Speeltuinen: 5 Stuks!

Last week we had beautiful, sunny spring weather that seemed like it would never end.  Monday morning we made plans with a school friend of M's who also has Mondays off.  For a variety of reasons we decided to go to Beatrix park.  M doesn't love Beatrix because, unless the kinderbad is open, the playground is designed for younger children.  M and I had the idea that we would visit all 5 of Vondel Park's playgrounds (speeltuinen) and decide which one we liked best. 

The "wire playground" (as M named it) was fun, but the climbers were more appropriate for kids a bit older.  

But, he could easily climb the dome.  The playground has definite possibilities with its adjacent outdoor cafe.

 

"Treetopolis" was our next stop, with a climber about 10 feet up.  

The next playground was promising but M was too tired to try it,
so I smartly rode around until he fell asleep in the trailer.

Once he fell asleep we visited playground #4, which is the usual Vondel playground we have visited a million times.  Good thing, because M slept through it.

M woke up after an hour with some serious sleep marks on his forehead.

Then we headed to the Kinderkook Cafe to decorate cupcakes with his friend D.

I was proud of M for not eating all of his decorations, although he ate a few spoonfuls of the frosting.

Then we went back to Treetopolis, the undisputed winner of the playground competition, to burn off the cupcake!

Bikes

Over the past couple of weeks I have been trying to step up my game regarding bike riding.  I have been traveling further afield and generally getting more used to traveling by bike.  And I love it!  I've never been a huge fan of cycling in traffic, but here in Amsterdam there are bike lanes and bike paths everywhere;  two infrastructures layered one over the other (one for cars, the other for bikes).  Bike lanes even have their own traffic lights.  It's time for us to take better advantage of this means of transport.  I still plan to buy the awesome Nihola, but not until the new year.

Peter took M to Vondelpark on my bike the morning I prepared Thanksgiving dinner.  It was an incredibly windy day, and given my experience taking M on the back of the bike, I was concerned about how this would work, but Peter did fine right from the get-go.  You can see in the video that he wobbled slightly as he first set off, but was immediately able to handle the bike with the extra 40 pounds.  When they returned M told me that Peter rode the bike much faster than I do, and that he is a better bike rider than me.  He also asked Peter to ride around the whole of Vondelpark, whereas he has expressed some fear about being on the back of the bike with me.  What we learned from the experience is that we should move the bike seat to Peter's bike so we can have some family outings together.

Last year I got a balance bike for M free from one of my neighbors.  I took him out on it once, and he wasn't really into it.  He tired quickly and I got annoyed.  We never took it out again.  However, we have it in Amsterdam, and I had been thinking that we need to take advantage of it before he outgrows it.  The beauty of the balance bike is that it gives kids an opportunity to master balance at their own pace.  The idea is that kids first figure out balance, then are able to transition very smoothly to a two wheeler with pedals.  M is growing really quickly and I saw the window for using the balance bike closing so I knew I had to act.

I had read that the key to successful balance biking is a properly adjusted seat and well inflated tires, so I was pretty encouraged when he wanted to come on the "recon mission" to find a bike store with an air pump.  Then last Thursday we brought the bike to pump up the tires.  West Coast L and her mom came with us.  M was pretty disheartened when L zoomed off.  He even wanted to use her bike because he thought he was faster on it. I explained to him that it wasn't that L's bike was faster, just that he was 5 minutes more experienced when he tried her bike.  And the learning curve with the balance bike truly is that fast!

I told him that if he stuck with it he'd be riding a real two wheeler in no time, and that once he was ready, in couple of months, we'd buy him one.  The next day, I scooted along on my own bike.  M showed an interested in my bell, so as he reached each corner on the block he could ring the bell.  We also struck a deal that if he practiced his bike every day for a week, he could pick out whatever bike bell he wanted.  My idea is that if he practices every day for a week, it will start to be fun for him, then he'll practice all the time.

So far my plan has worked. We are three days in and he's doing great.   The first video shows M scooting along, and the video below shows him easily mounting the bike and actually steering the handle bars (although I admit I turned off the camera just before he wobbled and fell).

