Monthly Blog Update

No more fooling this just isn’t going to happen more than once a month. I am sorry to those loyal readers who have been requesting more, but I am afraid I just can’t get to it. So, I will do my best to make one REALLY exciting, long and inspiring blog each month.

End of October was very exciting as we created a company studioVerbeelen where Pieter and I are partners. He will continue with his renovation and interior design and I will run Turtlewings as a division of the company. Of course at times we will work together on large projects. It is all very exciting and extremely stressful at the same time.

Maybe not equally important, but equally exciting was our first trick or treating in Brussels. It was organized around one city block, where quite a few xpats lived. (English speaking people living in Brussels) Natan dressed up as a bionicle and Kai as a little devil, which suited him just perfectly. As we set off for the first house Natan held back to see how it was all done. Kai on the other hand, seeing something to eat, rushed through the cracks of all the other children (over 30 in one group!) and stood quietly and politely in the front. He picked one candy from the bowl each time it passed him until he was the last one standing there. Of course, most children took their one candy and stepped away for others, but Kai was so small no one really noticed and after the first house he had it all figured out. The only concept he had trouble grasping was that you where suppose to wait to eat it until you got back home. So, all that was easy to unwrap was eaten immediately. Thinking back on my childhood now I wonder "Why did we wait?" This is Kai’s gift. He just does what he wants and if you don’t agree he will figure it out for himself. Most of the time he really gets you questioning yourself. Why do we conform to so many social rules? Maybe, we should all live life by a 21 month old's rules!

Natan is also growing up fast. He has become a real artist, which doesn’t bother me at all. He has also taken over my drawing table as his own, again not a real bother. He started in a French football (soccer) league in October, but we found it to far away, so he stopped for awhile. He was really sad for weeks, so we found one closer and he is very happy again. My heart sinks every time I see him out on the full size football pitch though. Because I know he isn’t understanding a word the coach is saying and I definately know how that feels, but he always comes back in incredibly happy. Also, I know by the end of the year I will have a little French translator by my side, which can come in handy when shopping in Brussels.
Next September Natan will go to lagere school (Elementary) and Kai will begin kleuterschool (preschool). This means we have to already shop for a new school now. Brussels is a primarily French speaking city, so there is loads of French speaking schools and very few Flemish, but the Flemish system has better education, so many French speaking parents put there children in Flemish schools. To complicate the problem there is not even enough place for Flemish children. So the system is that there is one day that you can sign you child up for one school. You must go first thing in the morning (some even at 3am) and stand in line hoping to get a place. Most parents split up and queue at two different places just to better their odds at getting in somewhere! Crazy! Anyway, we have begun this process, by touring 4 different schools last week, now we have decided between two and we can now wait for the 1st of March and hope to get in one!

November just went by so fast I feel I missed it, but we have worked hard on our company identities and public relations. I have updated the Turtlewings website and have some exciting projects coming up. We finally broke down and left the car-free world and got a really cool Skoda Roomster for our company car. We received a loaner car last Friday until ours comes in and it is very nice! The problem is that because we have been car-free for so long I tend to walk past it more than I get in it! I guess we will get use to it eventually.

Well, that is about all for this month! We will be going on a road trip through Germany for our anniversary in a couple weeks and we will have a very relaxing Christmas and New Years holiday here at home.

Cheers,
Jules