Greetings, earthlings

I think this picture deserves a few funny captions:

I am sorry for this lame excuse of a post. I can't get my mind to come up with words. I know why: I have a (professional) decision to make. I can't seem to concentrate on anything else. I'll tell more about it, when the decision is made. That should be somewhere tomorrow.

Now make me laugh and write a funny caption. That's an order!

When will you start giving him normal food?

That what someone asked me me recently. Referring to the food we give Tim.

We all got our own ways of bringing up our child. Some things are considered normal, some things are considered weird. The food we give Tim is considered unusual. At least by some.

Tim has been getting organic home cooked food ever since he was six months. Along with breastfeeding, that is. We started with home made pear purees and baby rice. Than we went on to vegetable purees and soups. And now? He eats what we eat and has a preference for fish.

Everything went smoothly, and I am very grateful for this book: Contented little baby book of weaning by Gina Ford. If I remember correct, it was recommended by Mrs. Mogul.

I recommend it too. The process of weaning went perfectly. The book also inspired me to solely home cook everything from scratch and organic. And before that book I thought vegetable stock grew on trees in small cubes. OK. Exaggerating a little bit.

I wasn't aware of the whole organic food market either. I didn't realize there were chemicals left on normal foods. I also didn't realize that organic food (not all but many) taste a lot better than the 'normal' variant in the supermarket. And organic in The Netherlands means, that if you buy dairy or meat, the animals were treated well too. So that's a big plus. For a big price, I admit.

A few weeks ago a colleague commented on the organic food: "his stomach won't get used to poisons, as soon as he eats normal food, his body won't be able to handle it". That bothered me. I would never disrespect any parent by saying something like that (unless they're actually hurting their child), This post is not mend to persuade anyone in transferring to organic food. Or to convince you to give your baby home cooked meals in stead of jars. Everyone should do what they think is right.

Everyone has their own normal. For Tim, this is his normal. I'd just wish people would respect that.

What choices did you make that people found odd or even frowned upon? How did you handle it?

Down

Tim has been down with a stomach flu for almost a week now. He's been doing better today though, so I have my hopes up for tomorrow. And even when he's not feeling well, Tim is still so sweet. There is hardly any crying. He only needs love, hugs and kisses. And I am more than willing to give that to him.

You have SMALL breasts!

Breasts. I think the last time I talked about them was when I was pregnant and my boobage had grown into a size that was well into the alphabet. They were annoyingly heavy and I serious did not think they looked well on my body. Try finding a sexy bra for that size. Unless you think tents are sensual, there was just no way to make them look hot.

Before I was pregnant, they weren't tiny either. Often men would look at my breasts, before they noticed the breasts came with a body, a head and a actual person. Even though that annoyed me and made me feel cheap, I never had the nerve to comment "The eyes are up here, pervert".

But men's eyes stay pretty focused on my eyes nowadays. Because the boobs? Are gone. Pregnancy and breastfeeding for little over ten months (the breastfeeding, not the pregnancy thankgod) did the trick. I was in denial until FreezeM and I went to Victoria Secret on our last morning in D.C.

I asked an employee if she could convert my European size to a US size. She didn't know how, so she measured me.

V.S. girl: You're a 34 B.
Me: Are you sure?
V.S. girl: .....
Me: I though I had DD. I guess European sizes are different.
V.S. Ooh you NO double D. You have SMALL breasts.
Me: and you have a BIG butt.

She run of, to help one of her girlfriends. Whatever. Sure small breasts. The last time I had small breast? I was 12.

But I listened to her and got a few B's. I went of to the fitting room, where there was a line. And there the employee was again. Still busy with her girlfriend who just popped her head out of the dressing room.

Girlfriend (all smiles): I cannot believe it!
V.S. girl: I know!
V.S. girl (too girlfriend, loud): Girlfriend! welcome to the big sizes club!

Than she turned and smiled politely to me.

Sure, crush a girls' heart who just lost three cup sizes.

(Oh and European cup sizes? The same as US. Shut up.)

