Youngest Son and His Family

Baby and Child Care, The Hertsje Edition

Hertsje took a quick course in basic baby care this evening just before she went home to join her growing family.

She passed with flying colors the sessions on hugging, kissing, playing "This Little Piggy", and identifying all of baby's important features.

Of course we sent her home tired and most likely still covered in peanut butter, but she did her "happy dance" when she landed safely home with her daddy and mommy who missed her so very much.

She seemed to have had her fill of babies for the day though, and just took it all in stride.

And she can come back and stay with us any time.  The girl sleeps for 13 hours at night, and took a three hour nap.

He's Here!

Born June 28 at 12:19 in the afternoon.
Eight pounds, four ounces, twenty inches.

He has a precious name, but on my blog he shall be known as Broeder.  This means brother, and is the name my mom's dad went by when he was a little boy.

Such a cutie!

Feintsje is TWO

Six Months Until Christmas!

You know what that means.

If you are planning to make your gifts you better get started.

Now I'll tell you what I do.

I pin things to my Pinterest boards that I would like to make.

Yup.  That's what I do.  With wild abandon.

My inner world is very rich.

My outer world doesn't match up.

Hmm.  Much to ponder.

I think I'm still tired from last Christmas.

Have I mentioned that I've given up Diet Coke? I'm not missing it, which could quite possibly be because I'm not awake to notice.

Birthday Party Fun

Daughter and Son-in-law have a great backyard for kids.  And great kids too!  As you can see, they had A LOT of fun.

Shadow

 A shadow of Hertjse swinging at her cousins birthday party.

I do like shadows.

Yesterday Was The BIG Birthday Party!

Kado is now officially four years old, and Feintsje will be two on Friday.

Daughter and Son-in-law put on a fabulous party for these dearly loved children of theirs.

I wandered around with my camera and ended up with 245 pictures.

So, just maybe, there will be more to come.

Jonge and Famke spent the night with us.

Pake made us French toast which we ate out in the backyard.

This very tiny bee was flying around my mint plant.

This is the smallest one I've ever seen.

Since tiny bees aren't really keen on close examination, I took some pictures so I could enlarge them and get a good look at it.

What beauty on such a minuscule creature!

This really happened. (a rerun)

In the early 1980's, when I was young, I had three small children. Three. I only had two hands, so this made life difficult. I should have looked closer, noticed that I only had two hands, and then waited a few years before adding the third child. But, I was young. And so were they.

Then, oldest son went off to the first grade. Without the 'hall monitor' to give me periodic reports on daughter and youngest son, I was on my own. My season of migraines gave those two an overabundance of opportunity do get into trouble. Deep, deep WET trouble.

On the occasion of a very bad migraine, I curled up on the couch, tightly wrapped in an afghan. I distinctly remember hearing the happy playful sounds of D and YS. This should have been a clue to me, but, one must remember that my head was throbbing, my stomach was churning and I wanted to die.

Ah, but I just laid there. Listing to the strains of 'row row row your boat'. What could be wrong with that? How could that be a sign of impending disaster?

Suddenly, the joyful singing turned into excited shouts of alarm! Running towards the sound, I quickly encountered two very frightened, very WET children. Very wet. Lots of screaming.

Okay...now here I will slow the story down. I must slow it down, as the memory has caused my head to begin throbbing again. (okay now judy, take a deep deep breathe and go on with your story).

Upon entering the bathroom, I note that the lovely old-fashioned bathtub, that stood on legs, is leaning in an odd position. Of course, that is not the first thing I note. Water is GUSHING from the pipe that USED to go into the bathtub, but is now just pointing up out of the floor, spewing forth water at an alarming rate.

Again...I pause in this story. And I ask, do you know how to shut off the water to your house? At this point I will tell you, that I did not. If you do not know how to do this, stop reading NOW and ask someone to show you.

Now besides having a migraine, I am also drenched, as the water was hitting the ceiling and raining down all around. As I ran, slipping and sliding all the way to the basement, I discovered upon arrival that after the water hit the ceiling, it flowed freely into the furnace ducts, and was also waterfalling EVERYWHERE in the basement through all the joints in the duct work.

There was no arrow pointing me to the place to turn the water off. Children are now screaming even louder, and I am joining them.

I run back up stairs to check if maybe, just maybe there is a shut off valve to the bathtub. Of course, I had already looked and there wasn't one, but in the midst of the insanity, it seemed worth another shot.

Meeting me on the way to my new 'rainforest' themed bathroom, was youngest boy. He had a book in his hand. He looked at me and said, in a choked up little boy who has been screaming voice "Why don't we sit down and read a book? THEN we will all feel better".

And, to think that I thought that my life was not having an impact on my children.

Oh, and if you ever rent a house with an old-fashioned bathtub on legs, please check to see that all FOUR legs are attached. Singing 'row row row your boat' in a bathtub standing on only THREE of the four legs just may cause a scene like the one above. And believe me, you would not want that. No. You would not.

A Peek At Today

Feintsje went to check out the birds and instead was frightened by a squirrel on the ground.  They both ran fast, in opposite directions.

I passed Famke who was sitting on a stool looking at sight word cards.  When asked if she didn't want to come outside and play she responded, "I am playing.  I'm Mrs. (kindergarten teacher) and the couch is my class!"

 My boy Kado enjoyed the dirt pile and a dinosaur.  He is fun to listen to.  There's a lot going on in that very unique mind of his.

Joining in the fun at the dirt pile was this little cutie.  Oh, how Hertsje does like playing in the dirt.  At one point, she filled her hat up with pebbles and sand and then popped it on her head.  Remember seeing pictures of coal miners leaving the mine at the end of a shift?  She looked like that.  Only cuter.

This morning I extended the tent by adding on an entry canopy.  Here Jonge is enjoying the shade.
After lunch the pool went up, the water color paints came out, and the littlest ones napped.
Oh, and did you notice the yellow cushions in the tent?  They are from the dirty yellow couch that is no longer on the breezeway.  So nice to have comfortable seating in the tent.

A Perfect Summer Day

 This is the best tent I have ever made and I am extremely proud of it.

 Seriously.  I need to get out more.

Hertsje and Big Baby

 Had a great time today playing with Hertsje.

And the sun light was very good this morning.

Hertsje has always been very talkative, and every day she has more and more to say.

Today I sneezed, and she said "Bless you!"

On Monday We Made Things!

First up on Monday, we played with Duplo Legos.

 Next we went outside and made a tent city.  Zeke brought out his own blanket!

 No "real" sleeping happened.  I assure you.

 Well, maybe Zeke slept a very little bit.

After almost the entire day outside, we came in to make things out of Tinkertoys.

Swings for the little dolls were a hit.

It was great fun.

So much fun that I am still tired.