Efteling!

Our first amusement park visit that the kids enjoyed more than we did! At least Kaemon & Nelson are old enough to run around of their own accord and had a fantastically exciting day!

The Efteling is charming- with a Fairy Tale Forest filled with all the characters from various stories (some quite scary).

My favourite of course: the gingerbread house...

The wolves were uncensored scary villains complete with lolling tongues dripping with saliva (Kaemon could not be convinced to look)

Hansel & Gretel, Those dear little goats unsuspecting that the hungry wolf is at the door: 'DON'T OPEN FOR STRANGERS!'. Kaemon & Nelson breaking the news to mummy goat that her 6 children have been devoured by the wolf.


The big story-telling tree was impressive & Kaemon only chose rides that were 'very slow'

Confirming that the Magic does happen @ the Efteling, we bumped into familiar faces! Marjolein, Justin, Timo, Yara & Marjolein's mum Inge were also doing the Eftel-thing on the very same day!

Kaemon turns 4!

Our delicious Kaemon turned 4! He:
- was the beginning of our parenthood.
- has stiff spiky chinese hair but is blond.
- is cautious but able.
- not brave and not ashamed to admit it.
- is conscientious and considerate.
- is caring.
- loves being a big brother to Quinten, likes being a big brother to Nelson!
- analyses things.
- loves being in bed.
- loves sushi.
- can be bribed with food.
- skips and jumps instead of walking
- sings like a lark
- exudes pure joy when holding Quinten, eating good food, playing with tanks, doing number puzzles, singing, telling a story.

winter

new year's day walk in a forest of snow... the snow has wreaked havoc everwhere, for everyone including us, but it does have a bewitching effect.







Finally, my first W-H-I-T-E Christmas!

we had a visit from Shawn loli & noah and had a short but sweet time. The snow turned the dunes into ski slopes on the beach!!





Quinten my sweet no.3! he's all sunshine and is born with a tan to match. he loves lady gaga (or my singing it...).

REady for Tour de France

this is an old one...taken back in october.

A digital slideshow by Smilebox

Quinten's Full Moon

In Chinese culture, At 1 full moon cycle, the baby is introduced and a number of traditions usually take place; the mother can have a bath, the baby's head is shaven. We observed the most important one, eating at large! Mum made ang-ku that symbolise the long life of the turtles they represent.

MQ (More Quinten)

@ 4 weeks

@ 5 weeks

Elise, Ben, Fleur & Dorien

A gorgeous autumn day...good friends. however, lack of sleep=could not carry a coherent conversation! Nevermind:) It was lovely.

Baby dolls

Quinten's first family photo

Kungfu Panda!

The boys received these gorgeous chopsticks from Aunty Winnie and they are SO cool and really work! Now they can eat almost as fast as us at yum cha...
 

Quinten

Our 3rd baby is sweet and brown, he has gorgeous soft black hair, unlike his 2 older brothers. He has (thankfully) no problems with colic; he just drinks, sleeps and poos with occasional periods of wakefulness.
@ 2 weeks

@ 3 weeks

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.