#jelka

Spin around

“Wat wil je vanmiddag met Phoebe doen?” Matthijs asked his daughter.

Despite Rebecca's Dutch still being rough, she knew the language well enough to understand that he was asking Jelka what she wanted to do with Phoebe in the afternoon.

Her focus stayed on the screen in front of her, though, until she heard the girl excitedly replying, “Mogen we schaatsen op de grace? Alsjeblieft!” 

“On the canal what?” Rebecca asked not understanding everything Jelka said, but not liking the part that she got. 

“Schaatsen, ice skating!” Jelka immediately translated. 

Rebecca goggled at Matthijs. He chuckled seeing her face and explained that it was a tradition there to go ice skating on the frozen canals during the coldest days. 

“It's super fun!” Jelka yelled. 

A year in the life - Chapter 8 : A big step

Finally, her phone rang, and she answered immediately, greeting him happily. They were chatting when Jelka popped up behind her father's bald head, hugging his neck and saying something in Dutch that Rebecca couldn't understand. 

The girl froze when she noticed the woman’s face on her dad's screen. Rebecca smiled at her and, waving her hand, said, “Hi!” 

“ Jelkaje , do you remember Rebecca? She’s papa’s friend who we met at the airport in London,” Matthijs told his daughter.

“ Ja ,” Jelka said with sudden understanding in her eyes, “Hi Rebecca!” Jelka’s little high voice was very cute with her Dutch accent. The girl smiled at Rebecca on the screen for a few more seconds before turning her attention back to her dad and asking him in English, “Can I sleep over at Elsje and Floris’ tonight?”

Tooth fairies

She was telling them about the sleepover that Grandma organised for her last night in Amsterdam with her two best friends when she suddenly uttered, “Oh! Do you know that I have a wobbly tooth?”

“Really? Show me!” Matthijs said excitedly.

Easter egg hunt

Rebecca woke up at dawn, too excited to stay in bed any longer. It was the first Easter since Matthijs and Jelka had moved in, and she had prepared a surprise.

In the previous days, following a tutorial on the internet, she had painted eggs to hide in the garden. She actually had a lot of fun brushing up her artistic skills and she managed quite easily to decorate the eggs with cosy colours and designs, reminiscent of how much she liked to draw when she was younger.