Kadootjes (= Presents)

As most of you probably know I have completely embraced the American lifestyle of online shopping. Diapers, any kid supplies, coffee, Eelco's toiletries, presents, furniture, clothes, tents,... you name it and I have probably shopped for it online in the past 4 years.

Lately as we are stocking up for India and our farewell here, there has been some influx in the amount of boxes that show up on the porch on a daily basis. Rick and Kaat are totally used to this phenomenon now. Regularly as soon as we get in the car at daycare we start talking about the question whether we will have any 'kadootjes' today, and whether they are going to be big or small and whether they are going to be for Rick or Kaat or Mommy or Daddy. We dream up the most amazing things to be in our boxes and parcels and easily fill up the 10 min traffic jammed drive home.

It tends to not really matter that much if we have any or not as in the fantasizing, especially thanks to Rick, we get from one subject to another and are usually somewhat past kadootjes but onto something else by the time we get home.

Once at home the presence of any 'Kadootjes', usually quite clearly visible on the porch, does help to get the kids out of my truck faster and closer to house instead of playing with the gravel from the driveway or  in one of the draining ditches. As soon as we get close to the door I get all the kids bags stashed in my hands and the kids discuss who is going to bring in what in which order. Then they help me push them over the doorstep or carry them inside and slide the across the floor to the kitchen.

If I know we have any good deliveries for them (which means anything they can play with or not do any damage to) I let them help me unpack the boxes, dictate the order and play with all the packing material. If the deliveries are not so kid friendly or not to be opened it is actually easy enough to distract them with some drinks, snacks and a game or whatever.

Great entertainment for the whole family this online shopping!

Madonna!

The first music cassettes I had as a girl where from Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston and Madonna (lets conveniently forget Rick Astley -;) mainly thanks to my BFF moving to Indonesia at the time and having access to cheap source and due to the teenage daughters of my mom's friend who used my dad to get albums onto tape in which process he would make me a copy too.

I never saw any of them in concert or perform. I was a real fan of Whitney for a while but due to the era in which I grew up I naturally followed all three. In the past 2 years 2 of the 3 passed way and hence only Madonna is left - and she is still at it! So when I saw a post of one of the Dutch girls here in Houston asking who would be up for going to see Madonna I responded within the required  - very brief - response time frame, and someone actually managed to get us tickets!

So last Wednesday was THE night and I finally for the first time in my life was going to witness a real pop-tour-show, with at least 6 outfit and set changes, lots of dancers and a good 2 hours of entertainment. We got a little nervous when Madonna cancelled her show in Dallas 4 nights earlier. The concert was due to start at 8pm, but by 9 pm there was not much sign of anything yet. Shortly after a famous DJ came on, shortly after followed by Madonna's younger son David (7 yrs old) who together then entertained us for a while by mixing his songs, some general pop hits and some older Madonna work and some break dancing moves.

After that it was back to waiting. We started to get nervous again, and all being moms with young kids, many also with jobs, worried that we would not last too much longer. The Texas day starts at 6 for most, and often earlier! By 22:45hrs the curtain finally went up and 5 min later the show finally got underway. We all looked with envy at the energy levels of this older lady who provided a spectacular show with lost of stuff & energetic dancing and moving parts and mainly all new material - no repeating of the old stuff forever at all!

As expected the show had some controversial elements as well as the more expected references to church ad the 'all american girl' with a full drum band - partially suspended in the air. We had seats high up with good views but quite far away - at $180 each we had declared it enough. You would have had to pay well over $500 to get anywhere near the stage & floor.

Madonna also opted for some political statements - initially she pulled down her pants and displayed her bum in fishnets and a thing - before also pulling up her shirt and displaying the name of her preferred candidate. This is Texas after all so when the booing started she asked the audience if they where booing for her but. I thought the negative remarks from the audience where relatively mild. A couple of days later the same happened apparently in New Orleans (which i much more democrats oriented) to the extend that it made the national headlines.....guess the national show reporters make it out to gigs in Nola rather then Houston? 

