As Mike was writing the previous entry I was buzzing around giving my two cents about what photos should get on the blog. Mike informed me that I was welcome to post my own entry next, and here it is.
We have had such a nice time in the states so far. We miss Ghost, Keska and our Enschede crew of course, but it is great to be in familiar places. Our trip to Charleston was much too quick, but wonderful. We had mostly clear weather and were able to see many friends, eat local oysters, and drive that new Cooper River bridge.
Now we are in Atlanta, and due to the twins christening we were able to see LOTS of Maiers (though not nearly all of them). James' cousin Brad got him to belly laugh for a long time Saturday night.
I am having such a good time with friends and family I almost forget Christmas is in just a few days.
I met many of Mike's high school/college buddies this week. Most of the girls I am familiar with because of the Georgia Mom's Web Forum, though it took me a while to sort out who was who-- whenever I was introduced to someone I would think, "now what is her screen name". At the party James cheeks became flushed and he was fussy. New parents that we are we thought--
Is he sick??
Does he have a cold??
Is he teething??
Should we leave??
I got really worried and Mike started to change James' diaper, just going through the big three (does the baby need sleep/diaper change/food).
Umm, no- it became apparent that James was HOT. Could we be a little slower??? We took off his outer layer and he was happy as a clam. His parents settled down a bit after that.
The next day Mike and I were reorganizing our boxes of belongings in the basement and I got to see these folks in their prime in the Roswell yearbook of many many years ago. It was hilarious-- lots of funny pictures of a stringbean Mike. (Why is he on the friends and lovers page with John Sabol???) It was especially cool to get the chance to really talk to Steph and Anne, with whom I've been emailing for months. We also got to see Brian and Genia, who have agreed to come over and experience dominoes with Mike's parents. Should be interesting.
Next on the agenda is historic Valdosta, Georgia-- incubator of many a small business. We will drive down Christmas day and spend about ten days there catching up with the Owens family.
Okay-- here are MY photo choices:
The BEST SHOES EVER-- courtesy of John and Joyce. They are so cool that we build all of James' outfits around them. We absolutely love them.
And James in the tub at Aunt Dorothy's w/a discreetly positioned washcloth.

Road update

Well we have been movin and shakin since our arrival and today I finally have a little more time for an update as I just sent the last of my editing work off for the year. Atlanta and Charleston have been great; every day I try and soak in as much sun as possible and burn the feeling into memory for February in Enschede...
James has really developed in the last 3 weeks- he's now rolling over, consistently finds his thumb, is eating a little solid food, and feels heavier and bigger every day. We attended a great party/reunion of old Roswell/Georgia friends last Sunday and there was a gaggle of babies accompanying a group of folks, some of whom I haven't seen in 12 years. Everyone had a great time; my friend Anne says how cool it is to see how parenthood (or just maturity in some cases) has affected everyone. Its true; when people ask how I like fatherhood or what has changed my first answer is that I don't care about as many things I used to- its a relief in some ways to focus on a healthy family. I've thought more about it recently and wonder if parenthood gives people a second chance in some weird way. I'm not talking about people that suppress their own shortcomings and try to live vicariously through their children, more that it gives you a new energy seeing this little innocent face that has everything ahead of them.
We were able to spend a couple days with my sister and her family in the last week; the twins were christened on Saturday and we had a great gathering (even brought some select local oysters in from Chucktown..). Dorothy finally gets famous on the blog....
Photos are:
Dorothy with little Michael in the hug-a-bub
Katharine and Michael with the twins
Aunt Mary and Sophie working on the brussel sprouts, and
Uncle Tom with Micheal

Baptism

While in Charleston we managed to meet up with our favorite man of God, Bert Keller (who married us), for James' baptism. James was baptised Sunday afternoon in the Circular Congregational Church in downtown Charleston. My dad's brother Joe found a christening gown that belonged to my great grandmother to use for the occasion. James looked very sweet.

Charleston

We are having a wonderful time in the Holy City-- so much so that we've barely blogged. Here are some photos (taken by Julie Smith) to get you through...

