Jackson's First Haircut

You can only hear, "oh he is getting a little mullet" a couple times before you HAVE to get your son's haircut! So I figured we better get it done before our big trip to Rome in a couple weeks!  I was sort of dreading it, not because I'm so attached to his hair but because he can throw a nice back arching tantrum pretty well these days and I imagined this to be the case while we were there.  Boy was I wrong.

Pre-hair cut

I go to a lady in our town that has a salon in her home so I thought, well even if it was bad it's just us there, not an entire salon full of people! The lady was running a few minutes behind so Jackson sat on my lap and watched another lady get her hair cut.  He was watching with awe and didn't move a muscle, so when it was his turn the same thing happened!  He sat so still, I couldn't believe it.  I think he was so nervous about what was going on that he couldn't move.  He only turned to look at her a couple of times to see what was happening.  I felt a little bad for him but was relieved at how well it went!   At the end he got a little specullen (SP?) "marshmallow treat" for being so good. One for each hand!  He then even sat on my lap through my entire hair cut also!

Holding still!

Checking out his new do

Finished product, back to playing!

What a great experience!  It makes me wonder why I have to always think the worst of something!

It's the little things :)

Jackson is such a happy little guy about 95% of the time and is always finding new "toys" to entertain himself!!! Things like the cereal box, a coffee creamer can, the bag of dog bones, anything card board and rolls of wrapping paper!!! He thinks they're the best things to play with, making me question why do we even bother with the expensive baby toys ?!?! Here are some pictures of our sweet little man playing with real and fake toys!

Playing with the broom, his favorite outdoor toy

Shopping cart!

A 4-wheeler, I'm sure we will have to have one of these some day!

Our future little Cyclone!!!

The coffee creamer can! He played with it for about 30 minutes!

Maybe he sees us at the computer too much?!?!

Better do a little work while I'm up here!

Playing in the laundry basket

I have an awesome hat!

More laundry since I can now climb on chairs

Jackson seriously loves the laundry basket

A little golf

It's Summer time!!!!!!

Well it's June anyways, it has been unusually cool in the Netherlands over the last couple weeks with rain, rain, and more rain!!!! But BEFORE that we got a good taste of what summer should look like with temperatures in the 80's which let me tell you is pretty hot when you don't have A/C!!! 

Jackson LOVED the warm weather!!! We got to be outside every single day which is by far his most favorite thing to do!  He stands at the backdoor and says GO, go, go, go, go over and over all day long!!!

We have found this great park with a petting zoo, kid pool, and all kinds of other great playground equipment that is just perfect for little kids!!! Not to mention it is close to some friends we have met so we get to have lots of playdates there!!

Jackson thinks the animals are just hilarious and loves to let them nibble on his fingers!!! We got to go with Grandma and Grandpa Fausch when they were here to visit us too! 

The pool may be his favorite thing at the park, but he seems to think he is a bigger kid than he is and wants to follow all the older kids running and playing but doesn't quite know how to step over that crazy water!! It really is funny to watch, he looks at the water, then lifts his foot up really high so he will step over it, then takes a big step, but oh his foot is still in the water! :) He's not so sure about walking alone in it yet!

We decided to get just a small pool for our back yard which was also a huge hit!! Jackson was all about it for the 2 days it was warm enough to use it!!! He loves to get in and out and splash all over the place!!! Grace thought it was pretty cool too, until she got splashed, then she was outta there!

So in a our little taste of summer we had a blast, now we're hoping maybe by July the temperatures will be back to normal and we can get out to play some more!!! We hope you're all having a great summer back home!! We miss all of you and wish we could be at the lake enjoying the boat and sun!!!

GOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLL!!!!

Last week we had our first real experience with European Futbol and it was everything we had hoped for!!!!

Coincidentally some friends we have met were also going to the game with some of their friends they had visiting, so we got to take our "old friends" from American to meet our "new friends" (also from America but living here) for dinner before the game and enjoy some dutch cuisine. Then we walked the short journey to the soccer stadium and what does it do? It pours!!!!!!!!  Lucky us, we must be turning Dutch because we have one umbrella for the 8 of us.

We made it to the stadium fairly dry and get our tickets which come with a voucher for PSV merchandise.  We all get shirts so we don't stand out too much at the game and then are off to the match!  We have to wait in this HUGE line to get in and finally it is our turn. Josh goes up and the gate won't open for his ticket.  An employee comes to help us crazy Americans and says you have tickets for the wrong game!  This was last weeks game! WHAT?!?!?! Did we not just buy these tickets for tonight's game?!  I think so!!!!!!  So we're back to will call and luckily it was just a "whoops sorry, we gave you the wrong one." No big deal and we are back to wait in line again :)

Finally we made it in and our tickets also come with vouchers for food or in our case drinks.  A nice big beer with nuts right on top!  The best invention, the peanuts act as a lid so you're not sloshing all around!! GREAT!  Pic stolen from our "new friends"

Our seats were awesome! Only 10 rows up and about midfield!! We felt like we were right in all the action!  The game was amazing and it continued to rain/pour off and on and only had a slight delay due to lightning.  The stands are covered so we were safe!!! PSV won so that was good too!! What a perfect way to end the week with our friends from home!