As part of the show her older son Rocco (11 or so) also appeared as one of the dancers (must be school break this week?) and between that, her talking, trying to identify which of the dancers is her toyboy boyfriend, the dancing, the changes in decor, the pretty decent sining at times and some political speeches it was a very entertaining night and by the time she wrapped up the show with a more conventional rendition of 'like a prayer' we had all forgotten how late it was.

What a woman that she is still at it, as a mom, with new and up to date material, whilst so many others, like Michael & Whitney, got lost along the way - Respect!

I was in bed by 1:30 am and took a while to recover in the days after - just from watching her!

Water Skiing

A major purpose of the weekend trip to Lake Jacksonville was for the guys in Eelco's team to go waterskiing. Unfortunately on Saturday it was way too cold and more importantly, much to windy. Sunday morning though things had cleared up and Eelco was ready to go. He appeared the only one as by Texas standards it was still freezing. The lake was very shallow though and so the water was still quite warm. Kaat was a little worried what her daddy was up to now....

Eelco's colleague Jeff is a waterskiing professional and talked Eelco through the basics, with mental coach Rick also on board. This was Eelco's 2nd attempt ever at this and a water start behind a boat is not easy!

After some 5 min power coaching Eelco was deemed ready to go. We could see his happy, eager, awaiting smile from the shore easily. Within 3 attempts Eelco was off and away!

The son has to have it from somewhere right.....always time for the camera -:) 

Speeding up & venturing farther out.

 It did not take too long before Eelco started to show off - with curves & small jumps (no pics of that)

 Lucky the dog had kept watch and like me was happy when Eelco landed back on sandy bottom in one piece.

 The mental coach in the boat

 The happy & proud athlete.

The admiring kids

Whitworth Lake House (Jacksonville, TX)

We where invited for the weekend at the Lake House of Eelco's colleague Jeff & his wife Debbie. Eelco and Jeff have worked together in the past 4 years and know each other well by now. The plan had been hatched long time a goo, now it finally got planned it also turned into somewhat of a farewell.

The house and especially the location where lovely. Right on the edge of the lake with a big boat house and ample ground for Rick to run around - as you can see. We had arrived after dark and where pretty pleased by what we saw first thing when we woke up the next morning.

During the day with was in the 50s and 60's (10 - 15C) with as low as 35F (1C) during the night. So Ms Kaatje got to put on every piece of clothing she brought on top of one another - looking miraculously coordinated after all. Prippy!

  Eelco's colleague has 2 boats, a flat lake boat and a racer for waterskiing (see next post). The benefit of getting there earlier then everyone else was that we got a private boat tour of the lake. The kids love being out on the water as much as we do. 

And even got to steer the boat some. As a true Texan Rick has a natural talent. 

And judging by the smile and how happy it made her I think with Kaat it is both hereditary and innate.  That was until she discovered the key with the pretty purple key chain and wanted nothing else for the next 15 min then to take it out.....

In the afternoon some of Eelco's other colleagues arrived with their kids and the playing extended. See here my 'paparazzi style' shot of the family...("Famous Mettalurgist Eelco plays down to earth kids games with his kids in rural Texas")

I was proud of my truck and glad we came out in that as it was nothing but trucks, trailers, 4-wheel driven toys and other major machinery out there. The X5 from Eelco would have stood out like an eye-sore -;). The cattle grill came in handy too as we drove most of the 180 Miles through deer country in the dark so felt a lot safer this way!

Rick & little Peyton (a true Texan Belle herself too) befriended each other in no time. No toys needed, the pines and other trees provided plenty of materials to dream up all sorts of games with the water near. Rick could not completely stay out as you can tell by his trousers (yes he had water in his one boot but was of course not bothered by that at all!)

We did another boat ride in the afternoon with everyone. Rick convinced one of Eelco's colleagues to read him a book. When he by accident skipped a page rick told him off. In the meantime Rick was also flirting with his girlfriend and still he was nice to Rick all weekend.  

Now that the full contingent had arrived we would spend the second night camping so time to get the tent up. The kids as expected where some fabulous help!

At night we ate some lovely smoked meats. The anticipation had been building all day as the smoking is a slow process so we could smell it and see it smoke all day. After that we had a camp fire which the kids again loved. Particularly Kaat was very effective glueing marshmallow onto everything and once that was done she fell asleep in our arms.

