that of an average 3 year old child in NL. So even in this tall people land our child is well above average. With my mere 177cm I struggled enough to find a boyfriend with whom I could wear high heels, with her predicted 186cm I just hope she has enough confidence to not care :)
- Language development: The health visitor said she was very surprised to hear that Una speaks in sentences as at this age most multilingual children are using words only. She then gave Una a little book with pictures of different objects and animals and asked her to recognise them. She first asked in Dutch, Una got all shy and didn't say a word. She asked her if she should speak in "papa's taal", I tried telling her that English would not help either since Una knows the words in Dutch she just did not feel like talking to her. She still tried English but Una was not having any of it. She then asked me to talk to her in Serbian and Una whispered all the answers to me so the lady was happy. She then took a doll and asked Una (in Dutch) to show her where the doll's body parts were. Una deemed that pointing was not as painful as talking so she showed them all. I was surprised to see that she knew the dutch word for belly (buik). The lady was shocked that Una can count to ten in all three languages (except that in Dutch she starts from 4, she probably got the idea that the Dutch count a bit backwards - they say five and twenty instead of twenty five so she tried implementing a bit of backwardness).
- Cognitive development: Una was given one of those wooden boxes with different shape holes and a bunch of different shape blocks to be matched with the holes. Una first gave the lady a "can you see that I am bored?" look, dropped the first few blocks into the right holes straight away and when the lady said "Goed zo meid!" and tried taking the rest away from Una, Una grabbed the remaining blocks and dropped them in with the speed of light. We all laughed, it was just so cute. The health visitor commented that she is very advanced for her age.
So all in all, we seem to have a brilliant, polyglot, supermodel daughter in the making. And if you are rolling your eyes thinking I am biased well that just means you haven't met Una :).
1. When a friend of a friend's baby did not sleep through the night at the age he should have the health visitor told his mum to let the baby cry it out. The mum said she would do it if she could bear to listen to her baby crying. She was told to leave him in the garage so she wouldn't hear it.
2. Another little boy was apparently too small for his age both height and weight wise. The mum tried telling the health visitor that both her and her husband were petite so the baby should not be expected to be in the 95 percentile. The health visitor seemed to not take this in and told his mum she should make sure she spreads a thicker layer of butter on his bread. The mum got annoyed and tried getting the message across again: "Yes, but we are Italian and we are petite. Look at me." The health visitor: "I see, you should put a thicker layer of butter on your sandwich too!".
I just thought that these gems were too good not to share but truth be told this is not the norm, they are normally very helpful and we certainly have never been given advice like the above.
Back to the original story, well, I was curious to hear what they would say about Una's language development. She chatters all day long, switches easily between English and Serbian when talking to Mark and me and we think she is doing great but we still get strange looks when we tell people that we are raising her trilingually. And I was sure that they would comment on her height/weight (she's always been in the 95 percentile for both and at some stages off the charts). And as I am sure like most parents of 2 year olds I sometimes dread she would throw a mother of all tantrums right where and when it is really not convenient. So here is the summary of what happened:
- Overall impression: Una behaved like an angel throughout the whole ordeal in the waiting room (undressing, measuring weight, length etc). She actually wanted to sit on my lap in the health visitor's room which given the fact that Sanja was with us was just short of a miracle.
- Physical development: The health visitor was happy with Una's length/weight and she said that she expected her to drop in the weight percentile a bit since it normally happens at this age and Una is eating a lot less than she used to, on same days she barely eats at all. She also told us that Una is developing as she should given her birth weight and that she still could not believe how big she was. I told her I certainly could since I was there while all 4.55kg of her were coming out. She also looked at the charts and told us that Una's height is that of an average 3 year old child in NL. So even in this tall people land our child is well above average. With my mere 177cm I struggled enough to find a boyfriend with whom I could wear high heels, with her predicted 186cm I just hope she has enough confidence to not care :)
- Language development: The health visitor said she was very surprised to hear that Una speaks in sentences as at this age most multilingual children are using words only. She then gave Una a little book with pictures of different objects and animals and asked her to recognise them. She first asked in Dutch, Una got all shy and didn't say a word. She asked her if she should speak in "papa's taal", I tried telling her that English would not help either since Una knows the words in Dutch she just did not feel like talking to her. She still tried English but Una was not having any of it. She then asked me to talk to her in Serbian and Una whispered all the answers to me so the lady was happy. She then took a doll and asked Una (in Dutch) to show her where the doll's body parts were. Una deemed that pointing was not as painful as talking so she showed them all. I was surprised to see that she knew the dutch word for belly (buik). The lady was shocked that Una can count to ten in all three languages (except that in Dutch she starts from 4, she probably got the idea that the Dutch count a bit backwards - they say five and twenty instead of twenty five so she tried implementing a bit of backwardness).
