"Ilja, his first lustrum year (5 ..." a Elst Travel Page by Pavlik_NL

Our pride and joy grows up and this picture was made for his birthday invitations to his classmates. Of course a party goes along with this event and this year papa and mama make it extra special. Together with his friends Alexander, Kevin, Daan, Rabia and especially Shante ... Ilja celebrates it at home. The weather is fine and so we start out outside (throwing selfmade "decoration ribbons" competition and a bottle football match) after lunch with pancakes. Then the highlight: Ilja's "knutsel club" = "Ilja's potter club". We built our own houses, pirate ships, TV-set etc. Work makes hungry so next is dinnertime with deliscious fries, applecompote and various snacks. The party gets finished with a real home discotheque. Ilja had great fun ... mom' and dad are exhausted (-:

Ilja loves to move. He is always climbing up things or running around. He learned how to ride a bike and swims like a fish. At home in the living room, two rings hang for his daily workout (-: With a large matrass for safety under the rings, he makes the craziest moves and tricks on this trapezium.

Like all other children Ilja too has a "few" bed friends. However ... we sometimes wonder whether there's still enough room for Ilja in his own bed. His favourit friends are definately his two seals. The even come along when we travel to friends or on holiday trips. But there's also dolphin and hedgehog (this last one originally was made by his grandmother and belonged to Ilja's daddy - me!).

Although the winter's are getting warmer and warmer, in the winter of 2006-2007 we again have some snow. In Holland this means action, as it never stays long and if you want to enjoy the white magic, then you have to be quick. For some days, the sleigh comes from the attic and snowballs are flying around frequently. Ilja loves all seasons, as long as he can play around with mom and dad.

As said in earlier part, Ilja loves to do all kinds of excersizes, as long as it involves ropes, ladders, stairs, rings, racks etc. Playgrounds are always near and there's where the fun is for Ilja.

We are also very proud about Ilja in his way he helps us out in doing the household. He loves to cook and help with cleaning the house, although he hates it to clean up after his playing with toys.

Strange, Ilja's most favourite books are actually books about technique, science, experiments and encyclopedia's. Of course we push him to also like storybooks and fairytales, but his love for these items do not come from a stranger (I too prefer scientific books). However, few of his favourit storybooks are definately "Pinkeltje" and later "Wipneus en Pim" (Dutch) as well as some Russian fairytales from Irina. When Ilja goes to bed, either mama or papa has to tell him a story.

In 2006 Ilja's favourite books is the series of "Energy"-dossiers. Above all the one about "Water power" takes his breath away. Besides this one the serie is about "Oil and Gas", "Coal", "Solar", "Wind" and "Nuclear" energy. The whole serie is read again and again, just like he did with the picturebooks about cars and the TV-series "How do they do it?", "The way things work" and "How it's made" (Discovery channel).