Our Sweet Vera Catherine

Allow me to catch up as my last post was almost six months ago!  We were waiting for the arrival of our darling baby girl, and early in the morning on April 30th, she was born!

Vera Catherine Green

As soon as she was born, she was ready to converse through her gaze.  She is just breathtaking.  When she was born, she weighed 2.94 kg, which is 6 lb., 6 oz.  This is small for the standards here, so the hospital was quite cautious about her size in the beginning.  I was told I would be "thrown out" of the hospital as soon as I could stand up, but instead I found  the hospital to be overly concerned with her.  We ended up staying in the hospital for a day and a half.  At the time, I really just wanted to go home and be together with the family, but in hindsight, it is really nice that I had a little extra rest and recovery time.  The nurses also had the privilege of getting to know Vera Cate in her first hours.  ;)
Our dear friends Montse and Gabriel kept the boys overnight while we were at the hospital.  They have three boys of their own, so I'm sure they had quite the party!  After Richard Carey picked up the boys, he brought them to the hospital to visit their little 'zusje'.  Louis brought her little Sophie giraffe.  Bateman brought all his kisses, and to this day, has not run out of kisses or affection for Vera Cate.  The next morning, Vera was given the clear to go home.  We called for a taxi and returned home to settle into life as our family of five.

The hospital brought these after she was born.  It's a thick toast with pink or blue sprinkles, a traditional new baby celebratory treat.  After 26 hours of labor, I think I inhaled them.  :) 

The proudest big brothers!

Her evaluation before discharge.  How I was praying she would pass!!

How my heart melts to see their sweet relationship.

Let's go home!

While Waiting

We are waiting with excitement for Greenie Girl to arrive!  Yesterday marked the 39th week so any day can be the day.  Richard Carey has taken holiday this week so we are spending lots of time playing and just being together.  

In the last few weeks, I've taken time to deliberately just be with each of my boys and girl.  I have soaked up dates with each of them, just in awe of what a gift they are.  

My girl and me.
My friend Montse is an aspiring photographer and took a few belly shots for her blog. This is my favorite.

I love this picture, this moment, this chubby little Louis hand, right beside his favorite apple plate.

Oh how Louis loves this Elmo CD player.  Excuse me.  Louis corrects, "DVD player."

On Wednesdays, Bateman is dismissed at noon and Louis is still in preschool.
It gives us some nice time... this day for a bagel date.

Sweetness.

Nesting right alongside me, this pair of birds have made quite the nest right outside our balcony.  We watched for weeks as they flew around the neighboring trees to gather twigs and construct this nest, which actually has a dome covering.  Their names are Truman and Roos.  Haven't seen any babies yet.  I'm thinking we'll have our babies the same day.

Sweet Girl's crib is all set in our room, and I finished a little mobile to hang above.
We're all ready, Little Miss.

Bateman's Homeroom Mom's Note Through Google Translate

Hello everyone,

They're back our great friends with Liza a small number of eggs found in fine put the lotion again.

Check it out!

Until tomorrow,

Greeting Fraukje



What we got from the note: Laughter and perhaps we should take those lessons...

Zandvoort aan Zee

A few weeks ago, the temperatures reached 17!  Celsius that is.  :)  It was in the 60s and absolutely beautiful so we got on the fast train, literally, to the beach.  Within an hour, we were soaking up the rays on the sand.  The boys absolutely loved it.  For lunch we had fish-n-chips in a beach restaurant.  On the way back we stopped in Haarlem to visit the Teyler's Museum which is the oldest museum in the Netherlands.  There were dinosaur fossils, interesting invention gadgets, and beautiful artwork.  What a treat!!

School Days

Big Boy has started school.  It's been 5 weeks now, and although I can't say he's totally adjusted, I think he's doing well.  Here are pictures from his first day of school.  He was quite excited!  We all went to drop him off.  We were able to stay through circle time for the first 30 minutes of class.  Bateman answered a question while we were there.  He seemed comfortable and confident.  As RC and I were leaving, he ran up to us and said, "I'm going to do my best!"  Warmed my little heart! 

After the first day, he was certainly exhausted and he was unsure that he wanted to go back.  Louis missed him a lot that day and probably would have been quite happy if he had never gone back!!  Mama, too.  :) The next few drop offs were tough for Richard because Bateman shed tears and it was obvious that the initial excitement had worn off.  Very soon, though, he was looking forward to going and was almost forgetting to tell Daddy goodbye in the morning.  Five weeks into it, he is doing well.  His teacher, Anne-Marije is a doll.  I really don't think there could be a sweeter teacher for Bateman to have.  We had a one month meeting with her last week.  She says that he is eager to learn, that she thinks he understands most of what she's saying, but he's responding in only English right now.  She recommended that he be exposed to some more Dutch through SesamStraat :) and some online read-aloud Dutch books so he can get more exposure and eventually increase his confidence in his speaking. All seems to be going well.  I just have to be ready for my exhausted, hungry little man every afternoon because his little brain is certainly working overtime!   So proud.

Four years with Bateman Andrew!

Bateman Andrew!  What a treasure!  What can I say about you?  The first thing that comes to mind is how relational you are.  You are such a great friend.  You're always interested in what others are doing and love to get involved in it.  You are fearless.  And that bright smile is so warm!  You always seem to know exactly what you want and how you want it.  I love how on the morning of your birthday celebration at your preschool you knew you wanted to wear your pink button-down shirt and your "Sully pants" (from Monsters Inc.).  You looked so sharp!

Preschool celebration

Birthday morning!  This time your vest was necessary for the ocassion.  And gel in your hair.  Oh, I love you!  I think this 4th birthday was the first birthday you really anticipated celebrating for weeks.  We found a great little studio that had a drama and dance class available for a birthday celebration.  I chose the dinosaur theme out of a list of themes.  You didn't know much about dinos beforehand, but we did our best to learn and get all excited about them!!  :)

Thanking your brother for the "Little Blue Truck" sequel book.  Brotherly love!

Getting ready to ride over to the birthday party!

Dino Shake!

Here you're an archaeologist!

You found a dino egg!!

It was so cute when you took the magnifying glass
out of your fanny pack to take a closer look at the dino egg.
You're so smart and funny!

I'm proud of the cake creation!  You were so excited for the cake reveal.  :)

At first I wasn't sure how we would get a cake across town on the bike, but I settled on keeping it in the pan and just decorating the top.  Yummy!

It was so great to celebrate with new friends.  I love the tradition of the parents being wished "Congratulations" at the party.  It was so sweet.

We ended the day with a lovely Mexican dinner!  Who knew there would be Mexican here?  Well there is, and they celebrated our big boy properly with a fireworks dessert.  So much to be thankful for.  I am grateful for these four years with you and would be blessed to have many, many more!