All I want for Chrithmas...

... is my two front teeth!

Teeth number 4 and 5 fell out last week, and three others are loose. Thith kid ith going to have to thtart eating oatmeal if thith keepth up!

One surprise after another...

Our Marten turned 40 on June 14th... so I decided to throw him a surprise party on the Saturday before. It is a great pity I was not blogging during the weeks leading up to this surprise party, as it was a regular comedy of errors and I was just a teensy weensy bit stressed out.

The important thing is that Marten had a fantastic birthday. We went to the forest on Saturday afternoon (am trying not to think now about the ticks we found on us afterwards...)
and on Sunday we had a great afternoon of football (soccer, of course) with a miraculous turn-out of our friends and family here. Marten had no idea any of it was coming, and his response made every moment of preparation worthwhile.

Here is the birthday boy with Sonia and his birthday cakes. Sonia thinks those cakes look pretty good indeed.

Maddy noticed the lack of party hats (yeah, well... can't think of everything, now can I?!?!) and set to work fashioning one for Marten out of a paper napkin. Her summer collection will be available soon in a boutique near you.

Maddy and Soniaberry

The weather suddenly turned good, so we went to Zegerplas (the lake by our house). Within a half an hour of this photo, the girls had given up wading and trying to catch little fish with their net in favour of stripping down to their skivvies and splashing eachother. This photo makes me think of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn stories.

Friends...

Sonia and Isabelle are both thrilled with the idea of eachother, but are still trying to figure out how to express their affection for eachother without either knocking the other over with hugs (Sonia) or going all shy and quiet (Isabelle). Here they seem to have found a comfortable middle road.

Photo taken on June 4th. Happy Birthday, Courtney!!!

Loose toof

Here is Maddy with a toof so loose, it swung in and out like a little white barn door. Hanging by a thread. For days on end. Needless to say, the suspense was killing us.

Maddy was so excited she could hardly stand it; we all had to look several times a day. I have somehow earned her trust in judging a.) whether the tooth was indeed looser (always say yes), b.) whether she should let me give it a good yank and be done with it already (always say no after a fair amount of teasing) c.) when it would fall out all by itself (always say any day now). This photo was taken on the 12th of May.

13 suspensful days later on the 25th of May, the loose toof finally popped out while Maddy was brushing her teeth. Hurrah! Once you have observed the enormous hole in her smile, please note the soft look in her eyes. The loss of her first top front tooth did something to her. As happy as she was, she needed a little time to adjust to her new appearance. When I saw this look on her face, I remembered the feeling I had when I lost my first top front tooth. Excited, startled, a little bit sad, but mostly amazed that I had changed. And that there was no going back. And everyone in the world could see it! The toof was out. Funny how that works.

The garden

The garden! These pictures were taken on April 13th... Marten replanted the border with healthy new plants and, thanks to our diligent care, they still look great two months later. We are very proud of ourselves this year!

Sonia is putting a candle in one of the magical garden fairy lights I got from Jan Anne and Greetje for my birthday. I love them.

As we sat outside enjoying the mild evening and the magical garden fairy lights, Marten (the brute) wondered whether the airplanes coming out of Schiphol could see our little landing strip...
sheesh.

At home with Rembrandt

We're back online...
My apologies for the wait (thank you for your patience, Dad).

In order to get re-aquainted, what will follow here is a series of photos with brief comments. Enjoy!

This first one was taken in Amsterdam in April. We went with our new friend Lies to the Rembrandt House and on our way back to the metro we stopped to enjoy this street musician...

In the Rembrandt House, the girls got a recorded tour especially made for kids. Great fun. At one point, we are in Rembrant's receiving room and I turn around to see Sonia climbing up onto a beautiful, delicate antique chair.
Me: No, no Sonia... don't climb on that chair!
Sonia: Mag wel van Rembrandt! (Rembrandt said I could!)

...the darndest things

I´ve been meaning to jot down some of Sonia's more memorable experiments with language...this one is too good:

This morning Sonia pulled on her own socks "helemaal in m'n eentje" - "all by myself", but ran into a snag when attempting to put on her sandals:
Marten: Sonia - that is the wrong foot. That sandal goes on the other foot.
Sonia: Aw, for Pete's sake. (followed by a dramatic sigh) (yes, she too is developing the dramatic flair)

The last few months have been filled with funny sayings. Must write them down... these two are
persistant in her language:

Sonia says "Geeft niets uit" instead of "geeft niets" or "maakt niets uit"...
the English equivalent would be something like a combination of "it doesn't matter" and "it makes no difference" resulting in : "it makes no matter"

Koelkast (refrigerator) is pronounced "koeskas", sounding very much like the medeterranian bulgur wheat...

