Maeve is 1!

Our baby is 1. It is a milestone I was excited for her to reach, but once it came, it felt really sad. I look back at pictures of Jude at that age and then I look at him now and I really don't know where that time went. I know it will go even faster for Maeve. The gummy smile and pudgy rolls will be replaced by a fast-talking, lean-bodied 3 year old before we know it!

Maeve was at day care on her birthday and celebrated with her friends. We got a sweet written recount of the festivities along with pictures... in Dutch. Pete's Dutch is getting good thanks to his Duolingo streak so he was able to help translate it. What is with these silly birthday hats here?!

Creche celebrations:

We picked her up early so we'd have plenty of time for our family celebrations. Jude could not wait to open her presents and play with them (and then throw them around when he realized all of the attention she was getting for her special day). We got in some quick Facetimes with the grandparents, but the day had become too much for Maeve. She perked right up when the cupcakes came out though. She loves to clap with us and she threw her hands in the air at the right moment during the Dutch version of "Happy Birthday."

Presents at home.

Cupcake time. Maeve, meet Sugar. Sugar, meet Maeve. 

"Frosting. Interesting stuff."

"Oh, that's good"

Get after it, girl!

 Guilty.

Yep, don't waste that frosting on the paper! (Could she have seen me doing this?!)

 We were all entertained by Maeve-y girl's first cupcake experience.

12 month sticker time.  

Apart from doctor's visits when she has been sick (a lot in the past year, poor thing), she hadn't been to the Consultatiebureau since she was 6 months old so I was excited to see how she had grown at her 1 year check up yesterday. Little miss checked in at 72.7cm (35%), 9.3kg (42%) and 47.2cm head circumference (95%-yikes). I'm not overly worried, but the geneticist in me is going to keep my eye on her head growth!

She is a butt scooter and has negative interest in crawling or being on her belly. She can pull to stand and is tentatively cruising under my watchful eye. I think walking is a ways off still as she is pretty unsteady standing (perhaps that big noggin is to blame :) ). She lets her needs be known with pointing and grunts, some baby signs (more and all done, though they are hard to distinguish from one another) and noises that sound a bit like "more," "this" and "mama."

She does her best to fend off her brother's at-times aggressive advances. She loves everything he does though and he and daddy are tied for being the best at getting her to smile. She loves to smile and wave to people, but try to take her from mommy and you are in trouble. She's been clingy with me since 5 or 6 months. When I'm not worrying about the long term effects of this, I am flattered and love all of her snuggles. She nuzzles her head into my shoulder and it is the sweetest thing. She'll do this when she's tired. When she wants to nurse or have her paci, she'll try to suck on my chin. I'm hoping to wean her completely in the next few weeks (first cup of whole milk yesterday and she loved it) and then the paci is the next thing to go. We shouldn't have been surprised that she loved the milk. She loves to eat. She'll try almost anything and wants to eat what we are eating. She'll only tolerate being spoon fed for a short while and then she wants to eat fingers foods. She has such an amazing appetite! At meals she is often the first to start eating and the last to finish (though to be fair, she eats a lot slower than the rest of us). She has four teeth. The middle bottom two and her top two fangs. She has enough hair to put in a little pony to keep it out of her eyes bam bam style. We call her Maeve, Maeve-y, Maeve-y girl, and Beguino (not sure how that started). She really lights up our world and has been such a joy. Happy 1st Birthday, sweet girl! 

Doing some of my favorite things:

Standing and pointing

Smiling with mommy

 Scooting with my bam bam pony.

 Riding the bike with mommy (I like it despite this expression).

And of course, eating :) 

Long Weekend with Friends on the Island of Texel

We finally made it to the Dutch Island of Texel, the most populated of the West Frisian Islands in the Wadden Sea. We have been wanting to go since hearing time and time again about the beauty and peacefulness of the island. We arranged to go with our friends Courtney, Karl, Audra, Brad and kids and found a great rental house. Pete took a personal day to make a long weekend of it. 

Photo credits: the whole crew

On the ferry

Finally using our bike trailer

A little over an hour drive North takes you to the town of Den Helder where you catch a 30 minute ferry to the picturesque island. The West Coast of the small island is all wide, sweeping white sand beaches backed by the National Park Duinen van Texel (dunes). The rest of the island is rural farmland with a few small towns. 

Dining al fresco

We stayed in a large family bungalow in one of the many vacation parks on the island. Apart from our own personal pirate play set, we took advantage of the park's massive indoor play area and bowling alley on the two rainy mornings. We were fortunate that the sun came out each afternoon so we could get on the bikes and explore the beaches. 

We were a bit of a motely crew with two of the kids on antibiotics (our sweet Maeve included). We had the two big boys share a room, which was an experiment that mostly went wrong. We joked that it was essentially their fist sleep over and that the two of them taking turns getting out of bed and conspiring together should have been expected. I would have found it cuter, if it wasn't so exhausting to get Jude to go to sleep as a result (Pete driving him around the island at 10pm with Jude telling him over and over, "It's not night time, it's light out"). 

Pete and I took a joyride around the island on Friday while the kids napped. Then we checked out the Lapora Ice cream farm where Maeve was captivated by the animals. 

Our rental backed up to the dunes, but it was still a bit of a ride to the beaches and with the wind it was a workout! Though he's never been, Pete made the comparison of Texel to Nantucket and I noticed a lot of similarities. 

Perfect kite flying weather though!

So many benefits to traveling with friends with kids. The kids got to play with each other and we had lots of fun adult time together in the evenings. We took turns cooking meals and all felt that we could really relax as a result. I think Pete is hoping all future vacations can be like this! I enjoyed the down time, but also like the thrill of being more active on trips. 

Backyard view over the golf course

Lots of chefs in the house meant that we ate well! 

Fast friends

Thankful for a chill bowling alley where these kids could be munchkins

It seemed a miracle every time we got all 11 of us out the door headed in the same direction! Biking together to the lighthouse was a real highlight. Seeing more tulip fields was an added bonus! We climbed to the top of the lighthouse and then had some beach time in the sun with beers. 

I was excited to be on the Island for mother's day. The only downside was that we had to check out by 10am that morning so it was a bit hectic packing up and cleaning the place as instructed. We all got back on the bikes and hit up the closest beach where the wind forced us into the beachside restaurant for a nice Mother's Day lunch. We took the more scenic ride back and found ourselves cycling between rows of beautiful, flowering trees. A dream! 

Plans to go to the ice cream farm again were foiled when Jude fell asleep on the bike. So we took our cue to get going to let the kids sleep in the car. They slept through the ferry journey (again, we pulled right up to and onto the ferry with no wait) and woke up half of the way home on the other side. We rounded out Mother's day with some thai take out. Having a place like Texel 2 hours from home is very exciting and I am sure we will be back soon.