Spring is around the corner and temperatures here in Amsterdam are finally going up. It is not what most people would call warm but with temperatures between 10 and 15 degrees on a sunny day, we’re finally ready for some outdoor fun again. Cora being the energetic little girl that she is, probably got bored of being indoors all the time already. So if it isn’t raining I’ll take her outside to the playground or let her cycle with her little tricycle to a place where there are always a couple of sheep and a pony. We take apples with us and Cora is happy watching the pony munch them all in no time. I used to be a bit scared when she climbed around on the wooden castle in the playground but she is now almost three and climbing like a little monkey everywhere. Even when she was still quite small, she was quite daring with little fear for heights. In time for her birthday at the end of march, she is now completely off diapers and really proud of herself. Cherrie bought lots of cute girly underwear for her and Cora loves being able to put them on herself. I sold our canal boat to a young Dutch guy who lives just around the corner from us. He left the boat moored in the same spot. On the way back from the playground we often pass by the canal where our old boat is moored and Cora would point it out knowing which one it is. Last weekend she saw by coincidence the Dutch guy coming back from his first cruise with his new boat and was a bit shocked pointing it out and asking “maag vaaren, maag vaaren …daddy?”. Cora’s Dutch for “can we go daddy”? I had to explain that it isn’t daddies boat anymore and promise her that we go to “de groote boot”, the big boat next day. It was sunny the next day and so Cora and I went for a long bicycle ride with picnic food and stopped by at the harbor as promised. She was so excited and climbed in every corner commanding me around as well. It must feel to her like a big play house. It took some convincing after our picnic in the sun to have her wave good bye to the boat and get back on the bike. The ride back was harder then I had anticipated because it suddenly started to blow pretty hard right from where we needed to go. Cora and I got back to Amsterdam but where both pretty cold. Another new toy she discovered recently is my camera. Cora has been practicing a lot with it and actually took some pretty good shots. So you may well see some pictures of me in the future for a change. One is already in the new album.
Here are the picture.