- Cognitive development: Una was given one of those wooden boxes with different shape holes and a bunch of different shape blocks to be matched with the holes. Una first gave the lady a "can you see that I am bored?" look, dropped the first few blocks into the right holes straight away and when the lady said "Goed zo meid!" and tried taking the rest away from Una, Una grabbed the remaining blocks and dropped them in with the speed of light. We all laughed, it was just so cute. The health visitor commented that she is very advanced for her age.
So all in all, we seem to have a brilliant, polyglot, supermodel daughter in the making. And if you are rolling your eyes thinking I am biased well that just means you haven't met Una :).
Monday, 3 August 2009
How did that happen?/ Kad se to desilo?
Yes, Una is two years old and we have no idea where the time went. There is nothing baby-ish about her anymore, she has turned into a real little girl and it is so amazing to watch her (well minus the tantrum thing but won't go into that now :)). She now makes 3-4 word sentences in both English and Serbian and is getting better and better at distinguishing the two when she speaks to Mark or me (e.g. Daddy, mooore mi'kies!/Mama, jos m'eko) but she is also picking up more and more Dutch which is great. Of course she first mastered the survival words: nee(no), ja (yes), weggg!! (go away, although if you heard it you wouldn't need to speak Dutch to know what it means the gggg sound tells you that it is nothing pleasant :)), mijn (my) etc but now she is learning a few new words every day. She also likes showing her Daddy off at daycare, every time he drops her off she points at him and tells her friends "Mijn papa, mijn papa" (at home she calls him Daddy) which of course makes Mark melt there and then. Mama is the same in both Serbian and Dutch so this is less interesting.
***
Unin drugi rodjendan je dosao i prosao a mi se i dalje cudimo sta se dogodilo sa nasom bebom koja vise nije beba. Tacnije u Uni vise nema ni b od bebe, sad vec uveliko brblja na sva tri jezika i cak uglavnom pogodi sa kim prica i prilagodi jezik. Tako je skoro otisla kod Marka i trazila "Daddy, more milkies", Mark joj odgovori da sam ja vec u kuhinji i da trazi od mene, ona dobaulja i kaze "Mamaaa, jos mleka!". Pocinje i da prica na holandskom sve vise (tu je prilicno zaostajala u poredjenju sa srpskim i engleskim), uglavnom izraze za prezivljavanje tipa "nee" (ne), weggg" (sklanjaj mi se sa ociju :)), "niet doen!" (nemoj to da radis) i sl.
And now a few photos of Una's 2nd birthday week. I am (un)fashionably late with this, as always, so I will keep the story short as most of you have already heard how it went so I will leave you with some photos. I am saying Una's birthday week because we practically celebrated it over four days:
***
Evo i nekoliko fotografija sa rodjendana. Posto vec kasnim uveliko i vecina vas je vec cula kako je sve proslo evo samo fotografije Unine rodjendanske nedelje (slavilo se 4 dana :)):
Dan 1 (cetvrtak, njen rodjendan) - Mark i ja smo uzeli slobodan dan i zajedno sa mojim bratom od ujaka, Markom, koji je iskoristio priliku da nas obidje posle konferencije u Amsterdamu, svi otisli na jedno od ostrva na jugu Holandije. Citav dan smo proveli na plazi i super smo se opustili!
The lovely beach in Renesee/Plaza u Renesee
Lunch time/Rucak
With uncle Marko/Sa ujka Markom
Day 2 (Friday): Una had a little party at daycare, her little friends and teachers made her a birthday hat, sang to her and the teachers told us that she loved being in the centre of attention.
***
Dan 2 (petak): Slavlje u vrticu - napravili su joj krunu, pevali za stolom i vaspitacica nam je rekla da je Una bila odusevljena citavom pricom.
Jumping castle fun/Skakanje
Thomas fun/Thomas vozici
Best friends/Najbolji drugari
Day 4 (Sunday): A party for Una's big friends (aka Mama's and Daddy's friends) - we had a bbq in our backyard, so lots of meat, sweet corn, salads, wine and fun.
***
Dan 4 (nedelja): A sad zurka za Unine velike drugare - pravili smo rostilj sto znaci meso, peceni kukuruzi, salate, vino - i sta jos treba!
More presents?/Jos poklona?
More Thomas/Jos Thomas
More food/Jos klope
And best of all, more friends!/I sto je najvaznije, jos drugara!
