I Give Up

Our new apartment has a bidet. In theory they make sense. In practice I still find them gross and prefer my own hygiene routine of a daily shower. When we moved into our apartment I figured my biggest concern with the bidet would be that it wastes valuabe space in our bathroom. I never imagined what was in store for me.

Ugh, nasty, gross, yuck! These were the words that came to mind the first time I saw Maisy washing her hands in the ''little sink." I shrieked in horror. Maisy looked up at me confused about her crime. I explained that the bidea was what people used to wash their bottoms. I told her that although we didn't plan on using it for that purpose, the family living in the house before us probably did use it to wash their bummies after big poops. I told her that she was not allowed to use it as a sink. Ugh, nasty, gross, yuck! Maisy wasn't convinced. It was the perfect height and that was all that seemed to matter to her.

Maisy continued to try to use it as a sink and I continued to tell her that it was ugh, nasty, gross, yuk. And then one day I caught her reflection in the bathroom mirror and gagged. She had her face in the bidet and was drinking - YES DRINKING - water from the faucet. It was then that I realized I wasn't going to win this battle. That a three year old could not grasp the dirty nature of a bidet. Especially a three year old who watched her mother regularly clean Sophie's poopie diapers in the bathroom sink! Yes, the same bathroom sink that I use to brush my teeth and sip water from the faucet.

My solution was to thoroughly scour the bidet and try to let go of my hang ups. I still don't think I will ever fill my water cup from our bidea, but I'm confident that as long as non of our guests use it for its intended purposes the girls are probably going to be okay if they use it as a sink. So if you come to our house and see hand soap sitting on the bidea, please don't think it's an invitation to wash your bottom!

Round One Is Over

Maisy made it through her chicken pox ordeal this week. Her spots are all scabbed over which means that she is no longer contagious and most importantly she doesn't have the urge to itch. She is very proud of herself!

I survived too, barely. Staying in the house for a week straight was very draining. Maisy's wacky sleep schedule (napping every afternoon from 5-7 pm and then going to sleep at midnight) made for LONG days. I'm not looking forward to a repeat with Sophie next week.

By Friday I was so burnt out that I called in sick. Not literally because Joel had to work, but I let the girls loose and read my book on the couch all day. I intervened only when I thought Sophie was in peril. I read an entire book in a day, and then spent most of the night picking up the mess that hurricane Maisy and Sophie had left in their wake. Joel let me sleep until 11 am this morning (Saturday) morning so now I feel whole again.

Sophie The Full Time Menace

Here are some photos of Sophie wrecking havock on the house while mommy tends to Maisy.

And of course the play mat with all the toys is completely UNTOUCHED!

Why Say No To The Chicken Pox Vaccine

As I stated in my previous post I am opposed to the chicken pox vaccine for normal healthy children. I understand that chicken pox can be dangerous to small babies, adults, pregnant women and the inferm, but I fear that with our nation's chicken pox policy we are trading one set of risks (protecting the aforementioned groups) for another set of risks.

When children contract chicken pox they normally develop a lifelong immunity to the disease. Lifelong immunity is important because the chicken pox virus can be more complicated when contracted by adults. The chicken pox vaccine only provides temporary immunity. In fact, when the vaccine first came out in the mid-90's only one dose was recommended at the 12 month check-up. Last year a second dose was added to the vaccination schedule at five years because it was discovered that previously vaccinated grade school kids were contracting the disease. (i.e. the vaccine had pushed back the average age of occurance.) Experts concede that they don't know how long the booster will last, but expect it should provide protection well into the teen years. Hmm, so just when the disease become potentially dangerous to contract a child's immunity to it wears off? Unless people are diligent about getting their chicken pox boosters thorughout adulthood, the chicken pox vaccine is going to shift the occurance in our population from children to adults and the injury and death rate from the disease will increase.

My second issue with the chicken pox vaccine is related to shingles. Read this statement and you baby boomers will be joining "earth momma" listserves searching for chicken pox parties to attend in your neighborhood!

From www.909shot.com web site: "Another study in 2002 confirmed that adults exposed to natural chickenpox disease were protected from developing shingles and that there is concern that mass vaccination against chickenpox may cause a future epidemic of shingles, affecting more than 50 percent of Americans aged 10 to 44 years."

The chicken pox vaccine is removing a key piece to the natural continuum that protects most of us from coming down with shingles as an adult. Shingles lasts longer and is much more painful than chicken pox.