Across the pond

After a good flight, we arrived in Atlanta almost a week ago. James did well on the plane though the pressure change was not pleasant when we were taking off; nine hours is a long time for adults crammed into that tiny space but we had a good trip and sat next to another nice family with a 14 month old. Atlanta is crazy in a lot of ways even though I lived there for seven years and have been visiting for the last 14. I sound like a broken record every time- look how big those houses are! look at the traffic! We have gotten used to the compact towns of Europe and things looked even bigger and more wasteful this trip. Who really needs a seven bedroom house?
It was great to see the family and I do miss the raw space of America; there is so much land! And trees and water and undeveloped (as yet) country. After a short stay in Atlanta we drove the five hours to the coast of South Carolina and arrived in Charleston Tuesday afternoon. Alot has changed here in two years as well- a beautiful new bridge over the Cooper River (they are currently dynamiting the remains of the old bridges; I'm hoping we can catch some of that) and of course more development as well.
One thing we have really missed is the cuisine of the lowcountry and Charleston restaurants in general. Every chance we have had so far we've gone out (or cooked with friends) some of our favorite food. We are just getting ready to start roasting oysters so more later! Fotos: James and Kat with little Emily at my sister's...

Eerste Sneeuw

Since I have never lived in an area that gets snow, whenever it snows a bit I automatically assume it means it will "really" snow, and stick on the ground. Usually everyone just laughs this off because they come from places like Canada, and they know that a little snow does not necessarily mean anything. The snow began falling this morning and by midmorning had turned into what the dutch call natte sneeuw (wet snow). I thought that was it for the day, but by midday it became real snow again, had begun to fall hard, and continued throughout the afternoon. Mike had to WALK his bike back from picking up the turkeys. We are hoping this won't ruin our Thanksgiving plans for tomorrow. James was not able to enjoy it-- he has a little stuffy nose and we thought it was best that he stay warm. We snuck out during his nap to get a few photos. Every few minutes throughout the evening we have heard a big KER-PLUNK as a big hunk of snow has slid off the roof. Just a little while ago the tree out front dropped two large branches due to the weight... but for now the snow has actually stopped falling.

De kerstboom

Our friend Anne sent the coolest T-shirt for the little man; we know he liked it- he was immediately drooling all over it. I can't believe she found a blue shirt with his name on it...We also set up our christmas tree this past weekend, a little early but since we are leaving for the States in 2 weeks we wanted to enjoy a little of the spirit at our own home. The Dutch do it a little different; I just wrote a story for the student newspaper about Sinterklaas' origins- I'll add it to the Sint post from last week. The last foto is our neighbor Maaike holding James and helping advise the placing of lights and ornaments- as much a tradition from my childhood as actually decorating the tree...

Bijna klaar (almost finished)

We've made some progress in the perpetual struggle to remodel the house. After a long week (I've never spent so much time remodeling such a small room and we are not finished yet) we finally have the new kitchen mostly put together. Note the tiny European fridge mounted at Maier level. Almost everything in this part of the house needs to be replaced; if we were planning on staying here long term I'd be tempted to just knock the back of the house completely out (the last photo is the back of the bathroom where I was chasing rot and ended up punching a hole through most of the wall...). My neighbor Ronald helped me install 4 new electric groups (breakers) as the entire house was previously riding on two with the doorbell having a group to itself. Now we can run several appliances at once (even a circular saw while while drying diapers!). Here you see the dramatic before and after; there are still quite a few details in the new kitchen: drawer pulls, toekick, insulation, tile on the backsplash, lighting and sheetrock on the ceiling, and installing the exhaust fan over the cooktop. We are having 30 people for Thanksgiving so that is the real deadline in 2 weeks. After all that we are ordering out tonight- we are way too tired to cook and clean up.

