Warm Fuzzy Family Moments

There is so much happiness and bliss here.

Nelson has found a new use for Quinten: He let out a fluffy, and said, 'it must be baby' and laughed heartily.
*(EN: a little wind/NL: windje; hee hee!)

A 'quiet' moment


Entertainment

Nelson & Yara: What is it about the 2nd child that makes them cheeky?!

No time for the hospital....HOME BIRTH!! Yikes.

06:00 Woke to strange rumblings in the baby area (by this stage that's quite a considerable proportion of the body)
06:30-06:45 After eliminating other possible causes of stomach rumblings, the conclusion was: this is baby related.Yyikes. I wasn't sure if I was +/- 37 weeks- the borderline between premature and non-premature birth. In any case, it would be a hospital event; the former by necessity and the latter by choice. I packed my hospital bag in between the 6 minute-spaced contractions.

Kelly: 'Douwe, call the midwife/neighbour/your father/your brother'
Douwe: 'Really?' (Repeat 3-4 times)

07:00 The rumblings became contractions and I remembered the mantra from the prenatal course 'the pain has a function' *puf *puf *puf. Apparently I did that too well as the midwife came, nicely declared it was too late for the hospital. The kids woke up, and Douwe quickly bundled them downstairs to watch cartoons with Nobuko, our neighbour.

07:18 Baby was born! I was laughing a little hysterically: we were counting on having 3 weeks to get the rest of the baby things organised...but it was a beautiful surprise for a Saturday morning to have the baby arrive (before breakfast)! While we had to cancel a few appointments planned for the weekend, life went on otherwise undisturbed but with 5 in the house!

All pregnancies here are kitted out with a home birthing box full of 'goodies' just in case, even if a hospital birth is planned. So while we were relatively unprepared, the midwife took care of everything single-handedly and the place was spic and span in no time. While in most parts of the world, home birth enthusiasts are considered a little left of centre, here in the Lowlands home births are the norm, to the extent that hospital births are considered by some as 'risky'. I'm one of the 'nervous' ones that would always choose for a hospital birth...however small the chances of things 'happening'. All things aside, we are ever so thankful for Quinten's* safe delivery.

* Yes, he was born with no name and we tried out different names for 3 days.

this is the maternity home help lady Ans: she was great and took care of the house (cleaning, tidying, laundry, cooking) and sometimes kids too for 1 week.

 
 
 
 

Quinten's here!!

3 weeks early so a nice surprise! 1 hour birth so we didn't have time to get to the hospital! 3 weeks less pregnancy so enjoying the reprieve!
We still had to decide on a name, so after trying out a few names per day, we finally decided on Quinten and thankfully, it's stuck! Third time is SO much easier than the others, I even feel almost mentally normal and it hasn't even been a week yet. The boys love him, they are proud big brothers and are very sweet and helpful.

BBQ season

Summer is great, the traditional weekend breakfast on the BBQ...yum! We've had a lovely house guest Renee,douwe cooked a meal for the first time in living memory, and the boys moved into bunk beds. Nelson sneaks up to the top bunk and cuddles up to him when Kaemon's fast asleep.

Summer Lovin'

Sometimes BFFs. Our gorgeous boys ♥ Kaemon is sweet and perhaps a little introspective, there's a lot of thoughts going on in that head of his. He's a relaxed boy, and cautious (he's Nelson's road safety captain)sometimes it takes a while to convince him to do something, but when he does decide to do it, there's no problem. He loves a good feed, and one can always bribe him with a promise of food. He has ridden his bike WITHOUT side wheels! Loves cars, trucks, machines, singing and dancing....a curious combination. ♥ Nelson is a a cheeky monkey, he's got the same cheeky monkey genes as Shawn, Lana and Noah. What a crazy combination in August...he loves laughing, making others laugh. He's already figured out how to tease his bigger brother, but he loves little babies and insects. He eats a lot (after first refusing and asserting his authority). He's out of nappies thankfully, wasn't looking forward to 2 babies in nappes in October!

Nelson our cheeky monkey. Uncle Dirk is moving to Leiden/Oegstgeest!!! (Got a job here) That's the best news ever :) The boys are very excited...

Weekend in Nijmegen

Nelson Turns Two!

Our Nelly Belly Turned Two!! He's a cheeky monkey this one- so lovable and just edible. What's more amazing than feeling the lurve for one child? Having TWO- the repetition of the gooey, super-elative feelings for the second time doesn't at all take the shine off it, in fact it makes it more shiny!

Nelson had a wonderful time, eating everything in reach- the rest of the day he was coming down hard off the sugar high.

Rainbow party food:

Party time in the mud

The adventure playground

Pinata for under-3's (no chance of head injuries)