Sinterklaas came last night and brought some
chocolate Sinterklaas figures for the boys.
Eliot wanted me to take his picture with his chocolate coins. I dropped Eliot off at school via bike. Later in the morning, Miles and I went to the market and bought some veggies, bagels, and flowers. We also did a little gift shopping before heading back to the apartment.
Miles was asleep in the stroller, so I left him home with Jim while I biked to pick up Eliot. It's a good thing that Miles didn't come because Eliot had finished
his paper holding box. On one side, there was a
slit up top for putting the paper in and one on the bottom for the paper to come out. He made it so he could keep important papers away from Miles. Lucien said that Eliot would come and grab his hand when he needed help hammering on his project. We loaded the box into Miles' seat and rode home very carefully. Eliot's first comment was that we needed a big box to ship it back to the US. Not sure if we will pull that one off!!
In the afternoon, we just hung out around the apartment. We watched this
Politie helicopter circling center Delft for about 20 minutes. We never figured out what was going on, but we got some great views of the helicopter.
Miles wonders where it went (one of the times it disappeared over our building).
Eliot and Miles had a nice discussion about the helicopter, though Eliot and I were a little uncertain what Miles was saying. He did do a lot of pointing.
Today, the teachers waited until 8:30 to open the classroom doors so everyone could go in at one time. I tried so hard to be on time, but we were there just as the last children were going in. It was a bit crazy and everyone was so excited; I think Eliot was a little overwhelmed by it all.
The Zwarte Piets visited the classroom last night and left a
Sinterklaas on the table. The Piets also made
a mess of the furniture and laid tables on their sides.
Each child got a present in their shoe from Sinterklaas: a bouncy ball that lights up when it impacts something.
Miles and I rode straight to Gina's from school for another meeting on her business idea. The two boys played and watched a video while we met. About 11:15, we headed home to have a snack and see Jim, who had arrived home from Copenhagen earlier this morning.
At 12:10, we all headed to school. Today, we were finally having our parent-teacher conference with Lucien. Eliot at first was upset and tired and wanted to hang out close to me. Eventually, he did play with Miles, so we could talk. Eliot has been in school just about 2.5 months. Lucien said that Eliot is starting to talk in circle time (in English); he said that often it takes 6-12 months for new children who don't speak the language to say even a word. I really like the teachers at this school; they are so in tune with the kids. Lucien is absoultely wonderful. He talked to us about how Eliot writes, cuts, paints and where he is relative to other children in physical skills. He felt that Eliot is a mental person (from his human dynamics classes, which he doesn't really like) - very clever and smart. He thought that his body is not quite as advanced as his brain (not that his motor skills are behind). It was nice to hear confirmation of the things I have seen in Eliot.
The thing I really liked was Lucien asked us how long we were going to be here. He said if it's not for the long term (which is correct), he would like to focus his energies on Eliot's motor skills, rather than focusing on teaching Eliot Dutch (since he really doesn't need the Dutch). He said after 2-3 months at school, they do a full evaluation of each student to examine skills. He's going to do Eliot's this month and then review it with us. It is all in Dutch, so it will be interesting to learn the translation. I guess Lucien and Marry both talk to Eliot in Dutch and English; Marry said her English is improving because of it. Lucien said it does not distract the class at all - so it seems to be working well for everyone.
Lucien had firefighting class at 1:00, so we headed home then. Luckily, Lucien's English is good enough to have such a in-depth discussion. We had a nice meeting. I can't say how happy I am with the school. It makes me think a lot about kindergarten next year in th US.
Eliot colored a picture for Sinterklaas.
He was quite busy rolling up his and Miles' pictures and getting everything setup in their shoes. Maybe Sinterklaas will come tonight - third times a charm they say!
Miles wanted me to take a picture of him jumping off the chair. Eliot added another note the night before for Sinterklaas: "
grote cadeautjes" [big packages] here.
Eliot's eye has developed some beautiful shades of purple and yellow. Luckily, it doesn't hurt him anymore.SinterklaasjournaalThe Trompetpiet can play still only a single note and want gladly take part in with the Pietenband. There are still problems with the disappearance of the big red book of Sinterklaas.
All the children were to bring a shoe to school today in case Sinterklaas wanted to bring them a gift in the night. They had built a fireplace out of big legos with a fire burning (lamp). The
kids put their shoes by the fireplace so the Piets could find them when they came down the chimney.
Kasia hosted playgroup at her house today, so we headed over there about 10. We had a good crowd. I brought one of my overflow pumpkin pies to share with the group. We played, sang songs, and then went to a playground around the corner for a little while before Miles and I biked south. It was a nice day when we picked up Eliot from school. The boys asked to play on the playground for a little while, so we did. Then we headed home for lunch.
