A piece of cake

Hey, we reached the end of January. Winter is almost over. The weather has been splendid, i.e. sunny and warm, not good for the garden and the olive trees because they need water.

Yesterday evening, it started raining and today it is overcast with showers, so the trees and the plants are happy too. I am a little bit less. It is most probably only for a few days.

Zakaria’s teeth are showing very well under the gum. We expect them to surface soon. The sooner, the better.

He started to play with his toys and would so much like to walk. When he is sitting upright, he quite often tries to stand up which he can when he has got something to hold on. Soon he will be running around the house and we will have to keep an eye on him all of the time.

He is tall for his age (5,5 months), so are many other babies in the village. It must be something in the water that makes these children grow so well. We all drink tap water. Me also. Got accustomed to it.

I know that Aleppo and the region on the other side of Aleppo are supplied with water from the Euphrates. Don’t know whether our village is. I don’t taste any difference.

January and February is tourist low season. I haven’t spoken any “foreign” language for a month, besides French to Mohamed and Flemish to Zakaria.

Indeed, our son is growing up with 3 languages. I read that a baby picks up all languages that are spoken around him, as long as every person keeps using the same language when communicating with it. It is an advantage over here to know foreign languages. Not many do.

Not only in our house, but also outside in the garden, many languages are to be picked up like German, English, Italian, …

I wonder how Zakaria will cope. These days, he only listens to the tone of the voice. If it is nice and friendly, he smiles, no matter what is said in any language.

Burst waterpipes

After the rain, came the freezing cold for about a week.

We know the frost comes around Christmas and we were not prepared. It was 10 or more °C below zero at night which made some parts of the water pipes burst. We were not the only ones that forgot to take precautions, so did about every household in the village.

Contrary to last year, the freezing stopped quickly and we are enjoying hazy mild weather, ideal for working in the garden and ideal for the trees and plants. I’m growing onions, garlic and beans this winter.

Zakaria is sleeping a lot during the day. He’s teething. It makes him very tired. Most of the discomfort seems to come in the evening and just before sunrise. He’s being very brave about it. Making him laugh is the best way to sooth the pain.

He’s continuing to mimic the adults. Wants to drink from a mug or a glass, even when there’s nothing in it and eats anything that is presented to him on a spoon.

And there is really nothing else to report on.

We are abiding our (winter)time and are waiting for spring. It seems like in winter even more family visits are going on. That’s probably because at the beginning of sunset, we all go inside and put the stove on. The evenings are longer with not much more to do than try to stay warm, eat, talk and watch television.