Visiting the Netherlands

Happy New Year! We celebrated quietly at home. Kiefer went to bed at 8:45 and we managed to stay awake until about 12:02. We were proud of ourselves!

We're in the Netherlands now! Although we had two domestic flights under our belt, we weren't sure how the long flight to the Netherlands was going to be for Kiefer. He did really well! Our flight ended up being delayed until 9:15 p.m., so we had plenty of time to finish packing and didn't head to the airport until about 6:00. Kiefer ate some dinner (squash and bananas) before we boarded the plane. Luckily, the flight wasn't very full, so Kiefer actually had a seat, even though we didn't pay for it. He enjoyed checking out everything and everyone. Then, about an our after takeoff, he decided it was time to go to sleep. He slept on the seat between me and Roel for about 5 1/2 hours. He woke up when they started serving breakfast and we were in Amsterdam before we knew it!

We were met at the airport by Oma, Opa and Tante Paula. Kiefer took a little nap in the car to Zoetermeer and was ready to smile and check everything out at Oma and Opa's. We thought it would be good to follow his normal bedtime routine, but weren't sure if jetlag would interfere. Well, we gave him a bath at 8:00 p.m., and put him down at 8:30. He fell asleep and woke up a couple of times needing to be fed, but all in all, did very well. We were pleasantly surprised. He woke up at 7:15 a.m., when he normally would at home.

On our first full day here, we walked over to visit Kiefer's great-grandmother Ebling, who is 97 years old! She thoroughly enjoyed meeting Kiefer, who is her first great-grandchild. We'll be visiting her a few more times while we're here. After that, we took a stroll to the stores nearby and found a good deal on a fleece hat, scarf and mitten set (2 Euros). Kiefer looks quite cute in them, as evidenced by the photo above. In the afternoon, Tante Paula and Oom Frank came to visit and we all went to the little petting zoo nearby. Kiefer had fun watching all the animals... pigs, chickens, cows, goats, birds and horses!

After another good night of sleeping, he's ready to meet some of our friends this afternoon. They're all gathering in once place, and we're so looking forward to introducing Kiefer to them and catching up.Before I sign off, I'd like to mention that we received some very exciting news shortly before we left... our friends, Cindy & Steve, had a baby girl on January 10th at 3:03 p.m. Her name is Catherine Ashley and she weighed 8 lbs, 15 oz. Congratulations to them! We can't wait to meet her!

Love,
April