Mommy's Little Helper

Rachel loves to pretend to clean house. It's too bad that when she's old enough and I will actually want her help; she won't be as willing. She is really good about cleaning up her toys as well. The other day we were simply going to go upstairs to change her diaper. Well, before we headed up the stairs Rachel insisted on cleaning up her kitchen stuff that she had been playing with. Funny girl! Here are a few pictures and a video of her taking care of the house. :)

Madurodam

Today Rachel and I went with some friends to Madurodam, which is the smallest town in the Netherlands! Everything there is 25 times smaller than it really is and has been exactly replicated. It contains 185 miniature replicas of famous spots in the Netherlands. We saw things from St. John's Basilica to the Rijksmuseum to "Ruthie's" castle (Castle Nijenrode) to the Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. The planes taxied around the airport, there were boats cruising the canals, trucks driving along the freeways, and trains moving around. Rachel enjoyed walking around and checking everything out. I really don't know why I even bother bringing the stroller along! :) We spent the most time at the Chocolate factory. Everyone (even the moms!) had to put 10 cents in for a truck to driver out with a fun size Mars bar. The sun was out and it was a beautiful day! There was a park that we enjoyed as well. Here are some pictures of our adventure:

Belgium - Brussels & Brugge

This past weekend we took a quick trip to Belgium. We spent Saturday afternoon in Brussels. The sun was out and we enjoyed exploring. We had Belgian chocolate and Belgian waffles. There were lots of lace stores with expensive pretties. It would be a great place to find a beautiful blessing dress. We, of course, couldn't miss seeing the Mannekin Pis. The Mannekin Pis is a tiny statue of a little boy relieving himself. The statue isn't more than 2 feet tall. Here's a link, if you're curious: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manneken_Pis. We then drove to Brugge and spent Saturday night and Sunday there. Brugge is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Belgium. It is a quaint little town with cobble-stoned roads and medieval buildings. We enjoyed just walking around and exploring. It was a fun trip despite the amount of times we got lost, but we eventually always found our destination. We may me that much closer to splurging for a GPS-system... Enjoy the slide show! :)

History repeats itself...

Winter 2004:

We were still fairly new to the Houston area, especially me when it came to getting around Houston. I was aware of the major freeways and had traveled on them as a passenger. As a driver, I pretty much stayed around the Sugar Land area and was quite comfortable getting around in Sugar Land. One rainy night Andy and I went to a basketball game downtown. I think we went with some of his co-workers (I can't remember - I have a horrible memory!). But the one thing I do remember is getting lost on the way home. Andy had been working on a client in downtown Houston and it didn't make sense to have him drive all the way home (a 45 minute drive if traffic is good), pick me up, and turn back around. So, I drove out to meet him and go to the b-ball game. Well, I got there just fine and enjoyed the game. I believe it was my first Rockets experience...

After the game we returned to the parking garage and I was going to follow Andy home. Like most downtowns, the streets are one-way in Houston. So, you don't exactly get back on the freeway the same way you got off it. And of course traffic was crazy, like it is after any type of event downtown. Needless to say, I lost Andy, probably getting through a red light or something, I don't remember. But suffice it to say, instead of getting on 59, I eventually ended up on 610. Luckily I knew I needed to go South, so that's what I did. Of course I'm crying and hysterical. Anyone who has driven through downtown Houston in the dark, by yourself, and is a woman - can hopefully understand. It's not like I exactly felt comfortable pulling into an extremely ghetto gas station to ask for directions. Eventually though, 610 (with is a big circle around the city), allows you to get on 59. So, I did get home. A little late and a little bit ruffled. Andy was worried, I think he had been home for 30 minutes before I got there. And of course, one of the first things I said to Andy was, "We're getting cell phones". You see, we were trying to be frugal and didn't really see the need for cell phones and the added cost. Let's just say, shortly after that we both had cell phones...

Winter 2008 (Last Night):

It was Enrichment and we were meeting at the temple. Great, haven't been since we've moved out here, so I was excited. Andy isn't working crazy hours and could be home in plenty of time. So, Andy printed me out maps to get to and from the temple and I was ready to go. I headed out around 6 pm and needed to be there for the 7:30 pm session, no problem. According to the maps, it's a 45-minute drive, so even with traffic I should be okay. Well, it took 30 minutes to get past the airport, which normally takes 10 minutes. So, traffic was crazy, but it eventually got better. I got off the freeway at the correct exit at 7 pm, no sweat. Well, let's just say I took a wrong turn. So, at 7:05 I'm calling Andy frantically telling him I'm lost and then tell him I have to go. I didn't have my hands-free device with me and it's nearly impossible to drive a stick shift and talk on the cell phone at the same time....

