Who would have thought 2 years ago.....Here we are: My Sister and I and our kids in Brazos Bend State Park.
Cute Kaatje
2 Months already!
Like her brother Kaatje does not care much how she get her mother's milk - direct from the source, in a bottle or even straight from the cold fridge - as long as she does get it.
Pretty Relaxed
In Momma's chair all by herself - finally.
Cozy but Curious
Pediatrician today declared her as happy & healthy as she looks.
Too much fun
We are having too much fun with our visitors to post much. However for those of you who cannot wait here a glimpse of what the family reunion looks like.....
There is a lot of enthusiasm amongst the kids to hang out together although Rick has some difficulty controlling his enthusiasm and body in dealing with the Two smaller ones.
Therefor it is easier to get pictures of Auke & Kaat together.
The kids appear happy trading parents occasionally.
All Three in MY big chair. This time I did not mind at all. Soooooooooo cute!
Copyright of all Pictures: M Lanenga - Cool Raw!!
Ladies in the House
Rick had his friends over again this weekend.
The ladies appeared to like Rick's new wheels.
and stayed for dinner as well.
And in the end Rick really had both ladies in his house!
Crawfish boil
We had a crawfish broil last week organized by our Neighborhood so felt an obligation to attend despite the wet and windy weather. Crawfish is a typical local food as some years close to 90% of the worlds crawfish is caught in Louisiana and 70 or 80% of it is also eaten there. After Katrina many cajuns who moved to Houston ended up in our neighborhood and there is a strong Cajun influence in Houston in general really. At a boil the crawfish gets cooked in a big pot with all sorts of additions such as Corn on a Cob and Potatoes. Eelco volunteered to conquer the crawfish whilst Rick and I stuck to the traditional 'Sausage on a stick' and Hot Dog.
Rick thought the little critters were hilarious!
We got so cold so fast that we left before taking any pictures of Kaat. However us girls did make it onto the Houston Chronicle Web Site the day after as a 'side' in the main picture of the event.
Rodeo (or the John Deere stand)
By keeping you up to date on Kaat's developments we have created some backlog on some of our other adventures. For instance the last day of Marijke's visit (10 days ago or so) we visited the cattle show at the Houston Rodeo with Marlouke and little Maartje. Immediately there was a girl ready to show Rick (and little Maartje) her cows.
Rick was also immensely attracted to the John Deere Sales stand and did some posing there for Oma. Little Maartje in the meantime developed a crush on the new extra wide Ford F350 pick up in the stand next door!
Rick tried each and every vehicle on display to see if any of them would be good for his Ranch.
After Maartje had torn herself away from her Pick-up truck the Two did some more posing together. Even at this age there is disagreement about who gets to drive -;)
Rick explaining Oma how it all works
It took us a while to reach the actual Children's area at the Rodeo and Rick bravely rode a Pony! The man walking behind him is NOT actually holding Rick but the carrousel.
Rick was unaware it appeared how proud and impressed we were. He looks like a proper Texan right?
We ended the morning with some extra big cuddles for Oma whilst watching the smaller farm animals (young goats in this case).
Gymnastics
Happy Kaat is doing a little morning Aerobics. In this picture we think it is pretty obvious she is related to Auke.
"Look I can move all my arms and legs independently of one another!"
"And when mommy is inspecting her nails and is not paying attention I just lift up my own head to look what big brother Rick is up to."
You can't tell from the picture but when Kaat lifts her head like this it does not actually wobble all that much. She is very very strong already. Guess it is a good thing at least in 1 persons eyes - Rick. He can't wait till she is ready for some actual playing and 'roughing around'.
Life with 2
Two produce more then one
Sometimes you need to bribe one with sweets (home made red velvet cake in this case) such that you can free up your hand for the other one
But then again, the second does not know any better and is just fine without cake or sweets.
Awkward Dutch Kids Books
At my Dutch Coffee morning this week one of the ladies, American herself but married to a Dutch man, brought along a book. She likes the Dutch children's books and does read them to her son as well. She was laughing however as she said she found awkward things in quite a few of those books. After she showed us the pages below we had to agree with her.....why oh why we were asking ourselves? Can you find the 'akwkwardness'?
> 1 Month already!
Kaatje has passed the 1 Month mark already! She is by now well over 4 kg (Eelco estimated today about 4.3 / 4.4 kg) and was 56 cm at the Doctor already a week ago now. She is lean but tall. She eats well and had another major growth spurt in the past few days.
Kaatje is a pretty relaxed little girl and sleeps well. She is still gorgeous, and still has the nice rosy color in her face. However she does sometimes manage to scratch herself as she still loves to have her arms and hands in and around her face.
When she is awake our little girl is very alert and focusses well on things around her. Although her eyes are still very dark we now think they will remain blue. She appears to have Eelco's dark and thick hair and it sometimes even curls a little.
Mom and Kaat are still working well together so the feeds are also going well (not quite the same fanaticism as Rick had though - when it comes to feeding) and she does not wake us too often at night. She is moving to her own room this weekend though as all her other cute little noises do keep us awake at night.
This Monday Kaat will be 6 weeks meaning that most likely at the Midwives this week I will be declared fit for work and hence my official maternity leave will be over. Look at us! No matter how well I am physically, neither Kaat nor Myself is able to leave each other alone for 9 - 10 hrs / day yet so I am glad to have some extra time off.
Family Portraits - the sequel
With Oma Marijke (in Mama's chair again! -;)
With Papa after dinner
With Mama watching Indiana Jones. Rick is not interested (yet) in any of the stuff his friends like such as Miffy, Thomas the Tank Engine, Dora etc. However he LOVES Indiana Jones....I guess Die hard or the whole Bond series is next? At least I know now next time we are on a plane!
Kicky
Rick might be Portuguese or Brazilian as he calls himself Kicky or Ghicky (not sure what the phonetic spelling is for this throaty-gh-swallowed-R-sound is) as he is not quite able to manage the R at the start of a word like his own name. On other fronts though he is becoming quite the boy!
Big enough for the game?
Accessorizing to look cool
Strong enough to work on his 6-pack
Boy enough to enjoy a good Pizza
Old enough for a dinner with his Girlfriend (albeit at his parents kitchen table). Please note that Mees did tell Rick to eat his Broccoli and he sort of listened but not till after he nicked some sausage of her plate.
Pink
Looking at the pictures of the past few days it appears we have discovered Pink...
Lounging in a fancy dress
on the 'Eelcopulco' sun deck with Bunny (remember Love Boat?)
In a hot pink outfit happy with Oma
in Pink Posh Plush thanks to Jan
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