Weekend in Guildford with Reuben

We had a fabulous long weekend in the UK staying with Lisa, Matt and Rueben. It was heaps of fun, meeting up with old rellies (Ann, Vanessa + Chris, Jamie + Ying-ley) in London and Oxford, meeting new rellies Reuben en John, eating duck duck and more duck, doing a bit of baby practise, shopping and just hanging out.

Vanessa, Lisa & Me @ YUMMMMMMMM-cha
With Ann and Vanessa, weapons ready

Practising, practising...

...and more practising. Reuben was so good, he let us try out our baby names on him (when his parents weren't looking).

The Cottage @ Guilford (Lisa and Matt confusing explaining to Reuben, "the sound is there but the plane is there because....")

Reuben's first birthday

Jamie and Ying-ley's John skillfully eating one noodle at a time.

definitely no camera or posing tricks- this is real!

How I look today

How big is my belly? This is the view from my vantage point.

Just kidding! This (below) is more realistic. I can barely see my toes.

Yesterday had the monthly check-up: baby heart beat, my blood pressure everything is fine, growing at a normal pace and so am I. I'm not camera shy, I'm just too vain to show my face without good lighting! Just enjoy my colour coordination: it's coming up to my 4th winter in the Netherlands and I'm just starting to get the hang of layering and coordinating one's wardrobe but throw in pregnancy clothing and all the extra layers it entails, makes for long toilet visits with all that rearranging of the multiple layers.

Aloha-óe Dirk

This week, Dirk leaves for 6 months for an overseas work internship. All alone, spending christmas without family, New Year's without friends and missing the birth of his first niece/nephew
..........in Hawaii. Living on Waikiki beach. So no sympathy, just jealousy! Ok grudgingly, we'll miss you.
He's also the Dutch CHAMPION of Karate (all-round Prize).....isn't that amazing?!

Dagje uit/Activity Day

1500 hours: It started out like this, expectations of a a) genteel b) pleasant or c) stately canoe trip.
1505 hours: there was clearly a) capsizing danger b) lack of faith in the paddlers or c) a mutiny aboard the Captain's canoe, Akemi saying "I WANT OUT OF THIS BOAT!"
1510 hours : After 10 minutes of strenuous paddling, a tea break was needed to soothe frayed nerves....
....and positions were changed
There was racing and sabotage, but (for some) it took a while to get the hang of paddling in a straight line.

Chasing the roast duck

This was the highlight of my week...chasing this roast duck from the exposed shop window in Amsterdam into the safety of my takeaway bag and taking him home for a nostalgic meal with friends: green vegs and ex-melbournites renee and martijn who appreciate and understand the duck too. In the photo are Dorien and Joris who kindly followed my stomach to the restaurant!

Beating heart

Secret life of baby- sometimes sleeping peacefully like this, sometimes doing Tae-bo

Happy 20th Week Birthday Baby!!

We had the top to toe check up: Brain, heart, lungs, kidneys, bladder, stomach, spine, umbilical cord, all present and accounted for! Only thing we didn't see was the pp or vv.......but that was intentional. In this picture, our baby is THUMB SUCKING!!! Is that super-advanced development or what??! The feeling that everything is ok (and that it is terribly cute already) is wonderful :D Two of us with Big smiles all day :D

Reliving 16th september 2005

One year joined in legally binding matrimony! We had an excellent dinner at Oortjeshekken in the Ooij polder, we love it there. We agreed, no presents/gifts but Douwe broke the promise. One can only hope for such a naughty husband :D

Onde é o lavabo, faz favor?

"Where is the toilet, please?"


This was our holiday in Portugal- That's a good representation of Douwe and I. (Knee operation coming up for Douwe to fix a torn meniscus)
We still saw lots of fabulous things, with the help of a car, a suitcase on wheels, funiculars, trams

and metro. Also ate a LOT, but don't need any help for that!
From Porto to Lisbon we were lucky to see the rural Tras-ós-Montes with Luisa (ex-colleague in Wageningen) and Rob and relax in resort-feel Cascais with Alex (ditto). Loved the whimsical romantic palaces (more Hansel and Gretel than Sleeping Beauty), intriguing influence of Moorish/Arabic architecture, coffee, wine, generous food, friendly people, abundant and free public toilets (more important now than ever).
For the full-blown affair visit the photo album by clicking on this link.



