Author Archives: adrie

Mackerel

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Mackerel!Tough sailors who defy terrible weather and the hardships of the endless ocean. The fierce life of hardship and suffering. Risking your life in a storms and in the pouring rain just to catch a few measly fish. On a ship adrift on the wild ocean praying to the mighty god of the seas to be allowed to see your home again. Knowing your family is home, living in fear and anxiety.

Most likely the trip will not be so bad as the previous paragraph depicts, but you never know. With some family and friends we are going fishing on the North Sea. With shipping company Trip we’re leaving tomorrow early in the morning to spend the entire day fishing for Mackerel. The fish we catch we can take home, so we’ll be eating lots of fish.

Geocache

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Geocache!Geocaching is a hobby that really has two sides to it. One is hiding something and publishing the location and some hints on where to find it on the geocaching website. The other part is going out to find hidden caches. There are really a lot of caches out there and almost certain in Holland you’ll find one close near your location. To find a cache you can use your phone or a gps receiver and search for the published coordinates.

Last week I went to search for my first caches and it was quite fun! Some caches are hard to find because they are very small or well hidden but others are much easier. It is nice to go somewhere you normally would not venture. At some caches you can leave your name, or make a trade of some small item inside.

2 years

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Today we celebrate. Our little Alex is already two years. Time flies and Alex is growing very fast. He is doing well and so are we. Since April I have been in living in Holland so I was far away, but we have good hopes that we well be reunited in the near future. Right now we’ll have to settle with seeing each other online almost every day so out family keeps in touch.

Alex experienced another year of great advancements. During his first birthday he was still crawling through the house. Now he is running, climbing, jumping, talking in Spanish and Dutch with quite a few words, drinking his own milk and even sometimes peeing on his potty.

We are very proud of our little boy and while we can only imagine a fantastic next year we are sure Alex will surprise us again and again. We are looking forward to the next year but first today we celebrate.

For the occasion we have a very nice video of Alex singing the Spanish version of “Happy Birthday” which is called “Cumpleaños feliz”. The text is easy:

Cumpleaños feliz
cumpleaños feliz
te deseamos todos
cumpleaños feliz.

Alex made a little addition at the end. He end with a nice “Ya esta”, which means “Done”.

Cut short

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Cut short!
Alex once again had a haircut, resulting in a nice short hairdo. According to his mother he now looks even more like his father, which of course it way to much credit for me. Still it is undeniable that he is a very good looking kid.

It is already the second time Alex’ hair is cut, and this time he knew it would be painless. He kept smiling while his hair was cut.

Ford Focus

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Ford Focus!We have a new car! We traded in our faithful Seat Ibiza and now we have a new nine year old red Focus.

Well, the car was as good as new when we bought it. After a few days of use we have notices that our parking place on -3 is giving us quite a few problems. The car already had some big dents and huge scratches on the left side, the right side and on the front bumper.

Cement tank

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Cement tank!
It is truly fantastic to see a little kid enjoying himself so thoroughly. His can only lead to a very good feeling for the people around him. Weeks after Alex’ visit to Holland there were still kids coming by asking for him.

On the potty

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Potty!A few days ago we had a little celebration. Alex indicated all by himself that he needed to pee, and after getting his potty he sat down and peed away. Mommy and daddy were o so proud, but Alex himself was even more impressed. Halfway he got up and started running through the room while cheering and continuing to pee.

Again we see another step taken by Alex towards his adulthood. He is still developing very very fast and we all wonder what will be his next big advance.

Popular

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Alex his mother sometimes mentions that there are quite a large number of differences in the Dutch and Spanish culture. In Spain we cannot cross the street with Alex without hearing compliments and remarks about Alex. Here in Holland we hear absolute silence. No compliments, no remarks, nothing.

Until yesterday when there was an event that left us speechless. Two little girls rang the front door bell. They were around 10 years, and they only asked about Alex. They wanted to know if he was coming out to play. He was asleep, but when I told the girls that after his sleep he would probably go out and play they left very happy. Ana and I were baffled. Alex’ not even two years old, and already the girls are seeking him out. It did however leave me with a proud feeling.

The Spanish-Dutch timetable

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Alex - Water fountain!
After just one week in Holland the changes we notice in little Alex are quite big.

He has adopted to a Dutch timetable very fast. He goes to bed much earlier, he wakes up more early and his daily routine has changed a lot. Normally Alex would start to show signs of being tired around 10 or 11 o clock at night. but now he falls profoundly asleep at 8.

It´s not really clear what is causing the change. Maybe its the Dutch light, or the climate of because we are are doing more activities, or maybe it’s just because Alex sees a lot of people around him all with different timetables.