Ask not what you can do for your baby

This morning, Tim and I were playing in the living room. I looked around and noticed I really should be doing some cleaning instead of racing cars with Tim. I thought to myself 'I wish I had a maid'. Hmmm. Sometimes you just don't realize what you have.

So, we equally divided the household chores:

Tim did the vacuuming.

And the laundry (in 1.1 nano second).

He also emptied the dishwasher.

And put the clean dishes in the kitchen cupboards (almost nothing broken).

He showed his green fingers (not my genes) and did a little gardening.

And swiped the garden after finishing up.

And me? I coordinated the whole process, gave him all the household appliances he needed, and documented the entire thing to analyze it and help Tim to work even more efficient tomorrow.

NINE!

9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! *breathe* 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! *breathe* 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9! 9!

*breathe*

I got a NINE (out of TEN) for my final paper!!

And you know what's even better? I can up it ONE point when I give a good presentation. You know what that means? I know. I'm such a nerd.

So happy, so so happy, right now. Presentation is not due until the first week of June. Champagne!

read more �

Perfect potato balls

The first Monday after an almost two week holiday is painful. I have no other words for it. But when I came home tonight, my lovely husband was cooking spaghetti and tossing a salad. As we speak - so to speak - he is making a tomato soup for tomorrow's dinner. He even showed off a melon scoop he bought to make 'perfect potato balls' to put in the soup. Impressive huh? Don't you just love a man who loves to cook?

Tim can't reach the kitchen counter yet. So he didn't help prepare dinner but showed me his love with a gazillion hugs and kisses. Here's our little angel:

(photos courtesy of my dad)

Frog part 2: I just heard RIBBIT

I've mentioned before that our garden is invested with frogs. Small frogs, big frogs, toads, green frogs, ugly frogs, fat frogs, polka dot frogs. To me, they are all disgusting. I'm just not a nature type of girl. I also don't like bugs, spiders and snakes. It's no surprise that I hate camping, but I love to soak in the hot tub of a luxury hotel. As long as I don't have to interact with God's icky creatures, I'm fine with them. But I will most likely never be a frog watcher or a toad warden.

But where am I going with this... A few days ago, I saw FreezeM (husband) taking a piece of carton. I thought he was about to clean up old paper. I did not see him getting a large glass and walking back to the hallway. You know where I'm going here, right? He did not say a thing until he caught a barely living frog. A frog inviting himself over. How rude is that.

For me, this was a a-ha moment. Why? Just a day before our trip to DC, FreezeM and I lay in bed. After 15 minutes or so of trying to fall a sleep, this is what happened:

A - probably green - something: RIBBIT
Nadine: did you hear that?
FreezeM (sleepy): hrm hrm... what?
Nadine (panic): there's a frog in our bedroom!!
FreezeM: what?
Nadine: there is a frog in our bedroom!!
FreezeM: how do you know?
Nadine: I just heard RIBBIT
FreezeM: you must have been sleeping
Nadine: It was a frog. In our bedroom.
FreezeM: Really, get some sleep. You probably imagined it.

Men.

I listened very careful for a few minutes, but there was nothing but silence. My 'hero' fall asleep again. And I wasn't going to be the one catching the croaking creature. I managed to fall asleep. Now I'm pretty sure hallway frog was the same as bedroom frog. If they can live for two weeks without water that is.

Anyways, with the frogs playing inside, today we thought we could eat outside. For the very first time, since we live here. I just love the garden. Even though it has no flowers (yet), is a bit of a mess and about a gazillion frogs call it home.

Happy -ribbit- Mothers Day!

Being snobby helps

Before we flew of to Washington for 12 days, we discussed renting a car and getting a car seat. FreezeM compared the prices of renting a car seat with buying one. Buying would be either the same price of cheaper than renting. He suggested we could buy one and give it to a charity before we'd fly back to Europe, rather than just making the rental company happy.

