Where we've been...

So, I told myself I was going to be better about blogging, then nine months went by with nothing. There are plenty of excuses as to why - but we're going to try again...again.

Here's a recap of our summer adventures:


We went to beaches in four beaches in three different countries.

We took trains to Brussels, Luxembourg, and Den Helder.

We searched for Nessie in Scotland and cheered on the Cubbies in Chicago.

Granda and Grodmother Annie visited and lived on a house boat.

Cousin Peter and Cousin Kelsey visited (Kelsey even brought her friends Beyonce and Jay-Z).

Tierra and Rusty, Jill and Eric, and Alex and Jess all visited too.

 

We went to Zaanse Schans three times.

We rode in big boats (to Nantucket and Texel) and small boats (mostly just around Amsterdam).

 

We saw almost all our Dorn and Grandi families and met new Budzinskis (and so many friends).

  

It was a jam-packed few months, we took most of the autumn off from big-time adventures to recuperate but we're ready to get back out there with some excitement this winter.

Tweede Halloween

Halloween is a Grandzinski family favorite holiday. DBudz likes to go overboard decorating (this year and last year have been subdued, but once we're in our house I have no doubt he will go completely overboard with animatronic ghosts and bats). And I like kids in costume. I like kids in costume so much that I instituted an annual Halloween kids parade at my old office in Chicago. It was, by far, the best thing I ever accomplished at that job.

Last Halloween, I introduced my Dutch colleagues to Reece's pumpkins (my favorite) and candy corn (DBudz's favorite). They thought the pumpkins were great, but were skeptical of the candy corn, "Sooo, are we eating candle wax? Is this a thing Americans do?"

Halloween is slowly gaining momentum here, and by the time Pip is 4 or 5, I'm sure she'll get to enjoy it as much as American kids do.

To get in the spirit, we attempted decorating a pumpkin, but cornstarch-based paint doesn't actually stick to pumpkins AND Pip doesn't really enjoy painting as much as she likes eating paint and eating the stem of the pumpkin.

Since it was my first time dressing up my own baby, you would think I would have gone all out with a fancy homemade costume. Turns out - I'm not that kind of mom (at least not this year), BUT, we did wind up with 3 different costumes.

The Amsterdam Mamas (the expat moms group in Amsterdam) hosted a Halloween parade on Sunday, so we went with some friends. It was the first really cold day, so we had forego our original costume plan and bundle Pip up. I had a last minute spark of inspiration...

Bear suit + Tutu = A Dancing Bear!

Most of the activities were for bigger kids, but she had a ton of fun sitting in the bouncy castle while the other kids bounced around her and she is always happy to crawl around on a new playground.

When we got home where it was warm, she wore her other costume.

I bought this in a moment of online shopping weakness back in the spring from one of those horrible, unreliable Chinese companies. The tag is sewn on the outside, but you get what you pay for. Our growling baby dino in her true form.

And of course, she had to wear a costume on Halloween!

We had lunch plans to show off this silly skeleton (thanks Kelsey K!) but her overproduction of boogers canceled that. We decided to try out decorating the pumpkin with stickers as a "pincher-grasp practice" activity, and had some success.

Happy Halloween friends!!

One year...

A year ago today, Danny called up Amsterdam and told them we were on our way. Then 2 days later, I was going to explode with the secret so I started this blog.

A year ago we had just been told we might not be able to have kids, we were both in jobs that felt like they were leading absolutely no where, we had just watched Donald Trump assume the presidency of the US, and we were both so itchy for some hope and change.

In the past 365 days, I have regretted this decision exactly three times. 1 - when I found out I was pregnant and was overwhelmed with the thought of raising a baby a continent away from my friends and family. 2- When my Nonno died and I couldn't be with my family. 3 - When Rocket died and I couldn't be there for my best friend. Beyond these moments of fear and grief - at every turn it has felt like the right choice.

Don't get me wrong - its hard. It is so.hard to miss our people, to miss tacos, to miss legal documents written in English. And it is really, really hard to be raising a perfect little Dutch tulip so far from so many people who love her.

People always ask why we moved here and I inevitably fumble through an explanation somewhere between "we love a good adventure," and "have you *seen* America recently?" But the simplest why is because we like how our tax dollars are spent. We traded in "high" salaries and "low" taxes for something approaching the reverse and don't complain because we are happy with where the money is going.

The money goes towards free health care for every child until they turn 18. It goes towards innovative projects to protect against climate change (pretty critical for a country that is below sea level). It goes towards better bike paths, daycare tax credits, good public schools, and affordable housing.  Things we truly believe in and want to be funding.

There are other reasons too. It is dreamy to live in the Jordaan (despite the inevitable weekend influx of too-many tourists). We still stop on every bridge to look up and down whichever canal we're crossing for a small moment of gratitude that we live in a new and beautiful city.  It cannot be overstated how much happier we are to live in a biking city and a biking country. We relish the challenge of a new language and the opportunity to raise a bilingual child.  We lucked into jobs that are rewarding - where we are valued and our voices matter.

We are grateful for the technology that helps us connect to the other side of the ocean (who doesn't love waking up to a daily #Pipstagram?) and how much more we value time spent in the company of those we love.

We don't know how long we'll be here but I do promise to try to blog more this year.

Eerst Nationale Tulpendag

Apparently January is the official launch of tulip season in the Netherlands, which is kind of strange because I wouldn't quite call it tulip weather outside, but I think this is when they get planted so they bloom in the spring. Despite the 38 degree weather (3 degrees Celsius) we ventured out to experience Nationale Tulpendag and see 200,000 tulips planted in Dam Square.

As with any sort of free event in a heavily tourist populated place - it was kind of a shit show. The line to get in to pick the free tulips stretched on far longer than we had any interest in waiting.  Having been warned that this would be the case, I went up to the fence to snap a couple of pictures of other people picking flowers before we left. The man standing next to me at the fence asked one of the security guards inside the garden to snag him a few flowers, which he happily did (there are no rules here). So I mustered up the courage to use my very, very rudimentary Dutch to ask if I could have one of his blooms, which he happily gave me.

Pip slept through the whole experience but woke up on the way home to admire her first dutch tulip.