I welcome you to watch a video I made during our interesting dinnertimes. Noa is starting to say words now. The latest word is "doei", pronounced "doo-ee" which means "bye". When she says it, it cracks us up each and every time.
Hope you enjoy it...
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Day Trip to the Zoo
Last Thursday, my friend Jonathan and I decided to take our little ones, Cillian and Noa, to the zoo.
Now there are a lot of zoos here in Holland, but Jonathan had picked one near Antwerp in Belgium, about a two hour drive from where we live. A lot of the nice zoos here in Holland would have also taken upto two hours to get to, so the fact that this one was in a completely different country didn't make it any further to get to. It's just a funny thing living in a small(ish) country like Holland that sometimes you need a passport for a day out to the zoo (not that I actually took my passport.)
The day was promising to be a rainy one, so at first I was thinking about postponing, as being from Southern California, I'm afraid of rain. Jonathan, being from Ireland, didn't seem to be concerned with getting a bit wet, and kindly told me to grow a pair (and with some hormone therapy should be likely).
So they stopped by at the ungawdly time of 10.00am (for someone who leaves work at 3.00am, then watches the 3rd presidential debate live until 5.45am, waking up at anytime that ends with "am" is ungawdly). We loaded Noa's car seat next to Cillian's and off we went!
We arrived just before noon and there was hardly anyone there. The parking lot was empty. I don't know if it was the weather or the time we arrived, but it looked like we were going to have the park to ourselves. We loaded the critters into the double buggy that Jonathan had brought and walked into the park. Now there's something about 2 guys walking with 2 young kids in a double stroller that's just a little bit, uhhhh, well, uhhhh gay. It's a good thing that I switched the earring to the other ear :) Wouldn't want any rumors to start.
The zoo itself was OK. I'm not into zoos so much, but I enjoy finding something fun for Noa to do. Most of the time, we just let Noa and Cillian run around. They weren't so interested in the animals. They were more interested in splashing in the mud puddles, wandering around in the forest and running after each other. Other than the constant threat of rain, we were actually very lucky with the weather - it had only rained once while we were there and it was only for a few minutes.
One complaint about the zoo, though: there was no baby changing station in the men's room, so we had to change the nappies in the ladies' room, which got us a few stares from some of the women and some giggles from some teenage girls. Once, I was lifting Noa to get a good look at some of the animals when I noticed a lot of mud on her tights and dress. I wasn't so surprised as this little girl gets so dirty when she plays outside. However, upon further inspection, it didn't smell like mud, and it was, in fact, not mud but poo! At that moment, we were quite far from any facility, so I had to give Noa a complete cleaning and change of clothes on a bench in the cold - poor Noa. Luckily, Margreet had prepared a complete baby bag with new set of clothes, so crisis was averted!
Anyway, we got home at about 6pm, and after some dinner and a long bath, Noa slept for 13 hours straight (until Margreet had to wake her up to go to the creche!), so we can assume that a good day was had by all!
Now there are a lot of zoos here in Holland, but Jonathan had picked one near Antwerp in Belgium, about a two hour drive from where we live. A lot of the nice zoos here in Holland would have also taken upto two hours to get to, so the fact that this one was in a completely different country didn't make it any further to get to. It's just a funny thing living in a small(ish) country like Holland that sometimes you need a passport for a day out to the zoo (not that I actually took my passport.)
The day was promising to be a rainy one, so at first I was thinking about postponing, as being from Southern California, I'm afraid of rain. Jonathan, being from Ireland, didn't seem to be concerned with getting a bit wet, and kindly told me to grow a pair (and with some hormone therapy should be likely).
So they stopped by at the ungawdly time of 10.00am (for someone who leaves work at 3.00am, then watches the 3rd presidential debate live until 5.45am, waking up at anytime that ends with "am" is ungawdly). We loaded Noa's car seat next to Cillian's and off we went!
We arrived just before noon and there was hardly anyone there. The parking lot was empty. I don't know if it was the weather or the time we arrived, but it looked like we were going to have the park to ourselves. We loaded the critters into the double buggy that Jonathan had brought and walked into the park. Now there's something about 2 guys walking with 2 young kids in a double stroller that's just a little bit, uhhhh, well, uhhhh gay. It's a good thing that I switched the earring to the other ear :) Wouldn't want any rumors to start.
The zoo itself was OK. I'm not into zoos so much, but I enjoy finding something fun for Noa to do. Most of the time, we just let Noa and Cillian run around. They weren't so interested in the animals. They were more interested in splashing in the mud puddles, wandering around in the forest and running after each other. Other than the constant threat of rain, we were actually very lucky with the weather - it had only rained once while we were there and it was only for a few minutes.
