Project 365: Week Forty-Nine

Well, how 'bout that?  Here I am, posting the pictures for the forty-ninth week of the year just a mere 4 days after the week came to a close!  Are you impressed?  You ought to be.  I am!  I'm not even feeling well right now, and I managed to put this post together in record time!

The highlight of Week Forty-Nine was, by far, Sinterklaasavond and the pajama day that followed.  I think that we saw the sun more that day than we had any day prior!  It's been one gray, damp, chilly day after another here.  We haven't experienced the snowstorms or frigid temperatures that all those back at home have, though.  For that, we are grateful!  We will be in for a shock when we return home for Christmas!

337/365:  Wake Me Up

If the sun happens to be shining (which doesn't happen often, as you know), it streams into Will's room with such intensity in the middle of the afternoon - during nap time.  At "home home" Will is used to sleeping in a room darkened by a blackout shade, so it came as no surprise that he would wake up with the sunlight.  The sunlight definitely helped to make this picture what it is, but it did not help Will sleep.

338/365:  Lost in Thought

Or, more accurately, lost in Caillou.  

339/365:  He's Coming!  He's Coming!

Sinterklaasavond, the night Dutch children had been waiting for, fell on Thursday night.  While Dutch children opened their presents from Sinterklaas, Maddie and Will stuffed their shoes with carrots and set them by the door, hoping that Sinterklaas would fill them (and their stockings) while they slept that night.  And fill them, he did - the twins awoke to shoes filled with Kruidnoten and oranges and stockings filled with books, pajamas, DVDs, chocolate letters, and small "name trains".  

340/365:  Pigtail

I know that I'm a bit biased, but Maddie is just too darn cute in pigtails.  She's always cute, of course, but when I put her in pigtails, she's just ADORABLE!  A good thing, too, because getting her in those pigtails is not so fun.  She cries and screams as I pull her hair .  She's not so adorable then.  

341/365:  Shenanigans

Saturday was just one of those days that I don't wish to remember with a picture.  It wasn't all bad, I guess - Jim brought home flowers for me, and I completed work on photo books for the twins, but otherwise...I was in a funk.  So...Saturday's submission was a collage of pictures taken on Friday...pre-funk.  

342/365:  Cardboard Road, Take Me Home

Prior to our move to the Netherlands, we had ordered two cribs from IKEA to be delivered to our house before our arrival.  We had also requested that those cribs be assembled.  When we arrived, we found that the two cribs had indeed been delivered to our house, but...they were still in boxes...unassembled.  With no tools and no time, Jim did not get around to putting together the first crib until two weeks after our arrival.  He would have assembled the second crib at that time, but IKEA neglected to include the hardware (ALL of it) in the box!  After a trip to IKEA and a discussion with a customer service representative, we were mailed a set of hardware, which, unfortunately, turned out to be for THE WRONG CRIB.  Back to IKEA we went.  Finally, FINALLY, Jim was able to put together the second crib last weekend.  The boxes that had been sitting under our kitchen table were emptied, broken down, and taken out to the trash...and then I brought one back in.  Jim wasn't too happy, but we needed something to do.  That cardboard box made for a sweet ramp!

343/365:  Heavy

It has become routine for the twins to help me unpack our grocery bag upon returning from the grocery store.   Since we have to go to the store every other day, the twins have gotten quite a lot of practice at the chore!  I know that one of them will drop and break a jar or container at some point, but thus far, we have not had any accidents!  I have found that unpacking the bag together has been a great for the twins' language development.  Just the other day, for example, I was hanging up our coats in the laundry room when I heard Will saying "Nana".  I looked up to see him holding a banana.  In the picture above, Maddie may look as though she is struggling to hold the milk, but I think that she was just working REALLY hard to say "milk".  She kept saying "mweh", "mweh", mweh".  For as often as she will unpack the grocery bag here, she will learn to say "milk" in no time!