16 months in - David

I tried really hard to interview David (age 6) on April 23rd for the second time since our move.  It didn't work, but I do think David tried.  We've lived here for just over 20% of David's life and we moved when he was only 4.5, so it makes sense that this kind of thing might not take.  But here is a summary of what David said during our conversation.

• Things are happy with David.  When he thinks about our house, riding bikes, or being outside he feels happy.  School is usually good, but there are some usual kid-related things that we don't like about school.
• Thinking about visiting Tacoma feels happy for David too.  He thinks about our Tacoma house when I mention "Tacoma" - that's pretty much it.  Mostly the backyard and the treehouse, where we have lots of happy memories.  He has a memory of watching movies in that house, specifically one about dinos (which I'm blaming on The Land Before Time).
• David remembers that Lila was our fluffy black cat.  
• He's excited to visit Wright Park, Point Defiance, and to go camping at Kalaloch.
• When David thinks about his old school, he remembers his best friend.  He does not remember the active shooter drill that he had to go through at age 3.5, which is in large part because his teacher made it a game of hiding from a giant spider.  Kudos to that teacher!
• David barely remembers living here but not speaking Dutch.
• Sorry, David isn't bothered by our family being far away. 
• He feels like he's made really good friends here.  David doesn't feel like he doesn't fit in - he is a regular 6 year old kid who lives in NL, goes to school, speaks the language, and rides his bike.  There is nothing that stands out as different.  He doesn't think the way he feels is related to having other immigrant kids in his class at school.
• David asked "which country?" when I asked if there was anything he was looking forward to, which I thought was on point.  He looks forward to visiting friends' houses, as a general idea, in both the US and NL.  He was excited to visit the forest with our dogs (which we've already done between this interview and blog post).
• David had a lot of substitute teachers recently, so he said "having bad teachers" was something that isn't going well because he misses his main teacher.  Everything else is going okay.
• If he could send a message to his BFF from Tacoma, he would say "I miss you".  He very fondly remembers making gingerbread cookie houses at your house before we moved - I think that's a solid core memory right there, thank you!