More Grandparents!

Nana and Grandpa came to visit in mid-July and met Sofie for the first time!  I went to pick them up at the airport with Sofie, and was waiting at the gate for a long time with no way of communicating- finally my Mom came out saying they had lost their luggage.  Before I knew it, she had grabbed Sofie and run off with her behind the security gates!  Craziness, though I'm not shocked that this would be possible at the Belgium airport. The security in Europe is SOOO different than in the states.
We had such a great time having picnics in the park, my Dad did ALL of the cooking and Sofie was just as cute as could be- smiling, standing and being fussed over constantly :)

 We took the car one day while Chris was at work and went up to Ghent.  They were in the middle of pretty fun looking festival of music that apparently lasts for the week leading up to the national holiday.  Unfortunately the weather was pretty rainy, but we saw all the sites and had some Ghent beers.

 What would a trip to Belgium be without an abbey visit, so with my parents we decided to go to Grimbergen, one of our favorites.  As an abbey it isn't so much to see (most of them aren't) but the restaurant is really good, we like the beers, and its very close!  The Gallos', Aja's, Weinberg's and Scott joined us as well, so my parents got to meet some of our good expat friends.

Chris and I took advantage of our babysitters, and went out for a date to Belgaqueen.  It was great, the restaurant is set up in an old bank and the food was delicious.  We were also able to get away to the olympics for a day and out for my 30th birthday dinner!

The Olympics in London was a whirlwind day- I really wasn't ready to leave Sofie overnight, so we decided if we wanted to go, we'd have to leave early in the morning and come back the same day.  We saw a hockey game which was in Olympic park and then two volleyball games across the city (team USA!) It was totally amazing to walk around the park, we are so glad that we went!

Sadly Nana and Grandpa had to go home in early August, we really had a such a fun time, can't wait for them to visit again!

Grandma and Grandpa King Visit!

In mid-June Sofie met her first family members, Grandma and Grandpa!  They arrived after a visit to Spain, which of course meant packing for two entirely different "summer" climates.  As much as the Belgians claim this weather is unusual, the weeks of grey, rainy chilliness have continued long past the end of Spring.  It was so exciting to see them and we really had the best time during their visit.

Sofie spend a lot of time "trying on" all her new gear from G-ma

Sofie just loved her Grandma and Grandpa!

We had lots of fun things planned despite the weather, and were glad to have a few days in the sun as well.  First we went up to Waterloo for an annual reenactment of the great battle of Napoleon and the French versus the English/Dutch.  We climbed to the top of the Butte de Leon, visited the muddy battle campsite and had a Belgian lunch at a cafe.
The next day was Father's day so we celebrated with Brunch downtown at the Musical Instruments museum and a walk around the Grande Place.
We also had a visit from Josh, who joined us for a trip to Westmalle Abbey and to the Magritte museum downtown.  Chris was busy with a meetings during the week, so the Kings and I took a trip up to Bruges and enjoyed a canal cruise, chocolate from the The Chocolate Line AMAZING store and of course more beer sampling :)

Walking around Bruges

                                                                                                           

We had to say goodbye to Grandpa early, but we had Grandma for another week and adventures planned to Gaasbeek castle, the Neuhaus outlet and the Tour de France! Gaasbeek was nice, the grounds were really great, but I didn't find the inside to be that spectacular.  Neuhaus was unbelievable, and I was completely sick from eating so much free chocolate! Next time I go in with a chocolate sampling game plan!!          Chris and I celebrated our 2 year anniversary this weekend as well, and with a fantastic babysitter in town (Grandma!) went out for dinner at Comme Chez Soi.  This is probably the best restaurant in Brussels, and Uncle Sean had given us a gift certificate for Christmas which we decided to save for this special occasion.  Everything was AMAZING, we had a seven course meal which included two desserts, some tasty wine, and the most friendly, efficient service I've ever experienced.  It was one of those places where three people run around and fuss if you make a motion like you need to get up for the bathroom, or have a question with the wine.  Very fancy!

Welcome baby Sofie Mai!

