Poppies Mural

I finally finished the mural I started ages ago. It was for a woman who remodeled her house and then found the half-bath too bland, so she asked me to paint some poppies. I'm glad to have finished it (at 29 weeks) before getting too big.

Halloween

Though Halloween was two weeks ago, I'm finally getting around to posting something. I'm behind with everything these days. So, here's what the kids got for lunch on Halloween. I was particularly proud of the little pumpkin-shaped carrot slices - Michiel's idea, my execution.

And here's our little pink bunny, ready to go out and get candy. She was pretty cute because she kept mixing up which she was supposed to say first: "Trick or treat!" or "Thank you!"

And here is my little policeman and my little bunny trick or treating at the house of our good friends, John and Hilary.

And of course, later on, examining the loot. Alexander got about twice as much candy as Annabel, even before convincing her to share a bunch of hers with him. He's quite the little con artist. I suppose that's a privilege of being the oldest. I remember convincing Jo to make all sorts of candy trades with me - two of her snickers for one measly malt ball. She doesn't remember any of it. I hope Annabel will be so lucky.

Embarrassing Moments

Every mom has these stories. Your kid starts talking loudly about his penis at the library. Your daughter points and asks what happened to that man's legs. Usually, I don't get embarrassed by this kind of stuff. It comes with the territory. No harm done.

But this summer, my sweet little girl raised the bar. We were showering after a swim at the local pool. Another woman, whom I recognized as one of the nuns up at the abbey, was showering next to us. She smiled at Annabel and asked, "Did you have fun in the swimming pool?"

Annabel did her little bashful routine--lowering her head and swinging her arms. Then she laughed as if to herself, pointed at the naked nun, and declared, "You're a fat little lady!"

But she didn't stop there. Oh no. While I stood there momentarily stunned, my girl continued gleefully: "Fatty-fat-fat!"

Now, this woman was short and a bit squat, but she was definitely not huge. Just a bit pudgy.

It took me a moment to recover, but by the time I had bent down to Annabel and explained that that was not a nice thing to say, the nun had finished her shower and was quickly toweling off. By the time we got to the changing room, she was gone. I wish I had had a chance to at least smile apologetically at her.

As for the "fatty-fat-fat," which seems especially cruel, not to mention out of the blue, I've pondered where she might have picked up that phrase. The only thing I can think of is the Dutch series of books featuring a cat named Dikkie Dik, which would roughly translate to Fatty Fat. Michiel and I find that quite funny and have been known to laugh about it. She must have picked it up from us.

Third Child

It's been a while so I'll just jump right in...

We're having a girl!!!!

It will be nice for Annabel to have a girl to play with. Alexander's pretty happy also since, as he puts it, "A girl won't want to play with my Legos." Always thinking, that boy.

The estimated due date is January 28th, so I'm just heading into the third trimester. We're planning a home birth again.

Whenever we ask Annabel what our baby's name should be, she says, "Rose flower." Alexander recently played with a boy who's younger sister was named Emery, so he's been championing that name. Emery Rose? I'm inclined to go with a full-on Dutch name, but we'll see...

Our Little Bed-Wetter

I'm told that Michiel wet the bed well past his toddler years. So it's not surprising that our son often wakes up in a wet bed. For a while there he was wetting twice per night, even though we restricted evening liquids and woke him to pee when we went to bed. Thankfully, that time has passed.

Alexander recently took a stumbling step forward in the quest for bladder control. He actually got up in the middle of the night to pee. Hooray! He's even repeated the feat a few times. But the other night while Michiel and I were both working in the office, we heard him get out of bed and stumble around. We thought he was going to pee, but a few moments later he walked right by the bathroom and headed for the living room. Poor boy was so disoriented and sleepy that he couldn't find the bathroom.

Michiel helped him out and put him back to bed and then realized there were little dribbles all over the hall floor. The dribbles led into our bedroom, where we found a puddle on the floor and a streak down the door. Alexander had mistaken our room for the bathroom and peed against the door! Poor sleepy little boy!

New Baby!

Hooray! We have a new baby in the family. Yesterday, at 9:01 pm, Kevin and Therese's baby girl arrived a few weeks early, checking in at 9 lbs, 7 oz and 20.5 inches. She's a little cutie, and her name is Alana. No word on middle name yet.

 This morning, we visited in the hospital and Alexander and Annabel sang Happy Birthday to their first cousin. And yay! I'm an Auntie!

Therese had a long and difficult labor, but now their long-awaited little girl is finally here!

Portrait of Annabel

It's been a while since I've written about Annabel and all the things she's up to these days. So here's a portrait of our little girl lately:

She gets excited about everything. She hears an airplane or school bus or garbage truck and she freezes with her mouth open and eyes wide. "Mommy, there's a garbage truck," she whispers. Then she takes off running all over the house shouting, "A garbage truck, Xander, a garbage truck!"

Here are the kids in their new cozy corner. Both have beanbags now, and I got tired of having them flung all over the house. Hence, the "cozy corner."

Annabel loves to draw and write. She can't actually write letters yet, but she'll make little vertical lines all over a page and say, "I'm writing my name. I'm writing A's. For Annabel!" Here she was busy writing a shopping list for me.

Though she still has a shy streak, once she's warmed up to somebody she is wonderfully free with her hugs and kisses. I love it! She's such a lovey little girl. What's even better is that Alexander sees her give all these hugs and kisses and he wants in on the action also, even though he used to be rather stingy about it.

Annabel loves yogurt and raisins and oatmeal (at breakfast she often has a bigger bowl than I do). Strawberries are a big favorite. Plus peas and any kind of beans. Oh, and sausage. This girl can put away a large sausage easily. Two if we let her.

What portrait would be complete without a few choice sayings? She has such a distinct lilting way of talking. She pronounces every letter, but her inflection is all over the place, like a song.

"I wuv you so much." 

Melts my heart every time.

Looking up and pointing at Michiel's nose: "Papa, you have a spider in your nose."

She's had a few incidents of biting, usually when her brother has just taken something from her and she feels no other recourse but to use her teeth. I think she's mostly past that phase, but every once in a while she pretends to do it again with a little naughty grin on her face.

So, the other day, when she said to me, "I want to eat you up, Mommy," and came at me with an open mouth, I wasn't exactly sure how far the play would go.

After that she started saying it all the time. "I'm going to eat you for breakfast." And with the emphasis she puts on 'eat' and 'breakfast,' she might just.