Summer Holiday!

Off to Cape Cod for a month! M is excited for camp and seeing his family.  I'm looking forward to seeing family and having some predictable weather.  I have already queried M's friends and have their days in Amsterdam plotted on a calendar, which should make socializing that much easier when we return.  There have been some rumblings of a summer family vacation for P, M and me, but nothing is booked yet.  Even if it doesn't happen I'm sure we'll have a lot of fun.

The boys at Amstelpark.  Gorgeous weather this weekend.  M was surprisingly good at steering his little motorbike, perhaps because of all his cycling practice? Sadly P couldn't go for a ride because he was too big!

The things you worry about and the things you don't

I've been a mother for almost 6 years now.  We knew we'd have one kid, and taking a cue from my friends with 2 kids I decided to actively skip the worried-all-the-time phase that first time moms go through and skip right to the relaxed-second-kid phase.  Mixed results.

One thing I don't need to worry about with M is eating.  He's a great eater, tries new things and has plenty of foods from all food groups that he will readily choose.  Plus, this list is expanding by the day.  When he was about 3 weeks old we finally trounced a rocky start and got him on the right track with breastfeeding. At age 4 he went through a picky phase which was combatted by my insistence that we don't comment on food, a refusal to make him special meals and a little brainwashing that he was a great lover of new foods.  Since then, smooth sailing.

Sleep has been another issue altogether, but lately he has been showing more independence with sleep.  Until very recently we laid down with him to go to sleep.  Bedtime was always a very vulnerable time which made having a babysitter very difficult.  A few months ago we decided to start the "Sleep Lady Shuffle" to get M to sleep on his own.  Within a few days we were sitting in the doorway of his room.  To our great shock, after a conversation about sleepovers ("the other kid's parents aren't going to shush you to sleep") and a visit to the homeopath, he asked us to sit on the couch outside his room, then a couple of days later asked us to keep his door shut (I think the light was bothering him).  Now he asks us to leave a self-serve breakfast out on weekend mornings and last night he couldn't wait for his sitter to turn up--and she was scheduled to put him to bed!  I feel like he has made more sleep progress in the past 5 weeks than he has in the past 5 years combined.

Ballet Recital

M recently had a ballet recital.  I'll admit it, I tried to keep him out of it.  Not because I have any issues with my son taking ballet.  On the contrary, I rather like it both because it's great exercise for him and I like to buck the stereotype.  The issue I had was that when this opt-in recital came up, I felt like M had way too many activities going on.  He has swimming lessons, Biodanza, and just wrapped up an after school art class.  Plus, we were in the middle of our move.  I just couldn't handle another obligation and figured he would forget about it.  I figured wrong.

So, M was in a ballet recital; I envisioned it as his swan song with ballet, no pun intended, mainly because next year ballet becomes an after school activity while this year the lessons are given within the school day.  A couple of days before it his teacher told me he was the only boy and asked if I was o.k. with that.  Yes, I'm fine with it and I think M would be more than fine with it. He did a very nice job, both as a kid at the beach and a magician in a Swan Lake excerpt--two parts that gave him small solos.  I started to think that as a boy taking ballet he could get pretty far with the lack of competition alone.  And, he LOVES it.  So, we'll see whether he's still interested when it comes time to choose after school clubs in the fall.

Graduation Day!

Last week M's school had a little ceremony marking graduation from Reception, which is what the British call pre-kindergarten.  I'm so proud of M for all that he has learned (like how to read!) and of how well he has done at school since January.  He loves school which is really all a parent can hope for at this age.

M and his buddy, French M, enjoying some ice cream after graduation.

Dutch class

Last week I finally took a Dutch class!  After nearly 2 years of living here I decided it was finally time, and found one that fit into my schedule.  It was an intensive one week class, four hours per day, with about 2 hours of homework each night.  I had to neglect the household to finish it, but it was well worth it.  I learned a lot and am looking forward to continuing in the fall.

photo borrowed from http://www.the-ins.org/2013-mid-year-meeting

Happy Independence Day!

National holidays are perhaps the loneliest times for an expat.  It's weird to know an important holiday is happening at home while where you are is just another regular day.  Today is the 4th of July and I totally forgot until I was dropping off my kid at school.  Then I thought, "July 4th, the biggest anticlimax since...Thanksgiving!"

Today was also the last full day of school until September.  I spent the morning getting some work done and planning all the things I need to buy in the US next week.  M and I went to the playground and also fed the ducks.

Usually I make a 4th of July dinner, either salmon or some variation on a barbeque, but not tonight.

I look forward to celebrating next week in the U.S.!

M working on his sandcastle masterpiece.
 I suppose it's a July 4th activity of sorts.

Does anyone know what this bird is? It's definitely a water bird
(webbed feet) and looks like it is wearing brown/red eyeliner.
Whomever he his, he enjoyed our bread and veg scraps.

Homeopath

Oh, what was I thinking.

M has a case of "water warts" a type of herpes virus that looks like a localized case of chicken pox.  It's evidently very common for swimmers, and absolutely rampant here in Amsterdam.  As such, it's not really any big deal.  An already hands-off medical establishment can't get itself worked up over a virus that doesn't cause any discomfort or have any side effects even if some huge percentage of the population gets it.  Did I mention it lasts for months, sometimes years?  My friend's doctor told her that her daughter, "might have it for a few months, or it might never go away."  Great.

In the build up to our summer vacation I really wanted these gone.  My family was justifiably a little unnerved by this highly contagious virus that routinely lasts for months. They were concerned about cleaning the tub after M used it and if his laundry had to be washed separately (neither is necessary). Clearly this was causing them some stress.  So I decided to take M to the homeopath.

Stock photo, not my actual kid's actual armpit,
but his infection looks a lot like this.

My decision was based on an acquaintance's experience with her toddler son, whose water warts were cleared up in a couple of weeks by the practitioner I decided to see.  I figured if I could knock this out before we hit the beach this summer everyone would be a bit happier.  What I had forgotten was the time commitment involved in complimentary medicine.  the appointment was at 9 a.m., right around the corner from us, and I didn't get M to school until after 10:30.

She asked us all about M's behavior, his fears, what he dreams about, what stresses him and on and on and on.  In the end she decided to focus on treating his emotional self regulation--something he does struggle with--because she felt his case of water warts (5 spots) was really minor.  So much for knocking this out before summer vacation.

M sees an occupational therapist in part to address his struggles with self regulation.  While I can't say the problem is licked, we do have a "treatment plan" in place and he is improving every day.  I didn't feel we really needed to add a tincture to that.  And what really irked me was that the appointment ran so long he missed his weekly OT session! (although this was really my fault--since he sees the OT at school it's on neither my radar screen nor my calendar).  But I surely saw the irony in missing the treatment we see works for the one that might.

But, when the tiny little pills arrived in the post a couple of days later, and I looked them up on Dangerous Dr. Internet, I was really surprised to learn that this medicine is used to treat all types of things that really sound like M.  Things like, disobedience, sudden crying, and early waking, as well as some things which didn't come up in the examination, like growing pains and a very frustrating scalp sensitivity.

So, he's now had his second dose.  He still wakes up early but seems to have an increased interest in sleep independence.  No growing pains reported since he received his first dose (although they were on the wane before that).  He actually seems to have a few more water warts, and a couple look really red and inflamed, which may be a sign that his body is fighting them off.  With any luck, they'll be gone before we hit the beach this summer.