I'm still recovering from acute bronchitis. It's awful, cannot do much for these past few days except posting some ads on Craigslist for things we want to sell. The doctor prescribed me strong antibiotics, which gave some weird dreams on the first nights. No nightmares, just  very intense-continuous-almost-real dreams. One of them s was about the ( Read more... )

You will hear me repeatedly say 'udah' *colloquial Indonesian of 'sudah' which means 'done'* to encourage Louise to sign. After some seconds, you will see her wave her right hand, her version of the ASL '(all) done'

Lou's age: 11 months old

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We've been very busy with our move

Although one major issue is still pending, we have crossed out many important things form to-do list
My kids have never been so sweet
Before these moving days, most of the time I would play with them reluctantly
But for the past weeks, their presence is really my escape
Their laughters and smile give me some fresh air
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Today is our 4th anniversary living in Illinois.

Packing, unpacking, transiting

Our parents ask why we keep on moving.  When we left holland to the US, they asked why we leave Europe. Now that we're about to return to Europe, they got confused and asked why we leave the US. "Isn't there any good enough job in a big country like the US? Don't you ( Read more... )

Progress in Languages (Part 1)

I'm getting used to people stare or give comments on our family's trilingualism. Most are friendly and just ask how we manage to do it, while some feel uncomfortable hearing us interchangeably speak in three languages.

From my observations, those who feel unease are mostly monolinguals or the ones raising kids ( Read more... )

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Since learning about our next move, I've been thinking, again, about Third Culture Kids. Coincidently, I  had a chat with my friend Devina yesterday, who asked me to explain a bit about Third Culture Kids. If you click the tag Third Culture Kids on the right column, you will see I actually touched this subject several times, although never on the ( Read more... )

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Louise is going to turn nine-months-old in two days. She babbles 'tataaaaa' 'kekekeee' 'mammaammmm' and screams whenever her brother tries to snatch a toy out of her hands. We begin to sign with her, so far she understands the sign 'bye' and 'drink', and from time to time returns signing 'bye'.

We did the same thing to Joseph. I began signing with ( Read more... )