Friday, May 29, 2009

Cuddly, part 2

Last night Evie and Felix cuddled together in Evie's bed. Oooooh, so sweet!
As you can tell from the pictures, we haven't been having any trouble (yet) with Evie adjusting to her baby brother. Everything seems to be so natural and just the way it should be. The first thing Evie does when she gets home is check where Felix is and tell him one thing or another. She loves holding him and giving him lots of kisses. She often says, "I'm your big sister now." Evie also seems to understand that she sometimes has to wait longer because we are busy with the boy, or that Papa has to put her to bed because Mama is nursing. Our fingers are crossed that the jealousy stays away!

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Cuddly

It's hard to come up with a title for this post as there's nothing really to report. Just a couple cute pictures from yesterday.
Mama with her babies.

The boy.

He's so cute when he's sleeping! (and when he's awake...)

Saturday, May 23, 2009

New Wheels

We were never planning on getting a double stroller. After all, we have a wheeled board that Evie can ride on for the other stroller. But the day before labor started we were faced with a steal at the second-hand store that Liz simply couldn't resist. The great thing about this stroller is that Felix can be a bassinet and Evie can sit next to him. We took it for the first stroll yesterday and are very pleased with its maneuverability. ...and our lazy little lady loved being able to lounge. The double stroller will be accompanying us to the States next month.

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Beginning of a 5-day-weekend

Today is Ascension Day in the Christian world. In Holland that means a day off and a four day weekend because one would not want to go back to word on Friday after being free on Thursday! For us, it means a five day weekend for the family because Tom happens to also have Monday free. ...and that is simply heavenly. Today we had nothing to do, so we stayed in our jammies all morning and hung around. After nap time we had some visitors and sat in the garden. Overall, it was a very relaxed day.
Papa and Felix napping together. (Tom was at a wedding last night and didn't home until the wee hours of the night.)

Mama and Felix chilling on the couch.

Okay, so it's not a real smile, but it's darn cute anyway!

His favourite pastime.

Playing "Baby Evie"

This is the first time Felix has actually enjoyed his bouncer... it lasted about five minutes.

Our big girl!!

Saturday, May 16, 2009

Passport picture

As some of you know, we will be travelling to America in a little over four weeks. Of course that means that Felix needs to have a passport. So today we went to a passport portrait studio to attempt a decent picture. The problem is that they are pretty strict. Not allowed to smile, mouth closed, eyes open, facing forward, etc. etc. We're pretty pleased with the result and we hope that will be allowed. Liz's hand is visible, so they could deny it because of that, or because his head is a little crooked... Monday we have an appointment with to apply for his passport, so we'll see.It is also pretty crazy, this whole passport picture business. He will have this passport for five years! He won't even look the same over a month, let alone a year or more. But that's the way it is. Evie also has baby passport, and she never gets a hard time at border control.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Out and about

Last night Felix and Liz made their first outing since coming home from the hospital. It wasn't big venture. We literally went to the end of the street and back. But it was nice to get outside a little. Evie got to ride her "surfboard," a wheeled board behind the stroller that she can stand on. Of course she thinks it's wonderful! Felix cried a little bit, but by the end he was starting to get used to the idea of a bassinet on wheels.
Papa pushes the stroller. And a better view of the surfboard.

The proud big sister!

Mama pushes the stroller.

Felix likes his new wheels.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Baby Stats - The Results!


Last month we asked you all to make a guess as to when the baby would make his arrival and what his weight would be. We would now like to reveal the winners. Drumroll, please... For the birthday we have two winners, both Grandpa David and Aunty Rachel correctly guessed May 6th. As for time of day Mama Liz was closest with 8:30 AM. And the closest to the weight was Ulrike, who guessed 3511 grams. Unfortunately we don't have an official length of the baby. When we've tried measuring him we come out with between 48 and 50 cm, which makes Grandma Nan the winner, who guessed the smallest with 51 cm.

Tadpoles

Evie received some very special friends this week - a bunch of tadpoles from Tom and Marieke's pond. They don't really do much, and we don't even expect them to live long enough to become frogs, but they are interesting.

Evie is also busy being a good little mother to her dolls. Here we see Liz and Evie nursing together.

Monday, May 11, 2009

Geboortekaartjes, muisjes, and kruiken

Here in Holland there are some things that are really typically Dutch that have to do with having a baby. It starts with the birth announcements. Birth announcements in itself aren't unique to Holland, of course, but the Dutch do seem to take it to a new level. First off, they are sent out as soon as possible. It is not uncommon to receive a birth announcement two days after the child is born. The cards are usually ready to go weeks in advance with just some last minute adjustments (date, weight, etc.). The envelopes are also usually ready to go. In most cases they are sent within the first week. If it takes longer than a week that people start to get concerned that something bad might have happened.