***
Unin drugi rodjendan je dosao i prosao a mi se i dalje cudimo sta se dogodilo sa nasom bebom koja vise nije beba. Tacnije u Uni vise nema ni b od bebe, sad vec uveliko brblja na sva tri jezika i cak uglavnom pogodi sa kim prica i prilagodi jezik. Tako je skoro otisla kod Marka i trazila "Daddy, more milkies", Mark joj odgovori da sam ja vec u kuhinji i da trazi od mene, ona dobaulja i kaze "Mamaaa, jos mleka!". Pocinje i da prica na holandskom sve vise (tu je prilicno zaostajala u poredjenju sa srpskim i engleskim), uglavnom izraze za prezivljavanje tipa "nee" (ne), weggg" (sklanjaj mi se sa ociju :)), "niet doen!" (nemoj to da radis) i sl.
And now a few photos of Una's 2nd birthday week. I am (un)fashionably late with this, as always, so I will keep the story short as most of you have already heard how it went so I will leave you with some photos. I am saying Una's birthday week because we practically celebrated it over four days:
***
Evo i nekoliko fotografija sa rodjendana. Posto vec kasnim uveliko i vecina vas je vec cula kako je sve proslo evo samo fotografije Unine rodjendanske nedelje (slavilo se 4 dana :)):
Day 1 (Thursday, her actual birthday): Mark and took a day off work and we all went to one of the islands in the south of NL. A cousin of mine, Marko, happened to be in NL at that time for a conference and joined us for the day. The weather was unbelieavably good for NL. It was such a lovely, relaxing day on the beach and I couldn't think of a better way to celebrate a birthday.
***Dan 1 (cetvrtak, njen rodjendan) - Mark i ja smo uzeli slobodan dan i zajedno sa mojim bratom od ujaka, Markom, koji je iskoristio priliku da nas obidje posle konferencije u Amsterdamu, svi otisli na jedno od ostrva na jugu Holandije. Citav dan smo proveli na plazi i super smo se opustili!
The lovely beach in Renesee/Plaza u Renesee
Lunch time/Rucak
With uncle Marko/Sa ujka Markom
Day 2 (Friday): Una had a little party at daycare, her little friends and teachers made her a birthday hat, sang to her and the teachers told us that she loved being in the centre of attention.
***
Dan 2 (petak): Slavlje u vrticu - napravili su joj krunu, pevali za stolom i vaspitacica nam je rekla da je Una bila odusevljena citavom pricom.
Day 3 (Saturday): A party for Una's little friends: a few from her daycare and a few of our friends' children. Una was screaming with excitement when Duncan (her best friend from daycare) showed up, it was so cute. We rented a jumping castle for the day and the kids had a blast. The cake is homemade (yes, I have to brag) and I think Sanja and I did a great job, even if I say so myself :). We sang "Lang zal ze leven", "Danas nam je divan dan" and "Happy Birthday", it was fun!
***
Dan 3 (subota): U subotu su nam dosli Unini drugari, sto iz vrtica sto kucni prijatelji. Una je bila odusevljena kad je dosao Duncan, njen najbolji drugar iz vrtica. Tortu smo pravile Sanja i ja, zar nije ispala sjajno (skromnosti ime ti je...). Pevali smo joj na holandskom, engleskom i srpskom i Uni se mnogo dopalo.
Jumping castle fun/Skakanje
Thomas fun/Thomas vozici
Best friends/Najbolji drugari
Day 4 (Sunday): A party for Una's big friends (aka Mama's and Daddy's friends) - we had a bbq in our backyard, so lots of meat, sweet corn, salads, wine and fun.
***
Dan 4 (nedelja): A sad zurka za Unine velike drugare - pravili smo rostilj sto znaci meso, peceni kukuruzi, salate, vino - i sta jos treba!
More presents?/Jos poklona?
More Thomas/Jos Thomas
More food/Jos klope
And best of all, more friends!/I sto je najvaznije, jos drugara!
Friday, 31 July 2009
Stigla nam je Iva!!! / Iva is here!!!
Jasmina je jutros otisla na carski rez i upravo sam dobila SMS od nje da se rodila Iva!!! Ne znam nista od daljih detalja tezina, visina itd zvacu Jasminu cim bude mogla da prica. Jedva cekamo da vidimo nasu lepu kumicu, za sad bar na slikama a onda i uzivo, uskoro nadamo se!
