Frozen canals!

We have had fun this last week experiencing this very dutch event (they all tell us this is quintessential dutch ;). The canals have frozen over for the first time in 15-20 years. People here have gone crazy! Apparently everyone in the Netherlands owns their own ice skates because the canals have been packed with skaters. It's quite a site! For a group of people that are often quite ... stoic, the ice seems to really bring out their fun side. They love it!


What a cutie!

Looking in the boat ... important work.

Bye bye Calvin!

Fun with Daddy!

Happy little boy on his walk out in the cold, cold, cold!


Walking on the ice!!! What fun ;).

The weather is supposed to turn today (allegedly), so we're hoping for some warmer weather ... but will be sad to loose the fun ice and ambiance that has come with it.
On an unrelated note, we saw this sign the other day while walking around for Wicked in the Netherlands! Hmmm ... ;) I want to go just to see if they sing the songs in Dutch of English!

It's cold ... but pretty!

The canal is frozen, the snow has fallen ... it sounds like a Joanie Mitchell song.

From the last week ...

Apologies for the blogging delay! I blame blogger. They were redoing their website and so I've struggled with uploading and posting. Oh well, it seems better now. So here's a quick catch up.

Last weekend we had SUNSHINE!!! So we rode our bikes down to Vondel Park, and Calvin LOVED it! He has become increasingly interested in animals the last few weeks and all the sounds they make, especially (and specifically) puppies. When I say, "that's a puppy!", he smiles. When I say, "that's a puppy like Henry!", he squeals with excitement. Adorable. Anyways, here we saw TWO puppies, hence the double pointing (he's a genius, what can I say?)

This was the hit of the day. It's a large, ankle deep pool for kids in the middle of the park. We've been back since this day and he absolutely loves it. The little dutch kids run around in it naked. Calvin, however, can not run. But he sure loves it. He crawls around in his diaper and splashes and has a gay old time.

This may be the coolest swing we've ever seen. He wasn't quite sure what to do with it ...

So I sat with him and Matt pushed - what fun!

After that we went exploring a bit through some other sections of Amsterdam that weren't nearly as cool as the park, but still pretty. Calvin was a trooper!

Taking in the pretty canals.

So, here are more random Amsterdam observations for you.

* There are two different prices for coffee in cafes - one price if you want to stay and drink it, and one price if you take it to go. The price to stay is higher, and one drink per table is not acceptable. If you sit, you must order something.

* The toilet paper rolls are incredibly small ... in fact, EVERYTHING is smaller. Toilet paper, paper towels, seasoning cases, shampoo bottles, everything. Buying large and in bulk to save money does not exist here. Already wondering if Costco ships internationally ...

* There are mosquitos at night and no screens on the windows. I am being eaten alive, but they don't seem to like Matthew, the person whose dream it is to live here. It's like they know ...

* We have a cute little brown mouse in our kitchen, forcing me to sterilize our countertops every morning. He's smart. We've set traps but he manages to get the cheese without getting dead. Dutch mice are smart.

* The garbage system is genius. There is an underground dumpster on our street. There's a hole above ground. Twice a week the garbage truck comes, lifts the entire unit out of the underground hole it is in and empties it. Calvin always watches in rapt amazement. I think it's his favorite thing so far ... thus increasing his little boy love of trucks, lights, and loud noises.

* Getting around here is an odd thing. Biking is the fastest. But once you arrive somewhere, then you have baby to haul around. Stroller is nice, but not easy to take everywhere (and our Bob is just enormous compared to the little strollers here). The tram is ideal but a little pricey. So, in the end, we usually walk. I'm still trying to figure this all out.

In other news ...

Calvin and I took a tram, a train, and a bus to visit a friend of Calvin's last week in Haarlam for a playdate. We made it there and back on our own. I was very proud of myself and Calvin had a great time playing.

Calvin can stand pretty well all on his own now. He's very proud of himself when he does it and for some reason he thinks that he needs to throw his hands up in the air when he does it, which is hysterical and pretty freaking cute. He has also started "mama", which melts my heart. Additionally he LOVES to read picture books - his two favorites right now are one full of animals and another that has fruits and vegetables in it. The words "banana" and "puppy" seem to get the biggest reactions from him. Darling, darling child.

