The Latest Craze

Playing with Duplo in Mommy and Daddy's bed...

Dutch Days

It feels like we are experiencing a lot of "lasts" lately. Today we had our Last Sunday at church in Holland and it feels completely surreal as though we will be here again next week, cycling to church, talking about the weather (because the weather is always something to talk about). We won't be here though, and boy, that is a sad feeling. 

We have loved our time in The Netherlands. It has only been two short years, but so much has happened. We have had some wonderful experiences, made some incredible friends and even welcomed Milayla into our family. There is so much that we are going to miss, especially the people. We have been blessed with great friends and neighbours who are always there for us. Fortunately, we know it will not be the last time that we see many of them.

Being that this was our last weekend, we wanted to take a break from packing and just make the morning relaxed and enjoy the simple things we love about living here. First on the agenda was eating Hagelslag for breakfast. Sounds like a pretty strange thing to have on our list, but we had yet to try it and while we were a little leery of chocolate for breakfast we did like it. At the recommendation of a friend, we put some peanut butter on with the hagelslag, however, it was far too sweet for us as a breakfast (particularly when we usually eat unsweetened porridge or muesli). Perhaps we will stock up on a couple boxes to use for cupcakes.

Not the most photogenic food - very brown...

Then we packed the kids into the bakfiets (which we are very happy to report we will be taking with us to our new home in Germany) to head to Saturday Market. It was the first time that Atticus and Milayla got to sit beside one another in the bakfiets as Milayla has previously been in her Maxi-cosi. These two loved it! It is quite fun to see them interact with one another.

waiting patiently to get on the road

Holding hands for the journey!

The weather this summer has been a little on the cool side, so we were very thankful that our morning held blue skies and sunshine for us. We love downtown Leiden, especially during market. We strolled around, stopped in a few shops, enjoyed fresh stroopwafel and Jason had his last Herring.

Milayla enjoying a nice snooze while Jason enjoys his Herring

It was a simple, laid-back Saturday morning which have been some of our favorite Saturdays while we have lived here. When we arrived home it was back to the chaos of boxes and the reality that we will soon be saying "goodbye". Just a few more days and everything will be packed into the moving van and we will be driving off. Considering that we will only live 4 hours away, we are hopeful to come back for visits and that we will have visitors come our way as well. 

Our time in The Netherlands has certainly allowed us to grow as individuals and as a family. We leave with fond memories and great things to say about this country and the people who live here. It has been an experience we will forever be grateful for.

On the logistical side of things, once we move we are not sure how long it will take for us to be reconnected (phones and internet). So please be patient as our usual phone calls and emails may take a while to resume. If we have the time we may schedule a few blog posts to fill that void. 

Thank you everyone for all your love and support!

Love,

The Clog Crew

3 Months - Milayla

 This little girl of ours is not so little anymore. We are already starting to see her personality shining through. She always knows exactly what she wants and will not accept substitutions. She has a very infectious giggle. She is generally very happy and smiley. And she is very deliberate in her actions; if she wants to hold something she will focus, reach and grab it usually on the first or second try. She is not so keen on tummy time (despite big improvements in holding her head up and looking around), however, she loves being held so that she is "standing" (already in a rush to grow up..). Her hands are quite the novelty and she enjoys clasping them in front of herself or holding other peoples' hands. We love listening to her chat away and she has already become quite good at mimicking her older brother's words with cheerful intonations - she catches on and learns quickly.

We had our final appointment at the Consultatie-Bureau for Milayla today. Her latest stats are:

5900 grams
62.5 cm long
40 cm head circumference

Her weight gain from her last appointment was not as high as the doctor was expecting, but the doctor suspects that Milayla just has not been eating as much lately with the upcoming move interrupting the usual schedules. We are to keep an eye on the weight gain, although we are pretty certain that once things settle down and day-to-day life resumes, things will level off.

We sure do love this not-so-little-girl of ours. 

Enjoy the latest photos below.

Could not decide if this was better in BandW or colour. In any case, we are crazy about that profile!

Practicing tummy time. Getting much stronger. We love her fuzzy hair!

Check out those beautiful blue eyes!

Taking a rest and snacking on her first while she waits for milk

The Giggles

 We have a sure fire way to take Milayla from this cute, coy smile...

to this adorable, full out, giggle.

It's a little strange, but we simply tickle her nose with her toes.

Observe.

Step 1: Toes to nose.

Step 2: Enjoy the giggles.

Who would have thought?

Learning a thing or two...

Atticus is learning all sorts of things lately, here are just a few of them.

Learning how to clean...

Learning how to draw triangles...

Learning how to draw circles...

Learning how to carry his books...

Learning how to help make dinner...

Those are veggie dogs with whole wheat pasta stuck in them before cooking.  It seemed like a really silly thing to do, but Atticus was very serious about it and LOVED showing Mommy and Daddy what he did to help make dinner.

And learning how to use the toilet!

