My Bump

Here's my growing belly at 4 months. It's really started to poke out the past couple of weeks. For several weeks now I've been able to feel the baby moving around, so that has been fun. It all started the week I had a cold. Sometimes when I coughed, the baby would jump. Poor thing! :) I'm pulling out the maternity clothes a lot more often now. I actually like it when my belly starts growing - it's confirmation that all is well. We find out in less than 2 weeks what we're having and we're excited. On a side note, you can also notice my first Dutch haircut. It had been 10 months, so I figured it was about time. :) Haircuts here are so expensive - 40 euros. I couldn't believe it! I'm normally a Great Clips girl - $10 - but they don't exist here. Oh well, such is life!

Sometimes...

Sometimes you trade 2 minutes of vacuuming and 20 cents of rice wasted so that you can have 30 minutes to get something done! :)

Precious Moment

It's always fun to catch a precious moment like this:This past weekend Andy took Rachel outside so that she could ride her bike. He pulled up a chair and started to read a book. Rachel quickly lost interest in her bike. She wanted her small chair outside and a magazine to read. Too cute!

"I'm having fun!"

Rachel stated matter-of-factly through fits of laughter last night, "I'm having fun!". A lesson we can all learn - to realize when we are having fun and to enjoy every minute of it. Grandma Michaelson has a little tradition with Rachel of turning her finger into a bumblebee and tickling Rachel under her arm. Last night Rachel decided she wanted the bumblebee to tickle Daddy. So, she was saying, "Bumblebee, bumblebee, tickle Daddy under the arm". And Rachel would quickly tickle her daddy and run away. Then I joined in by tickling Rachel with my bumblebee finger. And in the middle of all of this Rachel simply stated she was having fun. :) It was a moment of family fun I didn't want to forget.

Pretty Creative

Rachel can be pretty creative when she wants to be. She discovered a way to keep her windmill turning. Ever since we have lived in Holland she has been fascinated with windmills. She is always quite concerned when we drive by a windmill that is "broken" (not turning). About a month ago we purchased some fans out of necessity. It was quite hot (around 80 degrees) for some of May and early June. I know, sounds pretty pathetic, but when you live in a house without A/C, that's hot. Even though we have informed Rachel that they are fans, she insists on calling them windmills. One day she discovered a way to keep her windmill going by using the big windmill! :) It was great, because it gave Mom and Dad a break from having to blow the windmill.

Little Helper

One of my friends headed home for the summer and before she left I asked her if I could borrow one of her toddler training toilets. So, she brought it over and Rachel became quite fascinated with it. For days the toilet hung out in our living room. Rachel would sit on it, Elmo would sit on it, and it would even be used as a stepping stool. One the first day we had it Rachel was just playing around and all of a sudden she disappeared into the bathroom. I asked her what she was up to and she mumbled something to me. The next thing I knew she was coming out of the bathroom with the toilet bowl brush. Classic! She marched right over to the toilet and started scrubbing away. It's too bad that when I really want Rachel to help scrub toilets she won't be nearly as excited... :) You've got to love her outfit that day as well! It was only 58 degrees that day, but Rachel insisted on wearing a dress. So, we did Dutch-style and she wore pants under her dress. We haven't exactly started potty training yet. Maybe next week... It would be nice to not have two in diapers, but we'll just have to see how it goes.

Out of the Mouth of a Toddler

Rachel makes us laugh and smile on a daily basis by some of the things she says. Here are some of our conversations that I have remembered recently:

• Once we found out we were pregnant I had to go to our huisart (family doctor) in order to get a referral to a midwife. After going to the huisart I called Andy to fill him on how it went. Rachel wanted to talk to Andy as well. Andy asked Rachel what the doctor said and without missing a beat Rachel responded, "No more monkeys jumping on the bed!".
• Rachel loves to start out our prayers. They go something like this: "Heavenly Father... Thank you.... Mommy feel good.... Blessings.....(we fill in some blanks)Amen." It's so sweet to hear her say "mommy feel good" since I felt so crummy the first couple months of this pregnancy.
• Rachel surprised Andy one night by informing him that she had a string on her pajamas. He asked her where she learned the word string from and Rachel simply responded, "Texas".
• One day I was laying on the bed on my side and Rachel climbed up on the bed. She quickly patted my bottom and told me, "Cute bum, Mom". I'm glad someone thinks I have a cute bum! :)
• Andy asked Rachel what his name was the other day. Usually she'll say "Andy or Drew". Well, that day she responded by saying, "Handsome". I guess Rachel listens when her mom calls her dad handsome! :)
• Last night we were driving home from the grocery store and looking for another train along the track for Rachel to see. Soon enough we saw one up ahead, but it wasn't moving and was obviously not working. We told Rachel it was broken and she quickly asked, "batteries?".

