Oliebollen - This one's for Carl!

After getting to eat Poffertjes at the ICC Christmas party, we decided that Alex needed to try another Dutch delicacy .... oliebollen. He seemed to love it!

ICC Christmas Party

We had a great time at the ICC Christmas Party. There was a magician, colouring, popcorn, poffertjes (made by Stefan's wife - yummy!) and of course the big man who even had a present for Alex.

Unfortunately Alex did not want to sit with Father Christmas, so we had to get a picture of him sitting nearby.

Sint and Snow

When we booked the "clubhuis" for Alex's birthday, we got membership to the community group for a year. We recently got an email inviting us to a party to celebrate the arrival of Sinterklaas and the re-opening of the clubhuis after its summer refurbishment.

For anyone who doesn't know - here's what Wiki says about Sint.

The Sinterklaas feast celebrates the birthday of Saint Nicholas (280-342), patron saint of children. Saint Nicholas was a bishop of Myra in present-day Turkey.

Sinterklaas has a long white cape, wears a white bishop's dress and white mitre (bishop's hat), and holds a crosier, a long black coloured staff with a fancy curled top. He carries a big book that tells whether each individual child has been good or naughty in the past year.

He traditionally rides a white horse. In the Netherlands this horse goes by the name "Amerigo," while in Belgium the horse is either nameless or is called "Slecht weer vandaag," literally "bad weather today." The origin of this unusual name is the children's TV show Dag Sinterklaas' by Bart Peeters. In Flanders, up to the mid-20th century, Sinterklaas was depicted using a black mule, rather then a horse. This image is preserved in the Nero comic books, where, oddly enough, the mule insists on being referred to as the "horse" of Sinterklaas.

"Zwarte Piet," Sinterklaas' helping hand Black Pete, has his origin in the bishop's legendary past. Three small Moorish boys were sentenced to death for a crime they did not commit. The bishop intervened and they were saved. To show their gratitude, the boys stayed with Sinterklaas to help him, tumbling and jumping on rooftops on Sinterklaas night to deliver presents. Their black skin may refer either to their Moorish background, or to the job of chimneysweep, an option is corroborated by their clothes, reminiscent of an Italian chimneysweep's costume and Pete's rooftop occupation.

Sinterklaas and his Black Petes usually carry a bag, which contains candy for nice children and a "roe," a bunch of willow branches used to spank naughty children — in actuality a chimneysweep's broom. Some of the older Sinterklaas songs make mention of naughty children being put in the bag and being taken back to Spain. The Zwarte Pieten toss candy around, a tradition supposedly originating in Sint Nicolaas' story of saving three young girls from prostitution by tossing golden coins through their window at night to pay their father's debts.

We had a great time watching the kids decorating, colouring in and then signing "sint carols" - we have a lot to learn. When Sint arrived with his Piet's, there was great excitement amongst most of the kids. Alex however was most interested in eating the "pepernoten" ... kind of like baby gingernut biscuits for the kiwis out there!

Alex was also lucky enough to receive his own gift .... a magna doodle ... which he is having great fun with ... and something I never would have thought to buy him yet. After the party we had a swing in the snow (the first of hte year) before heading home.

At last!

We finally got around to trying out the "Macpac Possum" that Virginia kindly carried from NZ for us when she came to visit way back in June!

Alex was very relaxed and seemed to enjoy the view. We just walked down to the supermarket and back so it wasn't a long trip, but he almost fell asleep on the way home. It must be comfy.

My Boy!

Fruit Salad ... Yummy Yummy

Alex decided that he'd had enough dinner and wanted fruit instead. Mum was too slow and before she knew it he was eating a banana, apple and kiwifruit .... all at the same time!

All of a sudden ... he gets it!

In the last two or three weeks, Alex has really started to amaze us with his comprehension and understanding. Here are some examples.

"Alex ... is it time for your bath?" - Alex walks to the door that leads out to the stairs to go up to the bathroom.

