Happy New Year 2009!

Happy 2009 everyone! Here's a recap of our early January adventures...

After unpacking and napping on New Year's Eve, we ventured out for a party with friends around 7 p.m. On the way to the bus stop, we saw this "tree" (see photo) on our canal. Very festive! We made it to Jessica and Steve's for a family-friendly New Year's Eve celebration. The kids were all in their pj's with Frosty the Snowman playing on TV, while the grown-ups ate and drank and chatted. We only intended to stay a few hours, but left around 11:15 p.m. We sat at the tram stop for a bit, when finally a nice Dutch woman walked up and told us that trams were not running after 8 p.m. until 1:30 a.m. Apparently, Dutch folks are crazy about their NYE fireworks, and the city is concerned about explosives being on the trams, buses, etc. Makes sense to me. We learn something new every day, huh? We considered heading back to the party, but we weren't too sure that any of us would last until 1:30 a.m., so we walked to the Hilton nearby to grab a taxi. Hard to come by on NYE with no public transportation running, but we got one. Ben fell asleep in the cab, but woke up as we walked upstairs to our apartment. It was 11:45 p.m., and Greg tried putting Ben to bed. At midnight, those crazy fireworks started. And boy, are they CRAZY! It is like the 4th of July on steroids! Solid firework action from midnight until 1 a.m. Then, at 1 a.m., they were every 3-5 seconds apart for an hour. At 2 a.m., they were still going off every 5-10 seconds...believe me, I was timing them as I was looking down at my little boy whose eyes were still wide open! Enough already!! Maybe we were just not in the spirit since we were trying to put a jet-lagged little boy to bed. Ben finally fell asleep at 2:30 a.m. Happy New Year!

On New Year's Day, we slept in until about 10 a.m. We knew the party, late night, and sleeping in would not help us in getting over the jet lag, but we were all too tired to force ourselves awake any earlier. Since we woke up so late, we thought it best to keep Ben plugging along through the day, skip the nap, and then to bed at a normal time. That should help us get back on track, right? Wrong!! See below how well our plan worked. Poor kid didn't even take one bite of dinner before his head dropped to the table. Oops! I guess there's always tomorrow in getting our schedules back on track. ;)

On Saturday, January 3, we met our friends, the Podulkas, at the Nemo science center (children's museum) for an afternoon playdate...love their motto "it is forbidden NOT to touch"! The boys had a blast exploring together, and I have to admit that the adults found it pretty cool too. We will definitely be going back on a rainy spring day. We all walked to the Sea Palace - a floating Chinese restaurant - for dinner. The food was really great, and we enjoyed spending time with friends. But, happy/sad news...they are moving to Denmark at the end of March. As always, a great opportunity for them, but sad for us that we will have to say goodbye. All the more thankful that we had such a great day together!!

Skipped church on Sunday...we are still living with a very jet-lagged little boy (finally got to sleep at 1 a.m. on Saturday night/Sunday morning). Greg got all packed up and ready to go for a 4 day work trip to London. He left early on Monday morning (5 a.m.). Totally freaked me out around 5:40 a.m. when I heard the apartment door open...he forgot his passport. Oops! No worries, he still made it back to Schipol with plenty of time to catch his flight. All of the work in London went well, and Greg had some time in the evenings to enjoy the city...Picadilly Circus, Big Ben, the London Eye. He even caught a musical, Billy Elliot. (PS, we LOVE our new camera. Takes awesome night shots!)

Meanwhile, back on the Amsterdam home front, Ben was wearing his Mommy ragged. Still not back on a normal sleeping pattern, and lots of "terrible 2" activities to keep me busy...throwing his plate of food and cup of milk on the floor, coloring on the table and floor. Ugh. But, we had lots of good times too. We had an afternoon playdate with Kirsten and her son, Ethan. Since both our hubbies were traveling, we stayed for dinner. It was nice to have some adult interaction at mealtime, and it's always nice to be with friends. Also that week, Ben had a GGD appointment (similar to doctor, more of a 'wellness' check-up). He got a meningitis vaccine, as meningitis is more common among 2 year olds here - versus age 11 when the U.S. vaccinates. Just like in the States, what a champ, no tears!! Finally on Wednesday evening, Ben slept the whole night - 9 p.m. until 7 a.m. on Thursday morning. Hurray!! So, it officially took one week to get him back on track, exactly what other moms had told me. Greg got home safely on Thursday evening, and it was so good to have him home (even if only for a few days).

On Friday, Ben and I met his 'girlfriend', Kaia, and her mommy for some fun at TunFun. TunFun is an indoor playground with lots of slides, ball pits, trampolines, etc. It's pretty cool - it used to be a traffic underpass, so it's underground - you can hear and feel the trams go by above you. Ben loved it! I couldn't really get the kiddos to stand still for a photo, so I think this one below sums it up - TunFun sign and stairs leading underground in the background, exhausted Ben in the foreground. :) Another great winter activity, we'll definitely be going back.

Went to church on Sunday, the 11th, and I helped out in Ben's new class - he moved up to the 2-3 year old English speaking class. It was great to see what he is doing now. Playing, story time and song time (Zacchaeus was a wee little man!), crafts/coloring, snacks. I think Ben really thrives on structure, and the class is much smaller than the younger age group. Greg left later that day for Oslo, Norway for another work trip. We decided not to join him - who wants to go North for a winter vacation? :)

Greg's trip to Norway was great! As usual, not too much time to explore, but he made it out in the evenings to see (in photo order) the Royal Palace, ice skating rink in the city center, his Grand Hotel, and the Nobel Peace Center. Greg got home on Wednesday morning. Oslo temps weren't too bad, about what they were here in Amsterdam. I got a wonderful souvenir, a beautiful glass necklace and earrings (glass jewelry is one of their 'specialties'). It was either the jewelry or a pewter Viking ship. He made a good choice, huh? :)

We are really loving Saturdays in our home since we've been back. We are slow to get up (as slow as Ben lets us), have a yummy breakfast, then head out to explore something new! On Saturday, January 17th, we went to Artis Zoo to visit the aquarium. As we arrived, it was funny to see the water with chunks of ice and to see the monkeys playing with an old Christmas tree. A very different view of the zoo than what we saw last summer. We made it to the aquarium, and I have to admit, it was a pretty sad display of fish. I realize that we are probably spoiled with the amazing Shedd aquarium in Chicago, but there were just a couple hallways worth of carp, a stingray, and some small "tropical" fish. Thank goodness Ben didn't seem to mind. He loved gazing at them all, and he even found "Nemo" and "Dory". He fell asleep on the tram and wouldn't go back to sleep once we got home, so we decided to stay in the spirit of things and watched Finding Nemo. And, to top it off (and I swear, this was not planned), we had gotten some fish from the outdoor street market for dinner. Quite a fishy day!!

Greg is home now for a bit - no more work travels until the end of February, thank goodness! But, the rest of this month will bring goodbyes to ex-pat friends, more Saturday field trips, and a certain someone turning 32!!