Sinterklaas did not come last night, so Eliot added his name to the waterfall and tried again. This is
Eliot's photo of his work.
SinterklaasjournaalThere is a man who wants Sinterklaas to remain in Holland year round. He has offered land and lodging: a camping trailer in a field of cows. Sinterklaas said "no, no" after delivering the packages, he will head home to Spain on the stoomboot. The Sorrypiet was responsible for taking the Grote Boek from Sinterklaas' bedroom while he slept. I haven't figured out why they are keeping it away from Sinterklaas, except maybe that he doesn't know that it is rainbow colored and empty.
This morning we woke up to
Eliot's black eye. He had hit the bed frame last night as he was jumping back in bed. We're not exactly sure how it happened, because the light was out. But it was pretty swollen last night, even with ice on it. When he woke up he could only open his eye halfway and it was quite painful. He ended up not going to school, so we could keep ice on it and get the swelling down. We also skipped gym class for obvious reasons.
Jim caught the 8:00 am train to Schiphol. He had a business trip to Copenhagen, Denmark and got in a short visit with Joy and Greg from Carleton College. Later in the morning, Eliot, Miles and I made a quick run to the grocery store. I still needed cloves and ginger for the pumpkin pies I have been trying to make for 5 days.
While reading to Miles and getting him down for a nap, I fell asleep. When I woke up, I found
Eliot on the chair sleeping in the sun room. I had already mixed the pie crust when Miles woke up. Miles and I rolled the pie crusts out and then made our pumpkin pies - finally!
Miles was a big help in the kitchen "washing dishes" for me.
Before bed, Eliot was a flurry of activity getting
his shoes ready for Sinterklaas (Eliot even took this picture on his own). He told me that he "just wanted to see if Sinterklaas would come." He made a waterfall and put out a carrot. He had me write out his poem:
Hickory Dickory DoEliot left you things in the shoeAnd all these things are for youWaterfallBallTall
Sinterklaas did come to our house! He brought
some chocolate coins for the family. Eliot got a chalk board art set with white board and magnetic letters. "I didn't know why it was so heavy; it was a chalk board." Miles got a orange dump truck.
Jim had an ultimate tournament way out in Enschede, near the German border. He rented a car for the trip. They won all their games. It's a bit different than our tournaments: 30-minute games, inside field. I suppose that's how it works in Holland in the winter!
The kids and I stayed here and played with the marble run and their new toys. I also worked on sorting and writing captions for the 450 photographs from our Barcelona trip. Whew!
Sunset was beautiful this evening. This fall, we have been enjoying perfect views of the sunset from our front windows. In the summer, sunset was so late and to the northwest, out of our view.
In the evening, we got
our shoes ready for Sinterklaas. Eliot made a few pictures. Miles got to put the carrot in his shoe. Jim had made chocolate chip cookies yesterday, so "he" put out a treat for the Piets. I wrote the poem.
We sang Zie ginds lomt de stoomboot (Eliot's favorite) with help from our CD. Then it was off to bed.
You arrived lieve Sinterklaas
Into Delft you did steam
Bringing along so many Piets
You have quite a team
We enjoyed the boats
The bands and the jet skis
Everyone was so happy
The Piets really aim to please
Then you got up on your horse
And paraded all through the town
Waving to the crowds of kids
Where there was not a frown
We've left you some cookies
For you all to eat
They are the chocolate chip kind
Enjoy this American treat
Sinterklaas comes to Delft
We met Ap,
Gina, Martijn, and Merrick by the windmill and biked over to the "best spot in Delft" to watch Sinterklaas' arrival. It had rained earlier in the morning, but the skies were clear for awhile. Lots of
children were in their Zwarte Piet hats and costumes. We saw a few Sinterklaas outfits too. Our spot was on the bike bridge just before the landing spot on the Oostsingel. We'd be looking down right on the boats as they came by our lifting bridge. Everyone was so excited.
As the rain started to come down, the bridge before ours opened to let Sinterklaas' stoomboot through.
While waiting for Sinterklaas entourage, there were Piets everywhere entertaining the crowds of children. These
two were motoring around in their little boat waving at the crowd. My favorites were the Piet was on a low-riding bike and one riding a box bike. After waiting about 30 minutes, the
boats were nearly here. Magically, the rain stopped just minutes before Sinterklaas' boat
Sint II came through. The police backed everyone behind the safety bars and the bridge lifted off our side of the canal.
