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Showing posts from 2014

Biking with Baby in Holland

I took public transport or wa l ked till ab o ut three months. By then my baby could hold his head up, and I felt my comfort/balance level was enough to bike safely with a front carrier. I also checked the Dutch rules, and they say it's 'unsafe' to bike with a baby carrier/sling, due to falling risks, but not illegal per se. The official advice is to use a car seat in a safety fastening n the back of your bike, or a car seat fastened in a cart/wagon. After the baby can sit up alone, a baby bike seat is fine.  http://www.veiligheid.nl/tips-en-advies/baby-mee-op-de-fiets

Zombies

If you're a female and you don't get enough sleep, you can choose to look like a zombie, or like a pretty zombie. Since most males don't wear makeup, they don't have this choice. Then again, since society doesn't hold males to the same standards it holds females, males don't have to wonder at all about whether they resemble zombies.

November Moments - Posted or No

            1 November                 Me at 5am: You are sleepy, my son. Search your feelings, you know it to be true. 4 November  My apologies to all the sleeping neighbors who were awoken by a happily screeching pterodactyl. On the bright side, the early mornings mean extra reading time of books from wonderful pterodactyl aunts.... 7 November Hearthfire on, vanilla latte, cuddlebaby falling asleep on our lap to Trans-Siberian Orchestra.   ‪#‎ urbanwinter‬ 11 November  My child, do not resist, for such is the way of the world. When thy mother is cold, thee must wear a coat. 13 November A little concerned that when I search 'baby' on the supermarket website, one of the suggestions is "Turkey stuffed with apple and sage." 14 November Me: This would be a great moment for you to take a nap Captain Baby: I love those moments...I like to wave at them as they pass

Bugs on the Lettuce.

Bugs on a head of lettuce. Third World solution: Be grateful for fresh greens! Wash bugs off (or pick bugs off if there's water rationing.) Savour every mouthful. Second World solution: Post a picture to Facebook to get some sympathy. Wash lettuce three times and gingerly eat half of it. First World solution: Drive to store and complain until they refund your money. Stop for drive-through lunch on the way back. Throw the lettuce in the trash.

October Moments - Posted or No

5  October   Full weekend. Happy anniversary and happy birthday to some of my favourite people, freshly pressed apple/pear juice, my manly man hacking the old fridge for the last time, and the little hobbit and me listening to Carmen while getting over our colds. And a surprise thunderstorm that tossed laundry onto yet another neighbor's balcony. 8 October   First time on a bike since the little hobbit was born - looking forward to being able to tuck him in a seat and take him along! Faster than a buggy, cheaper than public transport... if only it was waterproof. 9 October The good news is, we have a new refrigerator. The bad news is, Pippin is too small to make a house in the box. 19  October  126+ pieces of paper to prove who our son is and what country(s) he's a citizen of. Glad the Kingdom of Heaven doesn't work that way. Nor require documents FILLED IN LEGIBLY IN BLACK INK OR YOU WILL BE DOOMED FOREVER.

September Moments - Posted or No

2 September, 2014 Some days a little person wakes you up from your (short) nap and then insists on finishing his while collapsed on your shoulder like a potato. At these times it's important to remember that the only person who cares if your house is clean is you. Certainly not the potato, and probably not guests, as long as they get to hold the potato. 12 September Urban babies take the metro . ‪#‎urbanbabies‬ ‪#‎babywearing‬ 12 September Baby asleep on shoulder, warm lamplight, tea, pajamas, and new book with a Ludovico Einaudi soundtrack. Hard to top this for a Friday night.... 16 September New hobby: leaving video messages on skype for family and friends when the little wiggly guy is feeling talkative. 20 September Expensive cars and blingy clothes are so last year. Want attention? Walk around town with an adorable baby in a carrier. Not enough admiring comments? Bring along a friend with her own adorable baby in a carrier. 21 September Watching the

Harbour Hospital

I'm charmed by this hospital. Since being pregnant and having Pippin, I've been to four hospitals in the area. A few months ago Faramir and I joked that before long we'll have visited every single one, and we're making good progress on that. So far, the Havenziekenhuis is one of my favourites. For one thing, it's relatively small, which seemed to translate to less patients and staff, and less rush overall. Despite being under construction- or perhaps because of it - the atmosphere was cheerful. The men putting bookshelves together chatted with passing medical staff ("It's certainly not Ikea furniture!"). The receptionists exclaimed over Pippin's photo ID, and then even more when I pulled back his buggy shade so they could get a better look at the real deal. "Ah, so cute! And he was born the day after my grandson!" The doctor I had the appointment with was professional and friendly, and was willing to dialogue over possible issue

