Back to Holland

Amie tells Gerda something funny about life in Germany..


Amazingly Amie's actually had her first hair cut. It's the fastest 6 euros the hairdresser ever made... but thought it'd be good to see how Amie reacted to having her hair cut by a professional, rather than me just attacking her fringe with the scissors. She seemed to enjoy it, and sat very still.


Amie looking very happy indeed to see her uncle Eoghain...


.. and aunty Tanja

We travelled to Haarlem this weekend to see all our friends there.. or at least as many as we could in 1 full day. A 4 1/2 hour drive that took us around 5 1/2, so not bad going. We were based in Haarlem because we were very lucky that one of Richard's friends let us have his appartment, THANK YOU again Sander... very nice man! The roadtrip was a huge success and we plan to go back soon and catch up with all the people we didn't have time to this time. Amie's magic armbands and homeopathic tablets worked a treat, and she didn't even complain of feeling ill once. Normally we need to change her clothes at least once when we go out in the car because she gets sick, so even though I didn't believe they would make a difference, they did. Proves that I'm wrong sometimes, I guess (don't tell Rich I said that)


The last time we saw Vera she was still crawling, and now she's walking around with a lot of hair looking very grown up. Amie eventually noticed this and said "Look mammy, Zera's walking!" Here she is checking that Noah's comfotable enough in her highchair.




What a cutie!




Katrina, Walter, Zoe (Vera's mum) and Amie

Walter was very very happy to see Amie again. He's been in love with her for a long time now, wooing her with bits of food at playgroup, and taking her for romatic rides in his bakfiets.. and he still sees her every day and gives her food according to his mum. Nice to know that a little distance isn't going to get in his way!


Samatha and Cylvana, Amie's best friends from our old neighbourhood were delighted to spend some time with Amie again.


A flying visit to see Milo, who was 3 on Saturday. Happy Birthday! I'm not sure what Valetina is doing...but having 2 young children can do strange things to a person (see next pic)


(sorry Val ;)


Noah very kindly helped with the packing, by packing himself!


Sally and Amie had a bit of a wild rumpus, while Tjeerd looks on bemused.


Teaching them everything she knows...


Aunty Sal.. aww, cute pic :)

We're up and running

Ok so we're back. I've charged the battery, the one for the camera, if not my own. We had a really nice morning this morning, thanks to a kind neighbour of ours called Ute. Ute is a retired teacher, and I think she feels sorry for me because Richard has been travelling away so much with work recently. So, on Friday she offered to take the kids and I to the Wildegehegen http://www.forst-hamburg.de/wildgehege.htm . Sorry the webpage is in German, it's basically a forest with wild animals, like boar and deer, owls and goats roaming around.. very nice for children to run about in and get muddy!

It was a bit of a stressful car jounery, because Amie has recently developed travel sickness, and I did not want her furthering this latest developement in the back of my neighbours car! Luckily we managed to get there and back without any problems, apart from Noah crying on the journey home because... well because that's what Noah DOES in cars.. he crys. He's one of the few babies in the world that doesn't like being in his buggy or in cars. We will see if Ute ever braves the journey with us again :)

Ute also told us about this place.


It's a really cute little stables, where for a mere 6 euros per half hour you can take a stroll in idylic woodland leading your child on a sweet tempered pony. At least, that's what I thought. However, having paid our money and allowing Amie to pick the pony (of course she wanted to go on the biggest one there) we set off. About 4 minutes into the walk, the pony stopped walking and refused to start again. Now, I like to think of myself as a horsey person... mainly because over a decade ago, I was, and I dont like to admit the march of time has diminshed my skills somewhat. But dimished they have, as the mule disguissed as a pony was delighted to show me. I tried coaxing him along, pulling him along, hitting his rump (as with everything the old adage goes, if it's not working, hit it... applies to Senseo machines, and ponies).





Having read Black Beauty about 50 times as a child, I tried a bit of gentle coaxing, and gave him an apple. I mean, I'm on his side. I can see why he might not want to walk around with a little brat on his back for the 100th time that morning.. so I thought, I'll be nice, give him an apple.. coax him round. He almost devoured my fingers in the process of eating the apple.. and I managed to nudge him along about 50 meters using the apple as a bribe.. but the apple was soon up, and so was my luck. The girl from the stables came out a few times, and as with all good riding school ponies, he started walking the minute he saw her... but she had to go back to the stables after a few minutes and I was on my own. The problem was I didn't want to try any heavy handed tactics with him in case he careered off into the bushes with Amie on his back... and he knew he had the upper hoof. After about 15 minutes, a woman walked by with her pony heading towards the stable, so we followed them back. He was more than happy to walk home of course!.. Humiliated and humbled we set off for some coffee and cake at the restaraunt nearby and sat in the sunshine. Not a bad way to spend a Sunday morning !

I'm not sure what happed with the Desperate Dan shadow on my face, I did shave this morning! :)

Yesterday we went to the local swimming pool.. I didn't take the camera there, but we had a really super time. Especially Amie, who insisted on swimming around by herself, with her armbands of course. Noah also had a good kick about with his little legs :)

We have a puppy

Well no, not a real puppy.. but I swear, Noah is turning into one. Having him around is more like having a puppy than a baby. I must apologise for the lack of photo's here... I cannot find the battery charger for the camera anywhere.. will have a proper look this week. And when I get it up and running, I'm going to show you a video of Noah playing 'Fetch" with his ball. We have a small toy for him, a woodden box with 3 wooden balls that he can push through the holes, he's busy now going after the balls and bringing them back to the toy to do it all over again.. pretty clever huh? :)

He's also standing these days, Rich had to lower his cot last night. He's favourite game at the moment is to use me as a climbing frame. I lie on the bed on my back or even better, my side, and he clambers over me... and then back again. And then crawls up to my face to give me a bit sloppy slobber and tries to bite my nose. I'm going to change his name to Fido. :)

In other news, both Amie and Noah got a Hep B vaccination today.. or as Amie calls it, rather aptly I think, "an ow-jection". I was proud of Amie as she didn't cry, though to be honest that's probably because she didn't know what to expect. Noah had a little cry, but wasn't too upset. I hope they'll both have no side effects from it.

Will update pics soon!