And last week she came bounding up the stairs at 7:30 a.m. "Mama, ik kom jou makker wakken!" (i.e. wakker maken) = something like "Mama, I´m coming to make you wup"

She has started using the word "eigenlijk" (actually), and I remember with Maddy that that was the beginning of a period of non-stop talking (which is still going strong). Am sure I'll have more examples soon...these two girls are more alike than meets the eye.

Queen's Day

Three cheers for the Queen!!! And a thunderous applause for whoever thought of the Queen's day market. Our overfull toy cupboards have been relieved of the items that have not seen the light of day in at least a year, we made several peoples kids and grandkids happy, we walked away with about 15 euro's profit, and fun was had by all...

Red-Purple-Pink Saturday

An ante-nostalgic snapshot of the soon-to-be replaced trusty old red mailbox at the end of our street. All of the red mailboxes in the Netherlands are going to be replaced by orange mailboxes within a few weeks. Why? The mail service has changed hands (again). Why on earth the new management think spending a fortune on replacing perfectly good mailboxes is going to help their image, I don't know. But there you have it.












Directly translated from the Dutch, these are called 'blue grapes' - though clearly they are purple and not grapes at all. Anyone out there know what they are called in English?!















Yep. A pink weaver's house. Cheeky little thing, isn't it?
(Taken Thursday in Leiden from in front of the bakery where I bought a sandwich.)
















The ears! On Friday morning I met this lamb up the road from our house. She was kind enough to pose long enough for me to get my camera out and switched on. I suspect this cooperation was due to a vain hope of something yummy emerging from my bag.

Orange Friday

Mmmmm... fresh squeezed orange juice coming up! The nets oranges come in are funny things - the red nets make the oranges look riper and the green nets make the oranges look fresher. The distributors of these oranges is clearly trying to please everyone with this two-tone net.















This little hobby horse was given to me by my brother for Christmas when I was 14 or 15, and I still love it dearly. Thanks again, Jeff!

Black, White and Brown Thursday

Black, White and Brown proved inspiring...






























A black bird bathing alone at the edge of the Hortus Botanicus, Oma's lamp, the book I am reading just now, and my favorite shell...

Green Wednesday

I knew immediately that I wanted this first photo for Green Wednesday, but did not know whether the tree in our front garden would oblige... Monday there were only tender buds that were more red than green really, but I have seen this tree burst into foliage within a matter of days twice before. Magical! Never ceases to amaze me. Wow.


Pleased to have my green photo, I spent the rest of the day hanging out with the girls. The following photos were taken while Maddy was at her swimming lesson:

Ribbit


Bubbles: the best 29 cents you will ever spend


Go on. You know you want to...

Blue Tuesday

"Blue mooooooon, I saw you standing alooooooone, without a dream in your heeeeaaaaaart, without a love of your ooooooown..." All day, this song has been playing in my head as I looked for beauty in blue. Saw lots of traffic signs in blue, and noticed a huge blue sign for a shipyard for the first time after having driven past it hundreds of times. Funny how that works. Spend a day looking at peoples ears and everyone will start looking like garden gnomes. Try it, it's true!

I also noticed a charming balcony in a row of houses I pass on my way to work:


In the end, I found the most beautiful blue things at home:

In hindsight a rather misguided attempt at ordering books, but still aesthetically pleasing...

An the first of several gorgeous turquoise blue gifts from Véronique...

Yellow Monday

Hello all -
I am joining Véronique and Marc in a belated celebration of "Colour Week" (link to originator's website to follow...) Today is Monday, and Monday is yellow...
Thought you might enjoy these "hot chicks":

Come on baby, light my fire... Chick candles courtesy of Martina!

Happy Easter!!!

6:30 a.m. : "The Easter Bunny came!!!" (repeatedly and with glee as Easter goodies were spread out for the full effect at the foot of our bed) When Mama sighed that she hadn't gotten anything from the Easter Bunny, Sonia said "Ach, mama - jij mag deze." (oh, mama - you can have this one) as she handed over her new felt sheep egg warmer. hee hee. (The Easter Bunny HAD brought mama and papa some chocolate, so all was well in the end)

6:37 a.m.mama and papa were pulled out of bed with a sigh and a groan

6:39 a.m. Downstairs we all went to find the table ready for Easter breakfast... WOW! Papa was ready with the video camera...

