Dusseldorf

Thanks to some lovely friends, we scored a 5* hotel stay in Dusseldorf on "germany's most stylish shopping street". They nearly rejected my pink daihatsu applause from valet parking, it was that posh.

The travel crew:

We mainly wallowed in the luxury of the hotel room, ate delicious food at various places, visited family and generally just hung out...

Baby one more time!

Since last year's birthday song was also a britney title (not a girl, not yet a woman) I thought it appropriate to stick with this theme. The meaning has many facets. 1. (having a) Baby? One more time! 2. Yeah baby, one more time! I would do it all over again, as it was lots of fun: We celebrated with lots of friends, food and presents! Thanks for all the birthday wishes in person or not, all was supremely welcome. 3. There weren't many song titles to choose from.
I insisted on 30 blazing candles on my cake, and I was rewarded with a pyrotechnic display not seen before in this village!

Our new cat

oops we did it again....

We'll be one Chan-Vellinga richer by end of May next year!

Colds, Teeth, Apathy, the chill of winter, this is the mood of winter at the moment... Oh how I wish for a hot christmas with cold prawns and a bbq. Sweating it out and then jumping in the pool. Tha'ts a real christmas!

we went to Chicksands to visit the Whitesides and dropped in on our family in London. Kaemon cried between 3-6 am and after a week, there was a little pearly white to show for it. A little toot. This week he's made up for it by sleeping in.....
ANyway, the visit, was great, eliza had her wild cocktails and karaoke birthday party, which I've not seen the likes of for a long time!
We also met Evan, the newest expansion to the family, and Andrew and John, all kaemon's cousins (and Meg who has adopted Kaemon as an honourary cousin!) So many babies....
Thanks eliza, dave and kids for the delicious food, and company!!

Photo dump: we ate sushi, okonomiyaki (kaemon love), washed windows, had a sick day (oh so pitiful)

October blur

October was full of visits

Sports action

WHAT GOT ME OUT OF BED EARLY THIS MORNING

Usually kaemon wakes up and we let him babble while we duck under the covers. But this morning, amidst the "ba-bah-ba-bwa" (which douwe in douwe's opinion is "papa") there was a pregnant pause and then.......MA-MA! Sleeping-in may be a thing of the past but it's not always bad.

Visiting Timo

Tapas in Rotterdam

We went to a great tapas party with GREAT food created by Marjolijn and Ruud, but strangely I didn't end up with photos of food, just babies!

This is the afterparty room where the young ones and their carers hang out (i.e. the babies lost stamina and had to go to bed)

Morroco Calls

On the menu: Tuna&beetroot salad and beef tajine with caramelised onions. So happy :)

BBQ season

We seem to be stretching the BBQ season out for as loooooong as possible. Even when it's getting chilly, and the guests complain that it's cold, we just bring out the blankets. Sadists? No, just desperately seeking summer. We let them eat inside, but refused to turn on the heating. Because that's what you do in winter and it's NOT WINTER YET (&*&^%#!#_!!!! Apologies.

One small crawl for baby, one big big step for mankind....?!

Maybe it was putting him in the stunt suit, maybe it was dangling boobies out of his reach, who knows, but he started crawling (forward) last week.

Our nation's capital

Weekend wanderings brought us to amsterdam (lunch at the newly engaged Dorien and Joris')


and then to the Vondel Park where 28 years ago Douwe also spent many hours just like this on his father's shoulders (Is kaemon checking out that chick?!!)

Itadakimasu

One of the good things of living on this side of the country is the possibility of getting almost anything you want....so 25 mins drive, and we were in little japan, an area of amsterdam with a japanese supermarket, hairdresser, lunchroom, cleaning agency, laundromat. Inspired, we had our favourites sushi and cold soba


and introduced kaemon his japanese side. He's becoming a real noodle boy,

the sushi...

...disappeared with (barely) a trace

Yog(i)hurt Bear

He's learning to drink from a cup! We can sell him to the circus soon!

Princess Jen of Denmark (formerly of Manly) on state visit to Princess Kelly of the Netherlands (formerly of Yeppoon)/It was Hoogly!

She brought her dutch-aussie entourage and it was so good to have an Australia Day in September!


We bbq'd for lunch and dinner-

BBQ'd banana&choc dessert....MMMMMMMMMMMMMM melted chocolate in warm banana on ice-cream. We ate them so fast there are no pictures.


The next day we went to den Haag and I discovered my beloved 5 euro/dollar roast pork and rice exists here too!!!!!! JOY!!!

Entertainment on a Saturday Night for Parents

We have a laugh at kaemon...

Yesterday...

...2 years ago, was the day we stepped into the marital boat. We marked the occasion with (among other things) going to the beach only to find they had closed it down for renovation (yes, the whole beach!) and later out to dinner. with kaemon. Ever seen in the zoo how they keep the chimpanzees stimulated and occupied by hiding their treats and food (e.g. peanut butter in a tube)? Money well-spent on Discovery Channel. It was relatively peaceful thanks to a yoghurt-smeared jar lid and a dazzling array of toys :)