"Shall we get some yoghurt out of the fridge for breakfast?" .. Alex walks to the cupboard in the hall, waits for me to open the door (he's too short) then opens the fridge, gets out the yoghurt, closes the doors and brings the yoghurt to the kitchen. He then waits while I add it to his weetbix, then carries his bowl to the table and waits to be lifted into his chair. If we "load" his spoons, he eats his breakfast himself.

We've been teaching Alex some signs, one of which is patting our bottom when saying "shall we get a clean nappy". The other morning when I was in the shower, he got out of bed and tapped his bottom until Duncan got up and changed him.

Every time we leave the room, he says "bye bye" and waves to whoever is left behind. He also waves goodbye to me (and sometimes I get a kiss too) when he goes off on his bike to daycare and I walk to the tram.

For such a little boy, he suddenly seems so grown up!

My two boys .....

Duncan was trying to take pics of Alex, but he just wanted to get the camera. In the end they took a self portrait ... I can definitely see a similarity between them now.

Birthday Presents from Nana

Alex got a belated present from Nana last weekend. Here he is modelling his jersey ... it's perfect for the cold weather that has arrived in the last few weeks.

Alex also got lots of lovely Hairy Maclary books and a Hairy Maclary DVD and a lovely book from Wendy, Warren, Emma and Hannah. What fun and how spoilt is he?

Two weeks of the sickies does not make for a happy Mum and Dad

It also makes life a lot more stressful and hectic. Hence the lack of updates here!

Alex had had the usual daycare snotty nose and cough that seems to constantly hang around, but nothing that seemed out of the ordinary.

The 24th of October, was a work holiday for Duncan ... luckily, because Alex was not happy on the Thursday night and didn't seem his usual self on the Friday morning. Duncan decided to keep Alex at home with him. It wasn't too bad, but the weekend got progressively worse. Alex developed a temperature and all he seemed to want was cuddles. Sunday night he screamed inconsolably for a good hour before he fell asleep exhausted. Duncan was relegated to the spare bed and Alex got to sleep with Mum. Needless to say, none of us really slept.

Monday morning the fever had gone but we decided that a trip to the Dr was necessary. Mum stayed home and we were lucky to get an early appointment and saw an intern / arts assistant who listened to the history and decided to check his throat and ears for infections. She thought they looked ok but got the Dr to come and double check ... the verdict? "they're a little bit red but not infected". We were given a prescription for nose drops and recommended panadol. The day went ok, Alex seemed a lot happier and slept better that night, so Tuesday, even though he wasn't quite "normal" we decided he could cope with daycare.

The day seemed to go ok and Alex went to bed happily ... until 10.30pm when he woke and screamed for another two hours. It seemed obvious that he was in pain so we resolved to take him to the Dr again. We called as soon as they opened and got an appointment for 8.50am. Duncan took him this time, and was told that "his ears are no worse than they were on Monday, but seeing as he's been unwell for so long, I'll give you antibiotics". This was somewhat of a relief because the Dutch are notorious for wanting to avoid drugs as much as possible. Duncan and I are all for limiting use of antibiotics, but when your baby is suffering, you just want them better.

Alex seemed happier and the Dr said there was no reason he couldn't go to daycare so off the two of them went ... but as has happened in the past, they were turned away at the door. We still really don't know why.

Anyway ... Alex got better and better and we thought that we were over whatever it was, becuase he was almost sleeping through the night again.

Then ... last Wednesday, after Duncan got Alex out of the bath he noticed that while he seemed warm, he was shivering. Sure enough, he had a fever again so slept with Mum while Dad went to the spare room. He woke up a lot and tossed and turned, but at least he didn't seem to be in any pain this time. Duncan stayed home on Thursday and spent a lot of time cuddling Alex and giving him panadol. His fever peaked during the afternoon and although he was pretty tired and cuddly when Mum got home, he managed to eat some dinner and played for a while before bed. The fever stayed away all night and he got up and had a normal breakfast so went back to daycare on Friday. Saturday was ok ... he would have been perfect if he had only napped properly.

We still don't really know what the causes of either episodes were, but fingers crossed that's the end of the sickies for a while! We've got quite used to our sleep and are not used to having to deal with a sad baby.

Finally ... to really add insult to injury ... Duncan has been fighting a cold for the last week or so. It never rains but it pours!