But you can see the progress only a few days make.  The videos above are after about 3 days of practice and below it's one week of practice (on the way to get the bell!).  He's still a little wobbly at first but can balance the bike standing (and with no hands) and has found a nice stride.  From time to time he even glides on it (although usually followed by a huge crash). But, he always gets back on and, thanks to my bribe, he has decided the bike is fun.

Food Friday: Thanksgiving!!!

Last Sunday I made Thanksgiving dinner.  It was a huge success, mainly because my wonderful husband took M to Vondelpark for several hours.  It's not every guy who will ride a bike decorated with pink tulips just so his little boy doesn't have to walk.

The kalkoen (turkey) was 4 kilos, or almost 9 pounds and ridiculously expensive at 12.50 Euro per kilo.  It also required a fair amount of prep, including pulling the lungs out.  My Thanksgiving gratitude surrounded the fact I had recently watched an episode of Masterchef:  The Professionals in which they prepared a wood pigeon, so I could identify this organ.

At the price of prime rib, I was terrified I would ruin the turkey, but it turns out I cooked it beautifully.  I prepared it by rinsing it thoroughly and pulling out all the gross bits, rubbing it with a lemon, stuffing it loosely with a red onion, some sliced leaks, celery tops a couple of cloves of garlic and a few slices of lemon.  Then I rubbed it with olive oil and a mixture of course salt and paprika.  I placed a piece of british bacon on the breast and back and trussed it.  Thankfully the legs fit nicely in the little flap of skin on it's bottom and the wing tips were already missing, so trussing it was really easy.  I cooked it breast down, started it at about 450' F, then roasted it for a couple of hours at 350' F, then turned it over and convection roasted it for about a half hour.  It was moist and juicy and flavorful.  Sorry, no photos.  I was a little busy with the cooking and totally forgot!

I also made cranberry sauce (this was supposed to be an activity for M and his friend West Coast L, but they basically snubbed me when it was time to make the cranberries, so I ended up making it myself.  It came out really nice despite the fact that it had a very strange smell during the cooking process (maybe this is normal--I had never made cranberries before).

The stuffing came out great, especially since I totally winged the recipe.  Mairtin also made a special "kid stuffing" from the base of sausage and bread, adding nuts, raisins and apples, but no seasonings.  The sweet potatoes I bought weren't really sweet potatoes, but the mash peter made was great.  I was challenged by oven space, even in my huge oven, so I only cooked part of the pumpkin, and improvised a microwave recipe.  It was OK, but a bit underdone.  The green beans were good, seasoned with a little lemon zest.

I served it with a pinot noir.  One of the bottles broke as I opened it, but there was plenty for the four of us in one bottle, especially since one guest preferred white wine.

For desert we had HEMA appelvlaai (pictured)  with some cream that Peter whipped by hand.

Nihola Love

 Today I rode the Nihola Family bike.  I think I'm in love.

Riding with Mairtin has been challenging.  I'm nervous, and nerves and bike riding don't mix in a fall-on-your-ass kind of way.  While the Nihola is a bit wide, and somewhat tough to wheel around urban sidewalks, riding it on roads and paths is a dream and actually strengthened my cycling skills.  It steers easily and shifts smoothly.  The shop was near Vondelpak, so I took the majority of my test ride there.  My biggest challenge riding with Mairtin has been balance--his seat is perched high on my bike and the extra 40 pounds creates something of an inverted pendulum.  Since the Nihola is a trike, balance is simply taken out of the equation.  I didn't realize this until the end of the ride when I was stopped at a light and didn't need to put my feet down.  The downside:  The pricetag.  At about $3,000, it's in the same range as a car.

Between the test ride and my errand to the British General Store (to get the black pudding M requested for his birthday dinner), and the wrong turns I took, I must have cycled about 5 miles today.  What a great way to get around.

Tomorrow is my little boy's 4th birthday. I can't wait to celebrate!