Easter 2011

I am a little ashamed to admit it, but for us Easter is one of those last-minute holidays.

Back in the Netherlands we don’t have an Easter Bunny bringing goodies, and in the Catholic church it pretty much rivals Christmas in importance. I used to work at the bakery in a grocery store on Saturdays and the Saturday before Easter was busier than the day before Christmas.

This year we colored eggs the night before and the Easter Bunny had some last minute shopping to do. He opted for Easter cookies in stead of chocolate bunnies, which Will thought was a little weird. And the chocolate eggs weren’t his favorite brand (he prefers Hershey’s over Dove, we need to work on that!).

But other than that we had a great day. We had a great breakfast. Kris had invited us over for a yummy dinner and the kids got to go egg hunting in her yard. Luckily Granny and Grampy made sure the Easter Bunny had stuffed his eggs with Hershey kisses, Cadbury eggs and Rolo’s. (Mom and Dad are very grateful!)

Tessa @ 15 Months

Tessa turned 15 months a few weeks ago.

She has grown quite a bit and is no longer our little baby. It is so much fun to see her develop into a little girl (with a big personality)!

All greasy from eating pancakes in the Netherlands!

Some (fun) facts about her:

– Going up and down the stairs by herself. She is fast!

– Feeding herself. She won’t let you feed her very often anymore. She likes to eat with utensils and is pretty good at it.

– While in Europe she preferred to walk behind the stroller and help push in stead of sitting in it.

– Dogs. She loves reading about them, seeing them and petting them. Mostly little ones though. She also likes to chase Granny’s cat.

– Suckers and fruit snacks. We used them to keep her happy on the plane, and now she knows where we keep them. Which causes some tantrums sometimes.

– Speaking of tantrums, they are definitely more normal nowadays. She’ll let you know when she is not happy with something.

– Reading. Either with one of us or by herself. I’ll sometimes find her in her chair with a book. Hopefully this one will stick!

– She is more and more interested in Will and what he does. Which can be a little annoying for Will. But it is fun to see them “play together” sometimes.

– She does not like to step over cracks in concrete floors or door steps. She’ll just stand by them and whine a little. It takes her several tries to get over it.

– When Trevor is working outside I often put Tessa on the window sill so she can watch him. She likes to lick the window and draw things.

– She still loves to draw. She’ll usually sit and draw for about 10 minutes.

– She recognizes herself in pictures and the mirror and will say her name.

Her stats from her latest Dr.’s visit (last week):

		Weight			Length			Head Circumference
		Pounds	Grams	%	Inches	Cm	%	Inches	Cm	%
At birth		6 lbs 13 oz	3100		19	48		13.5	34
2-weeks	0 m 13 d	7 lbs 5 oz	3310	20.66	20	50	40.72	14.2	36	55.36
2-months	2 m 1 d	10 lbs 7 oz	4758	40.62	22	56	35.33	15.2	39	53.79
4-months	4 m 3 d	13 lbs 3 oz	5980	38.08	25	63.5	76.45	16.5	41	74.94
6-months	6 m 13 d	13 lbs 15 oz	6320	8.72	25.5	64.5	31.84	17	43	65.33
9-months	9 m 11 d	16 lbs 15 oz	7680	14.27	27.5	70	42.05	17.6	45	67.99
12-months	12 m 3 d	20 lbs 3 oz	9149	35.68	29	74	48.21	18	46	70.18
15-months	15 m 11 d	23 lbs 6 oz	10600	59.82	30.5	77.5	53.3	18.3	46.5	68.2

More Europe

Here are some more pictures from Europe, courtesy of my dad.

Trevor & Tessa at the beach in Scheveningen.

Tessa & tante Karin

Keukenhof

Tessa did not like the sand on her feet.

Will loved it.

Trying to get a four-generations picture.

(And if you look very closely you can see me in the picture behind us, on the left with the green jacket. It was the early nineties.)

Ice cream @ Florence.

Opa with Christian and Tessa.

Tessa’s morning routine: breakfast at her own little table.

Wind-swept hair in Kinderdijk.

I am still trying to organize all of them and am still waiting for more pics from Opa and Ellen.

So stay tuned!

Europe In Pictures