Horse Show

We were driving to a different town after Wezembeek-Oppem but then I saw all these horses at a sports complex so we stopped to see what was happening. There was a horse-riding competition going on so we stopped to let Eliot get his fill of horses (Aucks!). Here he is clearly enthralled by his new horsie friend.
Some of the competitors.
Horse getting clean.
We're not sure if these horses belong to the municipality since the grounds were public. The horses nameplates were on the stalls, so it seemed like these were their permanent homes.


I am going to try to post some video eventually of Eliot meeting the horses because it was very cute.

Wezembeek-Oppem

We went to a nearby town on Sunday (Wezembeek-Oppem) to go to a sale at a school of childrens' toys and clothes. The school's students (and their moms) were the sellers. Here is a statue of a horse in the town. We thought readers would have fun interpreting all the symbolism. (Why is the rider wearing a mask and why is there an owl on top of it?)
Here is Chris with the bean bag we got for Eliot's room. (Eliot loves it.) In the foreground is a ball toy that I was carrying. There were lots of good toys at good prices. Not so many clothes in Eliot's size.
Wezembeek-Oppem's town hall. There are many German-speakers here - we met a few at the school sale. I heard Chris saying, "Vielen Dank" which I think is how you say/spell "Thanks very much" in German to one mom. (If my German spelling is off, Mom, I can correct this.) I realized he was speaking to a German-speaking family. There is even a German school here.

Car-free Sunday in Brussels

Sunday was a car-free day in all of Brussels. We live at the edge of Brussels and saw the police stopping drivers who were unaware of the car ban. Here is a parade/dance just outside the Grand Place.
Family portrait
Our weekend guest Natalia having a Brussels must - waffle! Eliot can see this photo right now and he is saying "Nalala!"
A display of dolls used in parades in the Grand Place. Beautiful day and so fun to be without cars. Although you still have to look out for bikes.....

In Brugges

This weekend we went to Brugges, a city about 1 hour west of here, with a co-worker of Chris's Natalia, who had been in Brussels for a business meeting and stayed with us this weekend. We lucked out and had a beautiful day. It was such a beautiful day that there were hordes of tourists, but we fought through them and enjoyed the town anyway. We did not take a boat trip (long lines!) but hope to some other time. Check out this link for more Brugges postings:
http://picasaweb.google.com/jenmbdunn/Brugges#


Here is the main square.
Towards the evening the crowds thinned and we were able to enjoy more peaceful strolling, including by this canal.

Dunns in Brugges.

Eliot Update

Here is Eliot playing with a train toy we bought him that has stacking blocks. This is right after he first opened it and he was very intent on it.
This is Eliot after eating yogurt on his own with a spoon. It got a little messy.

I wanted to add a list of Eliot's favorite things to the blog. These are not in any particular order - his intensity of like for each of these things depends on the circumstances although the top three are pretty much the top three.

1. Horses ("Auck!")
2. Trains
3. Cows ("Moo!")
4. Sunglasses
5. Yogurt
6. Cats
7. Dogs
8. Birds
9. Pizza
10. Pacifier ("Mah!") and Blankie ("Bankie!")
11. Airplanes ("Ahpee!")
12. Wheels
13. Sunglasses
14. Pooh Bear (especially on his Pooh Bear plate and bowl and his stuffed Pooh Bear)

Today we went to a park and Eliot made friends with a four-year-old girl. They played together, roared a la lions together, made fishes out of a sand toy mold together, took turns going down the slide together. It was so fun to see Eliot being so social with another child.

He has counted up to two - basically repeating after me.
Some new words in his vocabulary:
- "I don't know"
-"Pizza"
-"Brugges" (town near here)
-"Slide"
-"Big Smooch"
-"No pressure"
-"Nalala" (Natalia - our friend who visited this weekend)
-"Oiseau" (French word for birds)

It's amazing because I hear maybe three new words each day and he is very good at repeating things. He is very fun to be with.

Thai Festival

Sunday evening was a Thai festival right in our own town square. There were booths displaying Thai cultural things, like this vegetable/fruit carving display that won first place for booth decor. There was also food although only some fried rice and fried banana were vegetarian. Most of the food vendors looked stumped when I asked if they had anything vegetarian. I had my taste buds all set for some Pad Thai with Tofu but alas there was none. Not a tofu cube in sight.
Eliot liked this woman's dance and after she was finished did a little dance of his own. He is getting to know motions to songs like Twinkle, Twinkle and today surprised me by twisting when I started to sing "Twist and Shout."

Return to the Botanical Gardens

It was a beautiful, sunny (if a bit cold) day on Sunday so we headed to the botanical gardens to explore more. We went to the greenhouses where they had these large flower things. Unfortunately, one of them had just bloomed and this on is in the process. Cool to see.
Eliot meets the banana plant. He said, "Mana" (meaning banana) and made his sound for snack, which we hear all too infrequently now that he says "snack." His snack sound is clicking his tongue on the roof of his mouth.
Viewing the palm tree from a different angle.
My favorite part of the gardens - the castle.

