The day has finally come for Helena to go to Nursery School. All last year she was so jealous that we dropped Ilias off and she couldn’t stay. But now she got to stay. She seemed right at ease, hardly even saying goodbye to me, although I think she might have been a bit confused and didn’t quite get it that when I said goodbye it was because I was leaving her there, not because we were leaving together. In the end, I just said goodbye and sent her off to play. Thor and I went home together. It’s very quiet at home now. Well, “quiet”: he’s playing in the babygym so I can hear an endless repetition of low-battery tinny sounding Mozart and/or nursery rhymes.

Ilias is having his second day, and he was totally fine as well. I guess they are growing up. Blub.

Today is Ilias first day of school. I’ve dropped him off succesfully and he seemed right at ease. His teacher is called Miss Rundle so his class is RJR (Reception J. Rundle). The first two days he is only going until 1.30 pm so he has a packed lunch there and then comes home early. From Wednesday, he can stay all day from 9 am to 3.30 pm. He’ll have the school dinners then. I think those will be alright, since Jamie Oliver recently saved the world.

Ilias came home from school tired but happy. He said he had fun and played a lot. Miss Rundle told me he fell while running, and he did have a little sticking plaster on his knee, but he wasn’t very bothered about it. He is looking forward to going again tomorrow. I must remember not to put Nutella in his packed lunch as they’re not allowed anything with nuts in it because others could be allergic. This evening at bedtime, Ilias wasn’t sure whether maybe he wanted Bush to come along to school tomorrow, but we settled on it that Bush would stay home and wait for him.

We had a big party for Thor on the 30th and 31st of August. Part one was in Essen and part two was in Bonheiden. It was really nice to see all of our family and friends! And it was the only weekend all August that the weather was actually nice.

We’ve decided to get one big gift for Thor, which is a swingset and slide for in the garden. It’s coming next weekend. A great big thank you to everybody who contributed to it!

On the 13th of July, Thor was baptized at our local church.