Rick in NL

with mama's heroes & his new friends

sunbathing under the kitchen roof

'zuinig mondje'

comfortable asleep on the plane

and in one of the Hague's many hip lounge Restaurants

he thinks he is ready for real food already

and appears to pick his nose with his doll.

Rick week 5

We made a video last week called 'A day in the life of Rick' because of it we did not make too many pictures.....but we have a few. Rick has been on more outings, saw his Dr again and finally lost the last bit of his umbilical cord. He is changing fast and really looking around and 'busy'. He can hold up his own head quite well and is growing well (mainly in length). We had more outings yet again - one of which was a group dinner at Goode Seafood with 20 people and 3 other babies / kids. Rick thought it was so interesting he stayed up ALL evening.

Rick having his first bottle (w breast milk) from dad. Rick is a very keen eater, but feeds in such a hurry that there is usually LOTS of spillage.

Rick's newly visible belly button - does it qualify as an 'innie' or an 'outie'?

Especially for Opa Kees - this is what Rick looks like in the rare occasion he is not happy.

Rick practicing for couch potato.

Rick being busy.

Eelco in China

- Story to follow -

- story to follow -

Nightly Adventures in the Heights

Wednesday night we had just settled in for the night when we heard a loud bang. Soon we found out that a car had driven into the ditch across the street from our house. These ditches are there for drainage and can be anything from 30 cm to 1 m deep and have 'bridges' build across the to enter garages and driveways. The one across the street is pretty deep and the car was just hanging of the concrete cover - front down into the ditch. It appeared the driver had driven off the road into the ditch at high speed. We where somewhat puzzled how it happened as the man involved appeared not very sober (he was wobbling across the street, talking on his cell phone). Our street is a 2 way street but the one it connects to isn't so no through traffic in the direction the car was going and not many bars around. 

In Holland we would have walked outside to see if we could help the guy,....but here? We could not really see the man but he was obviously not in critical medical condition, we live in a very quiet neighborhood,  it is Texas and many people have guns and the man appeared quite intoxicated....Other passers by in cars (2) stopped briefly but drove on soon after. So we called the police who showed up with a tow truck. And we? We never left the house and watched the whole thing being resolved from behind the blinds of the nursery with all the lights off. 

Moral of the story: these Texas/US gun laws make us real cowards and we are indeed suffering from lack of sleep but not because of little Rick (who slept through it all).