De Sint

One of the most interesting things about living in another culture is comparing holidays. In the Netherlands, Christmas day (25 December) is a time to spend with your family. Though I think some families exchange gifts on this day, traditionally this was not the case. Sinterklaas (December 5th) is the BIG day here for kids-- that is when children get gifts, not from Santa Claus, but from Sinterklaas. Sinterklaas lives in Spain-- anyone with any sense would know that the North Pole (though idyllic), is no Spain. Sinterklaas can live anywhere, so of course he chooses to live in sunny Spain. Sinterklaas brings his assistants (the very un-PC zwarte Piets) with him from Spain to dole out the consequences of every child's year of behavior. If you have been good you get some treat-- if you have been bad you, naturally, are kidnapped and taken to Spain and then sold into slavery.
My friend Katherina is visiting this weekend from Germany (she is American). We spent Saturday at the market (enjoying oliebollen, fried fish, and the selection of socks available for purchase). We had NO idea that yesterday was the day the Sint arrived from Spain. Fortunately we were able to see him, show him to James and take a photo or two. James was interested but not really aware of what was going on. There was a kind of Parade with the Sint and the zwarte Piets, and then a disco-dance party in the center in front of the church.

The following is a recently published UTnieuws article by cub reporter M. Maier:

Sinterklaas is the red-clad, white horse riding, mitre wearing, crozier-carrying bishop who comes from Spain at the beginning of winter with gifts for children. The tradition is he arrives on a steamboat with his many assistants, the zwarte pieten , usually on the Saturday three weeks before December 5^th; each year he and his entourage land in a different town. On this day (in some circles all the days till the fifth), children place their shoes out in the hopes that their good behaviour will earn presents and treats. Typical treats are chocolate coins and letters, special cookies and candies and small toys.

When set out, often the shoes contain a carrot or some hay for St. Nicholas’ horse. On the evening of the 5^th, Sinterklaas rides over the rooftops on his white horse and children open the door to find a sack full of presents for the family. If you misbehave, you risk an empty shoe or worse, being spirited away to Spain in a sack. Gift giving on December 5th is not only for children; adults traditionally exchange gifts and write a poem (sinterklaasgedicht) that pokes fun at the recipient. Today there are even websites that will generate poems for you. The village of Grou in Friesland is the only place in Holland that celebrates the feast at a different time, on February 21^st.

Sinterklaas is an amalgam of several legends, mainly the Christian bishop St. Nicholas with elements of Germanic gods (Wodan/Odin) in the mix. The historical St. Nicholas was a bishop from the ancient Lycian city of Myra in Asia Minor (present-day Turkey). Born in 280 A.D., persecution by the emperor Diocletian led the future saint to exile and imprisonment. He eventually attended the Council of Nicaea in 325 before he died on the 6^th of December in 343 A.D. This day became a Christian feast day; some 200 years after his death legends became popular about his character and good deeds, especially helping needy children. Through history St. Nicholas has been revered in many cultures; very popular in the Middle Ages, he became the patron saint of children, mariners, orphans, labourers, travellers, merchants, judges, paupers, and marriageable maidens.

Legends tell of Nicholas’ anonymous generosity in helping the poor and women whose families could not afford a respectable dowry; from these origins we see in the Dutch tradition chocolate coins, sugar hearts, and speculaas cookies shaped like lovers typical at this time of year; the word speculaas also relates to bishop.

The figure of ‘Black Peter’ (Zwarte Piet) has origins more difficult to trace. One story says he was an Ethiopian orphan slave who after gaining his freedom remained to serve the generous St. Nicholas. In the 17^th and 18^th century it was fashionable for European elite to have Moorish pages in their service; today you will see this reflected in the costumes on the pieten. Also mentioned is a connection to chimneysweeps; one explanation is that after all these years bringing gifts down chimneys Piet is covered in soot and no one knows what colour his skin really is.

How does this 4^th century bishop from Turkey come from Spain? One account is that in May of 1087 Italian admirers of the saint moved his bones from Myra to Bari in Italy to save Christian artefacts from the conquering Muslims, and that someone eventually confused one warm Mediterranean place for another. Why travel by steamboat? Many legends of the saint refer to his saving sailors at sea; as the patron saint of mariners many port cities have a church dedicated to Nicholas (in Holland: Amsterdam, Kampen, Harderwijk, Edam). Today, Sinterklaas and his pieten take advantage of the Netherland’s extensive canal system.

