Linda's Canadian Adventure

Every night I’m amazed that Alex goes to sleep without much trouble. He gets tired around 8:30pm, I put on his sleeping bag, I read him a story and I put him in his crib. He seems very awake, but I give him a kiss, wish him goodnight and leave the room. Sometimes I hear a little cry, but mostly it’s just a deep sigh and nothing. Last night he slept from 8:30pm until 7am, after something to eat he slept again until 10am. And I sleep in as well, I’ve never been so well rested! I have to knock on wood because it could change any day.

Alex is a morning person like me when we’re up. I put him on his play mat with a lot of toys and he can play for hours. I can have breakfast, make coffee and check email. After two hours he gets tired again and he’s ready for a nap. He’s not a good napper, he rubs his eyes and yawns, but in bed he cries. Sometimes he falls asleep after 5 minuten, sometimes not. Sometimes he sleeps for 5 minutes, sometimes an hour. We try to get out in the afternoon with the stroller or baby carrier. He is looking around with interest now and seems to like trees a lot. He likes the mall as well, the bright lights and lots of colours in the stores. I meet with a ‘mommy & baby’ group once in awhile and usually we go for a walk. Some kids can only go for an hour, but Alex is fine with everything as long as he gets food on time.

The only thing he doesn’t like is the car. He sits in a rear-facing car seat so he can’t see me. When we have to stop a lot for traffic lights he will protest. We found a solution: singing! He loves it when I sing to him and he shuts up immediately. I have some Dutch and some English songs on my repertoire. Once a week we go to an elementary school that organizes an hour of songs and rhymes for kids 0-3 years. I can sing ‘twinkle twinkle little star’ in both languages now.

When I’m making dinner he can sit in his Bimbo seat, this is for babies that can’t sit up yet. During dinner he sits close by and is very interested in mommy eating. He only gets breastmilk, in a few weeks we’ll start with solid food. He comes with us to restaurants as well and sits on our lap. Mike and I take turns so we both can eat. Alex is fine with it and if he gets tired he’ll just fall asleep.

Conclusion: I have a wonderful kid! I know, I’m bias, but I can’t complain. I am more than just a mother so I have to get out without the baby as well. I dance Flamenco and love it, it’s difficult and different so very challenging. I have started to volunteer again at the Wildlife Rescue as well. I transport injured animals and once a week I work 4 hours at the care centre. I love it and and I get to talk to my coworkers again.

Mike is away a lot at the moment, he plays bass in the musical Godspell. He always wanted to do theatre and got the opportunity now. Besides the religious theme he loves doing it. He’s doing 6 shows a week for 5 weeks. I feel like a single mom!

I just voted for the Dutch parlement elections. My vote doesn’t go to the PVV!

Go to the Alexander page to watch all the videos from birth until now!

Finally we found a new couch and chair so our home looks even nicer now. Here’s the result:

The new couch is being tested by Alex, he slept for hours on it so it is approved.

The old couch is being picked up this week, but it was still useful in the yard with the nice weather this week:

Yesterday, I went with Alex to the Dutch consul. My passport had to be renewed so I gained information for Alexander’s passport. We have to do some paperwork, but it shouldn’t be a problem.

Last Saturday we had a lovely day out. We went to Harrison Hot springs. We didn’t go into the hot springs, but it’s a lovely town at a lake surrounded by mountains.

We went to Bridal Veil Falls as well. We think Alex enjoyed being outside and was very interested in all the trees and streams.

A quick post now that Alexander is sleeping,  you never know how long that will last. Sleeping goes very well at night, this week he’s been falling asleep at 11pm and sleeps until 4 or 5am. During the day is not as regular, but we have an irregular life and we take him everywhere we want to go.

With Alex in the Holland House, I’m trying to protect his ears because the music is very loud. We didn’t stay very long, but we saw the celebration for Bob de Jong and some songs of Guus Meeuwis. He sleeps through everything so it can’t be bothering him much.

My cousin Anita arrived last week and she is going to a lot of speed skating with Tineke and they are spending a lot of evenings at the Holland House. Sometimes I take them out of the busy city into nature.

Anita with Alexander

The games have begun and we are trying to experience as much as possible. It started before the games began with the torch relay. We watched the torch in North Vancouver, Mike’s hometown, the torch came through his street. The next day the torch passed through Burnaby so we were out again cheering in the street.

We went to the celebration in North Vancouver where local artist performed. The Mounties were there to protect the torch. Alex slept through most of it.

On Saturday we went to the Holland Heineken House in Richmond to watch the 5,000 meter Speed Skating. The house is very big so no problems getting in early in the day, especially if you have a Dutch passport. Beer was flowing and everybody eats Dutch fries and krokets. For me it is a nice experience, it’s a bit like Queen’s Day, very busy and everybody is dressed in orange.

I’m having a cheese sandwich and Dutch coffee

It was good to see Sven Kramer win gold and the atmosphere was very good among the Dutch. At night there are Dutch performers, but not much to do with the time in between so we didn’t stick around for it.

Pavilions of the different countries are spread all over Vancouver, they are still to come. There are free concerts and Sunday we saw Mother Mother, a local band. This Saturday we have tickets to watch speed skating at the Olympic Oval, the 1500 meter men.