This was our first time using a babysitter and all were fine!! Not traumatizing for anyone!

Life as we know it, has changed once again!

Well now that being a 1 year old is ancient history we no longer have a tiny little baby to cuddle we now have a 13 month old little man running around.  I tell you what, it seems like Jackson has changed just as much in the last month as he did the first month we had him home from the hospital. 

He is now full on walking!!!! Eeeek! Crawling just isn't good enough for him, although he is much faster at crawling. It wont be long though as those stiff legs get a little more used to walking!  

Jackson loves to use the table as a jungle gym and everything breakable has gone from about 2 feet off the ground to about 4 feet off the ground, and all of our junk is no longer on the edge of the table it is pushed back to the middle!  You have to love those little fingers peeking up over the edge of the table to see if there is anything to grab!!

We have been reading lots of Easter books lately and Jackson has now started to hop like a bunny when he sees one or if we ask him what does a bunny do!!! We are really learning that he has a huge vocabulary!!! Jackson loves to make noises like a cow and vroom around like a car.  These may be the same noise but he uses them for 2 different purposes all together. 

For the time being Jackson is very obedient :) we will see how long that lasts!   If you ask him to go get a ball, or book, etc.  He will repeat with ba or boo and then is off to go get one or 2!  It really is amazing to see how many words he knows!!!


The little stinker has discovered toilet paper and really thinks it is the best toy around!!! Look out!  So far no major messes just little pieces here or there!!!


We really have been having a lot of fun with all of our play dates and Jackson is making lots of new friends (me too!!).  It is fun to start seeing Jackson interact with them now that he is very mobile and not just in awe of all the "big kids". 

The first year really has just flown by and I can already feel the second year going just as fast!   It's hard to believe on the 1st of May we will have lived in the Netherlands for a year.  So much has changed, we finally feel settled and have met some great people.  Just think in less than a year we will already be back to Iowa and remembering all our good and not so good memories of the Netherlands!

Oh no the Chicken Pox

In the Netherlands they choose not to vaccinate against the chicken pox and unfortunately for us we haven't been back in the US since Jackson has been old enough to receive the vaccination.  So guess what we picked up somewhere along the way?! The chicken pox.

I can't really believe it!  I feel so bad for him, he seems pretty miserable and just wants me to hold him but then that doesn't even make him happy.

Of course I had to take him to the doctor and lets just say our opinion of the healthcare system here is that it is a bit lacking.  They don't check temp, or look in his ears, nose, or throat. NOTHING!!! They say oh well it could be chicken pox but we want to see you back in 2 days.

Great!!!! I get to go to the doctor again and wait for 30 minutes with a crying baby while you all decide it is time to go on coffee break!   Today our appointment was for 10:30, we get there a few minutes early like normal people do and I think great, we're the only people here we will get right in.  The patient comes out of the office so we're up, right? Wrong, the receptionist puts up a sign PAUZE or break. Then all of the doctors and receptionists go off for at least 15 minutes, meanwhile the phone is ringing (no answers), patients are arriving (no one there to check them in), Jackson is crying (no one cares).  They clearly knew we were there ontime and waiting since they walked right by us on our way to the coffee room.

Why not make my appointment for 10:45 instead so I don't have to drag my sick child into your office just to wait for you to have coffee?!?!  I bet you can guess that I'm really excited to go back on Friday!!!

I'm 1!!

Hey Everyone it's Jackson again!  I wanted to tell you all about my birthday!! My Grandma Robyn and Grandpa Mark flew all the way here from Iowa to come and celebrate with me for a whole week!! I am having so much fun with them!!

For my birthday we got to go to the Berger Zoo in Arnhem, it was so cool!! I have never seen those kinds of animals except for in my books!!! I really loved looking at the elephants, gorillas and seeing all the fish in the aquarium. I even got to have ice cream which I LOVE!

The next day, we had a birthday party with a few neighbor friends. I was kinda sleepy for the first part but I rallied anyways!! My mom stuck this firey thing in my face and tried to get me to blow on it but all I wanted to do was grab it and put it in my mouth but she wouldn't let me... what's wrong with her?!?!

Then I got to taste some cake with frosting on it... I had one bite of the frosting and did NOT like it at all. It made me shake my head and I think I even gagged a little.  It was way too sweet for me!!!

Then it was time for presents!  I got lots of fun things like puzzles (I carry the pieces around in my mouth), some clothes, and a new Cars car.  I love the car and figured out how to get on and off it all by my self!!!

My other favorites gifts from my mommy and daddy are my new slide and tunnel! They are so much fun and I can almost do the slide all by myself!!

I also got lots of new clothes I think my mom is more excited about them than I am!!

I wish we could have parties like that all the time!!!

Talk to you soon!
Jackson