So, by the time I find a gas station to pull over in, I call Andy and it's 7:15. I tell him I'm just going to turn around and come back home. There's no way I'm going to make the 7:30 session. It's dark, rainy, and they really don't believe in readable street signs here. Andy was trying to get me to tell him where I was - I was on some street that started with a V..... It was about 12 letters long and I was in no mood to spell it out correctly to him, so I told him I'd see him around 8. I actually got home in 30 minutes (so, when there's no traffic a trip to the temple is pretty quick). By the time I got home I was calmed down and just wanted to see what I had done wrong. At a street (which was not labeled) I made a right instead of a left. When I called Andy at 7:05, I was only about 5 minutes away from the temple, just going the wrong direction. Needless to say, I survived. Andy was expecting to have me say, as soon as I got home, "We're getting a GPS-system". But I didn't, it actually hadn't even crossed my mind. What I had needed was some daylight, the streets to be labeled better, and a little co-pilot to read my map to me (well, I guess technically that's what a GPS-system does). Oh well, we live and learn and next time I head to the temple it should be a breeze! :)

Silly Girl

Within the past week Rachel and I have had some pretty humorous conversations (at least I think they're humorous). So, here are a few that I remember.

Last week sometime during lunch time:

Rachel: move, move, move

Me: What do you want me to move?

Rachel: high chair

Me: Where do you want me to move the high chair?

Rachel: To Texas! (duh!)

This morning Rachel was eating her breakfast in her highchair and laughing up a storm.

Me: What are you laughing about?

Rachel: Me! (I guess she must have been thinking about something funny!)

At lunch today:

Rachel: time out

Me: Who's in time out? (She's put Elmo in time out before, so that was the answer I was expecting.)

Rachel: Daddy, time out.

Me: Daddy? Why is Daddy in time out?

Rachel: color

Me: Did he color on something?

Rachel: yeah

Me: What did he color on?

Rachel: wall - no, no, no

I guess she was having flashbacks to last Friday. Rachel colored on the wall for the first time and was sent to time out. Her flashback was a little mixed up. Daddy was at work when it happened and Rachel was the one who went to time out. But at least it seems like she understands that coloring on the walls is not a good thing! I guess Daddy better be careful and not color on the walls; otherwise Rachel will be sending him to time out! :)

Eight years ago...

Andy and I went on our first date eight years ago, today. It's crazy to think all that has happened in the past 8 years. We got married, we both graduated from college, we've lived in 3 different places, we bought our first home, Rachel joined our family, etc... The list could go on and on and on. I was hoping to find a journal entry about our first date, but the journal is packed away in storage back in Houston. I have a horrible memory, but this is what I remember...

It was the beginning of February and I was talking to my parents on a Sunday evening. We pretty much spoke on the phone every Sunday. My dad decided to play matchmaker. He gave me the email address of a guy who was the son of someone he worked with years ago. He said I should email him and we should get together. I don't remember emailing Andy right away, but I'm pretty sure I didn't wait too long. I most likely sent him an email on Monday. I wish I still had the email somewhere! Andy didn't respond until Thursday or Friday - it took him forever! In the email he gave me his phone number and told me to call him. Chicken! :) I'm pretty sure I played the same game he did and didn't call him until later that weekend. When I called him, he asked me out to dinner the following week - February 15th.

So, February 15th rolled around and Andy came to pick me up. We went out to dinner to the Macaroni Grill. I was just teasing Andy the other night about how I think that's the last nice restaurant he took me out to for quite awhile - I guess he had the excuse of being a poor college student! :) We had dinner. I remember that it was easy to laugh and feel at ease with Andy. I wasn't a nervous twit. We then walked around the shopping center a bit and then he took me home.

I didn't necessarily know what to think. I thought Andy was cute and he was a perfect gentleman. But I don't remember being totally smitten. That took a few weeks! :) I just didn't want to get too excited too quickly. I'd had too many times when I had done that in the past and only experienced disappointment. That coming weekend was a holiday weekend and I was headed home to California. When I was in California I got a phone call from Andy...I figured there was some interest on his part. And what do you know; look at us 8 years later.

