The Kherington Update and more...

We received a package (tax docs, mail, books, clothes, magic jack, shoes for Kherington, stroller parts...thanks!) from my mom in the mail awhile ago and I was so amazed at her packing job, that I decided to take a picture. It was pretty cool.  Come to find out Belgium postal people had opened the package.  I wouldn't want to figure out how to repack that. Inside was also Kherington's birthday card.  Mom is way on top of things. It even says postmarked on Apr 23rd and do not open until then. Well, I set it on the coffee table and when I look back, Kherington had snatched it and was biting the corner.

Random tidbit - some packages we have to pay 10 euros to receive, others we don't. I asked about this at the post point where I picked up the package (I didn't have 10 euros cash when the post guy came by out apartment so I had to wait until the following day and pick it up at the grocery store), and the guy working there said there's no rhyme or reason.  Some you pay for, some you don't. Haha, that's Belgium for ya.

In the package from Ryan's mom, she sent Kherington a Purdue dress that she made.  It is just in time for March Madness! Each day Purdue plays, Kherington gets to wear the dress and daddy changes into his Purdue shorts when he gets home. Very cute. Here she is doing her thing. Also notice the cute shoes that Michelle picked out!  Kherington loves to eat anything that we eat.

After we got the stroller parts, we went to fix the stroller (more Ryan than me). We learned how to drill out rivets and re-rivet. It took a lot more time than we thought it would, but it worked! We now have a functioning stroller. Kherington and I have been exploring all the areas around us in order to get back into the NikePlus challenge I recently sent out.

Kherington has now learned how to get into many many things. We have a gate to keep her out of the kitchen (when it's not up, she gets into the pots and pans cupboard and scraps her teeth against the pots). She learned how to open the drawer beneath her crib, remove the diapers and wipes and climb in, how to open and empty her bucket of blocks, how to climb into her crate that we keep all her random toys in and how to climb on top of boxes under the table. I'm thinking this means she's going to be a climber.  I'm not so much looking forward to that.

For the first time ever, she fell asleep in her high chair (picture below...Ryan used to do this too). In her crib, she always sleeps on her stomach (like her mom) in the corner closest to the door.

Some other tidbits of our 11 month old: She LOVES other kids and thinks that they all want to play with her. She recently started this 4 legged crawl with her rear stuck up in the air. She has done some side stepping on her own, but still hasn't shown much interest in actually walking (kinda a surprise because she has been standing up by herself for a long time now). She loves pulling on cords or wires. She loves getting chased by her daddy. She still likes her mac n' cheese but some new favorites include veggies cooked in broth (pulled out of our soups), cucumbers and black beans.

Amsterdam

A couple weekends ago we went on a day trip up to Amsterdam which is now my favorite city in Europe! It is about a 2 hour drive and it was beautiful. I really want to find someone that lives on a farm that we can go visit. They looked so cool. We passed a lot of windmills. We saw the smallest car ever...even smaller than the typical SmartCar. Kherington was a great travel girl this trip,

We weren't sure exactly what we wanted to do there.  We had looked up a couple museums to go to, but when we arrived in Amsterdam and saw how cool the town was we decided to just wander the streets. As is standard with us, we started at grand central train station and went from there. I saw more bicycles than I have ever seen in my entire life. People riding them all over the place, bikes leaning up against anything stationary and HUGE parking garages filled only of bikes. I am not exaggerating at all. I even saw a bike that had a wheelbarrow bucket attached to the front with a seat belt in it...so cool...needless to say, I want to go back, rent some bikes and ride around!

There were waterways all over the place with boats lining the walls. We also passed some interesting food. The picture below is in honor of Ryan. He loves hot dogs, but since moving here has seen them in a very different way than in the US. Mainly they are just canned, but during our wandering we saw a couple different shops that had them in a bun with pizza toppings on top. No, we didn't try them (we opted from some delicious focaccia).

As usual, we passed some cool churches that were nestled into everyday life. We explored the touristy shops, found a huge clog to sit in, and wandered the tulips tents where bulbs of almost any color an be bought to grow at home.  Or you can opt for some wooden ones that last forever.

We are still trying to figure out what we want to purchase from each place we visit. I'm not big into trinkets...they just seem like clutter...so we'll see what we do for the long term. We did come away with some amazing Holland Cheese.