Atticus Antics of January (18 Months Old)

Yes, Atticus is growing up! We know we can't keep him small forever, but it really does go by very fast. Here is the latest update on our Little Man.

Atticus started nursery this month at church and is having a hard time making the transition; we know it will come with time. 

At home he is getting into everything. He is a climber. He loves to help. He loves food; especially porridge, green beans and hummus (but not together). He refuses to eat with small utensils and requests one of our utensils if we have forgotten. He loves to make us laugh and practice silly faces.

He shares everything.

At the end of a busy day he will bring a book to us and request us to sit on the floor wherever we are and read together. His favorite book right now is a book about Jesus. He loves cuddles.

We have been going to swimming lessons; he could spend all morning on the slide. He enjoys seeing all his friends at music class each week.

He is beginning to understand the idea of prayer and when we sit down for a meal he is the first one to have his arms folded to say a blessing on the food.

He is a constant joy in our life.

So blessed to have him.

pretending to drink from one of his stacking cups in a wonderful chair some friends gave us

relaxing...

his handsome smile

his comb that he added to our wash load...

trying to vacuum. Maybe next time he will remember to grab the rest of the vacuum.

he decided that the canned food would be better if kept in his Duplo box

when we left him he was sitting in his chair; when we came back a minute later, he was on the table...

Mommy told him to get ready for a bath so he ran and put shampoo in his hair and excitedly showed Mommy how well he had done.

Instead of getting his own water bottle, he got Evia's and helped her sip some water.

trying to feed Evia a grape...he missed.

We're Expanding...

....from one child to TWO!

We will be welcoming our new addition in May and are very excited to have another child running around the house. Although Atticus doesn't quite understand, we are sure that he is going to be an awesome older brother. He came to the 20 week ultrasound and watched in awe as he saw his little sibling for the first time. What a wonderful blessing.

Love,

-The Clog Crew

10 week ultrasound

20 week ultrasound

Cute little foot

Our little one.

22 week bump

Happy New Year

New Year's Eve in the Netherlands is quite a fun evening. Plenty of fireworks and lots of Olibollen; an event that we were very much anticipating.

Last year, we sat and enjoyed watching the fireworks. This year, we had Leah and Jan over and the boys set off some of their own fireworks. Before fireworks started, we enjoyed dinner, games and some Oliebollen. Atticus enjoyed playing with his friend, Evia, and they even rounded out the evening with jumping on our bed. 

There were some people who started setting off fireworks early in the day, but we waited until midnight before we sent the boys out into the cold. Thankfully Jason was wearing gloves so when he held onto one of the fireworks a little too long it was only his glove that got burned.

It was fun to see all the different firework displays and Atticus woke up to join in the fun. We all called it a night around 2:30am. Sleep felt good.

All in all; a wonderful evening with great company and great food. 

Love,

-The Clog Crew

Atticus showing Evia some of his new toys from Christmas

Pretty excited about being in the big bed...

Jason getting our non-alcoholic bubbly ready for midnight.

Jan excited about setting off the fireworks.

One of the fireworks about to take off

Atticus all tuckered out after watching the fireworks.

Out for a walk the morning after and we couldn't believe the mess that everyone left behind! (sidenote:::the boys made sure to clean up their firework remains.)

It's the most wonderful time of the year...

Yes, our Christmas post is a little bit late - but better late than never!

Christmas time truly is wonderful. 

Christmas Eve was filled with plenty of fun as we all opened up our Christmas Pajamas; Atticus even got two pairs. We also opened up a family game to play together, put chocolates on the tree (and ate some), talked to some family, finished our advent calendar and watched 'The Nativity'. It was a lovely evening. And we even managed to snap a family photo before heading to bed.

Christmas Eve family photo

Front view of our gingerbread house

 

 

Gingerbread house - side view

Our Advent Calendar; fully decorated

Atticus putting a chocolate decoration on the tree

On Christmas morning we were pleasantly surprised with how quickly Atticus got excited. We read Luke 2 together as a family then sat down to a breakfast of fresh fruit and Chinois - very tasty! Then it was time for a few presents. Atticus was even able to open a few presents with Grandma and Grandpa over skype, including a beautiful quilt that Grandma made, which he loves. Presents took most of the morning since Atticus would open one at a time, then go and play with it before he wanted to open another. He was so eager to share his toys with us. We played some games together and got things ready for dinner.

For Christmas dinner we made perogies. We invited another family over for dinner, so they arrived early to learn how to make perogies. It's always fun seeing people try perogies for the first time (and they loved them)! Dinner was a huge success; we ate A LOT, played some games and then ate some more. It was lovely being able to share Christmas dinner with others.

Once things were tidied up, we were able to talk to some more family before calling it a night. Christmas was not quite over for us though....