Inace, do poslednjeg trenutka se cekalo na Zoku da izabere ime tako da sam tek sad saznala kako se zove. Iva je jedno od mojih omiljenih imena koje smo Mark i ja razmatrali u slucaju da u buducnosti dobijemo jos jednu devojcicu. Marku se ime jako svidja ali kaze da bi ovde/u JA ime sigurno izgovarali kao Ajva. U svakom slucaju, dilema je sad razresena jer vec imamo jednu Ivu!
Od srca cestitamo Velji, Jasmini i Zoki!!! Dobro nam dosla lepa nasa Iva!!
I evo i jedna slicica njih troje, mozemo samo da zamislimo kako ce tek biti slatki u cetvoro!
***
My best friend and kuma Jasmina went in for her scheduled c-section this morning and I just got an SMS from her that her little girl, Iva, made her grand appearance!! I don't have any further details on weight/length and how it all went but will speak to her as soon as possible. We can't wait to see photos of their precious little girl and we are sure Velja is excited to become a big brother!
BTW - Jasmina's husband couldn't make up his mind about the name until last moment (they named Velja after Jasmina's late dad so Zoki got to choose the second child's name) so the name was a surprise to me too. Iva is one of my favourite names and was a front runner for our next girl if we have one. Mark loves the name but is unsure because he thinks that in NL/South Africa it would be mispronounced as Eye-vuh instead of EE-vuh. Now our dillema has been solved for us as we now have an Iva!
Big congrats to Velja, Jasmina and Zoki!! And welcome sweet baby Iva!!
And a photo of the three of them. We can't wait to see how gorgeous they are going to look as a family of four!
Sunday, 12 July 2009
Opa bato!
I am not even going to try to explain what this post's title means in English, it has to do with being seriously impressed with something, but this is one of the many Serbian phrases that Una learnt during our 2 weeks long visit. Seriously, she learnt more in those two weeks than she does in two months here with me. And she definitely learns quicker from other people than from Mark and me. Go figure.
Well, this post is not meant to be about Una's language development but about what we did during those two weeks. It was just the two of us, Mark stayed behind to supervise the bathroom works so we came back to a shiny brand new bathroom. With a bath, what a luxury (if you've ever lived in a rented apartment in Holland you know what I am talking about)! It hasn't got much to do with Una really (since this is a blog about Una) but I will probably not resist and throw in a few photos of it later on.
But first a few photos from our holiday... So what did we do? Well, pretty much the same we do every time we go there:
Una hung out with Jana and Pavle and enjoyed every minute of it
She got spoilt rotten by baka i deka
We ate. Lots. Serbs are really good at it.
We hung out at my parents' cottage, it is so relaxing and peaceful there...
We spent a few days with my best friend and kuma Jasmina and her husband and their adorable little boy Velja. Velja and Una had a few power struggles over Velja's Thomas trains (put together a 2 year old and a 3 year old and if there is no blood drawn you can call it a success) but mostly really enjoyed each other's company. And had tons of fun! Jasmina was as always, even now that she was almost 8 months pregnant, a fantastic host and always ready for action!
.JPG)
We also met up with our dear friends, Irena, Nebojsa and their sweet boy Misa. I've written before (after they visited us in November last year) how well-mannered and sweet he is and how much patience he had with Una. And that hasn't changed. We stayed at their house over night and Nebojsa was kind enough to stay with the kids after they had fallen asleep so that Irena and I could go out for a couple of drinks and a long stroll through the center of Belgrade. I really needed that.
And of course we enjoyed a bit of what Belgrade has to offer.
Ada - a piece of heaven in the middle of the city.
Lounging at coffee shops - a very important part of the culture of Belgrade :)
Shopping in Knez Mihailova - now to be honest, doing this with two toddlers was not quite the same experience as some years ago (Jasmina - about ten, huh?) but we pulled it off. Yes, and she was almost 8 months pregnant in this photo, can you believe it?
So at first glance not much changed - we did all the usual stuff, things we always do when we go there. But every time we go we realise how much everything has actually changed and we are not part of it. There are new names on the political/music/literary scene that I haven't heard of, new advertisements that I don't understand, Belgrade is changing so much that I sometimes fail to recognise the city I lived in and loved... I could go on... But these things don't cause the same nostalgic reaction as they did some 4-5 years ago. I have accepted them as part of my expat life, life that I am really happy living. I am slowly getting into the Dutch political scene (I will definitely vote in 2011), the music scene I will not go into now :), Delft is such a charming little place that you cannot not love and has some seriously cute little coffee shops (not that kind of coffee shops :)). So it is all good. This is our home now.