We never make too big of a deal out of Valentine's. I tease Andy about not taking me out on Valentine's, but I think he did have a legitimate excuse, like work. :) If I remember correctly, we went out on a Tuesday, which was his night off. We usually skip going out to dinner on Valentine's and save it for today. So, hopefully the restaurant we try tonight will turn out okay. We're thinking Italian, so we'll probably find out what the Dutch version is like...

Happy Valentine's Day!

Vondelpark

We were having a wonderful run of beautiful sunny days, until today! The sun hasn't broken through and it's probably setting right about now. We did enjoy our 5 days of sunshine though. We are learning to make the most of them. In the past five days we've been on lots of walks and trips to our neighborhood park. On Saturday we all went to Vondelpark in Amsterdam. We rode the tram into town and Rachel was so excited. She's been talking about going on the choo-choo with papa for weeks now. Here we are on the tram: The park was a nice place to walk through and enjoy the sun. Rachel enjoyed seeing all the dogs and the people running. Rachel isn't a big fan of swings, but it had been awhile and we don't have any swings at our neighborhood park, so we thought we'd try it out. Well, she started out good, but didn't last long.
Poor girl! She loved her baby swing, but I guess she just doesn't feel nearly as secure and comfy in toddler swings. It's funny what we consider a nice day here. When we left our house on Saturday morning it was only 36 degrees, but the sun was out! :) It probably reached 50 degrees later on that day. We definitely want to take some more trips to Vondelpark, especially once the trees have bloomed. After the park we walked through Amsterdam a bit to the American Book Store. We purchased a cute book for Rachel entitled The Cow Who Feel in the Canal. It will be a fun book to read to her once we are back in the U.S. and have to remind her about her life in Amsterdam.

Dancing Queen

Rachel certainly has her own unique style of dancing. I was able to catch this on video the other day:

Honorable Mentions...

Of course Andy came home from work and reminded me of a few more things that happened this week.

• Rachel tinkled on the toilet for the first time! We aren't really into full potty training mode, but she does sit on the toilet as her bath water runs. On Sunday night she actually utilized the opportunity, which was probably just pure luck. It hasn't happened since, but it was pretty exciting nonetheless.
• Andy was reading Rachel stories at bedtime last night and she was trying to get him to read more books. She loves to be read to! At the end of one book, she stood up, made snorting sounds, and pointed to If You Give a Pig a Pancake...
• Remember bum wars on the trampoline? Well, Rachel likes to do bum wars on the wood floor. We cringe every time she does it, but she gets right up and acts like it doesn't hurt.
• Rachel loves to say "people". We had company over on Sunday night and I had to run upstairs with her to change her diaper. She turned around and told them "be back, people". We also played with "people" today at the park.
• Santa Claus lives next door to us. Okay, not really, but our neighbor is a nice old man with long white hair and a pretty decent beard. Every time we see him Rachel says Santa Claus in her language. Thank heavens we're probably the only ones that really understand what she's saying! We still aren't sure about the Dutch sense of humor...

A Trip Down Memory Lane

This past week Andy and I were looking at some old videos of Rachel and came across this one. I took this at lunchtime some time in the last week of October. It's crazy to think how much she has changed in the past 3 months. Her hair is so blonde in this video. I guess that's what happens when you spend the summer at the pool! We may come back to Texas with a brunette, because we will only be utilizing the indoor pools here. Anyhow, enjoy the video!

This Week's Highlights

I haven't felt much like blogging this week, so I'm going to summarize the happenings of this week into one blog entry. Andy and I don't know what we are going to do when we return to Texas and there won't be windmills, tunnels, and airplanes to entertain Rachel on drives. We live about 10 minutes away from the airport and drive right by it whenever we go on the freeway. We always see airplanes taking off or landing. Rachel gets pretty excited when she is the one to spot the airplane. We have discovered that there's no point in pointing them out to her, it's just not exciting enough for her that way. She loves to spot windmills as well - the traditional Dutch ones and even the more modern ones. And she gets pretty excited whenever we drive through a tunnel. It helps make our 30-minute drive to church a bit easier. She has also gotten into the CDs that Grandma Michaelson sent her. She requests "ABCDs" and "EIEIO". It's funny how quickly you memorize the track numbers of the songs... On Monday I went out to lunch with some friends. It reminded me of and made me miss Lunch Bunch back at home. This time we weren't outnumbered by little ones though! :) It was totally even - 4 women and 4 little girls. It was fun to get out with some friends. Andy has been home every night this week for dinner. I don't think that ever happened back home, so it has been nice. On Monday Rachel slept so late for her nap that Andy got to greet her when she woke up.