Proponents of the vaccine argue that if a person is vaccinated against the chicken pox they cannot break out in shingles as an adult - true. The goal of the chicken pox vaccination policy is to eradicate chicken pox from our population, so theoretically Maisy's generation won't have to deal with shingels either. But eradicating chicken pox from Maisy's generation will only work if her peers are diligent about maintaining their booster shots because you can actually catch chicken pox from someone with shingles. And if the baby boomers, and other generations aren't getting their natural chicken pox exposure boosters then the rate of shingels will increase. What an interesting twist!

"People who haven't had chickenpox also can catch it from someone with shingles, but they cannot catch shingles itself. That's because shingles can only develop from a reactivation of VZV in someone who has previously had chickenpox." So we have a national policy to eradicate chicken pox, but the vaccine is going to cause an increase in the occurance of shingles, which can in turn transmit the the chicken pox back to people without lifelong immunity.

The drug companies do have a solution to this interesting twist. You guessed it, they developed a vaccine against shingles in 2006. I still prefer Mother Nature's approach.

All you baby boomers better book yourselves plane tickets to visit me in Amsterdam next spring to get your natural varicella zoster booster to protect yourself from a shingels outbreak.

And finally I don't like the idea of injecting Maisy and Sophie with the following varicella vaccine ingredients:

The Live Virus
Sucrose (sugar)
Saline Solution
MSG
Potassium
EDTA
Fetal bovine serum (the liquid part of blood)
Hydrolyzed gelatin
Monosodium glutamate
MRC-5 cells: DNA and protein (aborted human embryo's lung cells cultures)
Neomycin

The vaccine contains the live virus, so it doesn't even save a child's body from exposure to the actual virus makeup. In fact, recently vaccinated children may be capable of transmitting the live virus to an individual without immunity, including pregnant women, adults, the inferm, etc. Ok, I'll get off my soap box now and return to writing lighthearted posts about life in Amsterdam.

The Hot Zone

It is official. Maisy has the chicken pox. This is wonderful news and on day two I can report that her chicken pox illness has been easier to deal with than her bout with the flu in March. Her fever only lasted two days instead of seven! Now we are simply battling her urge to itch.

The first photo was taken on Sunday evening before bed. The second photo was taken on Monday afternoon.

It is official. Maisy has the chicken pox. This is wonderful news and on day two I can report that her chicken pox illness has been easier to deal with than her bout with the flu in March. Her fever only lasted two days instead of seven! Now we are simply battling her urge to itch.
The first photo was taken on Sunday evening before bed. The second photo was taken on Monday afternoon.

I chose not to vaccinate Maisy against the chicken pox because I believe that it is a normal childhood disease that her healthy immune system can - and should - handle. I believe that naturally exposing a child's immune system to diseases like the chicken pox will help it properly develop and make it stronger for fighting infections later in life. And I just can't justify exposing my children to the varicella vaccine simply to save our national economy money.

From Dr. Greene's web site - WebMD - "The other major benefit of the vaccine is an economic one. The vaccine reduces the costs related to the disease, including the costs of missed work, school, and child-care. This economic factor is a major force in the drive for universal immunization in the United States."

In the States, parents have to host chicken pox parties to help naturally spread the disease. Holland does not adiminister the varicella vaccine so it is common to see children out in public with spots. In fact, children aren't held home from school if they have the chicken pox (unless they are sick with a fever or complications.) Children with active chicken pox are not considered social pariahs here. We saw numerous children at the park this spring covered in spots.

Maisy's friend Eloise came down with the pox two weeks ago. Her mother, an American who knows my beliefs on vaccination, invited us over for a playdate. I jumped at the opportunity. My calendar was open and Maisy and Sophie were both in good health. I couldn't think of a better time to check this illness off our list!

I exposed Maisy and Sophie to Eloise on the same day, but only Maisy came down with the pox. Sophie may have some of my immunities left over from birth (babies are born with some of their mothers' immunities to diseases like chicken pox, which wear off over time) or she may have a particularly strong immune system right now from breast feeding. Our Dutch pediatrician thinks that her exposure level to Maisy will be high enough that she will contract the pox in a few weeks. If she is correct, Sophie should break out around July 5-7th. That's fine with me as long as she is ready to travel to NH on July 14th!

