First Haircut

This entry is brought to you by Evie!

Evie hit a big milestone last Thursday when she went to daycare for the first time. It was only for three hours to get used to it there, but that's a start! As to be expected, she absolutely loved it there. She liked exploring all the toys and playing with the children. According to her teachers, she didn't even notice that Mama was gone. Starting Friday she will be going to the creche (daycare) once a week. In July, that will become two days a week.

To celebrate her success at the creche, that afternoon we went to a salon for Evie's first haircut. They had a great set-up with a children's chair and toys. She did very well for a first-timer, and we are happy with the end results.

best attempt for a "before" shot
hardly noticing the hairdresser, Evie looks through a magazine
all done!

That evening we tried to get some good shots of her new 'do. Unfortunately, she did not really want to cooperate.

"Are you serious?"
Here she was actually shaking her head as I tried to catch a shot.
Playing with Papa after supper, however, always gets a smile from Evie.
In other growing up news. Evie has now (partly) graduated to sitting on the back of the back as opposed to by the handlebars. On Papa's bike, she has a new bike seat. Today we took it for a test ride and it seemed to go well. Even though she doesn't look extremely happy in this picture, she did enjoy the new ride. She'll still ride up front with Mama for a while, though.

Top Ten George W Bush Moments

David Letterman's Top Ten George W Bush Moments

Same old, same old

Same old, same old here in The Hague. Last week we went over and visited Kaylee again. The girls loved coloring and playing together. It's still mostly parallel play, but they are definitely interacting a lot with each other as well. As you can see they are both aspiring artists.





Saturday night Liz had a Ladies Night at Marieke's house. Marieke made some great sushi and miso soup to go with the Japanese theme of the evening. Below are all the ladies, from left to right: Annabelle, Michaela, Marieke, Ulrike, Terhi, Liz, and Jolijn. We are quite an international bunch, actually. Three Dutch, two Germans, one Finnish, and one American. And we all like to wear black, apparently. :-)

Photos in January

Yeeeehaaaa!

Cousin Lucas came over to visit

Evie had just woken from her nap and was a little shy, but still interested in the baby.

But when Baby Janna came over the next day Evie was VERY interested. She wanted to cuddle her the whole time.

And give her lots of kisses. At one point she wanted to but the (real) baby in her doll stroller. We wouldn't allow it.

Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee at it again. Here the wacky duo were watching tv upside down!!

Evie loves wearing Mama's hats


One of Evie's favorite Christmas presents came from Aunty Steph in America. She sent her some crayons for in the bath, and they actually work really well!! Evie, as well as her parents, have been enjoying making art in the tub. Below are a couple pictures of the first time we used them. Since then, we've made even more beautiful things, but we didn't' photograph them all.

Dikke Dikke Dikke Tante Kay

That translates to "fat, fat, fat, aunt kay". Of course that's not the case with Evie's aunt, but it is a line in a popular children's song... so, obviously, we enjoy singing it. Evie actually does a really good job singing along and doing the hand motions with that song. And instead of Dikke Tante Kay, she says Dikke Tante Kay-Kay. But this post isn't about a nursery rhyme, but about Kay-Kay's visit to the Netherlands.

KK arrived on the 15th of December and stayed with us until January 7th. KK's friend Carl, who is currently studying in Germany, joined us on Christmas and stayed through the New Year. All in all it was a good visit, filled with lots of quality playing time, DVD's, good and bad, and a couple games here and there.

Instead of posting the usual plethora of pictures, I have played with iMovie and made a short picture montage.

New Year's at Midnight

As promised, a three minute video of the fireworks just after midnight. This was just what was outside our house. On every street in every town in Holland, Dutchies big and small light fireworks. The quality of the video isn't that great because it was dark, and it got very smoky with all those explosives. But it gives you an idea of how it was!!!

Happy New Year!!!

We had a wonderful New Year's at home with KK, Carl, Martijn, and Danielle. Tom and Liz dominated in Monopoly. At midnight, after quickly downing some champagne, we all ran outside to light of fireworks, just like the rest of the people in Holland. They are available to buy three days of the year, and legal to set off for 14 hours. Most people, like ourselves, wait until midnight and then it's crazy outside. We got a few minutes video of it, but it will probably be a while before that makes it on the computer. After returning inside we noticed more and more of our neighbors gathering in preparation of building a bonfire... right in front of the house. But hey, what can you really do about it.

In this picture you see our house, well part of it... the windows all the way to the right are from our bedroom, the windows you can't see because there's a big fire, are from Evie's room.

Meanwhile, fireworks were still going off and the fire just kept getting bigger. Numerous Christmas trees, plenty of wood, and all the leftover firework packages made it's way into the blaze. At one point we even saw a mattress be thrown on top of the fire.

The police officers did show up a couple times to keep things under control. They saved two of our neighbor's bikes from being thrown it, yet another brand new kids' bike was not as fortunate. At one point we thought there was going to be some serious trouble between the fire-makers and the cops, but the cops were way outnumbered.

This morning the streets were completely dead and we see the remnants of a successful new year's eve. In the foreground, the aforementioned rescued bicycles. Hopefully this will all be cleaned up tomorrow.

And the most amazing thing of all. Evie slept though the whole thing!!! All that commotion right in front of her room, and she slept through it. And she slept in until ten in the morning. Thanks, Ev!