Surprise!

This year, I - Marike - did not feel like celebrating my birthday, which is on Jan 22. I had to go to Holland this month with Madeleine and felt it to be no problem that I would be away during my birthday. I hence came back to Oman a few days later having turned one year older without many people noticing.

However, Gideon did not actually agree with this quiet and uneventful approach . To my great surprise, I noticed that on the morning after my arrival, a handful of friends had gathered in my garden! Suprise! Gideon had organised a small party for me. It was exactly right. What a lovely way to celebrate my birthday - with friends, a cup of coffee and a homemade apple pie. 

New year’s resolution

One new year’s resolution is to maintain this blog more frequently. Even though we are four muscateers now and no longer three, we should not deviate from our goal to keep this Muscateers blog and share some aspects of our life in Oman with you! And what else should we write about to celebrate this re-inauguration, than our favourite topic – our girls! Here’s a collage of the two sisters playing together in their room.

Matilda is now three-and-a-half and started nursery last week – I guess you could compare that to the Dutch ‘kleuterschool’. This of course has been an exciting milestone as she has now moved to the school building with the older children, and there is a new teacher and new activities such as swimming (!) and P.E. (“gymnastiek”). So far so good, it’s been a tremendous boost for her to feel like a ‘big girl’ now.

Matilda leaving the house for her first day at nursery

 

Madeleine is eight and a half months and adores her older sister. She is also fond of putting toys and other unidentified objects in her mouth, and enjoys all the food that we gradually introduce. No crawling or sitting yet; flipping on her belly and putting her feet into her mouth have been sufficient entertainment so far. She’s and incredibly happy and content baby.

'Maddie'