Our cards were sent out Sunday. Everybody in Holland got them yesterday when Felix was 5 days old. People in America should expect them the end of this week or beginning of next week. Here's a sneak preview, though.
Once the cards have arrived on the doormat, the Dutch are really good at sending back a card. So far we have only had three cards, but it's only been a day! In the next few weeks the cards come flooding in as does the "kraamvisite," the baby visitors. Visitors come and get to enjoy the next typically Dutch birth tradition: beschuit met muisjes. Beschuit is pretty much a dry bread cracker. Muisjes are sugar coated anise seeds. For girls the muisjes are white and pink and for boys white and blue. Evie also brought beschuit met muisjes to the creche to celebrate the birth of her brother.
And finally there is the "kruik." A kruik is a hot water bottle made of metal. It is of complete neccesity for newborn babies, according to the Dutch. The kruik is filled with boiling water and stays warm for about six hours. It is placed in the baby's bed under the blankets to warm it up before he gets in it. Once the baby is in the bed, the kruik is kept in the bed above the blankets to the side of the baby to keep the baby warm. We never used one for Evie because it was so warm out when she was born, but Felix is using the kruik because he tends to have a lower than average temperature (97.7F or 36.5C).
This is the kruik and the kruik bag. Liz made this kruik bag to match the rest of the baby room.

Baby's First Bath

Okay, so it was actually his fifth bath, but this was the first one that wasn't done by a nurse, and the first one where Evie was there to help.
At first he has to get used to it a little bit.

But it doesn't take long before he is totally relaxed. Evie washed his feet.

Completely content.


Liz, however, got some bad news in regards to bathing. The midwife said today she has to wait until five weeks before taking a bath!!! However, she might get a second opinion, because the internet is saying it's okay after a few days or a week...

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Homecoming!

Last night at around 8:30 pm Mama Liz and Baby Felix were able to come home - just in time for Mother's Day! The first night home Felix was treated like a little prince and was even allowed to sleep in the big bed with Mama & Papa. Today the kraamzorg is here. Inger will be coming until Friday for 6 hours a day. She is here to take care of the baby and mama and do daily check-ups - temperature, weight, color, etc. She also helps with housework such as laundry, vacuuming, groceries. So far so good! We haven't been able to weight Felix today (can't find the darn batteries), but yesterday he had gained 120 grams from the day before!
Chilling with Papa!

Waiting for Taxi Martijn to bring us home

Thursday, May 7, 2009

Big Sister

With the little Felix Evie became a proud big sister. Today she got to hold him for the first time.



(In the last entry I forgot to mention that Felix was born with a C-section and Elizabeth is still in hospital. We hope that she and Felix will be home soon, probably this Saturday or Sunday)

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Felix Sebastian Schutte!

This morning, on May 6th, 2009, Felix Sebastian Schutte was born at 9.12 am in the Hague. He weighs 3475 grams (7 pound 11 ounces). And this is his blog debut!





Monday, May 4, 2009

Chez Schutte Creche

This afternoon our house turned into what resembled a creche. We, of course, were there with Evie, Matthijs came over with Alise (3.5) and Elias (1.5), and Terhi came over with Mila (5.5) and Janna (1.5). All of a sudden there were so many children! ...and this all on a regular old Monday afternoon.
The weather was nice, so the children played in the garden, much enjoying the sandbox and sidewalk chalk.

At one point the three older girls started playing together in Evie's room.

When they came out they had dressed Evie up as Spiderman!

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Crazy Hair Day

Today was crazy hair day for Evie. After seeing some braids in a classmate's hair Friday we decided to try some out. We started with one, but of course you can't have just one. And then Evie said the wanted a third one, and then there was this little bit of hair left over, so we had to put a fourth braid in. The result is simply unique!
From the back...

Being silly for the camera...

There we go, our Little Miss Sunshine!

Friday, May 1, 2009

Queen's Day 2009

Yesterday was the big orange celebration of Koninginnedag, Queen's Day, here in The Netherlands. We celebrated as we always do, by visiting the queen's day free markets, basically huge yard sales on certain streets in the city. We always score lots of good junk. In a few years we will also set up a blanket to get rid of the junk we've acquired.
We were treated to a special Queen's Day breakfast consisting of an orange donut!

Out and about on Queen's Day

Unfortunately, this Queen's Day turned into a tragedy when shortly before noon a man in a car drove through some crowds along the way of the royal family's parade. He was apparently aiming towards the family, but instead ran straight on into a statue. Five people died, twelve more were injured, including three children (youngest was 9 years old), and a few police officers. The driver died early this morning as well. It was truly shocking news here in The Netherlands and ruined Queen's Day for 2009 and has undoubtedly changed Queen's Day forever. Most all festivities around the country were canceled or cut short yesterday, and the flags were lowered to half mast. See a news report about the attack here or here.

Updated to add that there has been another death this afternoon bringing the count to six plus the driver.