Grandma's & Uncle Jeff's Visit

Believe it or not I was excited to get home from London. Why, you might ask? Well, my mom and brother were waiting for me at my house! They flew in a couple hours before I got back from London. They were here the whole first week of June and we had a ton of fun. It was wonderful to have visitors and to spend time together. Rachel absolutely loved having her grandma for a roommate and whenever Jeff was out of her sight she became quite concerned. Rachel loved all the surprises that Uncle Jeff and Grandma brought her. :) Here are the adventures of our busy, fun week! We took it pretty easy on Monday and headed to Zaanse Schans to check out some windmills. We didn't last very long there because it was so warm! We even tried to duck into a souvenir shop for awhile, in hopes of cooling down, but it was worse inside than outside. The Dutch really need to consider the benefits of A/C! Tuesday morning we then all boarded a plane and headed to Barcelona, Spain. We spent the next three days in Barcelona and enjoyed the cooler weather down by the Mediterranean Sea! We purchased a 2-day pass on a hop-on, hop-off tourist bus, which basically took us to all the must-sees in Barcelona. It was well worth the money and we enjoyed the narrative history that we learned while we rode the bus. One of the first places we got off at was the Park Guell. We had a good time exploring the park and were able to take some pictures with great views of Barcelona. Before getting on the tour bus on Wednesday we checked out the Palau Reial, which is a royal palace that was built in 1924. Once we were on the tour bus, one of our first stops was Sagrada Familia. It's a church that was started in the late 19th-century and is still under construction today. After touring through Sagrada Familia we headed over toe Placa de Catalunya. You can see Rachel trying to get the birds to allow her to "hold you". Uncle Jeff bought some bird food and Rachel loved having all the birds around. We also stopped off at the Palau Nacional. We definitely saw some architectural marvels while we were in Barcelona. Of course a trip to Barcelona wouldn't be complete without a stop at the beach. Even though the water wasn't that warm it didn't take Rachel that long to enjoy it. It was tough to get her away from the water so we could get some dinner! :) We then spent Thursday morning at the Barcelona Aquarium. Rachel enjoyed checking out the fish.
Thursday afternoon we walked around Barcelona a bit more and then headed back to Amsterdam. We definitely enjoyed our trip to Barcelona. We couldn't have asked for better weather and it was fun to see some more of Europe. On Friday we headed into Amsterdam for the day. I guess we were pictured out, because I don't have any pictures of our adventures that day. We did take a canal boat tour and once again it was awfully warm. We missed our cool Barcelona weather! :) On Saturday morning we went to Clara Maria to see how Dutch shoes and cheese are made. We got that quick outing in right before having to head to the airport. It was no fun saying good-bye to Grandma and Uncle Jeff. We all enjoyed having them here. Rachel hasn't slept as well since her roommate has been gone. :) We're so glad they were able to make it out to visit!

London, England

On May 29th I headed to London for a trip with some friends. It was so much fun! Rachel had tons of fun with her daddy and I enjoyed a trip with lots of freedom. :) As I met up with Claire and Ruthie at the airport we discovered we were all wearing green. So, we of course had to take a picture once we got checked into our hotel in London. Thursday afternoon we did a tour at Westminster Abbey. It was amazing how much history there was and how huge it was! We then headed to the Piccadilly Circus area. On our way we grabbed a picture of Claire in one of London's famous telephone booths.
And then of course it had to start raining. The three of us wouldn't make good Boy Scouts, because we certainly weren't prepared. We quickly ducked into a souvenir shop and purchased some cheap ponchos. Aren't we cute? Through the rain we head to Trafalgar Square in search of the Texas Embassy Cantina. The salsa, chips, free refills, and my chimichanga were all good, but the rice and beans weren't that impressive. We wanted to see if London truly knew how to pull off a Tex-Mex dinner. After dinner we found a poor guard that we had our picture taken with. And then it was on to Les Miserables. Our sweet friend Amy treated us all to the show and we wish she could have been there with us. It was so good and definitely my favorite show of the trip.

I guess my picture taking slowed down on Friday. We slept in late, did lots of shopping, and then even Ruthie and I headed back to the hotel in the afternoon for a nap. We were enjoying our vacation! My big purchases were a pair of sandals and a puppy that does flips for Rachel. Friday night we headed to The Osmonds 50th Anniversary Show. Not exactly my generation, but it was part of the package deal of the trip. I did enjoy the show though and even recognized a few songs! :) Friday night we stayed out way too late, because we went out to eat after the show. I've just gotten too old to stay up until 2 am! :) Here we are eating past midnight...
Saturday morning we were pretty lazy (I wonder why!) and really didn't get going until about 11 am. We then did some more exploring and shopping. Ruthie and I enjoyed lunch at T.G.I.Fridays. It was so nice to have free refills! I also loved that when people spoke to you, the first language they spoke was English. You didn't have to ask for English. And everything around you was advertised in English. It was great! It was nice to have more of an American feel since it will be awhile until we head back for home leave. Saturday night we went to see Wicked. Great show! It was definitely worth seeing.
I think we were all sound asleep by midnight on Saturday night - we'd worn ourselves out. We slept in on Sunday and then headed home. It was such a fun trip with such wonderful memories. It was so much fun to go see and do so much. Andy was such a good dad and husband to take care of everything while I was gone. I wish he could have enjoyed the plays with me. One day we'll go see them together! :)

Early Christmas Present...

We are looking forward to our early Christmas present expected to arrive some time around December 1, 2008! It will definitely be an interesting experience having a baby in Holland, but we are excited for the new addition to our family. It is quite common to have a home birth, no medication, and of course the use of midwives in The Netherlands. We are using a midwife, but have been insistent about a hospital birth. As far as medication goes, it all depends on when the baby comes. The anetheseologist only works from 9-5, Monday-Friday. So, it will depend on when the baby decides to arrive. :) We have had two midwife appointments so far, one at 9 weeks and the other at 13 weeks. They did ultrasounds at both appointments, which I was impressed by! Below you can see some pictures of our 13 week visit. We could see the baby kicking away and waving to us on the computer screen. The appointments are a bit different than the U.S. They take my blood pressure each time, but I have yet to be weighed. I guess they don't worry about weight gain... We meet with the midwife and her assistant each time we go. So far all has gone well and they speak English very well. We head back for another appointment in 2 weeks and then a few weeks after that we'll head to a clinic to find out whether we're having a boy or girl. At the bottom of our blog we have a baby countdown, if anyone is interested. Thanks for all the congratulations and excitement!