Happy Halloween!

Today, our Halloween weekend started off! We have lots of parties to go to (combined 2yr-old-birthday parties/Halloween parties) so it will be busy busy busy!

Lily will be dressed up as Elmo (from Sesame Street), one of her favorite characters.

Her first party was today, at daycare. Here are some pics of this morning.

Lily this morning, with her Elmo trick or treat basket

Back of Elmo's costume.

She didn't want to put the hat on at first...

... but then gave in...

... especially when she got to daycare and saw all the other kids were dressed up too!
Here you see Lily and Olivia (dressed up as a cute ladybug)

Lily looking all excited at "Teacher Violet" who was dressed up as a magic fairy.

Group picture at daycare. Where's Lily? I only see Elmo!!!!

Tonight we are going to the Halloween night at the SRF in our neighborhood. More pics to follow!

Update, as promised: some more pictures.

Fridaynight: Kids' Halloween party at the Self Realization Fellowship Park

Peace on Earth Pumpkin

Lily in the haystack with the scarecrows! (vogelverschrikkers). As you can see, I put on a big hat, because last year she got a huge ear infection from being out on Halloween night. No ear infections this year, please! Also, she's wearing a badge, because she won third prize with her costume at the daycare's Halloween costume contest!!!

Blowing big bubbles with daddy. Next to Lily is Ilan, dressed as a ninja!

Trying to catch the bubbles!

Saturdaynight: Halloween party for Mommy and Daddy at Sacha's & Ryan's. Each year they have a special theme for Halloween. This year the theme was... Christmas!

Ryan dressed up as a Christmas tree, Ilse as a witch, Sacha as Jesus, and Marcus as V for Vendetta.

Marcus in front of the dining room table. Scary!

Great party! It's amazing how much effort Americans put in decorating their houses!

Sundaynight. We stayed home to offer candy to the trick or treaters. Marcus had done his best to make our entryway as scary as possible. There even was a "spook" (ghost) making scary noises and glowing in the dark. Unfortunately, since we live on a dead end street, with not much passage, we didn't get many kids over (so we have tons of candy left over ☹).

Lily was obsessed with the "spook". She kept on saying "spook". Another word she pronounces really well lately, is "pompoen" (pumpkin). She says spook and pompoen over the English translation. So right now, she is mixing English, Dutch and German in her talking. I have no idea if at some point she will make the distinction between the three languages. Let's hope so!

Een productief snipperdagje!

Lily 's morgens voor we naar buiten gaan... nog niet helemaal uitgeslapen, precies...

Vorige donderdag nam ik een dagje verlof om vanalles en nog wat te regelen waar ik door de week 's avonds gewoon de fut niet meer voor heb. Het deed zo'n deugd op het gemak te kunnen opstaan, Lily klaar te maken voor de crèche, en daarna gewoon op mijn eigen tempo dingen gedaan te kunnen krijgen!

En ik ben redelijk productief geweest! Er werd getelefoneerd, afspraken vastgelegd voor de komende weken (pre-school bezoeken, Lily's 2-jaarlijkse check-up,..), fouten met de verzekering uitgeklaard, en een gratis muziekles geboekt bij Bloom School of Music, een muziekschool bij ons in de buurt. We zijn zaterdagvoormiddag naar de les geweest en het was heel plezant, ik denk dat we Lily zullen inschrijven vanaf midden november voor de Family Music classes.

Verder heb ik donderdagmiddag wel 2,5 uur gewerkt aan... Lily's verjaardagskroontje voor haar 2e verjaardag binnenkort (op 9 nov.) Er is immers geen kans dat ik dat in het weekend zou kunnen doen, wanneer Lily zelf in de buurt is en mij geen moment met rust laat. Ik heb me geïnspireerd op deze "feestmuts-tutorial". Het resultaat lijkt niet helemaal op het patroon van de site, want ik heb wat moeten improviseren met de materialen die ik had, maar ik ben héél tevreden met mijn kroontje! Wat denken jullie?

Het enige waar ik mee inzit (ik ben er eigenlijk zeker van) is dat Lily die kroon nog geen 2 seconden op haar hoofd zal willen zetten!!! Ik zal mij gelukkig prijzen als ik 1 foto zal kunnen nemen van Lily met kroon! Maar ja, ik wou per se een zelfgemaakte kroon voor haar verjaardag en die hebben we dus. Ah, en gelukkig kan ik de "2" er gemakkelijk van af halen en er volgend jaar een "3" op vastzetten! Dus, in elk geval geen volledig verloren werk. En als Lily de kroon niet wil, dan toch zeker haar knuffel Woefie wel, die nu al gewillig poseerde:

Verder heb ik donderdag nog een heel eind gewerkt aan Lily's foto's vanaf haar geboorte tot nu. Ik vind het niet betrouwbaar genoeg om de foto's enkel op de computer te hebben en wil een selectie van de allermooiste foto's uitprinten en in een ouderwets, fysiek foto-album plakken. Wel, ik kan u zeggen, die selectie is een werk van lange adem!!! We hebben duizenden foto's ondertussen en de keuze is moeilijk, heel moeilijk! Maar allé, beetje bij beetje kom ik er toch...