From Dutch immigrants, the American tradition of Santa Claus evolved from Sinterklaas and the legends of St. Nicholas. In a Knickerbocker's History of New York, Washington Irving included many references to a Sinterklaas based jolly Dutch burgher who gave gifts anonymously and came down chimneys.

Bigger and Better

We visit the consultatie bureau tomorrow for James' three month checkup. As you can see, he has definitely grown. We took this photo with the hope that it would show how long he is now. We will have the stats tomorrow. We are not nearly as worried about this visit as we were the last one. Some Dutch friends tipped us off that they call it the 'consternatie bureau' (as in consternation) and that our experience with them was not unique. The bureau definitely has a negative view of things, so we will not let them get us down! Their negative energy only makes us stronger!!!

I started work this week, which means Mike and James are hanging out together in the mornings. It has worked out really well so far-- no breakdowns from any of us. Mike has been able to do editing and remodel the kitchen during Daddy Daycare Time. They have almost completed the kitchen. No photos yet, we want to show the dramatic before and after... which should happen some time in the next week.

Finally, here is a photo of Ghost enjoying the fall leaves. It has been really beautiful lately and we have been trying to take advantage of every clear day with lots of walks outside.

Rainbows and Cowboys

There was a beautiful rainbow at the end of our street yesterday, but we did not find a pot of gold ANYWHERE near the end of it.
Here is a photo of James in his cowboy suit-- sent by Melissa from Montana-- this is sure to be a grandma pleaser!

Happy Halloween

Halloween isn't really celebrated in the Netherlands, though I am afraid that in 20 years or so this holiday will spread all over the world. The lure of large bags of candy is just too strong. Our first year in the NL we hosted a Halloween party, and had a lot of fun-- but we prefer Thanksgiving, and would rather celebrate that. Due to the proximity of these holidays hosting both is just not manageable. Our Halloween was very lowkey-- we dressed James up this morning, took some photos and then took the suit off. It was great.

We spent the weekend working on the house. Mike helped our neighbor Ronald get their nursery ready for their baby, due in February. I worked on the garden. It turned out that renting a jackhammer was not necessary (bummer)-- Mike was able to cut out one stone, which made removing the row easy. I then rushed to replant everything from pots into the ground while our neighbor Maaike held the baby. All in all a really nice weekend- the weather is still beautiful, and should remain so through Thursday.

For the photos, here is James smiling up at Mike, a closeup of James in his pea suit, and one of me and James in the garden (note Ghost in the background).

More of the twins

Here are photos of James' newest cousins.
Congrats Dorothy, Terry and Sophie.
The first photo is of Emily, the second of Michael

Making Friends

The Twins

The Stats:

Michael Thomas Gould

October 28th, 2005

born at 7:10 pm

4 lbs 5 oz, 17 inches

Emily Clare Gould

October 28th, 2005

born at 7:20 pm

4 lbs 13 oz, 18.5 inches

Just taking it easy

The weather has been beautiful again, and we are taking advantage of the opportunity to get outside while we can.

Here is a photo from last night. This is his favorite sleeping position during the day/evening. We usually try to get him to settle down on his own or put him down while he is still awake, but more often than not this burping position turns into a snooze.

We are anxiously awaiting the birth of James' newest cousins in Atlanta. Dor and Terry do not know the sex of the babies-- is anyone interested in making a bet??? No money, just for fun.

Mike is going on record with the guess of one boy/ one girl.

Katharine guesses two girls.

If anyone else wants to make a guess, add it to the posts!

We will update with news of the twins.

Getting Back to Routines, Confused About Sleep Patterns

Things are great here-- the weather is supposed to be nice later this week, we're all finally feeling better after our cold, and we've had the chance to visit with friends over the last few days. We are trying to take this opportunity to visit before my pregnancy/delivery leave is over. We are nearing that time-- November 7th is the day I return to work. I have a few weeks back at work before we take our holiday to the United States. Hopefully, we will be able to use that time as a trial period to test out our new routine.