Matthew has been hard at work on two paper commitments he had made before we came here and the last of the two is due this Wednesday. After that he will be working full time on his dissertation. We are all excited for that!

We went to a local church here called Amsterdam50. It meets at 4pm on Sunday afternoons, which is different, but kind of nice. It's made up of mostly 20-30 year olds. We were warmly welcomed and really liked the spirit of the church. We'll go again, and are hoping a good community will develop from there.

I turn 30 tomorrow!!! Yikes!!! We're planning to go out for a latte and pancakes in the morning and then see what happens! (really, Matthew has to write tomorrow, so perhaps we will pretend that my birthday is Saturday ...)

That is it for now! I will do better at the blog ... I blame blogger for thrwaring my past attempts.

Intro to Amsterdam

Looking back at my last post, I realized it was all pictures of Calvin, and very few of the city! Sorry ... mommy brain. So, here we go.

We live just over a canal from the Jordaan area, which is mostly residential, and very nice. It has cobblestone streets, beautiful canals, it's clean and quiet, and also hosts some very cute (and expensive) little shops and cafes. Compared to the craziness of the big tourist places, it is definitely one of my favorite places to walk around.

In the middle of the Jordaan is the Westekirk (probably spelling that completely wrong), which is the "old church", made famous by Ann Frank and her family, who were in hiding right next to it. So, this crazy line, which has been like this every time we have walked by, is to tour the Ann Frank house and museum. Apparently it is just fantastic and one of the best sights to see in Amsterdam, perhaps explaining why everyone wants to do it. Fear not future visitors, you can pre-purchase tickets with a time on it so that you don't have to wait in line - apparently something none of these poor schmucks know.

One of the lovely canals in the Jordaan - very picturesque.

After 4-5 straight days of rain, the sun was out all weekend and we did our best to take advantage of it. I'd love to tell you where we were when we took this picture, but since Matt was leading us around, I really have no idea. Somewhere north is the best I can do ... but it was pretty!

We also walked through the year-round flower market. There was one booth with actual flowers, but the rest of it was bulbs. Kind of overwhelming for a shopper, I would think.


After quite a long walk, we were all tired. Matt navigated us to Rembrandt park, a lovely little park in the middle of a square where we sat, ate lunch, and let Calvin play.

"More please, mama!"

And loving his time with Daddy.


One of these days I will post some pictures of our apartment. But for now, these are the crazy steep stairs up to our door. Even our dutch friends say these are unusually steep (no kidding). And skinny too. We have the stroller on a pulley down by the front door. We hook it up there and hoist it up to the ceiling. I have to admit, it often makes me ask myself if it's worth going out ... but then the answer is still almost always yes ... I'm getting strong hauling children and strollers around!


So, that was last Friday. More fun weekend pics to come ...

Random Cultural Observations

In no particular order

* They do not have diet coke here. They have something called "coke light" that is packaged the same as diet coke but it does not taste the same.

* Our apartment has a single cup coffee maker. This is an amazing invention. The coffee is phenomenal and ready in seconds. This makes up for the failings of the diet coke.

* People here are, in general, very nice. And very tall. It's comforting.

* Dutch bread stores are everywhere and are officially (so far), my favorite thing about Amsterdam. The bread and pastries are fresh, delicious, and cheap. There is also one right around the corner, which is already proving dangerous.

* Bread, milk, and meat are cheap and GOOD.

* The grocery store is really busy and fast-paced around the dinner hour. Not a good time to go in if you have no idea what you're doing.

* There are bikes everywhere and they go FAST. Walk with caution.

* Holy steep stairs. The stairs into our apartment and the stairs within our apartment are the most ridiculously steep stairs I have ever seen. I pray that Calvin is never anywhere near them unsupervised.

* I have yet to see a gym here. This does not surprise me. After one week here I already feel in better shape than I have in a long time. I don't eat as much because I don't know what anything in the grocery store is. I walk everywhere. I carry Calvin everywhere I walk in the ergo. I am getting stronger. No wonder the dutch are so healthy.

* The dutch always bring gifts and dress up when they come over. This is very nice as a host and a little scary as a visiting guest. We're hoping we don't screw up the protocol and offend someone.

* The internet is incredibly fast. It's amazing.

