Catching Up: A week where a lot of things happened

The last week of November/first week of December was a big one over here.

1- Nonno came to visit.

We're always so grateful when people come to visit us. Poor Nonno had to deal with a very, very sick Penelope (including a first trip to the pediatrician) but dutifully hung out with us and explored solo while we ran around doing a million things (see #3).

2- We went to Pip's first (out-of-utero) concert.

Despite having parents who aren't "music people" and who live across an ocean from all of their favorite recording artists, Pip managed the two weirdest (for 2017) in utero concerts: Third Eye Blind and Dar Williams. Dar Williams is actually the concert that send me into labor (thanks Dar!) in December. 

We have been seriously, seriously struggling with the idea of Sinterklaas. Have your read David Sedaris' Six to Eight Black Men? I recommend it for a humorous idea of what we're dealing with. What we're actually dealing with is a country of people who are waaaaay too casual about blackface. Also, Penelope was born ON the day that Sinterklaas is celebrated (which is like being born on Christmas) which is only making the issue more tedious.

But! We have found an alternative that we love. De Nieuwe Sint. After reading about it on someone's facebook, we dragged my dad along (Nonno loves a little reggae music) and it ended up being a super fun afternoon even with a sick baby who wanted to dance even though she couldn't walk. We are perfectly happy to make this the only Sinterklaas tradition we have.

3- We bought a house

Did I bury the lede on this one? Maybe. But it was somewhat anticlimactic as we had bid on the house and signed an initial contract in June. When we agreed to buy it, we had to agree of a closing date of 30 November (which ended up getting pushed back to 3 December). It was very strange to know that we had already bought a house, but have to wait 6 months to do anything about it. Though all that time gave us the opportunity to plan almost a gut-rehab of the place. It was really nice to have my Mom here when we signed the first batch of paperwork and my Dad here for the second. Purely coincidence but a happy one for sure.

4- Pip turned one!

Okay. I REALLY buried the lede, but this was the last thing that happened. Our little Poo-poo bear turned one year old. We celebrated the day before at school with traktaties and songs and then at home with presents and getting the screen on mama's phone fixed (lucky baby!) and then the next weekend with cake and balloons with some of our new friends.