James is still eating and sleeping on demand, which means his routine changes from day to day. Before the cold set in we had one night featuring 5 consecutive hours of sleep. We have yet to see a repeat of this. For what it is worth, the adults feel pretty rested and content. We get plenty of sleep each night, if only in 3 hour increments. Yesterday was especially mysterious, as James failed to nap at all during the day. We were confused, and afraid he would become so tired that he would hit the Dot Maier classification of being "overtired". He is such a great sleeper at night (he wakes up, eats, is changed, and then goes back down without problem) and we do not want to create any sleeping issues. During the day he often falls asleep while being held, which is obviously not going to work as he continues to grow.

We tried to put him down in his crib for an 'official' nap, but it was clear he was not tired.
To the sounds of James crying upstairs we looked up napping in all of our parenting books. We found out that he is incapable of keeping himself awake at this age. So, Mike climbed the steps and brought James down. I held him for a while and wouldn't you know it, he fell asleep for about 30 minutes. At this point we prepared to go over to some friends house for dinner. We loaded James up in the car seat and he crashed out, and stayed out for the entire dinner. He woke up about 4 1/2 hours later. We thought this strange new pattern might be the harbinger of James "sleeping through the night". That was not the case.

Regardless of our obsession over his sleep patterns James is doing everything he is supposed to be doing now-- eating, sleeping and growing.

Here are some photos of a hat and booties knitted for James by Deb Lee Cress. They are just a little big now, but it looks like they will be perfect for winter. These were actually taken last week during "the cold", so James is not quite as perky as usual.

BIG NEWS

Oh, and the BIG news of the week is that my oldest sister Marilois just got engaged!!! She and Pablo have been dating for two years, but we have known his family forever. Pablo's dad was my Doctor when I broke my leg as a little kid. I will never forget the lollipops they gave out at his practice. They almost made the broken leg worthwhile.

Citizen James

Yesterday was a busy and tiring but productive day. The Holland Maiers awoke at 5:30 AM for a feeding and then got dressed, biked to the station and caught the train to Amsterdam. We went to register James' birth with the American authorities and apply for his passport. The trip was a learning experience in a lot of ways. First, we realized what a pain it is to carry around the baby carrier while walking in a rainy city. We did not opt for the stroller-carseat-carrier combination because in general we are not getting on and off of public transportation with the baby. For walking in the neighborhood we use the pram and for most of our business around town we use the hug a bub sling. We brought the sling and the car seat on the train and soon discovered the sling would have been sufficient.
We arrived in Amsterdam and made our way to the Photo shop that makes passport photos according to US standards. A regular passport photo will not do. The photo place is open from 9:30, and the consulate is open from 8:30-11:30. We propped James up on the stool for his photo then walked to the consulate. We did not manage to walk directly to the consulate, but instead we walked near it, around it, past it and THEN to it. Once inside things went very smoothly. Since Mike and I are both American citizens, James citizenship is automatically American. If one of us were Dutch his options would be a little different, exactly how I am not certain. I have learned that America is unique in that we grant citizenship to any person born on our soil, reagardless of their parentage. Most countries do not do this-- as we learned in an early Dutch language lesson "the Netherlands is full" but this is true even of countries with a less dense population. I think America's laws are this way because of our history and the amount of space we have.
The trip to the consulate was uneventful and pretty easy, all things considered. We have walked through all the checkpoints, filled out all the forms, taken the oath and signed on the dotted line. James is now officially American, and a baby passport should be on the way in two weeks.
After that we set out into the rainy Amsterdam streets to look for something to eat. We were really interested in finding a sushi place-- but failed miserably. Instead we ended up in an Argentenian steakhouse and had a DELICIOUS meal. We were the only patrons, as it was still a little before noon. We had a relaxing meal before heading back to the train station. The train's rocking motion put James right to sleep, which made for a pretty relaxing day for him. Actually, the rocking motion put us all to sleep on the ride back to Enschede. A woman across the aisle commented that the whole family was asleep!
The most interesting part of the day had to do with our layover in Amersfoort. In train stations it is customary to pay to use the WC. Sometimes there is a bathroom attendant and sometimes not. In many train stations the bathrooms look like large steel vaults, they have a coin slot on the outside and only after you put in your 50cents does the door unlock. I call them robot bathrooms because they mechanically clean themselves between users. At the Amersfoort station I approached a bathroom of this type and looked and looked for the coin slot but couldn't find it. I tried the door and it was locked, but the light outside signalled that it was free (as in not occupied). I simply COULD NOT figure it out. Finally I noticed a sign on the door that said the only way to pay for this toilet was to call a number with your mobile telephone. I am not kidding. Some of you may know that we do not have a mobile phone. We don't consider ourselves good candidates for a mobile phone. We tried one once when we first moved here, but broke it AND lost it simultaneously. Needless to say, I was not able to use this bathroom.

