The Unwelcome Pony

Santa brought Maisy a pony stable this year. I don't think he realized how big it was when he delivered it! But Maisy was thrilled and grandma will find some place to store it until our return next summer.

Maisy does not like to share her toys with Sophie. She really needs to be more tollerant of Sophie, but at some level I do understand her frustration with her little sister. Sophie is still a little too young to understand how to play "correctly." As exemplified by this photo of Sophie sitting in the stall of Maisy's barn. Sophie refused to play correctly, and insisted on taking the ponies out of the stalls and climbing in herself. Let's hope she catches on quickly because my ears can't take the screaming the ensues when Sophie crosses the line from acceptable playmate to menacing little sister.

Sledding and Skiing in New Hampshire

After spending a week in St. John's, we were ready to enjoy some winter activities with the kids. The weather didn't disappoint us. While we were gone, the NorthEast was hit by a few storms, and we got more snow upon our return. One afternoon my brother Ricky and I took the kids sledding. Maisy and her cousin Richard had a great time, and so did our dogs Colby and Baron.

I also decided that it was time to introduce Maisy to snow skiing. So my mom, a family friend, Maisy and I went to Gunstock one quiet Monday afternoon after the Marley and Jack had gone back to school. Maisy was excited about the adventure, if not for the skiing than for the mommy and Maisy time while Sophie stayed home with papa John.

I didn't enroll Maisy in a ski class, I just stuck her between my legs and took her down the bunny slope. She loved whizzing down the hill and riding the magic carpet back up to the top again after each run. Skiing kept her attention for about 45 minutes, and then she was ready to head into the lodge for a snack with grandma Cindy while mom hit the slopes for the first time in four years!! Fortunately, skiing is like riding a bike.

Really, is there anything cuter than this? To see more skiing photos visit my facebook page.

Maisy enjoyed her first snow skiing adventure. She proudly told everyone back home that she had been skiing...and added that she even went on her own. Hmmm, that was her creative mind at work! But my favorite post skiing comment came a few weeks later while she was watching television with her daddy back in Amsterdam. Joel recounted to me that they had been flipping through the chanels and stopped to watch a little down hill ski racing. Maisy commented to Joel that she was a skier too. When Joel explained that the skiers on television were racing, going extremely fast, Maisy replied that she and mommy were probably faster than the racers on television because we went really fast down the mountain...and she emphasized "really!" Correction Maisy, we went really fast down the bunny HILL. But wow, mission accomplished. I introduced Maisy to a new sport that she is now recognizes, is excited about and confident in her skills! So next time I take her skiing I can enroll her in the ski school classes and she will be excited for the adventure. Anyone up for a trip to the Alps this winter?

Christmas in St. John's

After spending the months of October, November and December in the gray of rainy Amsterdam weather, we decided to boost our vitamin D levels with a little sunshine. And so we booked a family vacation to St. John's in the U.S. Virgin Islands and convinced some family to join us.

We spent a spectacular nine days in paradise. The water was beautiful, the beaches were pristine and uncrowded, and the company was entertaining. Marley and Sophie had a fabulous week playing in the sand, swimming in the water and soaking up the attention of their favorite older cousins Marley and Jack!

We rented a villa overlooking Cruiz Bay Harbor in St. John's which had a great little pool. We spent our mornings at the Villa enjoying the pool and views. And after the morning naps we ate lunch and headed out to a new beach. The beaches got better every day! The water was warm and calm enough for Maisy to swim in with her pink barbie life jacket. The beaches had enough afternoon shade to satisfy those wanting to avoid skin cancer. And the winding roads to and from the beaches gave the passengers in my taxi (I was the designated Island driver) the feeling that they were at the amusement park. If you haven't been to St. John's before, they drive on the opposite side of the street, and the roads are steep and winding! Driving was a daily adventure.

Papa John was our designated photographer. Toward the end of the trip we started taking guesses on how many photos he had snapped. Cousins Jackie and Dan, gave inexperienced guesses of about 200 photos. Those of us who have spent more time around my dad guessed higher, 350, 400, someone even ventured a guess of 500 for the week. But Johnny and I knew they were all wrong. You see, Johnny and I are the ones that have to download and categorize all of "scrappy's" photos for him. A task so time consuming that it requires hours of undisturbed attention. Johnny guessed 600, but I went even further and said 700. Jackie was astonished, she didn't think it was possible to take 100 photos a day....but I knew better. When we got home from St. John's and I downloaded the photos there were close to 800 on his camera, even I hadn't guessed enough!

I immediately began the tedious task of weeding through the photos to delete the bad ones before my dad could download them onto his own computers. The beauty of the digital camera is that you can take 800 photos and then print and save only the good ones. But my dad thinks the beauty of the digital camera is that you can take and keep 800 photos! There has to be a clinical diagnosis for my dad's attachment to his photos. He is literally incapable of deleting bad photos. He doesn't care if you have six chins, cellulite oozing from a bathing suit, or food in your teeth...he simply won't delete a bad photo because "you never know..." Ummm, I'm pretty sure that I know which photos of myself I don't want others seeing. And I'm pretty sure I have the ability to judge which unflattering photos the other ladies in my family would want deleted, banished, burned. I took the 800 photos down to about 500.

