Cameron training for Olympics 2028

Inspired by the olympics this year, Neil has decided start training Cameron for rowing. Cameron seems to enjoy this tremendously and ohhhs at each stroke. Like father like son.

Sisters reunite

Elisabeth arrived back in Holland about 3 weeks ago, something which I know I will not regret! She'll be here a whole year while she is an nanny for a family quite near to us. It is so fun to have here close by and to be able to 'just get together'. And it's fun to both be doing the same sort of thing all day- caring for kids.
I thought I would post a couple pics to celebrate her arrival.Here Elisabeth is trying to avoid getting bitten by mosquitos while using the computer (probably on facebook). It's too bad we don't have a picture of Elisabeth, Neil and I watching the Phantom of the Opera just a few miutes later under ther net.

Elisabeth being a hip Amsterdam 'mom' biking the two girls around in the bakfiets. I'm secretly envious that she gets to use one. Maybe we should look into getting one too? Then I can be equally as cool.

You might wonder what this has to do with Elisabeth in Holland? First of all, it's her nephew. Secondly, that's her arm on the right side supporting Cameron. And, how would a post be complete without mentioning the wee one?

New Bed!

Cameron has been growing a lot. And along with that he is also starting to 'do' more. Last week he rolled over from his tummy to his back for the first time. Twice in one day and it caught me by surprise! He's also holding things a lot better. One thing he holds is the bars on the sides of his bed. He seems to use this as leverage to pull himself on his side. Sometimes he gets his legs caught in the sides of the bed, too. Or he'll push himself up with his legs using the bars. Sometimes he gets himself way up to the head of the bed and his head will be against the bars. All this while he is supposed to be going to sleep. Then he'll start crying because he is stuck, but the crying only makes his head hit the bars and it's a downward spiral from there...

Neil and I decided last week that is was time to look into a bigger bed. We decided to start at Marktplaats, which is the dutch version of Ebay. It went quite quick and we found a bed about a 30 minute bike ride away. Neil went and picked it up on his bike. Guess it's not everyday you see somebody with a bed strapped to their bike!

He's found his thumb and sleeping through the night

A couple nights ago Neil and I were standing in the kitchen when we heard this loud sucking noise coming from Cameron's bedroom. As quietly as we could we opened the door to his room and peeked in and there he was, sucking on his tiny thumb. You wouldn't really think it would be that satisfying considering how small his thumb is, but apparently it's soothing. Who knows if this will really become a habit and if it will go on for a long time.

We gave him a pacifier for a while, but decided to take it away when we got back from Scotland not even two weeks ago. At that same time he started sleeping through the night(not even two weeks ago-meaning I am getting more sleep. Although I still tend to wake up. I'm going to have to learn how to sleep through the night myself!). I don't just mean he sleeps from 12 a.m. to 5 a.m. He sleeps roughly from 9 p.m. to 7.30 a.m.! I don't know what happened, but it's great. I didn't think it would ever happen. And was expecting to be getting up in the night for quite some time since I'm breastfeeding. Maybe he is able to self-soothe now that he sucks his thumb rather than looses his pacifier and wakes up in the middle of the night without it. The downside to the thumb is that you can't take it away...and it could be hard to stop. Not to mention cause us some extra pennies on the orthodontics bill in the future. I hope he doesn't keep up the thumb sucking until he's 8 years old, like somebody I know....

St. Kilda

Neil and I had the privilege to get to travel to St. Kilda while we were in Scotland. This archipelago is the most remote part of the British Isles. We took a three hour boat trip, leaving from Leverburgh, on the island of Harris. As you can see, it's a tiny island way out in the Atlantic. Nobody lives there, although there are conservationists that stay out there for a few weeks at a time working to preserve the island and maybe to do some research. People used to live there until the 1930's, when they people were evacuated and brought to live on the mainland. Apparently there have been people living on the main island, Hirta, since prehistoric times. It seems crazy for anyone to have found this place and then also to decide to live on the tiny island. You can walk from one end of the island to the other in a couple hours.

This is the earth house which dates back from about 2,000 years ago.

The village

To the right is a cleit, where they used to store food.

When you get to the top of the hill there is a 750 ft sheer drop to the ocean-yikes.

The birds!

Catchin' up

I have finally come to a point to decide to let people know that I have a blog. Not that there is much to see here. But seeing it would make it easier for family and friends to see a bit of what is going on here by viewing this blog, I've decided to try to start again. I'm not sure what that is going to entail but I'll just start with some pictures of Cameron (probably the only reason why anyone is really going to be visiting this blog, because let's face it-he's pretty cute and worth viewing)

This is Cameron playing under his 'baby gym'- he gets pretty excited about this

Neil, Cameron and granny on Laide beach

Ready for a walk

Boys will be boys

We're redoing our kitchen. Or maybe better said, we are moving the kitchen to the opposite wall. This to allow a place to have an another room. Neil and Oom Kees have been working hard, as you can see here. I can't say I have helped much, I think mostly because I'm not quite comfortable drilling with a piece of machinery that is bigger than my own leg...It is fun to see Neil get excited about big tools and he and Oom Kees are doing it all so well!