But something that I haven't come to terms with yet and I doubt I ever will is being away from family and friends. Funnily enough it is not my generation that I struggle with so much. For some reason I feel like we have all the time in the world to spend together. Tina and I didn't get to check out that new wellness place now but we will some other time. We are definitely going to sail the Adriatic with Jasmina and Zoki maybe not next year or the year after that but there is no rush. We are going to make it to Schenectady NY soon, as soon as we make it to Australia before my uncle disowns me :).... What I do struggle with are the two other generations, the children and my parents. Even though my parents are not old at all (61 and 60), their health is deteriorating which has made travelling taxing on them and keeping up with Una's physical skills practically impossible. The children on the other side - well they definitely do have all the time in the world, but they are reaching important milestones and we are not there to share it with them. Now I am (almost) OK with being "the aunt from abroad who we see twice a year" to Jana and Pavle and "kuma from Holland who sends Thomas trains" to Velja. But one of my biggest fears is that the bond between Una and them will not be as strong as we, the parents, are hoping it will be. But then I look at Radomir, my big little cousin (he is 16 already and taller than 190cm, how did that happen?) who immigrated to New Zealand at the ripe age of 2.5 and who, thanks to my uncle and aunt who really put a lot of effort in talking about his family across the ocean and made sure they visit regularly, feels a strong connection with us and gives us a big fat hug you wouldn't expect from a 14 year old boy (last time we saw him was when they packed up all the way from Australia to Crete just to be there for our special day). So it is possible, it definitely takes effort and sacrifice but it is doable. And that always makes me feel a bit better, at least until the next milestone that we miss.
This was supposed to be a happy post, so to end it on a lighter note, here are a few photos of our
new bathroom. And if you don't get the full picture of what it looks like - well that was the intention, come visit us and you'll see!
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
Well, this post is not meant to be about Una's language development but about what we did during those two weeks. It was just the two of us, Mark stayed behind to supervise the bathroom works so we came back to a shiny brand new bathroom. With a bath, what a luxury (if you've ever lived in a rented apartment in Holland you know what I am talking about)! It hasn't got much to do with Una really (since this is a blog about Una) but I will probably not resist and throw in a few photos of it later on.
But first a few photos from our holiday... So what did we do? Well, pretty much the same we do every time we go there:
Una hung out with Jana and Pavle and enjoyed every minute of it
She got spoilt rotten by baka i deka
We ate. Lots. Serbs are really good at it.
We hung out at my parents' cottage, it is so relaxing and peaceful there...
We spent a few days with my best friend and kuma Jasmina and her husband and their adorable little boy Velja. Velja and Una had a few power struggles over Velja's Thomas trains (put together a 2 year old and a 3 year old and if there is no blood drawn you can call it a success) but mostly really enjoyed each other's company. And had tons of fun! Jasmina was as always, even now that she was almost 8 months pregnant, a fantastic host and always ready for action!
.JPG)
We also met up with our dear friends, Irena, Nebojsa and their sweet boy Misa. I've written before (after they visited us in November last year) how well-mannered and sweet he is and how much patience he had with Una. And that hasn't changed. We stayed at their house over night and Nebojsa was kind enough to stay with the kids after they had fallen asleep so that Irena and I could go out for a couple of drinks and a long stroll through the center of Belgrade. I really needed that.
And of course we enjoyed a bit of what Belgrade has to offer.
Ada - a piece of heaven in the middle of the city.
Lounging at coffee shops - a very important part of the culture of Belgrade :)
Shopping in Knez Mihailova - now to be honest, doing this with two toddlers was not quite the same experience as some years ago (Jasmina - about ten, huh?) but we pulled it off. Yes, and she was almost 8 months pregnant in this photo, can you believe it?
So at first glance not much changed - we did all the usual stuff, things we always do when we go there. But every time we go we realise how much everything has actually changed and we are not part of it. There are new names on the political/music/literary scene that I haven't heard of, new advertisements that I don't understand, Belgrade is changing so much that I sometimes fail to recognise the city I lived in and loved... I could go on... But these things don't cause the same nostalgic reaction as they did some 4-5 years ago. I have accepted them as part of my expat life, life that I am really happy living. I am slowly getting into the Dutch political scene (I will definitely vote in 2011), the music scene I will not go into now :), Delft is such a charming little place that you cannot not love and has some seriously cute little coffee shops (not that kind of coffee shops :)). So it is all good. This is our home now.
