A White Thanksgiving in Belgium

If you are going to throw off the balance by celebrating Thanksgiving with a bunch of Belgians why not go all the way and add 15cm of snow!

Saturday, we celebrated our 3rd Thanksgiving with Pieter’s family. Being ALL Belgian and I being the only American they are not familiar with our outlandish family dinner customs at Thanksgiving, but now for the 3rd year in a row Pieter and I have cooked up a fabulous feast. This year though there was a bit more excitement as it snowed 15cm (6 inches, which I know doesn’t mean much to the Iowans, but is a lot here in Brussels.) Of course we had not gotten any of the food, except the Turkey, and we had to plow through the snow in order to get to and from the store.

Natan and Pieter's Robot Snowman

It seems though that every year is getting nicer and more like the family Thanksgivings I remember. (Well, without any of the family I remember, but they are still in my thoughts) The only things that are different are: 1. Our turkey is of ordinary proportions and not insanely oversized (7lbs). 2. We don’t have canned pumpkin pie and actually this year we didn’t even have a homemade pie, but wonderful cakes from the best baker in Brussels. (I made bread instead.) 3. The stories aren’t all about hunting and actually aren’t even all in English. 4. We only ended up with enough leftovers for a nice lunch for two.

Now, we are all ready to go home on Saturday. I have plenty to keep the boys busy for 9 hours and I am sooooo looking forward to being in Iowa for Christmas. Natan and Kai have never experience an American Christmas and I really can’t wait to share it with them.

Kai's New Talent

Kai has been ever so slowly changing from our EASY baby and he is making his new status very clear. Up until now he has always eaten everything put in front of him, sometimes with quite silly faces, but he DID eat it in the end. Now, he has decided he only needs sweet things and today Kai has shown us all a new talent he has been working on, in secret I guess. Today, as I tried to disguise potatoes and green beans, by dipping them in applesauce, he would ever so slyly act as if he were eating it only to spit out a small ball of naked potatoes and beans without a drop of applesauce. How can he do that? Finally, I just gave up and gave him only applesauce. They say children eat what there bodies need, so let’s put this to the test and I will stop torturing myself by trying to hide vegetables.

Why children kick you at night explained.

Natan's Quote of the Day

“Why are you in our bed Natan?” I asked in the morning
“Het was moeilijk in mijn bed te slapen."
[It was difficult to sleep in my bed.]
“But you kicked me all night?” I said
“You see, I was rubbing you with my feet to help
you sleep, want[because] I heard it, you were not
sleeping good.” Natan replies sweetly, “and I rubbed you to
scare away the bugs also, that’s good of me, ehh?”

Young at Heart

Natan's Quote of the Day

"I AM UNDERBOY!"
Natan yells as he dives under the covers of our bed,
while Pieter is trying to get him ready for school.

Since we got married, 5 years ago on Dec. 15th, Pieter and I have had many long discussions about our lives as designers and our lives as parents, (Parents, this word still shocks me, and parents of two that is even more shocking.) but by the end of every discussion we always come to the same conclusion. This is a wonderful way to do it!

O.k., our design careers are starting off a little more slowly than we dreamed and our family life is speeding along much faster than we had dreamed, this can be quite disconcerting sometimes, but it is brilliant to be young parents. At times we are more silly and wild than Natan, well mostly Pieter, and Natan says, “enough Papa, enough!”

Although, this seems to all be falling into place now, having energy and playful ideas for our children and then focusing on our careers later, it hasn’t always been so clear. In the beginning it seemed to much to handle and many times I would give anything just to sit in Kipsari, in the basement of Helsinki-University of Art and Design, drinking a Lapin Kulta, on a second hand sofa, with my friends from all over the world, talking design until it was time to go home. I still have these thoughts from time to time, but they are fleeting and come much less often.

So my advice to young parents is “Hang in there, it IS all worth it!” and to those who are young at heart and have the chance, "There is never going to be the perfect time to start, so why not now?"

Natan's first audio post

Natan the politician

Natan's Quote of the Day

"What does it mean to be curious? I ask before we read Curious George
"Be upside-down!" Natan answers confidently

Every parent dreams and envisions their child’s future and what it will hold. We can say with some certainty that Natan will most likely be a politician when he grows up. No matter what the argument Natan has something to say. He even has mastered some common political tactics.

Name-Dropping
“Matthew told me last night that we are suppose to go to his house today!”

Just the Facts
“I have only big toy needs.” Natan says after we asked him what he wants from Sinter Klaas.
Natan continues to explain, “Yes, you see because Kai he puts all little things in his mouth. That is why I need only very big things.”

The Last Word
“Come play with me.”
“I just sat down for breakfast, later, Ok?” I say
“What is Papa doing?”
“He is having a problem with the heating.” I say
“Papa has problems? I am Superman!” Natan says standing up and putting his hands in the air.
“Go help Papa then, because Superman helps people with problems.” I say, trying to have a quite breakfast.
“Ok, come with me then!” Natan says tugging on my arm.
“What?” I say shocked my distraction didn’t work as planned.
“Yes, I am Superman and I am helping you to play with me!” Natan exclaims

Manipulation
“Can I have a cookie?” “Can I have a cookie?” “Can I have a cookie?” “Ok, one.” I say
“Yes, one for me and one for you.” Natan says as he takes two and hands one to me
“Thank you, but I don’t want one.” I say handing it back
“Ok, two for me then!”

