Keeping it turkey

Ten days since the last post- all of us caught the first wave of flu since James began going to the germ repository (daycare). The day after his first day he had a fever and has been going through all the syptoms of a flu since. Other than the flu, james loves going in twice a week with the other hummels. I (Mike) luckily (?) avoided most of the worst of it but Kat and James are bearing the brunt. In the morning its like being surrounded by Darth Vaders with all the constant heavy breathing. James showed promise blowing his own nose for a couple of days but then suddenly lost the skill recently.

We are busy getting ready for our Thanksgiving this Saturday and looking forward to meeting friends in Amsterdam on Thursday for a couple days visit. (Just three Mom, I know, fish and guests...)

On the future plan front- no word from Allbright yet- and not really expecting any- and a polite rejection from Cornwall. Disappointing to get your hopes up, but part of the kooky academic game. A hopeful sign this week though, as we found something that could benefit everyone's long term ambitions with the chance for Kat to teach in New Hampshire at Keene State. The guide book open next to James at the breakfast table is for New England. We'll see.

We have gotten into putting everything on our heads recently (I don't know where he got the idea...)




And being a ham regardless of the snot quotient/cranky pants...

De Sint komt!

It is that exciting time of year again, when Sinterklaas arrives in Holland on his steamboat from Spain. You all know the story! We caught up with him this midday as he arrived in Enschede (by train) and then rode his big white horse through town, surrounded by Zwarte Pieten. Its pretty difficult to get close to the main man as the crowds of kids and parents can be thick.



The Piets were impressive, climbing around and repelling off buildings and sending down cadeautjes on long wires. James made friends easily with the generous Piet handing out candy.







One of the nice things about towns here is that twice a week there is a big open market in the center with all sorts of fresh produce and meat, fish, cheese; a big farmer's market but also plants and wooden toys and socks and pretty much anything you can imagine. One of the great things about this time of year is the seasonal foods. Especially good are oliebollen, basically a huge fried donut hole with powdered sugar. The market also sells boatloads of kibbling, fried fish, and James tucked neatly into that today for lunch. Okay, not so neatly.



It was a beautiful day, relatively warm and no rain so everyone was outside. We hit the park on the way home so James could move leaves and acorns around (he will do this for as long as you let him) and ride his favorite swing.

This is important James, where did you put the remote?

Hours later...

Danger! Danger!

Its amazing how mobility has changed the way James sees the world- and how we see his interactions. For this 15 month old, there is nothing more attractive than the most dangerous place within reach. Over and over again. It's a wet climate here, so we have gotten used to the change of clothes after repeatedly falling into mud puddles. The past couple of weeks have seen a few more incidents than normal however. You can't keep your eye on them every split second- I've tried and its completely exhausting. Plus, they have to learn, right?
I wonder sometimes, if it is a Mr. Mom syndrome that he ends up in these situations- do women keep their kids from getting into things more?
By getting into things, I first mean that last week James got bitten by the donkey. Not the little baby one (she actually bit me-) but the big Dad donkey at the petting zoo. We were giving them some of the grass they can't reach from outside the fence and I was trying to make sure he kept his little hands safe but all of a sudden I blinked and the baby fingers are stuck in the teeth and there is screaming and I have to coerce the donkey teeth off. No open wound and it seemed much worse at the time, but a sore hand and hurt feelings nonetheless. And a little blood. Around the fingernail. But it was fine soon enough; and of course he just wanted to go back with more grass.
Then there was the next day at the pool, in the very shallow kiddie pool mind you, where I look over in a split second and see James fallen backwards flailing and gulping water, while it takes me an eternity to make my way 3 feet and pull him out. No blood, no foul- just some water swallowed and of course- he wanted to go right back to playing.
Okay, so a week later, but still in the activity level/painful injury continuum- today he falls on the corner of a cabinet, right on the forehead. One of those wait a full 30 seconds before the cry can even make its way out kind of reactions. Here he is playing away after some consolation. It was like a cartoon bruise in about 2 minutes, all bumped up...




We have reached the stage where the line between clearly dangerous and relatively safe can be pretty blurred. Its easy when they are little grubs- once they are exploring (and ecstatic to do so) things are very different.
So- what about chicken bones, you may ask? I was eating my leftovers for lunch today and he (another part of the stage) had to have what I was having. Years of raising dogs has made me paranoid about this but I knew he wasn't going to manage to crack them open anyway...
The following is dedicated to my sister Mary 'Hoover' Liotta; James loved them:

Motherboard Resurrection

One way to learn how dependent you are on computers is to have your PC break down. Perhaps its my fault; every couple of months I open the case and q-tip the dog hair and dust off the fans and just try to generally clean the rest of the case out. Its an unavoidable condition carried in the Maier genes.
After going through these motions last week, I hooked everything back up, powered on and got- nothing. No scary blue screen, no error message, no input signal to the monitor. As our former roommate/tech geek was out of town at the moment, I went directly to my neighbor who is an electrical engineer of sorts. After an hour or so of, well, running through logic trees, we ruled out anyhting mechanical or any of the main hardware components. His final guess was a kapot video card and we tried a replacement the next night. If you don't want to spend a bundle on bringing the thing into a shop, it is invaluable to have a neighbor with a bunch of spare computer parts. With no result there, we began to get hopeless and I considered the options for getting a new system. We've learned that this is a typical cultural difference at least here- to an American, when baby wanty, baby wanty NOW (we are pretty comfortable with this); in this case the cheap, Dutch patience of Ronald prevailed and as he read through the motherboard manual online (you always have to have another computer to fix the first one) we spotted a few other little things we could try. For the geeks- we reset the CROM, making sure to use a wired keyboard when atempting to boot and everything came back to life. Now computer worky. Thanks Ronald.

Waiting Game/James' girlfriends

We have been trying to keep ourselves busy while we wait to hear back from the universities Katharine applied to. Its kept us both frantically busy, trying to consider all the possibilities/ pros and cons; 2007 is going to be an intense year, new jobs, international move etc. Academia involves a boatload of waiting it seems, but now we have another possibility in addition to Albright in Pa. Friends we met through the UT just found work at the Exeter campus in Cornwall and recently let Kat know they were hiring someone in policy with a focus on the environment. We talked a lot about what it would mean for all of us; the bottom line is it checks off enough boxes to consider. It would be easier socially in a culture closer to America, there is a considerable amount of timberframing in Britain, its a beautiful natural area, health care and vacation are advantageous (free and at least 5 weeks paid + 21 weeks paid maternity). Anyway, we'll see what our options are when we get some responses.
James gets more mobile everyday- check out the all-terrain jumpsuit!



When the weather is really bad I try to wear him out walking up and down the stairs; there is also a mall with an indoor playground that is pretty handy. We recently had some healthy and reasonably peaceful interactions with James' 2 pals Anna and Lina. Our friend Kristin's daughter Anna is a little older and dextrous; she pretty much took control of the situation as James followed her around trying to grab stuff from her.



We also babysat the neighbor's little girl Lina. It was hilarious watching them interact. James was mostly sweet, though a little jealous, managing to 'inadvertently' step on or very near her when she was lying within reach.



In other big news, after a long evening of plumbing, we finally have a toilet downstairs again. Life-changer.