But something that I haven't come to terms with yet and I doubt I ever will is being away from family and friends. Funnily enough it is not my generation that I struggle with so much. For some reason I feel like we have all the time in the world to spend together. Tina and I didn't get to check out that new wellness place now but we will some other time. We are definitely going to sail the Adriatic with Jasmina and Zoki maybe not next year or the year after that but there is no rush. We are going to make it to Schenectady NY soon, as soon as we make it to Australia before my uncle disowns me :).... What I do struggle with are the two other generations, the children and my parents. Even though my parents are not old at all (61 and 60), their health is deteriorating which has made travelling taxing on them and keeping up with Una's physical skills practically impossible. The children on the other side - well they definitely do have all the time in the world, but they are reaching important milestones and we are not there to share it with them. Now I am (almost) OK with being "the aunt from abroad who we see twice a year" to Jana and Pavle and "kuma from Holland who sends Thomas trains" to Velja. But one of my biggest fears is that the bond between Una and them will not be as strong as we, the parents, are hoping it will be. But then I look at Radomir, my big little cousin (he is 16 already and taller than 190cm, how did that happen?) who immigrated to New Zealand at the ripe age of 2.5 and who, thanks to my uncle and aunt who really put a lot of effort in talking about his family across the ocean and made sure they visit regularly, feels a strong connection with us and gives us a big fat hug you wouldn't expect from a 14 year old boy (last time we saw him was when they packed up all the way from Australia to Crete just to be there for our special day). So it is possible, it definitely takes effort and sacrifice but it is doable. And that always makes me feel a bit better, at least until the next milestone that we miss.
This was supposed to be a happy post, so to end it on a lighter note, here are a few photos of our
new bathroom. And if you don't get the full picture of what it looks like - well that was the intention, come visit us and you'll see!
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Monday, 27 April 2009
Triple spy in the making...
While other children collect stamps, Una collects passports
***
Dok druga deca skupljaju markice, Una skuplja pasose
Truth be told, even though she holds the three citizenships, Una does not actually have any of the three passports shown above. Here is why:
1) The Serbian passport - the passport shown above is the new biometric version that both Una and I yet have to apply for. We still have the old blue passport valid until the end of the year. We'd better hurry I guess although none of my friends/family have the new passport. Serbians are in no rush. Ever. Ask Mark.
2) The Dutch passport - about a week ago Una and I officially became Nederlanders. The ceremony is the main topic of this post, so more about that later. On Wednesday we are going to actually apply for passports. Again, in no rush (we are still the Serbian citizens too).
3) The South African passport - we hope Una gets this one before she turns 18 and has to give it up in any case. It took the SA authorities ~16months to acknowledge her birth and it will take most likely as long to get her passport or so we are told.
***
Iskreno receno, iako ima sva tri drzavljanstva, Una ustvari nema ni jedan od pasosa prikazanih na slici. Evo i zasto:
1) Srpski pasos - Una (i ja) i dalje imamo plavi pasos. A posto smo culi da oni vaze do kraja ove godine, bolje da posetimo dobru tetu u ambasadi i zavrsimo posao. Opis Srba iz engleske verzije ne treba da prevodim :).
2) Holandski pasos - Una i ja smo pretprosle subote dobile drzavljanstvo, vise o ceremoniji u nastavku teksta ali jos nismo podnele zahtev za pasos. I tu nam se ne zuri :).
3) Juznoafricki pasos - nadamo se da ce ga Una dobiti pre nego napuni 18 godina (tad mora da izabere jedan od 3). Registracija rodjenja je trajala vise od godinu dana a otprilike toliko ce i pasos.
And now more about the naturalisatieceremonie
***
A sad malo vise o samoj ceremoniji
The ceremony was held in the Delft city hall which is a beautiful building dating all the way back to the 13th century.
***
Ceremonija je odrzana u gradskoj kuci u Delftu, predivnoj zgradi iz 13-og veka.
The whole thing started with a small reception with tea and coffee in the entry hall. We used the opportunity to take some photos.
***
Pocelo je sa malim prijemom sa kafom i cajem u ulaznoj dvorani.
Una between the EU flag and the flag of Delft
***
Una izmedju zastava EU i Delfta
Una being her usual self - naughty.
***
Una nestasko, kao i obicno.
The actual ceremony took place in de Raadzaal which is the hall where the Delft's parliament sits (check out the cheese on the table for the new Nederlanders). Right above all the cheese is the portrait of Queen Beatrix.
***
Sama ceremonija se odrzala u tzv Raadzaal gde zaseda parlament Delfta (obrati paznju na kolutove sira pripremljene za taze Holandjane). Odmah iznad svog tog sira je portret trenutne kraljice Beatrix.
The mayor of Delft gave a nice speech, welcoming everyone into their Dutchdom :), especially "the young ones, who seem to already have a very formed opinion and are not shy to express it". Yes, he was referring to Una, who thought that her newly learnt words in the EnDuSe language (English-Dutch-Serbian for those of you not familiar with this widely spoken language) are way more important than the mayor's speech.