Did you know?.... Douwe is an international man of mystery? He has been spoken to by locals wherever he goes in Malay, Chinese, Tamil, Italian, Arabic, Thai, Spanish, Portuguese.

Happy Birthday Neva!

Action shots! wide angle fast shutter speed... We had cake for Neva's Birthday. Douwe ate his so fast there wasn't time for a photo.

Pret echo/Superfluous just-for-fun ultrasound

We dropped into Douwe's work out of hours to check on the baby...
It's gotten so big!!!

Tempting to just roll the machine out of there and have one at home, be like Tom and Katie (whom conspiracy theorists believe their baby is alien-seeded)

The Rise of Pregzilla (short story)
I always could sing along to Kenny Rogers (thanks pa for that) and one day driving to work I was singing along to "You don't have to fight to be a man". The father in jail teaches his son, Tommy, "Promise me son not to do the things I've done, walk away from trouble if you can...it don't mean it's weak to turn the other cheek, " and as a consequence the son grows up to be the coward of the county. But the Gatlin boys did terrible things to his girl Becky, "...there were three of 'em!". When Tommy left the barroom, not a single Gatlin boy was left standing and Tommy sings "I promised you, Dad, not to do the things you done.I walk away from trouble when I can. Now please don't think I'm weak, I didn't turn the other cheek,and Papa, I sure hope you understand:Sometimes you gotta fight to be a man."
I always liked Kenny Rogers (thanks pa for that) but never realised he was such a lyrical genius. I shed tears, and realised, I am pregzilla.

Turn on sound for video below!

15 weeks

The Dialogue





Douwe: You don't see it good on a photo

Kelly: A video, that's why it's video!

*cough* (the midman [we had a man midwife] told me to do that to encourage the baby to move at the first ultrasound)

Douwe: It kicks like a boy (!)

Kelly *High pitched girly giggle, thinking:* I thought I saw Jazz Hands

*cough*

*cough*

*cough-cough*

Douwe: [in stern voice] Kelly...

Kelly: Yeah...? I just want him to wake up...

Walk the plank/ We live to tell the tale

Yesterday we were taken under the care of Capt Koen and First-mate Fleur- our first sailing lesson on the Zephyrus. We had to learn the official terms, Heave and ho and ropes are not ropes. My job at first was to sit low near the pointy end (stern?) and avoid getting my head hit by the main sail bar (I know that's not the Mast). A few seconds after the safety talk, the weather suddenly turned into the Perfect Storm and we were keeling over and taking in water. Seriously! And I took charge of one of the non-ropes (I had just had to let it go at the right time). It was terribly exciting and afterwards it rained SO HARD it wasn't even possible to drive. Thanks to Capt Koen, we live to tell the tale.

I can just eat her up!

Is it Rusty (the dog), is it Tyrita (the spanish Tyra) no it's .........Superman! Superman eats meat so she can fly- and is so cute you just want to squeeze her! In my childhood obsessions I used to be Nadia Comaneci.

Details

We saw hand(s), foot, stomach, heart, spine and that's about it... S/he turned circles and kicked after some prodding (coughing) from Kelly but otherwise slept peacefully throughout the scan (I know I don't like to be woken up!!). Now it's 12 weeks, due to arrive around 12 Feb, thank goodness there's something to distract from the long winter this year!

*Advertising Feature*
Moeders voor moeders is a great program that uses the hormones from pregnant women to help others get pregnant. Since the 6th week I've been collecting my pee which is picked up by an anonymous red van and taken for processing to extract the Human chorionic gonadotrophin that is used for both men and women to aid fertility. And those who have used the hormone preparation can in return, donate their pee when they've been successful- that's great karma!! So remember if you're in the situation:
mothers for mothers
*end Advertising Feature*

Akemi's Birthday

We celebrated Akemi's birthday on Sunday (2 days early) by going golfing (again) and having a picnic (it was just a regular curry and rice dinner that we decided to turn into a picnic at the last moment) and we had spontaneous guests (Fleur, Koen & Patricia) also join us for the moveable feast. It was a divine day!

Very exciting video

This video might put you to sleep, we found it very exciting! It kicks like daddy (probably a boy then) and sleeps like mummy.

Week off work...

We both had a week off work which was needed to sleep and get away from the non-airconditioned 37degC workplace (babarians). Swimming, summer festival (1 week of live music every night every where you turn in the city centre and food stalls on the street till late) and..........golfing- Douwe's new hobby. What do you think of his swing pa?