Sinterklaas is here. As Gina promised, we were looking right down on Sinterklaas and his helpers. First the stoomboot with Sinterklaas passed by and then the
huge sailing ship with 50 or more Pieten and a band playing Sinterklaasliedjes.
Zie ginds komt de stoomboot ... The Pieten were all waving their arms and legs and singing songs. A police officer was right in my way for getting a nice video of the Pieten boat (I did get a short one). Clearly this was the party barge! It was very exciting.
The entourage of the
Sint II from Spanje (Spain), the Pieten boat, and this
really cool Pieten lifeboat all turned right after the bridge toward the
landing site. Jim and I like the lifeboat the best. It took awhile for Sinterklaas to disembark and get ready for the parade through town. Eliot liked the
3 Piets on jet skis zooming back and forth along the canal while the group got ready for the parade. One of them was riding his jet ski backwards. Silly Piets!
Once all the Piets 
left the boats they ran along the parade route handing out pepernoten and kruidnoten for the children. Martijn kept going back for more, very nicely sharing with everyone.
Sinterklaas loads up on his white horse and the parade finally begins. The participants will parade all through town past most of the shopping areas in the center (Gina says by all the merchants who help pay for this big production). There are lots of helpers on unicycles, bikes, walking. A small truck drives the packages along the route.
Eliot wore his Piet hat the whole time. He really wanted to be able to see Sinterklaas up close, so I took him down off the bridge to the street and the actvities. He rode on my shoulders and had a great view over the many spectators. We walked down a half of block or so with the parade to watch
Sinterklaas on his horse; it was moving very slowly.
After watching Sinterklaas and the bands and dancers and Pieten pass, we headed back to our bikes. Gina invited us over for hot chocolate and sandwiches. It rained a bit on the way to their house. The boys all played, and we had a nice end to such grand festivities. By 3:00, we headed home for a rest. Sinterklaas was still parading around town - planning to end up at Zuidpoort for songs and a chance to greet all the children there. We were too tired to go out again!
Today the weather was much better. I was able to bike Eliot to school. Biking is a lot easier, and I don't have to wait for the bus. I wanted to run a few errands once Miles and I dressed and ate breakfast, but he was grumpy and not interested in going out. So instead of pushing the issue, we played with trains. We made a track for Percy to pull some trains. I finished up a couple of projects this morning.
Miles and I left to pick up Eliot around 11:45. It was sunny but cool and a little windy. At school, Eliot made a great picture of Sinterklaas and added some finishing touches on his Piet. Marry was showing me his pictures before we left. They are hanging the children's pictures along the classroom walls. Marry said Eliot is very good at seeing something one time and being able to draw it. Jason's mom reviewed the weekly newsletter with me - pointing out that Sinterklaas is coming to the school on Dec 5. She said Miles and I should stay around because it is always exciting when he arrives. The boys wanted to play at the school yard for a little while. They swang and went on the slide before biking home.
In the afternoon, Miles took a short nap. We printed out some coloring pages from the Sinterklaasjournaal. Eliot worked on
coloring arrows to help Sinterklaas find his way. Eliot said he was bored with putting our shoes in the sun room, so he moved it next to the kitchen table. He hung arrows all over the house marking the route from the sliding glass doors to the gift spot, as well as signposting the path from the apartment door downstairs, since we are not sure how he comes into the house.
I cooked tacos for dinner - one of our staple meals here in Holland, while Jim was on a long conference call. We talked with my family in Amarillo via webcam. The boys showed off their projects and toys for their great grandmother, Aunt Daleta, Aunt Julie and Grammy. It was great for my grandmother (who is 96) to see the kids since she doesn't have internet and can't read the blogs unless my parents bring her printouts. Jim and the boys made chocolate chip cookies. Miles ran excitedly around the house saying "daddy's cookies."
SinterklaasjournaalThe Huispiet is still trying to do a headcount of the Pieten. Computerpiet has entered all of the children's wishlists into the computer and tried to print them out. They threw all the lists away since they are done with them, but somehow Sinkterklaas' book was also in that trash bag ...
Miles was asleep in the stroller, so I left him home with Jim while I biked to pick up Eliot. It's a good thing that Miles didn't come because Eliot had finished his paper holding box. On one side, there was a slit up top for putting the paper in and one on the bottom for the paper to come out. He made it so he could keep important papers away from Miles. Lucien said that Eliot would come and grab his hand when he needed help hammering on his project. We loaded the box into Miles' seat and rode home very carefully. Eliot's first comment was that we needed a big box to ship it back to the US. Not sure if we will pull that one off!!