***
Gradonacelnik Delfta je prvo odrzao govor, pozelivsi svima dobrodoslicu u drzavljanstvo, posebno "one najmladje, koji ocigledno imaju vec formirano misljenje i ne stide se da ga izraze, cak i u tako mladom dobu". Naravno, mislio je na Unu, koja je procenila da su njene nedavno naucene reci na SrEnHo jeziku vaznije od toga sto gradonacelnik ima da kaze pa se nadvikivala sa njim.
Our turn to get the certificates (and the cheese!)
***
Nas prozivaju da preuzmemo sertifikate (i sir!)
Mark made us take a photo with the mayor. Una was not impressed by his cool chain and kept pointing the mayor to Mark while yelling "Daddy, Daddy!" She obviously thinks that her Daddy is way cooler. And so do I :)
***
Mark nas je nagovorio da se slikamo sa gradonacelnikom. Una uopste nije bila impresionirana njegovim lancem i non-stop mu je pokazivala u pravcu Marka i drala se "Daddy, Daddy", po sistemu "to je moj tata i on je mnogo veca faca od tebe"
With all said and done, Una seems to be happy with her third citizenship! Gefeliciteerd!
***
Kad je sve zavrseno, Una je ocigledno bila srecna sto je postala Holandjanka. Gefeliciteerd!
***
Dok druga deca skupljaju markice, Una skuplja pasose
Truth be told, even though she holds the three citizenships, Una does not actually have any of the three passports shown above. Here is why:
1) The Serbian passport - the passport shown above is the new biometric version that both Una and I yet have to apply for. We still have the old blue passport valid until the end of the year. We'd better hurry I guess although none of my friends/family have the new passport. Serbians are in no rush. Ever. Ask Mark.
2) The Dutch passport - about a week ago Una and I officially became Nederlanders. The ceremony is the main topic of this post, so more about that later. On Wednesday we are going to actually apply for passports. Again, in no rush (we are still the Serbian citizens too).
3) The South African passport - we hope Una gets this one before she turns 18 and has to give it up in any case. It took the SA authorities ~16months to acknowledge her birth and it will take most likely as long to get her passport or so we are told.
***
Iskreno receno, iako ima sva tri drzavljanstva, Una ustvari nema ni jedan od pasosa prikazanih na slici. Evo i zasto:
1) Srpski pasos - Una (i ja) i dalje imamo plavi pasos. A posto smo culi da oni vaze do kraja ove godine, bolje da posetimo dobru tetu u ambasadi i zavrsimo posao. Opis Srba iz engleske verzije ne treba da prevodim :).
2) Holandski pasos - Una i ja smo pretprosle subote dobile drzavljanstvo, vise o ceremoniji u nastavku teksta ali jos nismo podnele zahtev za pasos. I tu nam se ne zuri :).
3) Juznoafricki pasos - nadamo se da ce ga Una dobiti pre nego napuni 18 godina (tad mora da izabere jedan od 3). Registracija rodjenja je trajala vise od godinu dana a otprilike toliko ce i pasos.
And now more about the naturalisatieceremonie
***
A sad malo vise o samoj ceremoniji
The ceremony was held in the Delft city hall which is a beautiful building dating all the way back to the 13th century.
***
Ceremonija je odrzana u gradskoj kuci u Delftu, predivnoj zgradi iz 13-og veka.
The whole thing started with a small reception with tea and coffee in the entry hall. We used the opportunity to take some photos.
***
Pocelo je sa malim prijemom sa kafom i cajem u ulaznoj dvorani.
Una between the EU flag and the flag of Delft
***
Una izmedju zastava EU i Delfta
Una being her usual self - naughty.
***
Una nestasko, kao i obicno.
The actual ceremony took place in de Raadzaal which is the hall where the Delft's parliament sits (check out the cheese on the table for the new Nederlanders). Right above all the cheese is the portrait of Queen Beatrix.
***
Sama ceremonija se odrzala u tzv Raadzaal gde zaseda parlament Delfta (obrati paznju na kolutove sira pripremljene za taze Holandjane). Odmah iznad svog tog sira je portret trenutne kraljice Beatrix.
The mayor of Delft gave a nice speech, welcoming everyone into their Dutchdom :), especially "the young ones, who seem to already have a very formed opinion and are not shy to express it". Yes, he was referring to Una, who thought that her newly learnt words in the EnDuSe language (English-Dutch-Serbian for those of you not familiar with this widely spoken language) are way more important than the mayor's speech.