Exaggeration
“I need not to eat one more bite, because I have no space left in my belly. If I eat that I will puke and that is not good ehh, no ehhh.” Natan says, pushing on his belly and shaking his head.

Personal Agenda
“I have brought you in here, (in the museum shop) you see, so you can now see all that I couldn’t show you.”
Natan said, as he led his Oma into the shop from the Panamerenko exhibition. In the shop they have all books, posters, magnets, and post cards with flying objects from Panamerenko. Of course she bought him two magnets, but this wasn’t the purpose. He was only guiding her through the exhibits and wanted her not to miss anything, of course!”

White Lies
“No, not all candies are bad for you. Some like red and greens ones are ACTUALLY good for you!”

Exuses
"I am to tired for crusts."

Dear Kai,

Today you are 9 months and 6 days old and have finally recovered from your first cold. It was a long week and you are much skinnier this Sunday than last, but don’t worry you are a ferocious eater and in no time you will be back to normal. (We all hope because the restless nights and 3am feedings are a nightmare)

You have tackled several milestones in the last month. You can now go from lying on your back to your belly, then up to a crawling position, crawl around a bit, sit up and then stand up by holding on to something. This makes you very very happy and although it makes me quite nervous I am also very happy for you. Your brother thinks it is now time to wrestle around a bit, since you are more mobile. You on the other hand are becoming more and more an individual and can make quite a noise if Natan comes to close, but for the most part the two of you play together nicely and you love to watch your brother being silly.

Your favorite toys are…not yours actually. You are very interested in anything and everything that Natan is playing with. Because of this you have made me put away some of Natan’s favorite things like marble, legos and play mobile people. Natan is very careful with small things around you and said it was ok to put some things away until you could play together with them. One thing you really like to do is to put a small stuffed lady bug in and out of a stackey cup. This you could do for hours and you have given me some great ideas in the process.

So far your choice cuddly is a green blanket that you had on the day you came home from the hospital. It was February and very cold, so I wrapped you in this blanket each day and now it is your most treasured object to fall asleep with. You also really like a Mickey Mouse stuffed doll. A couple of weeks ago we thought we had lost him, but luckily Natan found him at his school and put him in his backpack and brought him back to you.

What is in store for this month I wonder? Maybe teeth since you don’t yet have any? Walking? Perhaps more words? You can already say mama, papa and ata (natan we think), but these aren’t always directed to the right person. For sure you will be going on your longest plane trip ever when we travel to Iowa to see your cousins you haven’t met. What else? I can’t wait to see…

Love, Mama

This letter was inspired by a very popular blog where a mother writes about her life and often writes letters to her 21mth old daughter. www.dooce.com

Books, books everywhere!

Natan's Quote of the Day

"That's a weo weo auto"Natan says "Would you like another weo weo auto?" Carll Cneut says with a grin"No, a vliegtuig(airplane)"Natan replies seriously

Yesterday Natan and I ventured away from our sick house for a day excursion. I felt very guilty that his entire school holiday has been spent at home with a sick baby and mama. So feeling better we enlisted Oma’s help to watch Kai for a day and we took the train to Antwerp to meet friends and go to the book fair. Boekenbeurs 2005

It was pure madness and ciaos, but we found the hall where the children’s event was happening for 3 to 7 year olds. We walked into a small conference room where there where already around a 100 children sitting uncomfortably in adult chairs. Up front was a stage with 4 chairs with a large table in front of them and in the four chairs where 4 ordinary grown-ups (authors of children’s books). Is it just me that sees a problem with this?

There was little place on the floor in front of the stage and there was NOTHING at all to keep the children’s interest. Oh, expect the very famous author’s reading of course! Children don’t want to see the author they want the pictures, the story, the voices and the adventure. Well, this only happened when one of the four authors jump up with a t-shirt like Superman except with a Z. She began to yell and shout and read the story so excitedly that the room was still and everyone’s, including my own, mouth was open. The story was a about a four year old boy who was Zoeperman! (the Dutch equivalent to Superman) Then she says “This is my first book and I am so happy to be here to read it to all of you!” Aha! So I guess the problem is that the others have written to many books for children so they have lost what is really important? I still don’t understand!

After the stories we went to buy the Zoeperman book and we met the author and had it signed. Beside her was a guy about my age and as I look to the books in front of him I realized it was one of my favorite Belgian illustrators. Carll Cneut. I was more excited than the children in front of him when I saw him signing books with illustrations. So after looking through all his books I FINALLY talked Natan into one with an airplane in it. He signed it and talked to Natan and was very into every child that came up to him! WOW! Carll Cneut and Tine Mortier, author or Zoeperman, have just restored my love and faith in children’s book authors and illustrators.

Trick or Treat!