Maisy's developed a few patches of very small bumps on her forehead and neck on Saturday. They didn't look anything like Eloise's pox so I wasn't sure if they were the real deal or if she just had heat rash or a skin irritation. Since it is no longer common to see children with chicken pox in the States I was unsure if these qualified. She had a fever of 102+ so the rash could have been her body's reaction to a random virus, but I held out hope and kept her home all weekend.
By Sunday the little bumps were crusty, so I was pretty sure that she had the pox but worried that it was a light case and we would have to attempt exposure again next spring. (The chicken pox virus always flares up in the spring) On Sunday afternoon while video conferencing with papa John over the web (we love Skype) I noticed a spot on the back of her neck. When I lifted up her shirt I discovered a patch of red bumps that were cleary the pox. We shared the exciting news with papa John.

From the beginning I have made this experience an adventure for Maisy. The special playdate to contract the pox, the two week wait while we talked about the pox and finally the reward of the red spots! She believes that coming down with the pox is some kind of privledge, a right of passage for 'big girls.' (You have to love how easy it is to brainwash a child) She was very excited to hear from grandma Cindy today that both Marley and Jack had chicken pox when they were little. She is now part of the chicken pox club!

Maisy is elated when she finds a new spot, or notices a change in one. She knows that they start out as red patches, develop into bumps, fill with yellow fluid, crust over and scab. She also knows that she is not allowed to itch them. So whenever the urge is too great to control she will come and tell me that her "nose hurts, her cheek hurts, her eye hurts, etc." and I apply the cream.

The photos below are from our adventure to the Apotheek this morning to buy the special cream. Joel is conveniently out of town this week on a work trip. He seemed pretty happy to get out of dodge. As a result, I had to load the girls into my bike and trek across town to the homeopathic Apotheek (pharmacy) to buy the Calendula based anti-itch ointment. I would have preferred to keep Maisy in the house because she still had a mild fever, but she seemed in good spirits and I really didn't have a choice. I put the wind cover on the bike so she wouldn't get a chill, which was a good move because it turned out to be a windy day.

I loved the Homeopathic Apotheek. The design and set up of the store was very cool. The photos don't do it justice. Maisy enjoyed the adventure but Sophie didn't because she was ready for a nap. She slept on the bike ride home with her head slumped on Maisy's shoulder.

Life Without a Car

What would I do without my Phil & Ted stroller?! Today we used the stroller to pick up two more outdoor rugs for our deck, we also bought two hamock chairs. This was my second trip to the boutique that sold the rugs, and hopefully our last. We attracted quite a few strange looks while walking through central Amsterdam with our wares. I actually had Sophie up on my back and Maisy sat in the rear seat of the stroller during our adventure.

It was worth all the effort. Sophie now has a huge space on our deck where she can crawl - splinter free. Which means less monitoring and work for me. And the girls LOVE their new hamock swing. I love all the bright colors that the deck brings into our lives each day.

The giant outdoor pillow was placed behind the slide to cushion Sophie in case she lost her balance and fell backwards while climbing the stairs. Maisy quickly discovered that it can be used as a landing pad. She now leaps off the top of the slide onto it! Hopefully, Sophie won't

Never Say Never!

Joel and I set out on another crazy adventure this weekend. Not crazy fun, but rather crazy insane. And, yes, it included a trip to Ikea. We definitely have a love hate relationship with that store. We curse it every time we go because we spend hours walking through its maze and then we go home and spend hours assembling furniture. But we must love it because keep returning to spend more money. This recent Ikea adventure was prompted by a return. We bought a mattress for our guest room from Ikea but it arrived smelling horribly of petroleum products and my new eco friendly conscience couldn't accept subjecting anyone to sleeping on it. So, we rented a car and brought it back...or I should say Joel brought it back. There wasn't enough room in the car for us so the girls and I set out for Toys 'r Us to buy some deck toys and Joel planned to pick us up on his way home.

Toys 'r Us is not conveniently located near public transportation, but it is possible to get there without a car if you don't mind walking a mini marathon after getting off the Tram. On the google map I printed the store didn't appear to be too far from the trolley stop, but in reality it is at least a mile. Still a mile is doable. Of course since it was our first time going to the store we managed to turn one mile into three miles! The Amsterdam Toys 'r Us is actually located in the suburb of Osdoorp which we learned contains a lot of farm land. The lesson I learned from this adventure is that if I am going to rely on google maps I need to print out the zoomed in detailed map as well as the large overview map. We easily found the road that Toys 'r us was located on, but all we saw was fields, cows and windmills. I took a wrong turn because I thought I saw civilization at the end of a long road and hoped that it might include our toy store. I was wrong. After walking a mile down this rural road pushing the girls in the stroller I came to a gas station and asked for directions. The gas station attendants laughed when I asked them where the toy store was located, apparently they don't get many women pushing strollers asking for directions in Osdoorp. He told us to backtrack and continue down the road we were originally on and that we would run into Toys 'r Us eventually. Maisy is quickly learning about getting lost and is very aware of when we turn around and backtrack. So I spent the entire walk back down the country road explaining to Maisy why I had taken the wrong turn.