***
Gradonacelnik Delfta je prvo odrzao govor, pozelivsi svima dobrodoslicu u drzavljanstvo, posebno "one najmladje, koji ocigledno imaju vec formirano misljenje i ne stide se da ga izraze, cak i u tako mladom dobu". Naravno, mislio je na Unu, koja je procenila da su njene nedavno naucene reci na SrEnHo jeziku vaznije od toga sto gradonacelnik ima da kaze pa se nadvikivala sa njim.
Our turn to get the certificates (and the cheese!)
***
Nas prozivaju da preuzmemo sertifikate (i sir!)
Mark made us take a photo with the mayor. Una was not impressed by his cool chain and kept pointing the mayor to Mark while yelling "Daddy, Daddy!" She obviously thinks that her Daddy is way cooler. And so do I :)
***
Mark nas je nagovorio da se slikamo sa gradonacelnikom. Una uopste nije bila impresionirana njegovim lancem i non-stop mu je pokazivala u pravcu Marka i drala se "Daddy, Daddy", po sistemu "to je moj tata i on je mnogo veca faca od tebe"
With all said and done, Una seems to be happy with her third citizenship! Gefeliciteerd!
***
Kad je sve zavrseno, Una je ocigledno bila srecna sto je postala Holandjanka. Gefeliciteerd!
Thursday, 26 February 2009
What is Una never going to become?
An engineer. Ever.
One of your duties and priviliges as a parent is to protect your child from all sorts of stuff, right?
Well, I will do my bestest best to protect her from choosing a profession that one day might lead her to come in contact with people like the bunch that I just had the honour of spending the evening with.
Instead of exploring Munich, walking in the snow, staring at the wall of my hotel room, anything, I had to sit for three longest hours in the history of time with the dullest bunch of people that you can possibly imagine. Or for your sake I hope you can't.
I am the one normally defending engineers (I have to, I am one of them :)) when people think they are boring/obnoxious/narrow minded/{insert your own}. And seriously, ou some of the brightest, funniest, most caring people I've met are engineers. If you know Mark, you know I am right. But this bunch? Oh my. And these were all big shots (I was by far the most junior there), people who have travelled the world, met all sorts of people, experienced different cultures. You would expect they would be fun to hang out with.
OK, enough rambling. It is almost midnight and I am off to bed to gather energy for the second half of the meeting tomorrow. Yay! But then I am off to get on the plane and go back to my brilliant, funny, loving husband engineer and my gorgeous daughter who is never going to become one.
One of your duties and priviliges as a parent is to protect your child from all sorts of stuff, right?
Well, I will do my bestest best to protect her from choosing a profession that one day might lead her to come in contact with people like the bunch that I just had the honour of spending the evening with.
Instead of exploring Munich, walking in the snow, staring at the wall of my hotel room, anything, I had to sit for three longest hours in the history of time with the dullest bunch of people that you can possibly imagine. Or for your sake I hope you can't.
I am the one normally defending engineers (I have to, I am one of them :)) when people think they are boring/obnoxious/narrow minded/{insert your own}. And seriously, ou some of the brightest, funniest, most caring people I've met are engineers. If you know Mark, you know I am right. But this bunch? Oh my. And these were all big shots (I was by far the most junior there), people who have travelled the world, met all sorts of people, experienced different cultures. You would expect they would be fun to hang out with.
OK, enough rambling. It is almost midnight and I am off to bed to gather energy for the second half of the meeting tomorrow. Yay! But then I am off to get on the plane and go back to my brilliant, funny, loving husband engineer and my gorgeous daughter who is never going to become one.
Wednesday, 25 February 2009
What Mark has been doing instead of sleeping...
Una and I took a little scouting walk to our house this morning to check out Daddy's (and a few friends'!) painting work in progress. I love it and can't wait to move in (still a few things to be done: paint the doors, finish and oil the floor on the ground floor, install the floor on the first floor (it will be done in brazillian cherry (Jatoba), the same as downstairs), install the "laminaat" on the second floor in the playroom/tv room (this is where Una is going to paint, draw on the floors etc :)). Lots to do still but we are getting there!
And a few photos, as you can see the focus was on the walls because this is the only thing that has been done so far :)
The entrance hall
The front room (three walls are a shade of beige and one is a weird shade of red)
The backyard
The master bedroom
Una's room
The playroom/TV room
And a few photos, as you can see the focus was on the walls because this is the only thing that has been done so far :)
The entrance hall
The front room (three walls are a shade of beige and one is a weird shade of red)
The backyard
The master bedroom
Una's room
The playroom/TV room
View fromo the playroom onto the balcony
The balcony
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