(to spare the future embarrassment of Atticus, we've not included a picture of that last one ;)

However, here are a few pictures of Atticus learning how to dress himself. He did manage to get his pants and shirt on; it just took a little while.

"Where's my foot?"

"There it is!"

Both legs down one pant leg - he sorted that one out pretty quickly though

First time in Bremen

As many of you know we headed off to Bremen last weekend in search of an apartment. It was a trip that we were all a little nervous and excited for; nervous that we may not find an apartment and excited to see the city that we will be living in soon.

Before we left for the trip there were many late nights put into searching for apartments and making appointments. At least it was a good reintroduction to the German language (something we all need to start practicing again). Our searches did not pull up anything "perfect" or anything that came all that close either. We were determined to live closer to Jason's work than we do now (as we will still be using bikes to get around), close to church, near a park, easy access to grocery stores, 3 bedrooms and a fitted kitchen (eg., kitchen cupboards). Most of the apartments we had found did not even check off one of those items, but we were still hopeful!

We left Thursday afternoon, arrived in Bremen about 4 hours later, checked in at our hotel, grabbed a quick dinner and headed to apartment appointments. The kids finally got to bed some time after 10 and we made it some time after midnight. No promising results.

Friday was packed full of appointments and began with a delicious breakfast buffet (love not needing cook and clean while at a hotel). Our last appointment of the day was very promising; around the corner from church and the grocery store, down the street from the city park, shared garden in the back and half the distance to Jason's work as we currently are. The downside was that the rent price was higher than we were planning for. We balanced numbers that night, prayed about it, and woke in the morning feeling that applying for the apartment was the right thing to do. 

Saturday morning we called about the apartment as early as possible, but with no concrete answer we had to head off to another busy morning of appointments. When lunch time rolled around we were all exhausted and decided to walk downtown for some lunch. This gave us an opportunity to see a few different things as we walked and ate and even take some photos (taken with our little camera, so forgive the picture quality). We should probably preface the pictures with the fact that we know very little about Bremen. We're sure some of these beautiful buildings have functions, we just do not know what they are - yet.

One of our favorite places we saw because it reminded us of Holland.

entrance to the shopping street marked by the pig herder statue. The pig herder would bring his pigs down market street at the end of the day for the pigs to eat all the food bits that had been left behind (not anymore, of course).

A church with a flower stall in front called "Hollandischer"...

It would seem that this is THE thing to see in Bremen. They are the Bremen Town Musicians. Originally a Brothers Grimm Fairytale, there have been many renditions of the story since. It is apparently good luck to hold both of the donkey's front hooves. Milayla is tucked in the wrap on Laura, so she is sure to get some good luck too!

This is on the main square and we need to learn what this building is...

and this one too...

We even stumbled upon Böttcherstraße which you can read about here.

The hidden entrance to Böttcherstraße

 It has museums, hotels, a candy maker, small cafes and restaurants along with some really neat artistic details worked into the buildings,

the candy maker. There were people lined up outside the windows to see the candy being made.

outdoor seating in front of stained glass windows. looks like a movie set.

a view of the narrow street

 After lunch it was back to the hotel for some much needed rest. We were all exhausted. This series of pictures with Milayla and Jason sleeping on the couch is so precious!

Here is Atticus curled up on his quilt, bum in the air and thumb in the mouth; a position he rarely sleeps in unless very tired.

We woke from our nap time to a phone call to say that the apartment was ours! Full bellies and naps really do make things better. We had a couple appointments that afternoon that we honored before meeting the agent to handle the paperwork. Luckily, one of Jason's future coworkers accompanied us to do the paperwork and aid us in understanding all the German. We celebrated by getting some groceries for Sunday at the grocery store by our soon-to-be-ours apartment.

Sunday morning we checked out of the hotel and visited the Bremen ward. There is a beautiful, new church building in Bremen and we received a very warm welcome from the members. Atticus surprised us both by happily staying in the nursery. By the end of church, Atticus was running around with new friends that he had made and saying "Tschüss!" (a friendly way to say goodbye) as we left.

We drove back to Leiden Sunday afternoon feeling relieved, excited and very blessed. We found an apartment that is very perfect for us, have already made some friends, and have two kids who patiently went from one appointment to the next greeting each apartment agent with big smiles.

Now that we have an apartment it is time to really get motivated and finish packing up our things, booking moving vehicles, cancelling contracts, opening new bank accounts....the list goes on. Less than 3 weeks to go. While we are excited about the journey ahead, we are not looking forward to saying goodbye.

Feel the love

These two are quite the pair.

They cheer each other on. Laugh together. And enjoy being together.

Atticus relishes in opportunities to help Milayla and is incredibly concerned when she spits up or kicks off her socks.

Milayla eagerly looks for Atticus when she hears him and follows his every move.

They are still very young, but we hope this friendship between them will keep growing stronger and endure through the sibling disagreements that will surely come.