World's Most Photographed Baby...

Smackety smack

That is the sound we woke up to last night when James very noisily found his entire hand, not just the thumb. Mike and I were both thumbsuckers, and we have been looking forward to this momentous occasion.

The busy bee

Well, chalk it up to being new parents-- we continue to be totally clueless sometimes. James has a fussy period most days in the afternoon. Last week his cold made that fussy period longer and fussier.
Yesterday we went to our neighbors house for a birthday party (Gefeliciteerd Ronald!) They are expectant parents and just bought some great baby gear second hand. They offered to put together their blanket-baby gym combo to let James test it out. Apparently at some point in the last week he has turned a corner developmentally. The birthday visit coincided with the fussy period. He was a little fussy and we put him down under the baby gym. Low and behold-- we found out he's not fussy, he's bored! He began to immediately smile and wiggle at the mirror and mice hanging from this contraption. He even started to grab at them!
Mike is off today buying James a baby gym of his own. In the meantime I put him in his car seat and hung this busy-bee thing in front of him. He is enamoured.
Notice how his hand and the toy are fuzzy-- that is because this shot is post-grab by just a few seconds.

Day in the Garden

After slowly recovering from our colds, we spent a few hours this weekend cleaning up the back garden and preparing for winter. We plan to remove one row of paving stones to increase our bed space. We have tried to exclusively container garden, and our plants are begging for more room and deeper soil. After buying a small chisel, Mike decided that what he'll really need is to rent a small jackhammer. So, that is put on the backburner for this week. Maybe next weekend...

You gotta have the DpTat!?!

A month ago we went for our first visit to the Consultatie Bureau, the Dutch public health department where kids go for wellness checks and vaccinations. James was not yet nursing consistently and we were struggling to make sure he was gaining enough weight for his age. In retrospect, we realize how confusing it can be among all the charts and opinions of what a healthy baby/weight is, to feel confident that you are making the best choices for your child; especially since there is no accurate way to measure ingestion when a baby is only nursing, except through behaviour. At any rate, our last trip was disconcerting as James was pronounced slightly underweight and the doctor that day did her best to push formula on us in spite of our explicit intention to continue nursing. After that, he immediately began a more regular pattern of feeding and the digital baby scale we rented showed daily gains that put him quickly in the normal curve.
This morning was our two month visit and though we had quickly realized there never was a real problem, we felt vindicated by his weight (up from 3470 g/7 lb 10oz to 4425 g/9 lb 12oz) and more so by his behaviour- active, smiling at the nurse, lifting his head up while on his stomach. The smile faded quickly with his first vaccination shot however (even his Dad looked away at the huge needle), and the rest of the day has been spent reassuring an extra fussy little man. Of course I never thought of it before they stuck my son, but have we not advanced further than sticking 2 month olds with needles to deliver vaccinations? The nurse we saw had no formula agenda and joked about having to give all these kids injections- 'If all the babies I've ever stuck remembered this, there is no way I'd be able to walk down the street...'. She also said there is an old Dutch saying about children, something like, 'Some babies are so cute you just want to eat them- and when they turn 14 you often wish you had..'