Zandria got the car seat for us and offered to find a charity to give it to. I thought I'd safe her time and the effort. I made the bold assumption that the hotel housekeeping would know someone, pregnant or with a baby, in need of a car seat. How arrogant is that. Very, I know. But I just figured leaving a note in the room, would do no harm. Worst case scenario (and I was a bit afraid of that), housekeeping would be offended and would just throw away the note thinking we were snobs or something. Besides that, I was a little concerned I might be doing something that didn't go well with hotel policy. But both things I could blame on us being European: we don't know any better.

So Monday morning we left a note for housekeeping. When we came back I found the sweetest note of C. saying a couple of thank you's and "Will pick it up at 5".

At exactly 5 there was a very gentle knock on the door. We opened and a very cheerful Columbian woman in her thirties walked in. She talked about how happy she was with our offer. Turns out that our maid found out she was pregnant just a few days ago. She didn't plan to have a baby. But she was SO happy. We had a nice talk (even though our native languages weren't English, she was from Colombia and had only lived in the US for 8 months) and off she went to bring it downstairs to her boyfriend. It was just awesome to see and meet her.

Donating money to a cause is something that makes me happy. But you don't really get to see what your money did. Meeting C. and seeing what a small gift can do, that is awesome.

I'm glad we decided to be snobby.

Oh my god, they're taking a baby on board

So we're home! The last 18 hours in a nutshell...

Wakie wakie little Tim....

We started with a last breakfast with Zandria. So far we've met her in Amsterdam, The Hague, L.A. and Washington. What's next?

Breakfast at Old Ebbitt, just a short stroll from our hotel.

Hugs & kisses. Where will we meet next?

Our way back home began with Beth picking us up from our hotel at 2 PM. After check in we went through security. I hate that part. Especially when you have to take off your belt and shoes. I was holding Tim (who I had to take out of the stroller) and walked through the detector. I was told to get back and remove my shoes. I did, walked on my socks through the detector. When I got a annoyed "the baby's shoes too." He was wearing sandals. Sandals.

Boarding the plane I got quite a few - Oh my god, they're taking a baby on board, please don't let them sit next to me-looks. Whereas on the way to the US I didn't get those at all. But, whatever. We were seated in the front row middle isle, next to a man that literally sighed and looked annoyed when he saw Tim. I went to the main flight attended and asked him very politely if there was any two-seat window space available, we would be very happy to take it as it would be more comfortable with the baby. He DOUBLED my request! We got to move to an empty row with FOUR seats. So Tim got to sleep like six out of the seven hours right in between us. Perfect solution. Both our flights were with KLM and I highly recommend it. Great staff, enough space, personal entertainment system and a little less than horrible flight food.

Ssssshh

The time difference is 6 hours. So even though Tim slept for 6 hours (he normally sleeps 12 hours), it was already 7.30 AM when we arived at Amsterdam Schiphol airport. My father picked us up and we were home at 10.

We all napped for about 3 hours and we forced ourselves out of bed. Don't want the jet lag to win this battle. But after a night of pretty much not any sleep for me.. getting up after such a short nap was not easy. Every bone, muscle, vein, cell (and what else there is in there) was protesting with little signs saying: Nap too short, stay in bed - Nap too short, stay in bed - Nap too short, stay in bed - I found two muscles that where willing to help me get into the shower.

Tim wasn't really happy about the fact we disturbed his nap either. So after a little late lunch, we took him to the playground. Where he played. And I played dead.

Tim is asleep now, from 7 PM. His normal sleeping time. I'm hoping he'll sleep through the night and ignores the jet lag. It's really weird to be at home again. For one we have to do the laundry ourselves. I'm kind of hoping that if I throw it in the bathtub, housekeeping will pick it up and do it for us.

It's goodbye

In less than 24 hours we'll be on our way back home. Beth is going to drive us to the Dulles Airport after 12 days of fun, beautiful sights, great moments, fine cuisine, and wonderful friends.