In the Netherlands, they celebrate the first and second day of Christmas (the 25th and 26th). So, on the 26th, we had a lovely Christmas meeting at church that the Dutch congregation had organized. The talks focused on Christ and ways that Christmas can help remind us to draw closer to him every day. It was followed by socializing and a few Dutch Christmas treats. It was a nice opportunity to catch up with some friends and start making new ones.

One of the best parts about this Christmas was that Jason's office was closed for the week following Christmas so we had him all to ourselves! We spent our time playing games, enjoying the snow, swimming and just trying to relax. It was simple and it was wonderful.

Of course, we missed our friends and family in Canada, but we are grateful for the technology available that we can still see/talk to them.

Hope everyone had a lovely holiday season!

Love,
-The Clog Crew

We've been winter cleaning...

The last few weeks of weather have been very interesting. We had a week of snow, followed by a week of rain and have recently been buried in snow once more. Church was cancelled today for the second time in the last 3 weeks on account of how slick and snowy things are. Here is the latest photo of the view from our apartment:

To keep ourselves busy on days that we have been snowed in, we have all been cleaning and organizing. Atticus is quick to help and will grab the broom as soon as he sees us start tidying up. 

Here he is sweeping under the couch and then trying to sweep up his toys and doodles from the coffee table:

We finished making our special Christmas Advent Calendar in time to begin our countdown on December 1st. It is a Christmas Tree with 24 ornaments on it, one for each day, each with a scripture about the life of Christ. To begin, all the ornaments are turned away and each evening we read the daily scripture and get to turn the ornament over to the decorated side; the tree will be fully decorated in time for Christmas morning. We have really been enjoying the extra focus on Christ. The scriptures begin at the end of Christ's life and then work their way backwards to the birth of Christ, so that one can begin to better understand the full measure of that humble birth.

(Of course, we cannot take credit for this idea, someone very creative came up with it and created a pdf pattern on Etsy; you can check it out here.)

Jason tying the string on to the ornaments.

Beginning the countdown.

Beginning the countdown.

And our Christmas tree is up! We were a little worried about how curious Atticus would be about the Christmas tree since it is his first Christmas being mobile, but he has done fairly well so far. Although, he is quite eager to plug the Christmas tree in every time that he sees the lights are out. And we still need to go on the hunt for this year's Christmas decoration.

We have also been leisurely working on our yearly gingerbread house, nearly done now. We are just enjoying the Christmas season and time together as a family - doing our best not to let it rush by.

Love and miss you all.

-The Clog Crew

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

 This weekend things have gotten a little bit colder.

We woke this morning to thick frost on the grass and slightly frozen canals - winter is here! 

 It is only a matter of time before everyone starts strapping on the ice skates and gliding down the canals.

Thankfully we have been staying warm inside, putting up the Christmas tree and making a Christmas advent calendar (we will try to post pictures of that when it is all finished). The boys quickly went to work untangling the lights so that Mommy could hang them on the tree.

With the cold weather we have had to bundle up in many layers and Atticus was quick to learn how to put on his toque (aka: winter hat) all by himself and is so happy about it.

Here he is taking a break from helping vacuum so that he can put on his toque to stay nice and warm:

A couple weekends ago we went to the Naturalis, the Natural History Museum, to take in their new exhibit about whales and dolphins. Atticus loved checking out all the displays and videos. There were markers on the floor that were lit up and he would stand on each one to look at the corresponding display.

Here he is standing on one of the markers giving us his posed camera smile.

 And here he is with Mommy enjoying an interactive display.

 We are so happy to have some beautiful Christmas decorations up in our home now to add some cheer to the short winter days.

Love you all.

-The Clog Crew

Sinterklaas Has Arrived!

Sinterklaas came in on his boat from Spain to The Netherlands last week, but he arrived yesterday in Leiden. We dressed up in some warm clothes to join some friends downtown to watch Sinterklaas come in with all his helpers, Zwarte Piet (Black Pete). 

Here is a photo of Sinterklaas standing at the stern of the boat.

After Sinterklaas got off the boat, he rode around downtown Leiden on his horse, Amerigo, with many Zwarte Piet following and tossing peppernoten to everyone. Atticus didn't know what to make of all the people and noise, but we're sure that he will enjoy finding goodies tucked away in his shoe when he wakes up in the morning. 

Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet are visiting from Spain and will stay in The Netherlands until December 6th. If Atticus had been a good boy and leaves one of his shoes out with some carrots for Amerigo between now and December 6th he may just wake up with a sweet or small toy that Sinterklaas left in his shoe. He can even leave his shoe out more than once - lucky boy! He already tried leaving his pencil crayons in his shoe for Amerigo, but we advised him that that may not be such a good idea. Check out how happy he was after he stuffed his shoe:

And of course, here is a family photo of us waiting for Sinterklaas to arrive:

Thankfully, even though the weather was a little chilly, the sun was shining! 

The night before Sinterklaas leaves The Netherlands he will come and leave some presents for all the boys and girls that have been good. It is a time that children really look forward to.

Love and miss you all.

-The Clog Crew