5 Minute Walk

This morning I had found an advertisement for some bottles and pacifiers from a seller on Marktplaats, a popular buying/selling website. Over the months I've found several similar ads, from "We bought too many size 1 diapers" to "My baby has grown out of these clothes." Sometimes I can go pick up the items for cheap, sometimes for no charge. When they're free, I like to take a box of chocolates as a little 'thank you' gift. Only, I've recently run out of my gift stash and needed to get some more tonight, as well as groceries. I tucked Pippin into his baby carrier, dropped a kiss on Faramir's cheek, and headed out the door. We passed a boy sitting on his doorstep by the mailboxes, next to a pile of letters, with a woman behind him as he talked to her in Italian. Translating? "If everything is not paid..." It's about five minutes walk to the grocery store through my multicultural neighborhood. Three if traffic is light - no car

Neighbourhood Imps

I'm cooling down after a run, walking through my neighborhood with headphones in and tired muscles protesting. My attention is drawn by two policemen, in black sweaters and trousers, using a scanner to check license plates- an easy way to tell who has paid for parking. And who hasn't. The beeping continues behind me as I reach the next corner and am accosted by five excited kids. I've seen them before during runs; a mix of black and white, girls and boys. I'd guess their ages to be between five and eight. It's not unusual to see kids of all ethnicities out playing on the sidewalks in our neighborhood. Having grown up myself with a big yard and the beach 20 minutes away, I wonder if they even know what they're missing, limited to concrete sidewalks and a few parks . And I wonder if their parents ever worry about them, in our area where there's a high housing turnover rate and it's not uncommon to smell weed. "Mevrouw, mevrouw!" the kids say

Off to the Office

Today Pippin and I strolled our way down the road, under the bridge, up the hill, and around the corner to my old office. There he was.made a royal fuss over by my friends. Fortunately, it was a slow day at the nonprofit office, but I imagine a busy day wouldn't have mattered much to them anyway. The secretary, I., even answered the door for some clients while holding Pippin, and came back laughing that she had had to explain,"He's not mine! He's a colleague's!" Since I've only come in on a project basis for the last year or two (and not even that for the last few months) there were a few new faces at the office. I shook hands with the one, as M. proudly explained, "She's been a volunteer here for a long time, but has been pretty occupied the last while...." "I can see why. Congratulations!" Another new face belonged to a male intern, and while he also shook hands politely, I felt sorry for him trying to do his work and use the

Better in a Minute

I sleepily think about timing as I sleepily grope for a diaper. Our heavy curtains do their job well, blocking out the autumn city glow at 3am the way they blocked out the bright-til-11pm summer skies. I'm on the lookout for a small lamp or nightlight, but until then I turn my smartphone on and start changing Pippin by its light. He wavers between anger and panic, convinced that every second of delay could be the end of the world. He's too young to understand that a 30 second soggy change now prevents a three minute blowout change later. It equally past his comprehension that washing my hands helps prevent hin getting sick, and that we pad from bedoom to living room so his papa can get some extra sleep and have more energy to play with Pippin tomorrow. The most ironic moment of all comes when we finally settle on the couch, Pippin still upset. He resists as I try to replace his pacifier with a bottle. "Hey," I tell him softly, " the bottle is so much better.&

Worry

My mind is quick to run ahead with scenarios anyway, but now that we have a baby, worry crops up so easily. Rolling over in the night, it's quiet and I wonder if Pippin is still breathing. After lying there a few more seconds, I go over and lay my hand on his chest and am reassured. Am I dressing him too warmly? Not warmly enough? What if he catches some disease when we're in the waiting room at the doctor's office? He made it through all the pregnancy months safely, but what if ultrasounds missed something? Is he getting enough to eat when he keeps falling asleep during nursing? What if I miss seeing a car and it hits us while we're out walking? What if I slip on a wet patch on the stairs and fall and crush him? Cancer. Blindness. Autism. Broken limbs. Heartbreak. Accidents. Malnutrition. Isolation. In my head, I know that even if something bad happens, God is faithful. I know that D and I are doing our best to take care of our little treasure, and t

Schedule Wrecker

They say that babies wreak havoc on a schedule. We're currently on vacation, but I'm finding it ironic how often our little Pippin manages to interrupt even the loosest of plans. "I'm ready to have my lunch," I think... and then he wakes up and wants his. "Great weather for sitting on the balcony,"I say to D, only to hear noises alerting us that a certain little person has woken up and wants attention. Not to mention the last minute diaper changes and back-up bottles prepared before trips to the store or someone's house. I can't say any of this is unexpected. After growing up with multiple siblings and then spending years as a daycare teacher and nanny, I'm used to the natural disregard little people have for big people's plans. And we've been blessed to have lots of family around this summer - lots of arms to hold him so I can shower, eat a proper meal, and take naps. It's going to be interesting to see how life evolves after

