What is happiness?

I love children books. You get happy only by looking at them. Of course, I have my preferences; cute drawings and simple stories being my favourites.

At "La Central del Raval" in Barcelona they have a particularly good collection of original stories for little children. We usually go there to buy books for Paul or as a present for the new-born babies from our friends.



One of my favourites is the book about Selma. To answer the question "What is happiness?" we are being told a story about the little sheep Selma.



Selma likes eating grass, talking with her children, exercising and chatting with Madame Gutierrez. Then she is asked what would she do if she had more time to spend. She answers that she would definitely eat grass, talk a lot with her children, spend some time exercising and she would talk with Madame Gutierrez before going to sleep. And what about she would win the lottery? Well, you guess. Eating grass, discussing with her children, doing some exercise and talking with Madame Gutierrez are her answers.

I definitely want to be like Selma.

Are cementeries fun?

Ok, cementeries are not really fun. At least, they are not fun because most of the times when you go there it is because somebody in your family or somebody you know died.

However, I remember than when I was a kid, in the summer, my cousins and me went very often to the grave of my grandfather. We took flowers from my grandmother's garden (cutting her flowers was forbidden, but who cared, it was for good) and we brought them to my grandpa without any adult supervision. Well, at that time, I might have been 10 years old, the whole thing looked totally normal.

The cementery was a sunny place, and we liked going around as well looking at the graves, the names, the flowers and the messages that people left. Nothing sad about it from a child's perspective.



This year we went again with my father and my grandmother, and I remembered everything about it. I took Paul as well as me. Of course, he was totally amused with the little stones, the possibility to sit all around and the flowers as well. I wonder if one day he will also cut "forbidden" flowers and sneak to go to the cementery.

Why is after all death in our culture not celebrated the same way that birth is?

Under the moonlight

This is one of the songs that I really like to sing with Paul : "In de maneschijn".
You can sing it while doing some little dance. In fact, I guess that what I like the most is the little dance around it!

http://www.kinderliedjes.nu/2-4-jaar/in-de-maneschijn/


In de maneschijn,............................In the moonlight
in de maneschijn,.............................In the moonlight
Klom ik op een trapje.......................I climb the stairs
naar het raamkozijn........................to the window edge.

En je raadt het niet,.........................And you do not get it,
en je raadt het niet:.........................and you do not get it:

Zo doet een vogel,...............................So does a bird,
en zo doet een vis...............................and so does a fish
Zo doet een duizendpoot,......................and so does a hundredfeet
die schoenenpoetser is...........................that works cleaning shoes

En dat is een,...........................................and this is one
dat is twee,..............................................and this is two
en dat is dikke dikke dikke tante Kee........and this is fatty, fatty aunt Kee

En dat is recht,..............................and this is right
en dat is krom,...............................and this is turn

En zo draaien wij het rondje..................and so we go around
nog eens om..........................................another time
Bom! Bom!

This website is really lovely and you can find a lot of Dutch songs (and the dances around them) meant for children between 0 to 4 years old. And it is good also for learning Dutch!

Spring is coming!

Yes, spring is coming, and of course, we want to have our garden tip top ready for it! We have put new grass and bought new flowers; I followed the advise of Jurgen Smit in the book 'Tuineren is niet moeilijk' ('Gardening is not difficult') and chose daisies. According to him, they are really strong and survive the most lazy gardener. Let's see if they manage it in our garden!



Paul really loves being in the garden. That was one of the reasons to put the grass, so that everything is more clean and cats do not come to do their "stuff" in our garden. Any activity is good for him; whether it is cleaning, brooming leaves from the floor, helping to take away some herbs or moving around logs. It is amazing how long he can be entertained doing that.



I was really hesitant when we bought our house with the garden; but now I really see the use of it, and how much children enjoy it!

Sweet holidays

Children, work, hobbies,... sometimes it is just nice to do nothing.
Have a break and go somewhere where there is not much to do.



And get some ideas for the next post...