Although it started off a little rough . . .
FRIDAY
Keith worked late Thursday so that he could be done "early" on Friday. I guess 5:45 pm is "early" for some people, but not me. I had all these plans for us to go shopping in the Centrum and then grab dinner, because as you know, Friday is the only day the shops are open even a little later (8 pm for most shops and 9 pm for others). But by the time Keith finished work, Liam was napping, and when he woke up he needed to be fed before going anywhere . . . so we didn't make it to the Centrum until about 7 pm. Yay (where's that sarcasm font when you need it?).
However, in our limited amount of shopping time, we were still able to do plenty of shoe shopping!
Notice that only one of those pairs is for me. The others belong to my two boys. I was really excited about Liam's shoes because I've had a hard time finding shoes that fit him (and ones that are his/my style). Plus kid shoes can be really expensive for being so tiny! Why would I spend €50 (around $80) on a pair of shoes he is going to outgrow in a few months time?? I have a hard time spending that much on shoes for ME! Anyway, so I was happy to find some cute shoes to go with his [many]
And I'm sure you saw the three pairs of shoes Keith found. Well this is a subject of much debate in the Coffey household. Ladies, please tell me if your guy does this too: Keith has pretty much 5 pairs of shoes in his closet at any given time:
black dress shoes
brown dress shoes
black casual shoes
brown casual shoes
running shoes
Which means he wears through his shoes quickly. He doesn't understand why I have so many shoes, yet I've proven that my shoes last years, not months. So a few times a year Keith is on the hunt to find:
black dress shoes
brown dress shoes
black casual shoes
brown casual shoes
running shoes
I think I am finally calling him over to the Dark Side and have convinced him that the more options he has for footwear, the longer his shoes will last. Make sense? So although he already has one pair of casual shoes that he loves and has worn pretty much every day since we bought them five.months.ago, he now has a few more options when heading out for a nice weekend with the family.
Which brings me back to topic.
SO, after shoe shopping, we tried to find somewhere to eat, to little avail. The place we had intended to eat at (Bolle Bolle) would have been perfect had it not been for the Lynyrd Skynyrd cover band that was starting in fifteen minutes. Great for us. Bad for baby.
So we wandered around aimlessly trying to find somewhere, anywhere, to eat, that: a) could accommodate a stroller, shopping bags, coats, and us; and b) had decent food and nice atmosphere.
Keith brilliantly thought of going to the Pullman Hotel, where we spent our first month in the Netherlands last summer. They have renovated the restaurant and it looked amazing, not to mention we got to say hi to some of the staff who remembered us from our stay (and by "staff" I mean the bartender who served us beers and cokes on a nightly basis while we used the internet in the hotel bar every night. Ah, memories).
We had a dee-licious dinner there (I highly recommend the leg of duck) and Liam smiled and cooed and rolled around in the booth while we stayed out way too late (and paid for it with his lack of sleep that night).
SATURDAY
Saturday Keith made a big grocery run while I got Liam down for a nap and got myself ready for the day. We decided to go exchange the propane tank so Keith could grill some steaks for dinner (which ended up being a FAIL because we missed the store's Saturday hours -- which brings up another point: you can't just get a new tank at any gas station or grocery store here . . . just at the "BBQ" store that is open 8-5 during the week and 9-12 on Saturday. sigh.).
Since it was closed, we headed over to BabyPark (basically a big baby super store) to do some looking around. Although I guess we did more than "look around" because we came home with several large bags filled with goodies. I was so excited to buy Liam some toys because he only has a few things that he got when he was born plus the couple toys from Christmas. Several people gave us money to buy him stuff, so we decided to put his Christmas money to good use and get him some new stuff. : )
On our way home from BabyPark we made a stop at the Albert Heijn to get some left over groceries that we forgot we needed. Liam LOVES the grocery store -- I think it's all the lights and colors and sounds and people . . . whatever it was, he was enthralled the entire time, including the five minutes he flirted with the ladies at the information desk. ; )
That night Keith cooked the steaks (in the oven instead of the grill. gotta improvise), and he and I ate our delectable dinner while Liam took a long nap. When he woke up, we spent at least an hour after dinner watching him play with all his new toys. Granted, we really only got him 4 toys plus a large playmat to play on, but still, it was SO fun. He is at that stage right now where he sits up really well and actually plays with things in front of him. I absolutely love it.
SUNDAY
I spent the better part of the day cooking and preparing food for Liam . . . I mentioned before that I planned to make most, if not all, of Liam's baby food. It's actually going really well, and I'm surprised at much I'm enjoying it! Each week he tries two new foods, so right now we are up to ten different foods! I've been pureeing and freezing like a mad woman and I'm in heaven!
With help from Keith, I was able to make big batches of sweet potato, butternut squash, and a vegetable medley that included peas, carrots, and butternut squash. I would have kept going, but I only have so many freezer cubes! It's amazing what you can get done when the baby takes a couple long naps! I felt like such a champ! Haha : ) Tomorrow I plan to make a big batch of peas and a small batch of carrots using the rest of the carrots that weren't used in the vegetable medley. Doing this makes his lunches and dinners so much easier -- I just pop a few cubes in the microwave and we're ready to go!
We ended our Sunday with homemade spaghetti and meatballs, more playing with Liam, and a great chat with my sis-in-law. Things couldn't be better!
Another exciting development is that we finally booked my ticket to go to Georgia in a few weeks for one of my best friend's weddings! I'm nervous because Liam and I will be flying alone, but hopefully everything will turn out fine. I'll only be there for ten days so I'm not planning on changing his schedule a lot (maybe by one or two hours, but not the whole six hour time change). It took Liam a long time to get back on schedule after we returned from our month-long stay last December, so I'd hate to go through that again. It will mean early mornings for me, but I'd rather suffer for ten days than make him miserable the entire time we're there and the weeks after we get back. Although it will be a really quick trip I can't wait to see our family and friends!
I'm sorry for the extremely long post, but there was just too many great things that I didn't want to leave out. It all made for a wonderful weekend with my little family, and left me feeling so blessed and undeserving of this incredible life I have. Here's to another wonderful weekend!
~Jessi
No comments:
Post a Comment