Our Future Friends Had Their Baby!

On the day that we arrived to our apartment, I saw a young couple outside their house across the street from us. The woman was pregnant, my guess was about 7 months. They seemed like nice people our age and from there on out I started referring to them as our future friends. I thought about how to approach them without seeming too eager (I had read an article about how to befriend Dutch women, which said not to be too aggressive or eager!) and the best timing as I didn't want to drop by unexpectedly (also ill advised). I decided that baking them chocolate chip cookies was a good idea- what pregnant woman doesn't like chocolate chip cookies! This was no easy feat as I had to track down the ingredients at the grocery store in Dutch. Brown sugar is called bastard suiker! They don't sell chocolate chips so I used M&Ms. Then I had to figure out how to work our oven. I waited patiently for a good opportunity to bring them over to our future friends. This involved some minor stalking out our kitchen window to see if they were home. I was doing this again today when I saw this in their front yard!

Did you know that the stork is a Dutch tradition? And when a woman has a baby, they announce the arrival with a large stork in the yard. There is a cloth hanging from the beak that appears to be full of items- not sure what. Now I need to find an article on what to bring a new Dutch baby and when to do it before I eat all the cookies myself!