After all that work...I forgot to load my dad's photos onto my memory stick to bring them back to Amsterdam with me. So, for this blog post I had to rely on the 50 photos I took during our visit to St. John's. However, if you want to see a few more pictures of the girls on our vacation, check out my facebook album.

Beautiful beaches, beautiful water, and plenty of beautiful babes in

bitty bikinis for the guys to check out. It certainly wasn't me who took this photo.

Maisy enjoying the sunshine in St. John's.

Cousins Marley and Jack chilling in the truck with Maisy.

Maisy sacked out on the couch after a long day of playing at the beach.

Marley relaxing on the beach.

Papa John photographing the crazy roads out the back of the pick-up truck. Fortunately for me...the taxi driver for the week...I couldn't hear his comments as we cruised around the island. The vehicle that we rented was a Ford S10 pickup truck that had its rear flatbed converted into passenger space by welding on a canopy top and bench seating. It wasn't the safest vehicle to ride in, but was the only one on the island that would accommodate 12 passengers! And since the roads were so steep and windy, we never went faster than 20 miles per hour.

My passengers had one rule for me to follow, if an accident was impending, I was to steer the truck into the oncoming vehicle rather than off the road. Everyone figured their chances of survival were better in a head on collision than falling 100 feet off a cliff. We passed about four guard rails on the entire island, and in my opinion every road needed to be lined in guard rails!

Joel and Sophie in the mangrove trees.

Johnny baby proofing the refridgerator in an attempt to mock papa John who spent most of his vacation worrying about a cascade of various events that could somehow bring harm to the girls.

Maisy getting her hair braided. She never sits that still for me!

Bridget relaxing on the beach.

Sophie on the beach

Grandma Cindy joining her

Cousins Marley and Jack sitting in our truck with Sophie who was thrilled to spend a moment in the back with the big kids...since her regular spot was in a car seat in the truck's cab as mommy's navigator. Fortunately for mommy, there are only three roads on St. John's, so Sophie's help was sufficient.

Maisy, chilling on our porch in her one-two suit!

Maisy and Aunt Jackie enjoying a smoothie together.

A Winter Wonderland

When I came out of the bathroom at the airport, my dad was on the phone. "The power went out, but Johnny has a generator so everyone is camped at his house," he said. "Nobody has power. We have a fire going at the farm to keep the pipes warm." etc. etc. etc. I hadn't seen any snow at the airport during our landing. I rolled my eyes and said, yeah right. "Funny dad, now let's get going. I'm tired." He glared at me for interrupting and whispered, "I'm on the phone with Aunt Suzie." Dad hung up his cell while I was putting sweaters and hats on the girls. We gathered the kids and luggage and made our way to the car through the bitter cold.

About ten minutes into our journey I tentatively asked my dad if he was serious. If you know my dad, you will understand why I was hesitant to believe his tale of power outages in NH. I was the perfect victim for his lame joke. A weary traveler who was looking forward to warm food, a warm tub and a warm bed. A power outage in the middle of December was the kind of news that would send me into a tailspin...and provide a good laugh for my father the comic.

Unfortunately, he wasn't joking. A freezing rain had burdened the trees with ice, and falling trees and limbs had taken out enough power lines that thousands of homes were without power in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

Thank goodness for Bridget and Johnny! This past summer they invested in a generator. So this weary traveler had a warm house to go home to. Johnny really should have charged his guests to recoup some of the money he spent. : )

Baron - waiting for the photographer to throw him a ball or perhaps a stick.

Fallen trees and limbs cluttered the propery.

An American View of Sinterklaas

Joel sent this You Tube video clip along to me. I had to share it with you since you now know all about the Dutch Sinterklaas tradition. Enjoy!

Our First Flight Without Pacifiers

We survived our flight home to NH in December without the aide of pacifiers. Each time I make the transcontinental journey I become less concerned with the comfort of the passengers around us. So I set out for our sixth transcontinental flight this year confident that I could handle whatever came my way without relying on the plug.

-In early December I took the pacifiers away from the girls because they were ruling our lives and brought out the worst in the girls if they didn't have them available at their whim111. The weaning process was tough on all of us, the girls lost about two hours of sleep a night because it took them longer to fall asleep and they woke up earlier in the morning. Maisy turned into a fabulous debater during those first few weeks. She came up with some pretty funny reasons why she deserved her pacifier. I meant to write them down, and wish I had because I can't think of any of them right now. But her reasoning was so illogical it was funny.-

The lines at the airport check-in were long and Sophie fell asleep on my back. A bad omen for the flight ahead because it meant she probably wouldn't sleep on the airplane. It got worse. Maisy fell asleep in the car seat/stroller before we got on the airplane too. If only they had held out just a little longer I would have had a peaceful first hour. Instead, I had two well rested girls with lots of energy, who were eager to be entertained.