So clearly I haven't been keeping up to date with the blogging, I'll have to catch up with the months of May-July
!
May 23rd our beautiful baby girl was born at 7:03 pm at Edith Cavell Hospital.  We were SO sure we were going to have a boy, it was a very fun surprise at the end.  Glad we waited!  She is the cutest thing, was 3.265 kg and 49cm long.  The whole experience was great and I'd love to have a baby in Brussels again! Sofie's due date was a week before and my doctor had offered to enduce on this day.  We thought, why not, so off to the hospital Tuesday May 14th.  One thing that is surely different in Belgium is that you have to bring SOO much stuff to the hospital, so we arrived with a rolling luggage suitcase, pillows, computers, cameras, slippers, robes, shampoo, soap, towels, snacks, books, and clothes for 5 days for all three of us!  This is one of the reasons that it was quite annoying to be turned away- there was no beds for us, so back home we went.  The next morning, we showed up again, me getting more and more anxious to get the babe out, only to be turned away again!  Taking this as a sign, we did NOT show up again the next day, hehe.  Sunday was the new date of induction, so back to the hospital, but after a almost 24 hours of induction meds, two different kinds, we weren't making any progress (just 1 cm dilated!)  I hadn't really slept, the contractions were very painful and we decided to go back home to wait a few more days.  Then Wednesday we arrived at the hospital again, third different induction, Pitocin this time, an epidural and 12 hours later we had our baby! Definitely not the labor story we had expected, but a story non-the-less.
 Our stay at the hospital was great, they have you "room in" with your baby for 5 days! Every day was full of activities, like learning how to give a bath, a visit from the pediatrician, a massage from the kinestherapist, and three pretty good meals a day.

 The midwives were so nice and taught us a lot in the first few days.  Although I was definitely ready to get out of the hospital by Sunday, the stay was very enjoyable!

Our first family photo!

The day we got home Sofie had her first overseas visitor, Clare and Matt!  They were in Brussels, for a few days and we were lucky enough to catch them before they left.  We had a nice time catching up (wish it could have been longer!)

From the very first days home Sofie has been a great sleeper at night and an all around great baby :)  She loves smiling, sticking her tongue out, laying on her jungle mat and being carried all over the house.

A-DAM fun birthday weekend!

When I realized that Chris' 30th birthday was going to fall on Easter weekend, I "hopped" to planning a little getaway.  Not being able to fly anymore (34 weeks prego!), we decided on going up to Amsterdam- just a two hour drive north.  I know what you're thinking, IS there a better party spot for a 30th birthday?!!? What with all the tulips, pancakes, windmills and canals!  Well the answer is no!  We had a blast :)
                                      

First stop on our mini road trip was the world famous Keukenhof in Lisse, Holland.  This is an amazing indoor/outdoor botanical garden, open mid-March to mid-May every year.  You could spend the entire day here walking around the perfectly designed and planned flower beds- mostly tulips but other pretty flowers as well.  There is a classic old windmill that you can climb up to the top of, and on this really windy day it was whipping around like crazy!

A hedge maze!

For my swollen prego feet!

The outside of the Keukenhof was maybe the best part, just field after field of different colored tulip in lines stretching as far as you can see.
After that it was back in the car and off to Amsterdam (just 30 more minutes or so)  We stayed in a nice hotel right by the museum district and one of the major canals.  We checked in then went right out to explore.  Just crossing the street was pretty terrifying.  Living in Brussels we are used to crazy drivers and even trams coming from all directions, but here we found a new insane danger....the BIKES!  People in Amsterdam FLY down the "bike lanes" which are completely indistinguishable from the sidewalk- with just a tiny little bell as a signal meaning "get the hell out of the way or I'll run you over!"  For the birthday dinner we went to a restaurant my friend recommended called Balthazar's Keuken (kitchen) which was SO good.  Just a tiny place run by a couple with a set menu (all you chose is your main course between two options) The owners were really nice, food was delish, we would love to go back.  We got great news that night that the Herron's had their baby earlier in the day.  Little Olivia and Chris share a birthday!

