Keeping Up with Kaelan

First day of pre-school! I must admit that I was a bit nervous for him to start. I was nervous partly because he's attending a local Dutch school where everything will be communicated and taught in Dutch. I didn't want him to become shy or frustrated due to not being able to communicate with the other kids. And, if I'm being totally honest, I was partly sad because I pretty much viewed it as if he were leaving for college!!! My cute little baby boy is growing up too fast!

Kaelan is attending school now two days a week. 2 hours every Monday afternoon and 3 hours every Thursday morning. We've been trying to teach him that the kids may not understand him because they speak a different language and we've even taught him simple words like "dank je wel" (thank you) and "alstublieft" (you're welcome). Well, it seems to have worked because when I picked him up from school after his first day, one of the teachers approached me to compliment me on how polite Kaelan was that day. She said he was constantly telling the teacher's "dank je wel" and "astublieft." Kids are so smart!

On Kaelan's third day of school, the teacher approached me again to share what Kaelan had done that day. Apparently they were teaching the kids words by reading a book with site words in it. It was essentially a book with select images to replace the corresponding word and each time the image would appear in the story, something simple such as a spoon, or dog, they would ask the kids to say it together out loud. According to his teacher, each time an image would appear, Kaelan would shout out the Dutch word and then quickly turn to the children around him with his hand held high saying, "high five!" I'm not sure if Dutch two year olds know what "high five" means but they sure will once Kaelan's done with them. =)

Clearly, Kaelan is pretty excited about this new found language. Just the other afternoon, we decided to head to the village center for lunch and it turned out there was an open market taking place that day and lots of kids activities were available. We stopped to have lunch in a place where we could watch Kaelan play. I noticed that he started to get into a little squabble with another child as they both fought for position on some play blocks. I went over to them and it turns out this little girl was not "listening" to Kaelan's requests and I had to remind him that she may not respond because she doesn't speak any English and either way, he still shouldn't start pushing anyone. To this, Kaelan replied, "you mean she speaks Dutch like me?"

Hah, hah, I guess in his own mind he's practically fluent now that he can say "thank you," "you're welcome" and some simple words like dog and spoon in Dutch! Too cute!

A couple weeks back, we went for a walk together through one of the many forests scattered across the countryside near our house. On our walk, we stumbled across this gnome that had been placed randomly next to one of the paths. Kman thought it was just great so we had to stop for a photo op!

Hair Cut time! Clearly, Kaelan is not a big fan of getting his hair cut but it just had to go!

As many of you know, Travis is a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to mowing the lawn. Lines must be straight. He must alternate mowing directions each week. Edges must be trimmed. Well, when young kids are involved, such precision sometimes must go out the window. Kaelan loves mowing the lawn with daddy and as you can see, Travis mowed some squiggly lines all through the lawn for Kaelan to follow. Now, of course, Kaelan asks for it each week when they mow the lawn together. Hah hah, there go the straight lines for the foreseeable future!