What's goin' on
I suppose we should be blogging about the wide range of emotions we've been experiencing these past couple of weeks (stressed, excited, sad, uncertain, happy, numb, overwhelmed, etc), but frankly things have been too chaotic to be very reflective. In addition to doing a million little things to prepare for the move, we've managed to keep busy in other ways as well. Some friends had a nice little get-together for us last weekend...
...I squeezed in a work trip to Noordwijk aan Zee in the Netherlands, where between meetings I managed to buy 6 months worth of baby clothes at HEMA and even slipped down to the beach with some colleagues at one point...
...I had an official sending-off at work...
...during which Baby tried to upstage everyone by all of a sudden trying to get a mouthful of Gretchen's champagne glass...
...Gretchen and Baby got together with good friends on a gorgeous day at the zoo...
...The Big Finn and Mrs. TBF were kind enough to have us over for a delicious lunch of burgers, fries and Guinness, plus Baby finally got to wear the bib that TBF got for her at one of America's finest dining establishments...
...then, probably the most difficult thing of all was going to lunch yesterday with the ladies, babies and husbands from Gretchen's informal "moms group". I think having a baby is difficult under the best of circumstances, but it's even tougher when you're in another country, don't have family close by, etc. They have been an absolute godsend for Gretchen, and indirectly for me too because every time we have an issue with Baby, Gretchen asks me what I think we should do and I usually don't have an answer but instead just say "why don't you check with the moms?". It turns out not only are we leaving, but (welcome to life in the expat community) so is the family whose baby was born closest to Baby and who went through a lot of the same issues at the same time. The other moms made a beautiful picture book for us that we will absolutely treasure. Saying goodbye was really difficult for Gretchen, but just when she was feeling really down we got home and had a message on our machine from a close friend back home, which helped snap us back into excitement about seeing friends we've missed these past few years.
...I squeezed in a work trip to Noordwijk aan Zee in the Netherlands, where between meetings I managed to buy 6 months worth of baby clothes at HEMA and even slipped down to the beach with some colleagues at one point...
...I had an official sending-off at work...
...during which Baby tried to upstage everyone by all of a sudden trying to get a mouthful of Gretchen's champagne glass...
...Gretchen and Baby got together with good friends on a gorgeous day at the zoo...
...The Big Finn and Mrs. TBF were kind enough to have us over for a delicious lunch of burgers, fries and Guinness, plus Baby finally got to wear the bib that TBF got for her at one of America's finest dining establishments...
...then, probably the most difficult thing of all was going to lunch yesterday with the ladies, babies and husbands from Gretchen's informal "moms group". I think having a baby is difficult under the best of circumstances, but it's even tougher when you're in another country, don't have family close by, etc. They have been an absolute godsend for Gretchen, and indirectly for me too because every time we have an issue with Baby, Gretchen asks me what I think we should do and I usually don't have an answer but instead just say "why don't you check with the moms?". It turns out not only are we leaving, but (welcome to life in the expat community) so is the family whose baby was born closest to Baby and who went through a lot of the same issues at the same time. The other moms made a beautiful picture book for us that we will absolutely treasure. Saying goodbye was really difficult for Gretchen, but just when she was feeling really down we got home and had a message on our machine from a close friend back home, which helped snap us back into excitement about seeing friends we've missed these past few years.
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