Last Day

It was really such a lovely experience to be in Holland for nearly one month. What a joy to watch our girls thrive under the love and attention of their family. They had been immediately at ease with everyone – an encouragement for me to see that geographic distance does not necessarily equal emotional distance! And it was definitely great for their Dutch language skills. Prior to our trip, Elizabeth would mostly respond to J in English, even though she fully understood his Dutch. But by the end of our time, both girls were speaking more Dutch than English! (And Elizabeth continues to even now speak almost 100% in Dutch with J and has clearly surpassed me in Dutch speaking skills). I told J on many occasions during out trip how grateful I am for his commitment to speak only Dutch with our children. It was obvious that they immediately felt at ease in the Dutch speaking environment because they completely understood everything they heard! How sad it would be to visit family if our girls would not be able to communicate.

We spent our last morning with Tante Janneke and her girls.

Morning coffee time train.

A walk around the neighborhood to expend some extra energy.

Tante Emmanuelle and most of her family joined us in the late afternoon and stayed for dinner too.

Dear family, tot de volgende keer!!

Sunny Days

Oma and Opa have this fantastic garden behind their house. When the weather is sunny and warm, it is the best place to be! The girls enjoyed helping Opa with yard work.

We also enjoyed eating outdoors on these sunny and warm days. (Well, to be honest, there was just one day that was warm enough to eat outside!)

Upon learning that I had never experienced the traditional Dutch “verjaardag gebakjes” (little birthday cakes served at most Dutch birthday parties), Oma decided to make a celebration of my birthday on our one summery day. She and Elizabeth went to the bakery in the morning to pick out the gebakjes. Elizabeth even managed to keep the secret and not tell me about where she and Oma went that morning!

Elizabeth was delighted in the fun and surprise.

Sarah was delighted in her choice of treat!

My birthday party even included presents! Oma gave me this beautiful embroidered table cloth. Others also gave me fun, little gifts too.

Enjoying a few pre-dinner hugs…

…and hair styling service by Tante Janneke…

…and post dinner book reading with Opa.

Dutch summer evenings feel endless. Because of its higher latitude, in comparison to PA or Israel, the sun does not set until late at night during the summer months. I love how light it can be so late at night!

Learning to Cycle

There is no more appropriate place to learn how to cycle than in Holland! After patient tutelage from her papa at various places during our time in Holland, Elizabeth got all the various components figured out and learned how to self propel herself on a bicycle during our stay in Rotterdam!

Rotterdam Weekend

We spent a few days in Rotterdam with our friends, Familie Mast. The kids had a great time playing together, and we adults had a lovely time visiting together. The quiet evenings after all the kids were in bed were also very nice!

Just 4 months separate these two, and it was fun to see them start interacting more with each other.

Our friends live in a beautiful home beside the River Maas. Check out the view from their living room window!

The SS Rotterdam is a former ocean liner and cruise ship which is now a hotel and is permanently docked outside their home. We visited the ship which made me wish we still would need to travel this way between Europe and the USA!

It was a bit windy the day we visited the ship. But why let that stop the fun?! This is ‘real Dutch weather’ and one cannot stay indoors all day!

Happy Anniversary

We celebrated our 7 year wedding anniversary when in Holland. We took advantage of the availability of family babysitters and stayed overnight at a lovely home by a canal in Enkhuizen.

We enjoyed the evening with a fine dining and the quiet that comes with being child-free. It was a brief 24 hours, but so enjoyable! It was our first night away without kids since Elizabeth was born. We think we should do it again before another 3.5 years goes by!

Our girls were lovingly cared for by Tante Janneke and Oom David. And their twin cousins were excited to have Elizabeth and Sarah  join in their fun for the day and night.  Elizabeth and Sarah both did great staying overnight without us. Elizabeth had a few tears, but Tante Janneke was successful in helping her feel peace as well as confidence that we would return the next day.

A Busy Week

It’s been a big week for Sarah. She has been diaper free since Sunday and is doing great! Of course, the whole experience was a vivid reminder that how things go with child #1 is not a guarantee of how things will go with child #2! Sarah had more accidents in a few hours than Elizabeth did during the her entire training! But I should note that Elizabeth was older and had also basically stopped using her diaper before we took it off of her. But I did think that after a few accidents, Sarah would catch on. She is catching one, but it just took more than a few accidents!

She peed about 20 times that first day, about 10-12 of which did not land in a toilet. I did not even know it was humanly possible to pee that often, but I guess the feeling of being diaper free made her feel the urge?! It was a little frustrating because after sitting on the toilet and making a pee (yeah!), I would think that we would have at least 30-45 minutes. But…five minutes later she would wet her underwear!

But she is a very smart little girl. By day 2 she had significantly reduced her accidents, a grand total of 4 for the whole day. By day 3, she cut it in half again. And by Day 4, today, she has started to ask for the toilet and when she did have an accident, she stopped it and waited to finish until she was on the toilet. Plus, she woke up dry after her afternoon nap too! I think in another few days, she will be accident free! This stage does require vigilant parenting, and I will be glad for it to be ended. But how great it will be to be a diaper free household after 3.5 years!

And she is just so proud of herself. I love to see that look on her face!

A Beautiful Day

After a series of exceptionally hot days, we are all enjoying the cooler and more seasonable weather. Saturday’s beautiful sun and temperatures called for a little run around the garden following church.