Impatient and Grateful

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A friend of mine wrote on her blog about how she missed being able to text back and forth with two of her formerly pregnant friends, who had graduated to "all blissed out and sleep-deprived with their new babies and I'm still (thankfully) pregnant." Only I'm lacking that whole thankfulness thing at this point because 38 weeks pregnant is plennnty of time for me and I've been ready for our little one to come since about six months in. At which point I had already stocked up on food staples, toiletries staples, and baby clothing/washing/tending staples. As well as having read a ridiculous amount of articles in Dutch and English on healthy pregnancy, natural birthing, and newborn care. Which left way too much time over for me to wait for the baby to actually show up, which makes it hard to be thankful about him taking his time. I am thankful for lots of things, though. Such as popsicles (I'm averaging 1-2 a day) in our warm summer apartment. A generally workin

Mum Time

Chilling out at the Hema cafe, watching a mum wrestle her baby into a front carrier. Out the window strolls the Saturday morning crowd, including a fair amount of children and strollers. I'm waiting for a new friend to join me for coffee - decaf, since we're both pregnant. We connected via a Facebook group for expatriate parents in the region, and decided it would be fun to meet up. I'm excited about the possibilities with this group - playdates with our little ones, shared concerns and questions about parenting in NL. A pregnancy tea in a few weeks. Connecting for coffee, or shopping. And I'm excited about this morning, sharing coffee and swapping stories about how we came to live here and our mutual hobbies. And, of course, talking about pregnancy, and surviving the last month or so before our due dates! It'll be a fun morning :)

Long Long Day

Exhausted this afternoon. Biked relatively quickly this morning to ch and back, had fun subbing with the 0-3 class, and made french toast for lunch around 2 once we got home.... And then crashed on the couch for the next several hours. Dozed off while leaning against D, then eventually sat up to do some transcribing - something at least mildly productive with my afternoon. Got hit by another wave of tiredness and had to lie back down for a bit. I had asked if D would cook if I peeled the potatoes, and then realised that even that was almost more than I could handle, so he's doing everything.... So grateful for him.  Hoping to be in bed by 9 tonight, because while I'm used to the general tiredness, this is full body tiredness as though I'd been lifting weights or running 5Ks. And all I've done is bike today, and walk about 4k yesterday with D, and then random around house stuff. Well, and I swept the house today and that left me breathing hard too. Friday I biked t

Stiffness and Questions

Stiff and sore again on waking. My goodness. But I managed to sleep from about 11 to 5, so that was progress. And then lay awake about half an hour, then slept til 8... then slept another half hour and then woke up, albeit grudgingly and slightly grumpily. Wondering how anyone lasts through 9 months of pregnancy, especially if they already have children. After a cuddle and some croissants and coffee, the day became tolerably decent. Found out that Cyprus was dropping their 'Iron Curtain' over the Easter weekend, which makes me happy. Lovely to read positive headlines instead of the constant war, debt, doom ones.  D turned on jazz music, which led to us following a link to  WFP.org  - World Food Programme - and discussing adding that to our charity list. And then talking about whether we'd ever move overseas and do something hands on like planting gardens or building things, or teach ESL. What would be practical given our education? What would be the drive that would g

Dresser Fit For A Prince

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In big apartment buildings here in the Netherlands, there's often a dumpster/castoff room in the basement where people take their trash or unwanted stuff. Other people can take things, or the trash gets picked up later.  Yesterday while babysitting I just HAPPENED to go down to the basement to recycle paper, and found an adorable baby changing table/dresser. I'm not normally a big furniture person, or fancy person at all. D and I are both really down-to-earth and frugal - we tend to save our money, or use it on plane tickets for family and experiences and not on stuff. And we have honestly just been planning to use mostly multipurpose stuff when possible for the baby, because why would we spend thousands of euros for baby cribs etc. when we can borrow them or buy them second-hand....  All that to say, our whole (tiny) apartment is very simple and pretty but not expensive, and we like it that way, plus the baby won't care  We don't even have a second bedroom, a

Quiet morning here.

Quiet morning here. Well, except for the power tools that have been used on and off since 9am, ruining my chances of sleeping in a bit. And the banging noises from whatever house is being refurbished. But I have classical piano playing, and my (almost 19 week old) baby is cuddled in my belly, and I have a big mug of Earl Grey tea... so it's all good. Unlike the last two mornings, I didn't have to hurry awake, get dressed, and head out the door, so this is definitely relaxing in comparison.  It's lovely to have the time to just sit and reflect.... I decided the other day I should start blogging again, especially through this pregnancy. I've been keeping a journal along the way, but there's something nice about adding thoughts to a blog and joining the other (expectant) mothers out there.  Yesterday I weighed in and am now up to 58.8kg, from a starting weight of 55kg... it's funny to keep track of that just for the record and not because I'm