Easter Sunday we got up and had some delicious Dutch pancakes.  They are almost like a thicker crepe, with the filling (fruit) baked right in.  It was such a sunny nice day, we booked a canal cruise that started right outside our hotel.  The "blue boat" took us all around the city, past some really cool looking house boats, Anne Frank's house, through a lot of the historic districts and even to the harbor.  After that we headed over to the Van Gogh museum, which was funny because my parents had just seen a lot of his work in Philadelphia the weekend before.  So we missed a few of the more famous paintings, but still got to see his self portraits, the sunflowers and a lot of less famous, but impressive paintings.  After lunch we walked over to the Heineken "Experience" which is a tour of the old Heineken brewery.  Chris probably enjoyed this more than me, but then again he got to drink my beers (you get two with your ticket!)

Monday we had reservations for a Dutch cheese tasting at the Reypenaer cheese house.  This was very cute, set up like a little classroom where we sampled, graded and analyzed a bunch of their yummy cheeses.  Chris and I are both horrible at identifying what a cheese smells or tastes like....um cheese, hello?  But we still passed the course :) We bought some to take home and along with a Guillotine cheese slicer- which is super fun!

It was great weekend, we love all things Dutch!

And now that you know what the guest room in House #1 looks like...

Michele and I in a sea of bikes

...it's time to plan a visit!
We've actually had four fabulous visitors so far, and are starting to get the hang of our guest "routine"- but also enjoy seeing new things ourselves each time.
Our first visitor was my Dad, who was in the area for business back in September.  UNFORTUNATELY this was the weekend that we moved from our temporary housing to our new apartment.  It was great to see him, but we put him to work, lol.
Next was a visit from the Herrons in early November.  Josh was here on business, Michele just for fun- and we had a great week together!  We started doing the basics around Brussels, discovered the Museum of Musical instruments which was okay- but in a beautiful old art-deco building downtown.  Next we took the train out to Ghent where Chris met us for lunch.  Ghent is a really cool medieval city with canals, castles and some great old churches (kind of like Bruges, but the Belgians tell us MUCH less touristy)

St Baafskathedral build in 1290

Over a canal in Ghent

Josh with his Kwak (minus one shoe!)

We all really enjoyed the medieval castle, Gravensteen, right in downtown Ghent complete with many torture chambers, the classic castle walls and stone rooms.  Afterwards we went for a beer at Dulle Griet which serves over 250 types of beer.  If you order a large Kwak, like the boys did, you have to give one of your shoes as collateral so you don't steal with the really cool glass that its served in!

  

Gravensteen castle

The next day we headed off to Maredsous Abbey for some authentic monk made beer and cheese.  Any Belgian beer that says "trappist" on it, is brewed by Belgian monks, and they pretty much only make it when they need money for the Abbey (not to make a profit) Not far from the abbey is the town of Dinant, which has an old citadel (fortress) which you have to take a cable car up the cliff to see.

Maredsous Abbey

After a really fun weekend the boys left for Amsterdam and Ireland (for work) and Michele and I explored Antwerp and drove down to Luxembourg for the day.  It was so great seeing the Herron's we miss them so much!

Finally, our most recent visitor was Brill who came for a very short weekend trip to Brussels.  He got here pretty late Friday, so him and Chris went out for a "bromantic" dinner at Belga Queen and the obligatory visit to Delirium bar downtown.  Saturday I had to drag them both out of bed- it was sunny, 70's and we had a lot to see in one day!  Brill enjoyed the House Hunter's walking tour (complete with the shop we "practice our french in", a stroll by House #3, and a walk through "big decision" park)

 We went down to the Grand Place, had lunch at one of the outdoor cafes, bought chocolate, boys had beer, and stopped by the Mannekin dressed in scrubs? This was the first time I've seen him in costume, but apparently he has over 100 that he wears throughout the year.  Anyways, it was great to see Brill. He had to leave early Sunday, and even missed getting waffle (truck must open in the afternoon) I guess he'll have to come again!