My other favorite park

This is another Kraainem park that is mostly grass and trees with some "excercise equipment" - the kind you can do push ups/pull ups/etc on. Eliot likes to climb on those things as much as any traditional playground equipment and I really like all the greenery so we head here somewhat often. It is also a good place to see dogs! Eliot got so excited about one dog playing catch and running around that Eliot started running all around too. It was fun to see.

Leaves are starting to fall.

Eliot requests a snack.

The bike

A few weeks ago I bought Eliot this trike with a handle for parents to push. Here are he and Chris posing in front of our home.
He definetely needs to be pushed and sometimes gets frustrated when his feet can't keep up with the turning pedals at which point we lift up the front wheel so the pedals don't turn. This does not seem to bother him at all and removes the other complication of his often turning the front wheel perpendicular to the direction of travel, making it very hard to push him. It's fun to take his bike though - he often requests it when he sees it in the garage.
Walking down the strip of grass in the middle of a big street near us.
Sometimes Eliot likes to push.

Another nearby park - but in Kraainem

We found this park which is about 5 min walking and is a bit smaller than the "best park in Stokkel" This park is actually in Kraainem. (I'm sure I'm spelling it wrong but it's so confusing with the Dutch v. French spellings in Belgium.) Eliot likes the tire swing and today requested that I sit in it with him. It was a bit crowded but fun. Here he's enjoying going solo.

Stokkel Playground

Here are more pictures from the best playground in Stokkel. Of course, all Stokkel families know this and so it can get crowded. We were here after it had rained a bit so there weren't too many kids.

Eliot likes the rings - he is looking forward to some lessons from Uncle Brian when we get home.
Of course the train is a favorite!
Pensive. He clambered up into his stroller although he was not ready to leave the park. He just wanted to think awhile.
Small swing - really a bit too small for him. Very popular piece of equipment and we must often wait a few minutes for a couple other kiddos to take their turns. "A chacun son tour" is a common refrain among the French-speaking parents or "To each his own turn." That and "Doucement!" which, loosely translated, means "Stop running so fast/yelling so loudly/playing too roughly."

Eliot's Transition to Montessori

This week was one of transition for us as we said goodbye (Au Revoir) to Miss Estelle of Happy Feet and hello to the teachers of Eliot's Montessori school. It was very sad because we are all fond of Estelle and she is very fond of Eliot. She got to know him so well in such a short time that she amazed me with the insights she had about him. Of course, I like her opinion that Eliot is smart and can concentrate remarkably well for his age..... Eliot will return to Happy Feet during the (several) weeks Montessori is closed for various holidays, so it is not goodbye forever. Eliot can say "Happy Feet" (and does so anytime we drive near Happy Feet) and we are calling the Montessori school "School" for him so it has an identity. It's actual name is Savoorke which is Dutch and we don't really know how to pronounce it (although we should really learn). Eliot went to Montessori for one hour three days this week. Once I stayed with him and twice we left him there on his own.

Yesterday, he had a field day playing in their fantastic garden. Today, he partook of "Toddler Yoga" and, according to Miss Helen (english-speaking, Irish teacher) loved stretching his arms up to the sky. The children were all seated on little Ikea cushions around another teacher (French-speaking) singing when I arrived to pick up Eliot. Miss Helen helped Eliot get his jacket on himself and he was ready to go home with me. It will be really interesting to see all that he learns from being at school. I will learn a lot about what he can learn because it never dawned on me to ask him to get his jacket on himself - I am here to help him!

Eliot and I then took a mini-walk in the rain to observe all the snails that come out when it is wet here. One particularly large one was crawling up the wall at the school. I was amazed at how it used its antennae and some other protrusion from its face. I had been considering getting a pet snail for Eliot, but then read a website that said although snails were low maintenance, you would have to give them a bath twice a month and clean the eggs they lay out of their aquarium every other day. Low maintenance? The snails make our cats seem like no trouble at all. (Hopefully Andrea agrees.) So, alas, no pet snails for Eliot.

I am looking forward to getting into the new routine as we head into the fall.

Other Notes

Thought I'd post a few things about day-to-day life. On the left is the back of a box of frozen pizza. Note how many languages the cooking instructions are in. Luckily for us, we look for "UK" and can read the instructions in English. The manuals for all of our appliances are in at least five languages, which makes them quite thick.
This is the lint from the dryer filter after my fifth time washing the pink towels from Ikea. The lint was all over our home, especially in the bathroom. Every time we dried off from a shower, there was pink lint on us. I kept thinking one more wash would do it, but after recovering this dryer lint, I put it in a baggie and took the towels back to Ikea. The clerk who helped me asked first if it wasn't normal to recover this much lint from towels in the dryer. I said not after the fifth wash was it normal and that there was no way I could use these towels. She shook the towels out and said that she had allergies and the towels were so bad that they had offended her allergies after one brief shake. I got store credit which is fine since I had washed the towels (five times) and it had been over a month since I bought them. I got some new towels (made from bamboo!) at a different store. Much better.
Eliot's handiwork - just kidding! Chris built this creation and Eliot was very surprised and excited to see it in the morning.