Rachel has decided that yellow is her favorite color. She requests her "yellow binky" when she goes to sleep. I guess when your toddler can identify the color of their binkies, it might be time to get rid of them??? But hey, she only takes it when she's sleeping! Rachel also chose the shirt I'm wearing today. I had to wear it, because she picked it out and told me to wear my "yellow shirt". Too cute! I was feeling like something from back home, so I bought some Oreo cookies at the store this past week. The box had 12 cookies in it and I believe I paid 2 euros ($3). Crazy! I don't even buy Oreos back in the U.S., but I felt like something familiar. And Rachel enjoyed her first taste of Oreo cookies. After I bought the Oreo cookies my Girl Scout cookies were delivered. Too bad I hadn't waited a couple of hours. The American school over here does Girls Scouts and they sell the cookies just like they do back in the U.S. I was pretty excited when I found out about it. Although I still think the mint cookies we had in New Zealand are better than the Girl Scout Thin Mint cookies.

Rachel has really gotten in to flipping through magazines and books. She especially loves to find horses, airplanes, and babies. We have learned to memorize the pages that these items are on in case she has a panic attack! Her favorite magazine to flip through is The Reader's Digest. I think it's the perfect size for her little hands. The other day I was busy on the computer and peeked over to see what Rachel was up to on the other side of the room... she was simply flipping through a magazine. We have a book about Europe that Rachel loves to flip through as well. It's one of the Eyewitness Travel Guides, so once again I think it's the perfect size. We know that the horses are pages 565 and 690. She certainly has us trained!

Today has been a beautiful day! I don't think there's a cloud in the sky and its right around 50 degrees. Perfect weather! So, we headed to the park down the street. We met another mom and her two toddler girls, who are originally from Australia. It was fun to watch the girls play with each other and talk with another adult! :) It brought back memories of Moms and Tots, which I miss! And I think Rachel does too. :) Rachel loved the slide and playing with the pebbles. She had fun playing with and even sharing her garden tools that Grandma Smith sent her. When we got home from the park we found lots of pebbles in Rachel's clothes - her jacket, onesie, and even her diaper. She loved the sound of the pebbles as she dumped them on the slide. Here are some pictures of our park adventure:

And the best part about our adventure to the park was as we were walking home Rachel reached up and grabbed my hand. She held my hand the whole way home as we walked and I enjoyed every minute of it. Rachel's not much of a hand-holder, so I cherished it while it lasted! It's been a good week and we're hoping for more sunny days like today! :)

You Know You're An American If...

• you wear tennis shoes.
• you wear sunglasses.
• you try to hail a taxi.
• you only speak one language fluently.
• you think it's legal to make a right turn on a red light.
• you ask for ketchup or ranch dressing.
• you expect bathrooms to be free of charge.
• you expect to get free refills of your soda.
• you don't expect to be charged for water.
• you expect someone to bag your groceries.
• you order Dr. Pepper.
• your toddler wears jeans.

I know there's more, so I'll add on as I think of them...

What?

I have been trying to get this on video for several days and I was finally able to today! Rachel loves saying this word and I have no idea what she's trying to say or if she's just having fun speaking gibberish. She says it over and over again as she climbs up the stairs, when I'm doing her hair, etc... We'd love to see what some of your interpretations are to what she's trying to say!

Little Miss Mischievous

Just the other night Andy and I were talking about how Rachel is pretty good about not getting into things. We've never had to put locks on cupboards, doors, etc... We really haven't had to do too much to keep Rachel out of stuff we don't want her into. Well, I guess we spoke too soon. This morning within a 5-minute time period she was able to accomplish quite a bit and be pretty proud of herself as well! I was busy trying to fill out FPCA forms to request absentee ballots. I had left a box with office supplies on the ground and here's what Rachel did:

She managed to break apart a lot of the staples and spread them around pretty good. Rachel was good about helping mom "mean up". After the staple incident I sat her in a chair across from me at the table. I was still busy filling out forms and addressing envelopes when I heard Rachel say "messy". She was concerned about the lip gloss she had gotten on her finger. She wasn't even worried about what she had done to her face! :) At least she had a general idea of where to put the lip gloss.

All I could do was laugh. Probably not the best thing to do, but how can I contain my laughter when she's such a cutie??? Needless to say, I'm going to be careful about what I think Rachel is good about doing or not doing because it will most likely change within days....