* There is no urban sprawl. The city is planned very well and very thought out. As a visitor and a pedestrian, this is something you quickly notice.

* So far, the few dutch people I talk to have said that their view of americans is that we like to eat a lot of bad food in unhealthy quantities. Odd that is the thing they choose to say ... and yet not untrue.

* Our apartment is great - but SO loud. It's old and the wood floors groan with every step and none of the windows or walls appear to be insulated. We are quickly bonding with our neighbors.

That's all for now ... I'm sure many more to come.

Hello Amsterdam

Sorry this has taken me so long to get to ... arriving here and attempting to get settled in while dealing with a poor little jet-lagged boy has been a challenge. We are finally feeling like things are settling down though, so here we go.

THE FLIGHT ...
Thank you to the possy of people who prayed for us! Honestly, it didn't help at all in terms of our arrangements, but it was a HUGE in terms of giving me encouragement and strength throughout everything. Calvin was also exceedingly good. So thank you! There were several times on the journey where knowing many people were praying held me together.

Our flight from Seattle to Iceland (7 hours) was fairly uneventful. We were wedged into a window seat with very little room, but with kind people next to us. We walked the aisle for awhile and Calvin eventually fell asleep and stayed asleep (mostly) until we landed. We had some drama in the Iceland airport. Apparently "gate checking" on this flight meant that our stroller went into cargo so we didn't get it back until Amsterdam. Which meant I had to haul Calvin in my arms through the Iceland airport, security (again), and customs, while dragging my carry-on. But we survived.

We made it to the next flight and were bumped up to premium economy with LOTS more legroom - yay! Calvin fell right to sleep and I was able to lay him on the floor under me for most of the flight. The hardest part of the journey was our arrival in Amsterdam, where I was, once again, without a stroller. We made our way down to baggage claim and I attempted to gather all our bags and put them on the luggage cart with Calvin in my arms. It took our stroller and carseat over an hour to be delivered. That was definitely the low point. And Matthew was there, but wasn't allowed into the baggage claim area, so I was on my own. But we survived!

After several days of very rough sleep for all of us, it seems Calvin is finally settling in to his new time zone. We're still having problems with night wakings. After 2-3 hours he thinks he's waking from a nap and is up for an hour or so, but he's finally getting LONG sleep at night which is a huge improvement. Matt and I are very hopeful it will continue to improve. He has been SUCH a trooper with all of these changes. What a good little boy he is.

AMSTERDAM
Day 1 ... we loaded Calvin into the stroller and headed about 15 minutes some direction I don't know to the Museumplein, which is a big central square that has many of the big museums surrounding it (Rembrandt, Van Gogh, etc.) It was pretty and great to get out of the house for a bit in between rain storms.

Here's Calvin in his stroller, and ready to explore!

Finally with daddy again and oh so happy about it ;)

He had this slightly dazed, eyes half open look the first two days we were here, poor baby.

This is the Museumplein.

Breakfast with daddy.

This is the face he makes when the camera comes out ... love this kid.

So we left summer in Washington for winter (maybe fall) in Amsterdam. Here is Calvin the bear cub in his adorable flannel jammies.


Playing with his cool new (borrowed) toys.

The first time Calvin has worn jeans ... and he was so stinking cute in them I had to take some pictures.

Here we are in all our tired glory.


LOVE this kid ...

The dear couple we are renting the house from left Calvin a few toys, one of them being this funny little musical toy red monster man. I'm not quite sure what it is exactly. But it plays music nonstop and it's eyes go up and down. At first it freaked us out, then it was funny, then it was intriguing (that's when the picture was taken), and then we couldn't figure out how to make it stop so we hid it under the couch pillow.

Just wanted to update you all and show you that we are here, alive, and well. We are getting more comfortable in our home, learning our way around, doing lots of exploratory walking, lots of resting, and lots of hanging out together.

Continued prayers for the following would be much appreciated:
* Good sleep and rest for all of us (Calvin especially)
* Smoothness in the working out of logistical details (residence permits, bank accounts, cell phones, etc.)
* Motivation and diligence for Matthew in his studies
* Comfort and peace for me and a good spirit of exploration for my days alone with Calvin
* Friends and community!!!

Thanks all ... much love to all of you!