Antwerp

This last weekend we went up to Antwerp. Our initial goal was to go to the American store up near there and buy some Pam. I must say that is the most expensive Pam I have ever bought. Since we were there, we headed to the heart of the city: Grand central train station. The station was amazing.  There is an awesome recording of a flash mob that can be found by searching on YouTube.

We also walked around town and saw other cool buildings and almost any type of food you could think of.  We didn't actually stop to eat except for a chocolate waffle. My favorite statue was this camel.  I have no idea what its significance actually is though.

10 Months Old

Kherington is 10 months old today! Can you believe it? She is a very active and determined little girl.

She crawls all over the place. She has learned how to unload the cupboards. I went into the kitchen yesterday and made a huge "hhhhhhuhhhhh" sound and she jumped dropped the onion that she'd been peeling and crawled away from me. Very funny.

She LOVES chocolate. There is a chocolate outlet relatively close by where you can sample all the chocolates for free and buy them at a significantly discounted rate. She literally pulls my hand with the chocolate to her mouth...and she's strong.

Story: She loves other kids, but does NOT like to share her toys...most kids she has 'played' with have been younger than her and not really into toys, but last Sunday we had a family over that has a 19 month old and she did NOT like it when he tried to play with any of her toys...we'll have to work on that one.

She stands up in the middle of the room on her own and when she's playing with her toys she'll go from squat to stand and back, but doesn't yet have motivation to walk except for occasionally behind her wheeled walker.

With the start of her new schedule, she now takes 2 naps a day and sleeps through the night (9pm - 5am, has a bottle then goes back to sleep 5am-7:30am). She also isn't as resistant when we put her in her car seat but would still much rather be behind the wheel.  Here she is driving the mini.

Favorites
Color: not sure yet
Toy: musical house...all day, every day
Food: banana or Gouda cheese
Dessert: chocolates
Word: ma ma ma ma
Book: "Water, Water Everywhere"
Activity: driving the car or bath time
Teeth: 6 (3 top, 3 bottom...got bottom first then the top)
*Least favorite activity: diaper changes...she wiggles and crawls away which is really gross when it's a stinky diaper...I've gotten good at wiping and putting diapers on backwards.

Belgian Explorations

We're in Brussels, Belgium along with the COLD weather...brrrrrrrr....So what have we (being mostly me and Kherington during the day while Ryan's at work) been up to?

Building - We built a TON of Ikea furniture (European apartments typically don't come with closets, wardrobes, curtains/curtain rods, light fixtures, etc). Kherington helped me with a couple items while Ryan was at work, then we bought and built together. We ended up making quite a few trips to Ikea because our car is a the mini cooper.  Nothing was too large to fit which was nice and we only drove illegally once. Someone from our ward came over and drilled a bunch of holes this last weekend to actually put the curtain rods and light fixtures up (very very helpful...we had drilled 6 holes and none of them worked...apparently you need the right type of drill to drill through cement).

Okay, Okay. Now the good stuff.

Artistic Trees - Made out of wooden crates
Grand Place - Tons of statues on the building
Waffles - The best Liege waffles (sugar waffles) are hands down found at Stockel Market (open Mon, Tues, Fri, and Sat morning). I have not yet tried the Belgian waffles (normal waffle) in the picture, but they do look like the best Belgian waffles I have ever seen.

Brewery - Toured the last old fashion brewery in Brussels and got some cute Kherington pictures

Museums - First Wednesday of every month after 1pm, a bunch of museums are free. We went to the music museum...guess what instrument this is (completely rhetorical...I have no idea...but it looks cool)
Gardens - Cool landscaping accompanied by some guards pacing.

Churches - there are churches all around

Brugge - We drove an hour and went up to Brugge a couple weekends ago. It was fun to walk around, but very cold. Kherington put up with this for about an hour and a half before letting us know it was time to go. We'll definitely have to go back when it gets a little warmer.

SNOW In Brussels

For a place that doesn't get snow very much, it definitely is coming down pretty hard!

Kherington Overload...she's 9 months old!

Kherington is now 9 months (and a couple days) old! Percentage wise, she is light (20%), short (20%) and has a big head (70%). She's still not on a set schedule, but has a general one (I'm hoping to increase the sleeping portion of the schedule). Anyways, here she is in all her glory:

She still doesn't sleep alot, but here's what she looks like when she does. She likes to read books. She loves glasses (ours are way more fun than hers).


She LOVES mac n cheese (we brought easy mac and shipped one Costco box...then she'll have to choose a different favorite food). She has a big pot belly (not sure the picture does justice...but the drools is pretty funny). She knows how to open drawers and cupboards.

She loves to be outiside rain, snow, or shine. She stands up on EVERYTHING (including other kids). She has 3 teeth!

She loves chocolate (smart girl). She has amazing blue eyes and the cutest smile! Her hair now fits in a ponytail...assuming she will sit still long enough for mom to put it in.

Just this last weekend she started making these deep voice noises. We don't talk to her in deep voices so I'm not quite sure where she picked this up.

How long does it take?

In the time it takes me to clean mashed graham crackers off of Kherington's toy computer:

Kherington can find, open and begin pulling wipes out of the container (notice the distance she gets when she takes them out).

In the time it takes me to wash 4 bottles:

Kherington can pull all of dad's shoes out of the closet (apparently my shoes just aren't as much fun).

She's getting much faster with everything. Other favorite things to do include emptying the diaper bag, playing with cords (unplugging the internet), washing mom's face when I take her to the sink to washer her after having a meal/snack, opening and unloading drawers AND shutting her fingers in them. Well, at least she's cute!

Bonjour

Who would have thought...all that new found time that I'd have I don't. I think I would if I were a little more structured with my days, but I've kinda been letting Kherington determine what gets done.

So...what have we been up to?

Kherington and I jumped on the metro and took it down the Grand Place and walked around the markets and shops there. We had our first Liege Waffle (with chocolate) in Belgium. It was fun to watch people and walk around. Kherington was a little champ...she was so happy and then conked out and took a long nap.

I met up with one of the other Deloitte spouses. She has a cute dog that Kherington loved chasing after. It was nice to be able to talk to someone who'd been where I am, see their apartment, learn more about the different areas and life in general in Belgium. On top of all that, she even gave us a box of graham crackers for Kherington...you can't buy graham crackers here (sad)...Kherington has been loving them. The only down side is that they are messy and she likes to leave me a little trail of where she has been...coffee table, carpet, window...

We drove around the different areas and saw a couple more apartments of people from Ryan's work. We're going out with the housing people on Thursday and hopefully we'll find a place that we like.

Church is interesting. Since it is predominately French, we wear headphones for English translation. Then there is an English Sunday School class and English Relief Society class...both pretty small and comprised of people from all over the world who don't speak French but speak English.

Today I had lunch with the English ladies from the two Brussels wards. Since it wasn't metro accessible, I dropped Ryan off at work so I could have the car...this was my FIRST time driving here. It was definitely interesting. Stoplights are on the side of the road instead of straight ahead, street signs are on the buildings instead of the street corner and are small and only show in one direct (the GPS has been the best purchase), cars just kinda 'go for it' and dart out into huge roundabouts or left turns, cars stop in the middle of the road if there is no parking and them you just drive around them...anyways...lunch was potluck style. It was fun to get to know some more people here. Everyone was super nice and helpful.

Those have been really the only venture's 'out'.