Art that makes my heart sing

My daughter drew this on her Magna Doodle:

I think she's ready to illustrate her first children's book!

I actually wrote this post on Sunday but at that time Blogger didn't want to upload my picture. Today (Monday) I was able to upload the picture, but according to Blogger I posted this on Sunday evening. I know the message was saved as 'concept' yesterday, but is there no way to change the date to Monday?

Edit: A little "Google"-ing fixed this problem already!

Father's day

Father's day was actually last Sunday, but I got a little side-tracked with the dentist appointment. I still wanted to show some pictures of what our day looked like.

It's one of the few days that I get up before my husband does. I'm very spoiled in that department, so the least I can do is set the breakfast table and make him feel extra special that day.
Here's my daughter 'reading' her poem.



Introducing my husband!


Love the shoes!
The kids had to say why they loved their dad and then the teacher wrote it down for them. My daughter said: I love you dad because I can hug you and kiss you. So sweet. There are plenty of hugs and kisses at our house! Even a few extra on father's day...

Here's my son with the present he made:

The label says ARTwork from ... and inside was a mouse pad featuring a picture he drew of dad at work.

And here's the present my daughter made (using our breakfast table as a backdrop): it's a game that can be played with marbles!

My husband is an amazing dad to our kids. He's become everything I hoped for when I got pregnant with my son (and I had high hopes!) and he's no longer the boy I once married. He's so much more.

Before you have children you don't really know what kind of parent you will end up to be. You learn a lot along the way and of course some days are better than others. We don't have to deal with diapers or bottles anymore, we've heard their first words and saw their first steps. We've been 'mom and dad' for over eight years now and we wouldn't trade a minute of it.

Well, maybe a few tantrums and sleepless nights ;)

Thanks K. for being the wonderful father that you are and for giving me these two beautiful children.

Love,
Tania

A little about me

Since I can now say that I'm 99% painfree (thanks again for all your sweet comments!) I feel up to writing a little more about me.

I've been asked whether or not our home is bilingual and why I blog in English. I've also been asked on more than one occasion where I'm from originally.

I think this may come as a disappointment to some of you, but I'm actually just a Belgian girl, born and raised in the Flemish (= Dutch speaking) part of Belgium, just as my parents and grandparents were.

My maternal language is Flemish (= Dutch with a slight accent :). I learned English, French and German in school. My level of French is not quite up there with my English (too bad, since the other half of Belgium speaks French) and my German... well, lets just say that I remember the basics and that I could probably manage the typical being-on-a-holiday-in-Germany conversations.

I blog in English not only because I prefer the language but also because most of the blogs I read are written in English. And of course it's a better way to make international friends! English is universal so practically anybody who wants to check out my blog will understand it. If I translate my Flemish thoughts correctly that is ;)

Ouch

I had my dentist appointment today and I must say that the extraction went well. It didn't hurt when he pulled it out, but for the rest of the day I did have a painfull jaw. I'm not keen on medication so I didn't take a painkiller and hopefully by tomorrow the pain will have subsided. So please excuse me for not writing a long post, but I think a good night's sleep will do me some good. I plan to go to bed a little earlier than usual.

I added a clock to my blog (somewhere on the right side), so now all my blogging friends will know what time it is in Belgium! I already know what time it is for me: time to get ready for bed :)

Tag your 8

I was tagged by Dani at Give me a second to think about it. So here are my 8 things...

8 things I have a passion for

• My family (with my children sharing first place and my husband a close second)
• Chocolate (I'm picky though, it would probably be easier to list the kinds I like than the kinds I don't)
• Christmas (I put up my tree the last weekend of November)
• Fabric (I have a huge stash and still keep adding to it!)
• Stationary (perfect for sending snail mail - see post below!)
• Crafting supplies (but not enough time to craft)
• Travel (but nog enough money to go places)
• Beautiful photography

8 things I would like to do before I die

• grow old gracefully together with my husband
• watch my children become the amazing adults I know they'll be one day (and who will hopefully give me the pleasure of becoming a grandmother)
• renew my wedding vows (wearing my OWN wedding dress this time)
• win the lottery (just doesn't seem as much fun if this were to happen after I've passed away)
• go to Florida with the kids to see Disney World (hopefully in 2012) and/or spend Christmas in New York
• make a sale on Etsy (so I can spend the money in Disney World or Christmas shopping in New York)
• brush up on my parallel parking (beats looking for a large spot each time)
• leave the world something with my name on it (preferably not only a headstone)

8 things I say a lot

• Ik hou van jou (I love you)
• Wees voorzichtig! (Be carefull!)
• Pas op! (Watch out - mostly to my husband when he's driving / kinda like Mrs. Bucket from Keeping Up Appearances only younger)
• Slaap lekker (Sleep well)
• Wat wil je graag op je boterham? (What would you like on your sandwich? - with the answer being "Hagelslag" most of the time!)
• Hoe was het op school/werk? (How was school/work?)
• ja (yes) / nee (no) /misschien (maybe)
• "Company name, goodmorning!"

8 books I have read most recently (and, unfortunately, have forgotten most of by now)

• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
• the Da Vinci Code
• Love actually
• The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
• Robin Hood (children's book as bedtime story)
• Jip en Janneke (bed time stories)
• although I haven't read any recently I wanted to include the 'Earth Children'-books by Jean Auel
• currently struggling through "Studio Webdesign 3"

8 movies I have seen 8 times

• Greace
• Top Gun
• The Fifth Element
• The Polar Express
• Sleepless in Seattle & You've got Mail
• 4 Weddings and a Funeral
• Ghost & Dirty Dancing
• The Lion King (and most other animation movies)
  not to mention the countless times I've seen Jaws, Superman, Rocky & Rambo (all versions) thanks to my dad when I was younger (also The Terminator, Star Wars and Back to the Future versions, but for those I actually am grateful).

I'm not tagging anyone in particular but if you would like to join in on the fun please leave me a comment so I can check out your 8s!

Snail mail

Every day I (or K.) check the letterbox to see if there's any mail. Mostly there are just bills.

Everyday I check my e-mail to see if there's anything but spam in it. Most of the time there's at least one thing interesting enough to read.

Every day (well, almost) I check my blog to see if there are any comments. Sometimes there are a few and then I feel giddy with excitement to read them (thanks commenters!).

The above all leads to this:

Wouldn't it be fun to actually get something in your letterbox from a bloggy friend? Like a birthday or a christmas card? A little postcard when you're not feeling well (like my friend Dani), or a "Congratulations, it's a boy" card when you've given birth (my friend Elise in a couple of weeks - days perhaps). Does that sound like fun?

Well then, here's my proposal: let's exchange home addresses and send each other some snail mail (even if it's just a yearly christmas card).

If you send me an e-mail with your home address (and preferably date of birth), I'll send you mine.

To Erin:

Your package is ready to go and I'll drop it in the mailbox tomorrow. The first snail mail will be on it's way...

Kiss the pain away

My daughter: "Mom, my thumb hurts."

Me: "Where sweetheart?"

My daughter: "Put your finger on the little red spot. Can you feel it?"

How sweet, she thought that if I'd put my finger on the sore spot that I would feel the pain as well. A little kiss and a bandaid made all aches go away.

I love it that with children you can actually kiss the little pains away.