6:43 Easter egg hunt... It was drizzling outside, so the Easter Bunny hid chocolate eggs inside (well, traditions are sometimes adapted for the sake of convenience...) and 4 properly painted eggs (one had not yet been found at the time snapshot below was taken).


We had a wonderful day - hope you did too!
love,
Sam

Ta da! As promised, the girls in full glory!

April 12, 2006...

Nearly four months later, mama resurfaces in blogworld. Life has done anything but stand still since my last post, but instead of blogging my way through all of the twists and turns, I seem to have been waiting for life to stand still again so I could focus.

Véronique has recently convinced me that focus is highly overrated in photographs, and I suspect this is also true of blogs such as this. Better a fuzzy glimpse of reality than months of nothing, no? In the spirit of this new insight, a wildly out of focus picture of Madelin at her swimming lesson this afternoon:
What style, what grace...

And then there is this slightly out of focus snapshot of Sonia:


What a grin!

And finally - with tremendous joy, I give you this impromtu portret taken this afternoon upon the anxiously awaited arrival of a surprise package from Auntie Jenni...

Sonia is sporting the envelope these gorgeous Easter dresses arrived in... looks like a Dutch cap, doesn't it? Will post photo of the girls actually wearing the dresses later this week. Thank you, Jenni!!!
Love,
Sam

Hello all!
Just a quick post to wish you all a very merry Christmas and a wonderful 2006!
Love,
me
(and lovely sleepy Sonia... what a dumpling - had to share this picture with you.)

For your consideration, a message from Jon Gordon:

More Joy
Do you ever wonder why just about every child, without direction from an adult, will draw or paint a sun at the top of their pictures? I do. Just the other day as my five year old son was showing me his picture he said, “Oh wait, I forgot to put the sun in it.” It was as if he was saying the picture would not be complete until he symbolically expressed the joy that flowed through him as he created his work of art. My guess is that the sun symbolizes the joy, love, and goodness children feel in their heart.

Joy is something I have been thinking a lot about ever since my wife bought me an ornament with words JOY on it. As we all know, Joy is not easy to describe. It’s like trying to describe Love, God, and Peace. They are spiritual in nature and so they are beyond words and live in the spiritual realm that is better understood as a feeling in our heart rather than words in our head.

Joy is a feeling and it is like experiencing a sun shining brightly inside of us and having this light fill up every cell in our body. While basking in the sun on a beach can make us happy, Joy is felt when we bask in our light from within.

Joy is also more than a feeling. It is spiritual energy that moves through our heart and is radiated to every cell in the body and then outward, shining on every one who comes within our glow. Joy is the energy that moves a child to skip, inspires a Mom to sing in the shower, causes a belly laugh and energizes a musical, theatrical, athletic or business performance. The fact is that you can eat all the healthy organic foods in the world and you can exercise every day and be as fit as a tri-athlete but if you have no Joy your power supply will be very limited and so will your energy. Just as my son’s picture was not complete without the sun in it, our lives will not be fulfilled or complete without Joy flowing through it. Because where there is Joy, there is God and if there is no Joy in it, God isn’t in it either and if God isn’t in it then something is missing.

So today I encourage you (please know I am also saying this to myself) to find and create more Joy in your life. Seek out activities that bring you Joy. Take time for silence each day to remove the stress and busyness that blocks your Joy. Engage yourself in the present timeless moment where Joy lives. Wherever you are and whatever you are doing ask, “Where is the Joy,” “Do I feel it,” and “How can I experience more Joy?” If you are not sure where the Joy is and you don’t feel it then think of a time when you felt Joy. Perhaps it was when your child was born or when a sunset took your breath away or when you just felt really spiritually connected. Then sit there and close your eyes and focus on your breathing while you recall how you felt during this time of Joy. But don’t just think it. Try to recall and experience this feeling. Then say, “I accept all the Joy and love in my life. I am open to it and I allow it to flow through me. I am Joy.” My hope is that this will open you up to the Joy that wants to express itself through you. And just as children include the sun in all their pictures you will decide to weave Joy into the fabric of your life.

Gingerbread Street 132

The girls have built a new house in a centrally located area - close to the kitchen, opposite the television, and not too far from the toy cupboard. Their new address is Gingerbread Street 132. It is a nice neighborhood - you should stop by! They might share their cookies with you...