Here's a photo of Sophie after a crying spell. Most likely prompted by a trip to the rest room with Maisy. I had to leave Sophie behind in her seat, which she didn't appreciate. She screamed at the top of her lungs for the entire duration of our trips to the rest room. And of course, Maisy always took her sweet time on the toilet!

I also took Sophie to the toilet during the flight. She is very good about using the toilet as long as I remember to give her plenty of opportunities throughout the day. I didn't think it made sense to ask her to use the her diaper just because we were traveling. After returning from one of our potty trips a flight attendent scolded me for "changing" my baby at my seat. To her credit she probably sees lots of parents change dirty diapers on the airplane seats, but I wasn't changing her diaper, I was simply putting her clean training pant back on after a successful trip to the bathroom. She probably wasn't expecting such a young child to be using the bathroom...but it annoyed me that she scolded me as she passed my seat and didn't stick around to hear my explaination. And on another occassion while quietly waiting our turn for the rest room another flight attendant scolded me for standing outside the crew rest (as in relaxing) room with a baby (who might cry and disturb the flight attendants.) It didn't occur to him that my baby was waiting in line for the rest room because I didn't have a diaper bag in tow. But at least he gave me a chance to explain myself. And not to bag on flight attall endants, but during our 8 hour flight the NWA flight attendants did more resting than working...and A LOT more resting than I did. It wasn't like we were on a 14 hour Asian flight!

With less than 30 minutes left in the flight Maisy finally decided to fall asleep. Murphy's Law! Why couldn't she have fallen asleep during the previous 8 hours and given me a little respite.

I successfully transferred Maisy from her plane seat to Sophie's car seat. Fortunately we were on an Airbus widebody airplane because the carseat/stroller actually fit down the aisles. I was able to wheel her right off the plane!

Here are some photos of Maisy in the baggage claim area. It took 40 minutes for our bags to come out, and Maisy slept the entire time. Maisy finally woke up when we got outside of customs, just in time to greet papa John who was patiently waiting for us.

If you don't already have one, the Go Go Babyz is a great device that turns most car seats into strollers for airport travel. The craftsmanship hasn't impressed me, but the concept is great and there isn't a competitor out there that I know of. Check it out.

Healthy Backs

As many of you know I am a big believer in the benefits of chiropractic work. Maisy had her fist adjustment at 8 weeks and Sophie had hers at 2 days! Children are so malable that they generally don't need the bone cracking adjustments that we often associate with chiropactic work, gentle massage and applied pressure usually do the trick. I had to include this series of photos because we have found a wonderful chiropractor here in Amsterdam that the girls clearly enjoy.

The chiropactor took his time during our first appointment to win the trust of the girls before he asked them to lie on his table. He made quite an impression because now when they arrive to the appointments mom no longer has to go first.

At 18 months Sophie runs over and climbs up on the adjustment table of her own free will. She lays still for the duration and has to be coaxed off the table. If only I could keep her that calm and still at home. Of course when she isn't on the adjustment table she is a total menace. During our last visit while I was being adjusted she filled up her water cup at the water dispenser and proceeded to dump it all over the floor.

To learn more about chiropractic work for kids check out this website.

German Christmas Markets

We spent the last weekend before returning to the States for Christmas

on a family trip to Cologne, Germany. Maisy and Sophie loved all the children's rides.

Germany is famous for its annual Christmas markets. The Christmas markets date back to the late middle ages in the German speaking parts of Europe. The markets sell food, drinks, crafts and wares, and every year europeans decend upon Germany to attend them. We decided to visit the 8 markets set up in Cologne, Germany.

This is an example of one of the market cups that the beverage vendors use. All drinks come in a unique limited edition market cup, and you can only refill your cup with the same vendor. So by the end of the weekend we had a dozen different holiday cups packed in our luggage!

I pulled the next photo from the internet. It depicts Cologne's cathedral with one of the christmas markets lit up in the main square. Construction on the cathedral began in 1248 and was completed in 1880. Can you imagine beginning a project that would take 600 years to complete?! It was the world's tallest structure until the Washington monument surpassed it in 1884.

Below is another internet photo depicting a second Christmas market in Cologne. The blackness between the red stalls comes from people, yes, that is how densly packed the event was. It was not easy to navigate the crowds with a stroller.

We took a train to cologne. It was a relatively painless experience. The train ride was two and a half hours long and the girls enjoyed the scenary along the way. We passed numerous farms which they loved. When we left Amsterdam the weather was beautiful, but unfortunately we arrived to rain in Cologne.

This is a photo of Maisy on the train.

More train photos

The next series of photos I took myself before my camera battery ran out.

Maisy and Sophie enjoyed shining their sneakers in our hotel lobby.

I had to include this photo. One of the highlights about traveling abroad is that you come across English swear words innocently smeared across the sides of busses!