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A very popular children's song in the Netherlands is "Head, shoulder, knee and toe". The origins of the song are, as with most older songs, unknown. The complete text is as follows:

Head, shoulder, knee and toe, knee and toe.
Head, shoulder, knee and toe, knee and toe.
Ears, Eyes, tip of your nose.
Head, shoulder, knee and toe, knee and toe.

This is a great song to sing with a bunch of kids. You're supposed to touch the body poarts that you sing about. This is great fun if you increase the speed bit by bit.

Last week quite a few things happened to us in the body department, so we've made our own version of this song, and the title is "Nose, throat, hip and heel".

Nose

Min Yi has caught her first cold. I've was told that this signals the end of the First Major Period of Worries (in which you worry about you child's food intake and yes... output) and the start of the Second Major Period of Worries, in which you worry about the flu, cold, ear infections and the like. So anyway, Min Yi has her first cold and she has a runny nose. She doesn't seem to be too bothered by it. Her parents wiping her nose once in a while, THAT'S what she really dislikes!

Throat

Li has also caught a cold, and her throat hurts a lot. She's taking a Chinese herbal medicine, which always works very well. Min Yi doesn't seem to have a sore throat. She did have a dry cough the day before yesterday, but didn't seem to be especially bothered by that.

Hip

Only three weeks left for Min Yi in her cast. We're really looking forward to the 2nd of November, which is when she'll be taken out. Also, we're very curious to see how she will react: "Oh ... my ... god... what are THOSE two things?". We can't wait to feel a complete Min Yi again, to see her legs and to be able to bathe her. It'll be so wonderful to see her explore the world on her own. Bye mom and dad, it was great being carried around but I'm off on my own now!

Heel

Bad news. I broke my heel [that's a correction: I actually wrote hip until a friend called up real worried. That's what happens when all you think of is hips, hips and hips] last Thursday. I fell down while climbing. It was only 3 meters but completely unexpected so I didn't have a chance to react and landed on my straight leg. I'll find out on Tuesday if I need to be operated on. Operation or not, I won't be able to do much for the coming two months. (well, I could update the website more often of course).