Cleaning up the Cottage

It has been three weeks since we have been here at the cottage. Normally we come every other weekend, but it has been busy. We spent much of our energy yesterday cleaning up Christmas stuff and hauling another car load to the second hand shop. We lost count long ago of how many trips we have taken there. Things continue to improve inside the house though. We make a bit of progress every time we are here, but there is still plenty to do.

The past week was not a terribly good one. I got off to a bad start on Monday with a bit of a traffic incident on the way to school - a car bumped into my bike. There was a bit of damage to my bike and the truck, but nothing beyond that.

Everything seemed to be working against me after that until I got home. The week slowly improved but the winter blues are really getting to me. At least we got a bit of snow yesterday - for the first time in two years. Now we need to prepare for some visitors and give the babies a bath. I could go back to bed...

Naptime in the box.

Abigail's first vegetable - cauliflower. 

Amelie's little fingers.

Abigail hugging the bunny - now she can roll back and forth.

A bit of winter at the Cottage. 

Rolling Over

It was a big week for Abigail. She learned how to roll from her back to her tummy. Now when we set her in the crib it is usually a matter of a few seconds and she is flipped around - unless there is a blanket or something in the way. She is still the physical one. Doesn't need much sleep, always moving and pushing her limits. She is confident with herself but rather shy at times with new people.

Amélie stays more in her head. Loves to observe, happy to meet new people, still goes from happy to screaming in the blink of an eye - the sensitive one. She seemed to be figuring out how to flip the pages in a book that Kalia got her for Christmas. In a couple years she will stay warm reading books while Abigail is getting muddy and eating worms outside.

Abigail is still widening the weight gap - she is nearly two kilos heavier than her sister. They start to interact more now, but are still able to sleep through the screams and vacuum cleaners. Hopefully tomorrow we can go to the zoo again as I am done at school a bit early. We shall see if Naomi has time...

Squash Season

This week has been a return to many of our normal routines. My friend, who had been sick for awhile, is finally better so we started up our weekly squash game again. I went to buy a pass for 12 half hour sessions which costs 100 Euros (ridiculous) but the lady only charged me 40. We figured it was maybe a New Year's special or something, so one of the other guys bought one two. Same deal.

When the third went up to get his all of the sudden the price was 100 Euros and the lady said she needed to talk to us about our passes. We asked for a refund as she charged us for swimming passes, not squash. She said this wasn't possible, so we ended up spending 300 Euros on squash. What a scam - a little reminder that we do live in Holland.

School went alright this week although my classroom is taken up for testing again, so I have to wander around the school for a couple weeks. I finished my application to get bumped up to a higher salary scale, and we had a school-group get together at the Zoo. There were a couple different tours that ended in an amazing but exclusive room where one wall was the giant shark aquarium. Nice to discover a new place.

Back to the City

When we arrived last night the amount of cars caught us off guard. After two weeks we had gotten rather used to the country life. We saw quite a bit of Naomi's family, made more progress upstairs, and spent more than enough time on the couch. I was hoping to be a bit more productive, but am still feeling sick.

Tomorrow we go back to the normal routine although my students don't show up until Tuesday. Now I will try to get a bit of a workout at the gym for the first time in almost three weeks...we shall see how that goes...