One complaint about the zoo, though: there was no baby changing station in the men's room, so we had to change the nappies in the ladies' room, which got us a few stares from some of the women and some giggles from some teenage girls. Once, I was lifting Noa to get a good look at some of the animals when I noticed a lot of mud on her tights and dress. I wasn't so surprised as this little girl gets so dirty when she plays outside. However, upon further inspection, it didn't smell like mud, and it was, in fact, not mud but poo! At that moment, we were quite far from any facility, so I had to give Noa a complete cleaning and change of clothes on a bench in the cold - poor Noa. Luckily, Margreet had prepared a complete baby bag with new set of clothes, so crisis was averted!
Anyway, we got home at about 6pm, and after some dinner and a long bath, Noa slept for 13 hours straight (until Margreet had to wake her up to go to the creche!), so we can assume that a good day was had by all!
Monday, October 13, 2008
A visit to see Christine
My good friend Jonathan (from my Schlumberger days) and his lovely wife Ilse just had a new daughter, Christine. Margreet, Noa and I went to visit them last Thursday. It was a beautiful day outside (not many of those this summer), so we took the bikes and rode the 15 minute ride to their house in The Hague.
Their first child, Cillian, is a regular playmate of Noa, as they are only 3 weeks apart in age and get along great. So while Margreet and I were ooh-ing and aah-ing over little Christine, Noa and Cillian were running all over the place, climbing all over the furniture, eating tons of cookies, making chocolate handprints on the nice white furniture and carpets.
Christine is a big baby (over 4 kg / 9 lbs) with a lot of hair! But holding her, she felt sooo light. I forgot how light a baby is supposed to weigh. Or is it that Noa is getting so big?
So anyway, I just wanted to post a little blog entry (hopefully the first!) to welcome Christine McCann to the world!
Their first child, Cillian, is a regular playmate of Noa, as they are only 3 weeks apart in age and get along great. So while Margreet and I were ooh-ing and aah-ing over little Christine, Noa and Cillian were running all over the place, climbing all over the furniture, eating tons of cookies, making chocolate handprints on the nice white furniture and carpets.
Christine is a big baby (over 4 kg / 9 lbs) with a lot of hair! But holding her, she felt sooo light. I forgot how light a baby is supposed to weigh. Or is it that Noa is getting so big?
So anyway, I just wanted to post a little blog entry (hopefully the first!) to welcome Christine McCann to the world!
Me (holding Christine) with Ilse and Margreet
Me, Jonathan and Margreet (holding Christine, Cillian and Noa respectively)
The two rascals :)
Mother and Daughter
For the rest of the photo set, click here.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
First Time at the Swimming Pool
What is there to do on a rainy and cold Sunday October morning in Holland? Why, go to the (indoor) swimming pool!
Today, we took our first trip to the swimming pool. We were a bit worried that Noa wouldn't like the pool. In April, when we were in Needles, CA during our cross country RV trip, we tried taking Noa into the pool at the RV park, and she cried bloody murder. In all fairness the pool water was very cold and the jacuzzi was pretty hot, but she really didn't seem to enjoy the experience.
So this morning, we fitted Noa with her waterproof diaper and very cute little bathing suit and all went into the kiddie pool. Imagine a pool about 80 m2 with an average depth of 40 cm with about 40 kids and 40 adults in it. Yeah, pretty busy. And I hate to think what was in the water ...
The water was a nice warm temperature and Noa had no problem whatsoever going in. For the first 15 minutes she stayed very close to us, just watching all the other kids playing. She was also very fascinated with the LED lights in the ceiling that changed colours every 5 seconds.
After awhile, she started wandering around the pool, climbing up and down the stairs, and generally having a great time. We were always following her around as we didn't have any floaties on her, but the times where she fell into the water (head going under) she didn't seem to mind too much.
I guess we'll be making more of these swimming trips on a regular basis.
Too bad I couldn't take any pictures of Noa in her cute swimsuit, but I'm not allowed to take pictures in the swimming pool anymore (the court insisted!)
Today, we took our first trip to the swimming pool. We were a bit worried that Noa wouldn't like the pool. In April, when we were in Needles, CA during our cross country RV trip, we tried taking Noa into the pool at the RV park, and she cried bloody murder. In all fairness the pool water was very cold and the jacuzzi was pretty hot, but she really didn't seem to enjoy the experience.
So this morning, we fitted Noa with her waterproof diaper and very cute little bathing suit and all went into the kiddie pool. Imagine a pool about 80 m2 with an average depth of 40 cm with about 40 kids and 40 adults in it. Yeah, pretty busy. And I hate to think what was in the water ...
The water was a nice warm temperature and Noa had no problem whatsoever going in. For the first 15 minutes she stayed very close to us, just watching all the other kids playing. She was also very fascinated with the LED lights in the ceiling that changed colours every 5 seconds.
After awhile, she started wandering around the pool, climbing up and down the stairs, and generally having a great time. We were always following her around as we didn't have any floaties on her, but the times where she fell into the water (head going under) she didn't seem to mind too much.
I guess we'll be making more of these swimming trips on a regular basis.
Too bad I couldn't take any pictures of Noa in her cute swimsuit, but I'm not allowed to take pictures in the swimming pool anymore (the court insisted!)
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