Admittedly, DC is the first US area I had to get used to instead of fallen in love head over heals at first sight. With getting used to, I'm especially referring to the business area our hotel is in. But in a few days I loved it, and now I'll miss it. Even though G.W. forgot to invite us for dinner.

Tim is saying: Mr. Bush come out and meet me! I'm cute!

See you on the other side of the ocean!

Meeting people

This has been a weird vacation. In a good way, I mean. We have met and hang out with a lot of people here.

We started we our rendez vous with Zandria, she picked us up from the airport and we were very lucky to hang out with her for a few days. Besides from being an awesome friend, she also is our personal chauffeur, she took us to just about everything we wanted to. We also got to meet a good friend of hers. Luckily, today we get to hang out with both of them some more today.

Yesterday we had lunch with Chris, Beth and they beautiful daughter Mia. It was great meeting up with them again. Having read their blogs for so many years, I thought I knew they were pretty nice people. But they're way nicer than I imagined. They're cool, fun and they have amazing parenting skills. The love for their daughter shows in about every step they take and the way they hang out with her is really awesome. Mia has a little crush on Tim, but I think Tim thinks about her too. Every time we say Mia he gets a grin on his face.

We also got to meet TJ, Nicole and their very cute son yesterday. We had dinner in a Mexican restaurant where they celebrated Cinco de Mayo. It was really great to meet them after reading about their lives on their blogs for I think at least 4 years. We had a lot of fun.

Tonight Anouk - who we saw Friday too for a lovely dinner in Bethesda - will pick us up for a BBQ at their house. We're very much looking forward to that. Anouk is a Dutch girl who's been living in DC for a few years. She's a lot of fun to hang out with and we're eager to meet her not yet husband Jacco.

So after today, there's just Monday. Our last full day in DC. We're still debating what to do Monday. Maybe George W. will call us. He's about the only one we haven't met this trip. Even though our hotel is so close, we're practically neighbors!

Memorial

Dear grandpa,

Thousands of miles away from home, May 4th comes along. Here it's just like any other day, for people at home it's Memorial Day. We decided it was a good day to visit Arlington National Cemetery and remember those who died in World War II and you. You were lucky to survive the war. But I know the war left you with memories you spend your life trying to forget. I wasn't fortunate to know you, but today I remembered you.

Together with my husband, friends and your great grandson we witnessed a ceremony. And as the music was playing and the sun placed a beautiful light upon the memorial building of the Unknown Soldier, it was truly as if you were there for just that moment.

Remembering,
Nadine

The new president, wild baby, sorry and excuse me

Off to the White House he went:

Today was kind of slow (like holidays should be :) We left the hotel at 10.30 this morning. Visited the National Air & Space museum, which was invested by high school kids. We escaped and went to Eastern Market, which appeared to be burned down. No luck there either. So we headed to a organic supermarket to get some food for Tim.

And just now we had dinner in a Italian restaurant called Aria. There Tim showed us how not to behave at dinner. It's a good thing the restaurant was quiet. The proof:

I hope TJ and Nicole still want to have dinner with us Saturday after seeing that!

And since I'm sharing little movies.. here's one of Tim running around like a mad man in the museum of Natural history. We're kind of torn between keeping him from running (.. into other people) and keeping him close to us. He's still a baby. He LOVES to explore new things and run around. But I don't want him bumping into people, because that's kinda rude.

On that note, I'm really curious. When do I use "Sorry" and when do I use "Excuse me?".

As you can see, we're learning how to deal with baby puberty!

D.C. pictures #2

Enjoying ourselves! The proof yesterdays and todays pictures:

Letting the expert choose a wine

Visiting George. Although we haven't actually been inside yet.

The Capitol outside

And inside. And would you believe that even though it was beautiful inside, people were actually making pictures of Tim?

OK, who can resist such a cutie?

Searching for relatives in the Museum of Natural History

Ah! Found one!

Visiting the Baltimore aquarium

BIG fish

We loved Baltimore harbor!

And having a lovely dinner tonight at our hotels restaurant. Where I can recommend the duck...

..and my finger.