Eliot's Travels

Today we hung around Delft and took Aunt Julie to all of our shopping places. At the Bierhuizen Bakery, we got cinnamon sugar twists, bread, and some strawberry preserves. At the cheese store, we stocked up on Eliot's favorite cheese, brie, and some fresh parmesan. We visited the produce market and the small Albert Heijn grocery store. Julie and her nephews pose in front of the Maria van Jessekerk across from the produce market.

Miles was quite upset all morning with ear pain (actually all night; he woke up every hour or so crying). Even our nice lady at the veggie market commented that he was not happy. I had called for a doctor appointment, which was this afternoon to get him checked - a middle ear infection. It was not bad (viral she thought), but still obviously painful for him.

Julie and I biked to the doctor with the kids. Eliot and I dropped off Julie and Miles before we went to meet his teacher - Luciens - at the JP Thuiss Freinetschool. Although Eliot has been pretty excited about school all week, he became shy and visibly anxious when Luciens introduced himself and shook his hand. He was shaking poor thing. For the first part of our meeting, Eliot sat with me. After awhile he went and got puzzles and games and brought them to the table. The interview was about education, deficiencies, special needs, medical concerns, and interests. I met with his teacher about an hour. He felt Eliot would do just fine. I am excited about the school. I think Eliot will do well there once he gets more comfortable with the routine and Dutch.

One of the interesting things about this school is that it has a lot of first- or second-generation immigrants (Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Afghanistan, Africa, Morocco), so there is a lot of focus on language and cultural integration. Lucien said one of the things that he has to teach the children is how to play - even learning how to hold a crayon. In some cultures of the families, the parents take care of the children but have not really played with them.

Miles has a grand time playing with his Ernie balloon. In the evening, Aunt Julie painted the boys toenails PINK. She had them holding still (with a rubber duckie on their head) while the fingernail polish dried. Eliot takes an artsy self-portrait of her work.

posted by Whitney @ 8:59 AM