We finally found Toys 'r Us. It had exactly what I was looking for so I can't complain. But I do need to point out that it was a lame store by US standards and wasn't worthy of the efforts that we made to get there.

Joel managed to successfully return the Ikea mattress despite their policy of not accepting returns on mattresses. When I asked him how he convinced them to take it back, he said, "I told them that my wife is a complete wacky about enviro products and that if I returned with the smelly mattress she would freak out on me!" He probably wasn't too far off in his assessment of the situation.

We bought the girls a brightly colored, all weather, plastic Little Tykes picnic bench and slide. Joel reminded me on our drive home that I swore I would never have a yard filled with "that plastic crap!" He's right. I've always hated how trashy and cheap Little Tykes toys and furniture makes a home and yard look. I certainly never thought I would have taken a tram and walked three miles to go buy the stuff. And given my appreciation for the Dutch approach to playgrounds I think children should be creative and find their own entertainment in back yards. Living on a farm with lots of spaces makes self entertainment easy. These Little Tykes toys make wonderful babysitters for moms with small rear decks!

Once again I have learned that in the world of parenting I really should never say Never.

Sophie is our little adventure girl. At just one year she can climb up the slide, turn herself around and slide down on her stomach without any help. Maisy's job is to follow behind her just in case she needs help up the ladder, but she rarely needs any. She already fits the middle child profile and we don't even have a third kid yet!

Happy Birthday Sophie

Sophie turned one on Friday. To celebrate her birthday the girls and I ventured out to a goat farm in the Amsterdam Bos (forest.) The skies looked ominous when we left the house but I was determined to go on an adventure to celebrate her birthday. I bundled the girls up and we set out on our bike. It was cold, windy and even a bit rainy on our journey. We passed a few bikers that looked as if they were trying to race home before the skies opened up. I momentarily questioned why I was still peddling in the opposite direction of our house, but I've learned that Amsterdam weather is unpredictable so I continued on. Forty five minutes later we arrived at the farm and the skies were blue.

Sophie didn't know it was her birthday or that this was supposed to be her special trip. She sleept through most of our farm visit! She did wake up, however, in time to sample goat's milk ice cream!

Maisy enjoyed feeding the goats, chickens, pigs and ponies. But the highlight of her visit was feeding the baby goats from a bottle. We will be adding this wonderful gem to our list of regular activities.

More Farm Photos

Someone Find her Support!

Please excuse me from deviating from the wonderful child centered focus of this series of posts. But check out these photos. At first I thought these ladies' utters were just filled and ready to be milked but then I looked around at the other goats and realized that goat utters come in all shapes and sizes too. These ladies were the Pamela Anderson and Dolly Partons of the herd.

Amsterdam Playgrounds

When we first moved to Amsterdam I was disappointed with their public playgrounds. They were sparce, uncolorful and all contained sand boxes - my worst nightmare! It didn't help that we arrived in February and very few children were out playing so they were exceptionally quiet whenever we visited them.

As the weather warmed this spring and more families utilized the playgrounds I began to appreciate their simplicity. I now understand that the Dutch aren't just cheap or the playground design team unimaginative, instead I think there is some actual genious behind their designs. The Dutch playgrounds provide children with oppotunities to create their own fun...a simple but perfect concept!

I have come to accept that sand is a part of our daily life now. The girls truly enjoy sandboxes. So, I try to time our playground outings at the end of the day and promplty bring them home for tubbies before dinner and bed so that the sand tracked into my house is kept to a minimum!

The stepping stones, climbing igloo, gymnastic bars and sandboxes provide Maisy and Sophie with plenty of opportunities to entertain themselves.

We did find a playground near our new house that has a swingset. Swings are novelties here so the girls always enjoy this special treat. Because the swings are so popular and there are only two at the playground, Maisy and Sophie often have to share...but they don't mind!