Rick got up early enough to go out with Jeff and watch the steaming morning lake and get some more fishing done with dog Lucky.

Jeff and Rick where best buddies all weekend really and Rick got to drive his boats, his tractors, his 4-wheel drive and get close to his dog. As a true Texan Rick loved ALL of it - A Lot!

Lovely lake house Mr Jeff & Ms Debbie! Thank y'all sooo much for having us.

North East Texas

Thanks to an invitation of on of Eelco's colleagues we ventured into North East Texas this weekend. We headed about 180 Miles North East of Houston to a place called Jacksonville. NE Texas has never been high on our to do list as it gets at best 3 pages in any Texas guide book we have (which are all well over 300 pages).....As we drove up in the dark we did not see too much other then endless decent roads, a few small towns, only trucks on the road and a Friday Night Football game in progress. 

The kids did not mind and Rick was singing for us..."It's raining, it's pouring, de pannetjes worden nat". Guess if you know songs in two languages you stand double the chance to remember enough to be able to sing it out till the end (instead of humming like us after line 2!). We still found a half decent drive through open for us and we managed to not run into any deer. 

As we had a somewhat chaotic day, had packed last minute and spend the first 20 Miles in a 1.5hr traffic jam we where very happy to hit the quieter rural roads after Huntsville (famous for its 5 prisons and the state execution chambers). It started raining some and the temperature started to drop to 40F (less then 10C). All was still very well though till Rick asked us at Mile 180, after 4 hrs in the car, just before the last bend: "Guys, do you really think we brought everything we need?" Out of the blue came that question. Eelco and I looked each other in the face and almost wanted to say in unison - "No Rick - not at all!" We did not though and assured him all was well and in hand.

Saturday in daylight I managed to venture into local big city Jacksonville for a bit. It has 14 thousand people, and consist of about 8 major interstate junctions lined with franchised retail, some hardware stores, churches and only a random house here or there. After the drive back today we realized that many of the towns & cities in this part of Texas really function still as trading posts as most people live rural and outside these city limits. A disproportionate amount of services compared to the life and population within these cities. Churches, hardware & liquor stores, small super markets and some farm supply stores, taxidermists and other hunting & ranching support services and that is about it. 

Very pretty it was though with rolling lush green hills (this is the wetter part of Texas), lots of small Ranches and small houses on huge acreage. Potential for a high quality golf courses around every corner and more churches (with pretty names like 'cowboy church', 'trail to god'). There are some historically important locations in this part of Texas but from a Tourism perspective there ain't much. The city folks from Dallas & Houston though come here to their second homes on man made lakes (dammed in) or to fish and hunt. 

Apart from a few larger interstates (all in pretty good condition) all roads where CO Rd (Country Road) with very seldom a usually slightly bigger FM (Farm to Market Road). Good reception of the local country radio station everywhere and plenty of BBQ places too. Unfortunately it was Sunday today so nothing much was open.

Definitely worth a road trip this area though!

Head Wetting

Weekend before last we went for brunch with a few families as a friend from overseas was here in Houston. We picked the most kid friendly place we could think off so we would stand a chance to actually do any catching up.....but it rained! At first the kids stayed in the dry and near us. Emptied our plates for us and played under the table. Once that was no longer enough they resorted to just playing in the rain.....with a new game introduced by Rick. Dip your head and get it as wet as possible. Safe to say the other parents where very happy with our son (not!). 

However Kaat was quite impressed....

 ...and decided to help him along somewhat. 

Should be a game easy to replicate in Monsoon time in India....hope we can teach him the difference between a clean and a dirty puddle before then!

Fabulous Four - End of an Era

Since September 2009 Rick has spend his weeks at Esperanza with the same 3 friends: Roddy, Joshua & Sarah. That time is bound to come to an end as at 3 years old many kids move on to their relevant pre-schools which starts at 3. 

If you want or need to get into a good or nearby school here it is very important to ensure your kids as early as possible enroll in the relevant programs. As the 4 friends unlikely all would go to the same schools and have the same choices to make (or their parents) we knew this school year would be the year it would all fall apart. And it did with 1 moving on at the start of the school year, us leaving the US in a little over a month and the other 2 probably moving on to their respective next schools at the end of the school year.