House Hunters

A few weeks ago our episode of House Hunters International finally aired in the States.  Ironically, I met a lady at the American Women's club shortly after who had just moved to Brussels, and was considering being on the show as well.  If you are thinking, "isn't it too late for her and her family who have already moved abroad?" that's a GREAT question, but no, in fact it's not too late- but one of the reasons I cautioned her to think carefully about doing this crazy show!
We filmed here in late September, two weeks after we'd moved into our new place (House #1!)  We had taken a trip to Belgium earlier in the summer where we had our "real" house hunting experience- which, let's just say, consisted of more than viewing just three apartments- and no cameras!  Day 1 of filming was  actually the last part of the show where we were in our new place, furniture and all.  Day 2, if you can believe it, movers came at 8am to move all of our stuff out which in Belgium, by law, means a truck with a lift taking EVERYTHING out through the second story window.  Once our place was empty, we toured through with our "real estate agent".  She is an actual real estate agent in Brussels, and very nice, but in reality this was the first time we'd met her, ha!  The rest of the weekend was full days of filming, you wouldn't believe how long it took to get through each room of each apartment that we saw.
The camera crew was a really great group, and it was funny to film down by the Grand Place- people kept taking our pictures- looking confused like "who ARE these people?"  Anyways, seeing the final product was worth it in the end- it was a really fun experience and we had a good laugh at ourselves on TV.

The site of the big decision and bike scenes

A few things to clarify, that people have been asking:
Q: "Do all the stairs really bother you that much?"
A: No! I'm guessing in order to keep the suspense alive, they made it seem like the stairs were a deal-breaker for the apartment.  In fact our beloved old apartment in Hoboken had many more stairs, including a spiral staircase which we managed just fine on.

Q: "Are you happy with the apartment that you chose?"
A:  Yes, we are happy with #1, but of course there other two weren't actually in the running when we picked it.  #3 was also nice, and the kitchen not as bad as I made it seem, but c'est la vie!

Q: "Why did you guys keep saying the same things over and over?"
A:  We have NO idea!  There must have been 40 hours of film used to create this 23 minute show, so repeating clips three times over was totally crazy.

Better late than never

Well, it's been seven months since we moved to Brussels and despite promising to keep friends and family up to date with our movements, this is the first (of many!) blog posts.  Chris and I were discussing how our poor Brussel Sprout (now just 7 weeks until his/her due date!) will have been to so many places, both as a fetus and infant, and most likely will remember nothing.  We were laughing about a future conversation with Sprout where they ask to visit Madrid, Rome or Paris- when we remind them that they've already been there, sorry!  So, if nothing else, Sprout can read all about its early adventures here one day.  I'll try to recap some main events

Pictured here is the Sprout at around one or two weeks old (in fact we didn't know even know it existed!) at the gardens down by the Grand Place in Brussels. First Belgian lesson: it's important to bring many items with you on a day out including multiple layers of clothing, umbrella, sunglasses, sunscreen- weather can change dramatically and quickly!
One of the first big adventures for the three of us was our trip to Sorrento, Naples and Capri.  We went at the end of October and were thrilled that this time of year was warm, sunny and crowd free!  We stayed in a hotel built literally into a cliff overlooking the Mediterranean sea.

Chris standing outside (on top of) our hotel

Most delicious pizza, and sun!

The baths at Pompeii

We also spent a day exploring the miles of ancient ruins of Pompeii which was preserved when Mount Vesuvius erupted and blanketed the city, freezing it in time.  You could walk inside what were the houses, marketplaces, baths and temples- totally amazing!  We just loved our short trip to Italy, the Sprout was very well behaved (around 11 weeks) and allowed me enjoy pizza, pasta and of course GELATO without too many of its first trimester antics.

Picasso's Guernica

Chris taking us for a ride in Retiro Park

 November in Brussels was very chilly and rainy so we headed south again, this time to Madrid.  This was a work trip for Chris, so the Sprout and I did a little exploring of our own- just loved the Reina Sophia art museum and the architecture in general of the city.  On the weekend we checked out the Royal Palace, Retiro Park and the Prado museum- stopping for tapas everywhere we could! Lots of jambon was consumed!