Ondertussen hier op de blog nog een paar foto's van vorig weekend: Lily in actie in haar keukentje.

Prettig weekend, allemaal!
Groetjes, Ilse

Time for an update!

One of my favorite pics of Lily... Taken about 2 months ago, when Oma Eva was here. It was the first time she got to drink from a can (blikje) and she LOVED it. She only gets the San Pellegrino, though (orange juice and sparkling water), no other sodas!!!

Time for an update, now that I finally feel a bit rested again!!!

I think - hope, cross my fingers - that we finally got Lily back to a normal night schedule, where she goes to bed around 7.30 - 8 o'clock at night and sleeps the whole night through. She does wake up very early still, sometimes as early as 5 AM (although we sometimes get lucky and she'll sleep until 6.30). This is already a HUGE improvement compared to a couple of weeks ago, when she would wake up several times per night, screaming and crying and just not wanting to settle down by herself... It got me to a point where I would show up at work, one of my colleagues would say "how are you" and I would just start crying!!! I couldn't bear it any longer. We called the doctor's office and they told us: "Whatever you do, that is what she'll expect you to do. If you go in at night, that's what she'll want you to do the next night. She's old enough for sleep training. If you want her to wake up the next morning, wish her good night, close the door, and don't go in until the next morning, even if she cries all night." Kinda harsh, don't you think, but we were at the end of our wits, so we decided to give the "Cry-It-Out"-method a try. Since I couldn't stand to hear her cry, I moved to the basement for a week and slept in the pull-out sofa we have down there! (never thought I'd ever do that...) Thankfully, after just a few days, she would only wake up once or twice, and cry for about 10-15 minutes. After a week, she would have perfect nights (not waking up once during the night) but wake up very early in the morning (and then, because we felt sorry for her, we would take her in our bed). We do have a rule: we don't go in her room before 5 AM, even if she screams her heart out (and I know she is OK, of course. If she'd be in pain, of course, I'd go in). But as I said, she usually doesn't wake up, or if she does, she only cries for a few minutes. Pfff, let's hope we're on a good track here, and we will be able to continue to have our zzzzz's! I certainly need them!

I still have no idea what caused this horrible sleep pattern. I am guessing that when she had the night terrors a couple of monhts back, and we went in the room to comfort her, that she got used to us helping her settle back down, which in turn led to a situation where she was not able anymore to fall back to sleep by herself. I am not sure, I am just guessing. I am wondering if any other parents of almost-2-year-olds have experienced the same problems, and what did you do to resolve it? I feel bad about letting her cry, but I tell myself that she won't remember later, and that at least for now, she is sleeping better...

Enough sleep stories, now some fun stuff.

Lily has lots of friends who are celebrating their 2nd birthday this month and next month (the babies from the Mommy-And-Me class that I took after Lily's birth)

Here are some pics of Lily at Aidan's birthday party last weekend.

Birthday party scene (the guy in front is Jeff, Aidan's dad)

Lily on the swing

Lily and her friend Zee in the kiddie pool

Getting in and out of the pool

Lily and Zee on the swingset

Knocked out after an afternoon of playing

Since then, the weather has completely turned around and now it is raining, raining, raining! I don't mind it, but I do hope that the sun will peek through at least a little bit in the next few weeks. We have lots of fun activities planned!

To close off, here one last cute pic of Lily and her Oma, taken last August.

Big hug!

Allie and Dave's wedding! (October 2nd, 2010)

Another wedding weekend!

The beautiful bride and groom

We were invited to attend Allie and Dave's wedding in Palm Springs. Allie is Chad's sister, remember, our friend who got married in Peru in 2007. Allie decided to get married closer to home, and the wedding was just as fabulous!

We spent the whole weekend at the Parker Hotel in Palm Springs, which is an absolutely amazing place. Check out the photos on the website! Moreover, we were upgraded to a patio room, with our own private patio and hammock! Very nice!

The actual wedding took place on Saturday, October 2nd, at the Parker. We had organized a babysitter from 5 PM on, so we could fully enjoy this night out!

Exchange of vows! Chad was the minister in charge of performing the wedding ceremony.

The party tent

Perfect in every detail!

Sofia (Allie's sister-in-law, Chad's wife) and baby Everly

Party time!

I can't remember the last time I went out dancing!!! Weddings are a great way to catch up on some new dance moves :-)

The next day, we just relaxed in the gardens of the hotel. Lily enjoyed the water fountains.

Fun fun fun!

Good thing no one was sitting in those seats!!!

After spending some more time at the pool in the afternoon, we headed back home (Palm Springs is about 2 hours south of Los Angeles).

It was a nice, relaxing weekend, which felt good after all the sleep troubles we've been experiencing lately (more about that in another post).

Goodbye for now!