 

We are all grateful as parents for the special connection these 4 have had in the past 4 years. Most of the siblings or other kids at school we know off do not quite have anything like it. It is a lot of fun to see them together as more then half the communication is non-verbal and they sort themselves. They settle their own arguments before we can say anything, stand up for one another, care clearly for each other and feel utterly at home wherever they are as long as the others are near. Very special!

It was impossible to get a picture of the four all facing the camera - at any given time at least one is on the move or unwilling to cooperate ad as soon as one starts the rest goes too.

All 3 boys now have little sisters and the big brothers are super nice to all 3 girls and the girls are obviously comfortable with the 4 older kids. Kaat & Scarlett are most definitely in charge! Sarah is especially very good with Kaat (which deserves some credits!) and she even got to sleep in the middle (between Kaat & Rick) at one of the recent Rainbow club nights (baby sitting service from school).

Playing together is no problem whatsoever and they all have their roles.

By now us moms, despite being actually very different, have gotten very close too and we are all quite sad about the special bond between our kids soon being broken forever.

(yes I was as tied as I looked - work deadlines consumed my weekend -:( doing fine though so will post some better looking pictures of me and the belly soon.)

Comfortable in Mama's shoes

Red Hot Chili Peppers

Last Saturday the Peppers made it to H-town for a concert downtown. I had gotten tickets for my Birthday so we had known about this for a while. The Peppers are a Funk Rock band that has been around for almost 30 years or so and the guys are approaching 50 this year. The band is known for amazing jam sessions, building a good party and yes of course a history of drug abuse.

To our amazement when we came into the Toyota center we saw that the floor had been filled with seats. In Europe there would be no seats on the floor with a band like that to provide ample opportunity for dancing (pogo-ing), partying and crowd surfing for those down below with the most expensive tickets, able to soak up the band's sweat & beats the best. Eelco started reminiscing about the days he would cue up at 9am in front of the relevant stadium to, once it opened, make a run for the stage and get as close as possible as if you had floor tickets - there is no such thing as a seat assignment.

The concert was amazing, and the band still had plenty of energy, bouncing around the stage, imitated by baby #3 in my belly. Everyone else though was confined to their seats, or dancing standing on the little foot space in front of your seats. It was kind of odd to see a party band like this in such a subdued setting. Best in class bass player Flea with purple hair this time did not let anyone down though and rambled on a bit in between songs about all sorts of stuff including how we should all support live music and teach our children such. No problem Flea!

Barbie Mailing

In 4 years here we have managed to get on to all sorts of distribution lists - 80% of the time unwillingly. We receive every week a raft of things in the mail ranging from the standard 2-3 approvals for more credit cards (what crisis & restraint on credit?) to addressed advertising for clothing, costumes, religious books stores etc etc. It all culminated in for us the most mesmerizing climax this weekend - advertising from 'Barbie Collector'. The only thing we can think of as to why we should receive such is that Kaatje is more effective when she plays with our phones and iPad's then we may have realized....or Marlouke & Joost where out for revenge after the princess shoes & accesoiries -;).

Not really sure why we would want to spend anywhere from $130 - $250 on some famous look alike or pricess Barbie with hand made Organza dress (yes they had fancier ones then  Ms Taylor Barbie below).

Ironically enough the Dutch Barbie was pictured next to the Indian one.

And this would not be the US if there would not have been an elections themed Barbie.

Mesmerizing! After all in the family studied the magazine from cover to cover with different degrees of marvel - we decided to not try and cancel this one when we move - just as a special gift to whomever buys our house -;)

Opa Kees - do we need to keep this one for you? Did not find a goldilocks Babrie in there..

Rick & Kaat's new school

As many of you are aware the current daycare (or school) our kids attend are is lifeline of our lifestyle. Thanks to that school we learn how to raise kids - easy, just follow what they do -;)- and we are able to both work full time as our kids are extremely happy there and flourishing in their fun filled days with their friends & lovely teachers 45 hrs a week! The school here even has a saturday night baby sitting service which we use, meaning we drop of the kids at a similar setting as the school and they are entertained & fed and go to sleep there being with people and kids they know and with a familiar structure and w ecan pick them up as late as 1am.

