House visit

Yesterday we had a house visit from the baby clinic. It basically was what we do when we go to the Dr for the first time, the only difference here is they come to your house. I was a little nervous before they came because I really didn't know what to expect, but everything went well and I understand the process a bit more. Kaylin has a check up next Wednesday and they want to see Shane the beginning of March.
The vaccine schedule is a bit different. The only one I can think of now is they don't administer the Hep B shot unless the child's parents are infected which makes sense to me. Although, she did say they will start giving it to all kids with in the next few years.
The baby clinic is for kids from birth to 4 and I believe all appointments and vaccines are free.
Also, all the kids here continue to take vitamin D a lot longer because we are lacking in sunshine in the winter.

Helmet and Sledding??

So, I am sitting here while the kids are napping listening to the radio ( I get a Milwaukee station on the computer) anyway they are saying that there is a bill that is being proposed to make it illegal for kids under 12 to go sledding without a helmet. Are you KIDDING me?!! Am I completely nuts or does this sound absolutely crazy to you? My hands are actually shaking while writing this because I am so irritated. Yes, I understand that kids can get hurt sledding, but they also can get hurt learning to go downstairs, especially in this house! I am stunned. If you are really worried about your kids sledding maybe you should go with them and make sure there aren't any rocks, trees etc.. that they can run into.
ok, enough ranting for today.

Shane's New Hat

Here is Shane's new hat! His blue one is getting a bit small so I took advantage of the pattern books I was given for Christmas. Very easy and very cute!

8 Months

Shane is now 8 months old and VERY active! This child shakes and pounds EVERYTHING! If he can't make noise with it he wants nothing to do with it. He walks along the furniture and tries to stand by himself. Yesterday he stood for about 5 seconds with out falling...doesn't sound like a long time, but it felt like it when I was watching him. :) I put him on the scale the other day and he weighs about 17.5 lbs.

His third tooth came through two days ago and three more are very close to coming through so he has been a little fussy and always has a finger in his mouth.

The poor boy was not happy about getting his picture taken so we had to ask uncle Sean for help while mama tickled him...

He is getting better about sleeping through the night. He goes to bed at 7 wakes up for his paci around 10 and then will wake up to eat sometime between 3:30-6 and then wakes up for the day at 8.

I know I have said this many times, but he his getting so big so fast! We are so lucky to have such sweet and cuddly kids!

The last two weeks

Well, mom and Sean are on their way home after a great 2 weeks. We had such a good time with them here and are very sad that they had to leave. Sean did a great job updating the blog and Matt thinks we should outsource it to him! I seriously thought about it for about a minute and then decided that I will try to get back into the swing of regularly posting. It was such a nice day out yesterday so we left in the morning and went to the floating flower market and down Kalverstraat which is a huge shopping street and then to Dam Square which is were the Royal family lives and was the main square where people would do their buying and selling of goods. After that we went to lunch and then walked around again. The kids did great and it was a nice end to a great vacation. Sean has some pics that I will have to get from him and then post here.

Matt and I had a fantastic time in Cancun after a very tough first day with out the kids. It was SO HARD leaving them. Matt kept commenting on my "fragile emotional state." We were able to call home every other day which made being so far away much easier.

It was so nice to get away and spend time with Matt and I was so happy we could be at Jen and Jason's wedding. It was absolutely beautiful and they couldn't have asked for a better day. I was very surprised at the amount of strangers taking pictures and video- yes video of their wedding. I just am surprised that people would want pics and video of a wedding where they have never met the people!

We left Wednesday morning and arrived in Chicago around 1pm and then Bud and Jane met us for dinner. It was so nice to spend some time with them. It felt really strange to be in Chicago...so close to home. We spent the night in Chicago and left first thing Thursday morning for Cancun! We arrived 45 minutes early only to stand for 2 1/2 hours waiting to get through customs. Not so much fun.

We then took a shuttle to the hotel, checked in, found Jen, Jason, Kristy and Darren on the beach and that is pretty much where we spent the vacation! We went into town twice, took a day trip where we could snorkel and shop at a small island.

It was a great time (aside from Darren, Kristy and Jen getting food poisoning-NOT fun)!

View from our room

Vondel Park

Today we ventured out to Vondel Park! It was a beautiful day- The sun was out, no wind but a little chilly. We all bundled up and made the hike to the park. On the way there, I was very interested in seeing all of the different cars that they have here vs. what we have in America- personally- I love the cars here- just like the buildings- they have a little more "personality". While walking to the park, we crossed over a large bridge which was pretty neat to see. Then after the bridge, we walked through tunnel and I saw so many bikes parked-I couldn't believe it! Also in the picture of that, I got the other more common form of transport around here...The Tram! I also thought it was hilarious that their police cars are VW Golfs here-so I included a picture of that as well :)

   

     

Once we got into the park, it was really nice. The whole thing is kept up so well! With it even being the middle of winter here, they still had ground workers going around making sure everything was just right. Unfortunately there was nothing to really look at- plantwise because it IS winter here...

I really enjoyed the pond that they have in the park. It is really large and is home to a ton of bird life. It was really fun to see. We stopped off in a little alcove to watch the ducks and a flock of pigeons that greeted us looking for hand outs... Unfortunately we didn't have anything to give them. Mom tried making friends with one of the pigeons, but once he found out that she didn't have any food- he took off- haha

  

  

We then kept walking around the park and found a playground. We stopped to play but the equipment that was there was for older kids so Kaylin ended up just running around saying "Hi!' to every kid she saw. Unfortunately I don't have a picture of that :( but I do have one of Shane while he was sitting in the stroller while Kaylin played. 

We then left the playground and the kids were starting to unravel so we headed home. The walk home was nice because we took a different way home than the way we took to the park. We got to see more city life, shops and so on- it was really fun. 

Finally we got home and the kids were relieved. They were ready for sight seeing to be done for the day. 

The rest of the day, we spent making dinner, playing with the kids and then having movie time before bed. Now Mom and I are sitting here watching "Little People Big World" I am very glad that we get some American channels here-You can only take so much of TV in dutch subtitled in English. Well thats it for today. Tomorrow brings a new day and more excitement!

One more thing...

So my sister thinks I am crazy...but I have to tell you all my thoughts about this- So there are seagulls here just like in America. They have the same coloring, same size and eat anything they can get their grubby little beaks on- the one difference I THINK is their squawking. I personally think that our lovely little seagulls squawk in America is ear piercing to the point of almost driving you insane. Here they have a lower decibel squawk that really is not annoying at all- sure they are still swarming around looking for food BUT their screeching is much more tollerable here than back in the states, which makes them not so annoying! Hmm... who would have thought seagulls not being annoying?!?...Just thought that was a funny little tid bit.  OH and when I said my sister thinks I am crazy- She doesn't hear the difference...but I think she has gotten so used to these pleasant gulls that she forgets how awful ours are! HAHA

or I could just be crazy...wait-no that can't be it.