So now we are moving......the hardest part for us will be the change in our kids lifes. We decided quick enough that getting them in school was priority number 1 as it would safe us from dragging them along to go house hunting, do paperwork, get all the tours, buy cars etc etc and get them even more aware of all the upheaval then they already will be. After some asking around it became clear though that the choice for a full time programm was very limited. The option available sounded nice, but not very structured (and Rick is now used to the overly development oriented american programm and loves learning and doing math and the alphate & counting in 3 languages and learning to write etc) and more imprtantly would only have space for Rick till he was 4, with very little opportunity to actually  find kids in his class who would live close and go to school with him after this year as this was not a typical expat place. Also the big schools are all at least 30-40 min bus ride away. Our Rick is big & brave - but sitting in Indian traffic daily at 4 yrs old for over 1.5 hrs...?!?

So then we landed on the most recommended and fun sounding option of the early learning centre of the International School. This place is in the area where we will live and means that Rick can stay closer to home a little longer (till 6) and will most definately move up to the big school, when time is there, with kids he knows. Officially the place only starts for kids from 2 but as Kaat does just a lot better with new faces if Rick is around too they are letting her in a little earlier. Considering how Kaat behaves in her current group that should not be an issue - half the class now says 'Appelsap' like her when they refer to a drink so I think she will not be overlooked!

Only negative thing for us is that the place has school hours - i.e. 8-3ish or something like that. Oh well that was going to happen at some point anyway and as the place is now walking distance from home (most likely) it is less of an issue if a nanny has to pick them up. Guess we will enter the new era of Rick & Kaat playing outside after school and having after school play dates and swimming & dancing lessons etc.

The kids are registered per December 1st - we are not sure when exactly we will arive but if they are up for it they can go to school as soon as we arrive and make new friends! It will only be for a couple of weeks as the school will close for the Winter (Christmas) Holidays, before they will start for real in January.

If you are curious:

http://www.indusearlyyears.com/Bangalore/photo-gallery.asp

PS Guess this place will not have 2 live pigs & chickens like the current school -;)

#3 is sitting on it

Last Thursday I had my 20 week ultrasound of baby #3. The check up is one big anatomy test to see if all hands, feet, fingers, toes and major organs are there and in good shape. With the current direction of the political debate here in the US on abortion you wonder why this test is still in place - as it is not as if you can do much about it if you find anything bad  apart from get worried sick- but of course it is actually quite fun to see your baby movning around in there - especially for Eelco who does not have him tickle and stomp nerves inside his belly - makes it much more real that this 3rd baby is really coming!

As usual the pictures are very grainy and I have to admit that I do not see half the things Eelco and the technician see. lso the only facial shot we have of the baby is adequate for Halloween - but probably not very suitable to show Rick his little brother. As is the norm for our babies they use up their full quota of camera shyness inside the whomb and the baby did not want to wake up or move much meaning they did not get all measurements & views needed and so we get another photo shoot in 4 weeks to check the lungs and spine. From what we did see though we all believe (incl the midwives) he is in fine shape and that there is nothing to worry about. Apart from a few glanses at other things he mainly showed of his legs & his boy parts - with the latter on show for 75% of the time we are certainly certain we only have to select a boys name. Based on the pictures we have he is not so much 'hanging in there' but 'sitting on it'. - or me really. See his tail bone, legs and heels?

Own Plans & Games

Both Rick and Kaat have a vivid imagination and if you give them time to entertain themselves they do just that - sometimes each for themselves and sometimes together. We have no clue how they understand each others games, especially since Kaat's talking is still often incomprehensible, but they do. Other times it looks a little rough to us but both are giggling like crazy. Both loves running, eating and loads of pretend play, often involving imaginary elements like ghosts or animals. Kaat goes shopping, dresses up and tries on everyones shoes - yes including Rick's boots 2 sizes too big or walking around without falling in my 5 inch heels! Rick wants to actually really start helping us and wiggles himself into everything we (need to) do.