Eileen turns 1

Hello friends and family;
Eileen celebrated her first birthday with friends of all sorts. We had a play group visit on the 29th. So, her little friends got a good dose of play with extra sugar. As I said at the time: we sugar 'em up and send 'em home.

Then today, she had her real birthday. Really, she is one year old. She celebrated with chocolate cake (Anna's recipe from the family archive), lemon layer cake with a lemon cream icing based on lemon curd and whipped cream (unsweetened...and this is my own recipe), and a cherry cream concoction from the bakery which was amazingly good - even by Dutch standards. If anyone is in the area, there are leftovers of each! Of course, I managed to make about 2x what was eaten!

She of course got more loot than a one year old merits and loved every minute of it.

Eric, Eileen and I had a great time with the neighbors and close friends today. And Eileen and I enjoyed the play group on Thursday.

So, aside from not needing any more simple sugar in any of the Jackson immediate family's bloodstream, I think this would qualify as a wonderful first birthday!!!

A Birthday? -- next week

Blog fans, it is almost a full year since Eileen made her command arrival! We are getting ready to celebrate Dutch/American style. No party, but friends are welcomed to our home with coffee and American cakes. I will be baking Anna's Chocolate Cake (recipe from my great grandmother's cook) and a lemon cake from the Gourmet Magazine archive (with a lemon whipped cream icing) -- since my family recipe for lemon cake is a Bundt cake.

I don't know if I have mentioned the Dutch and their coffee. I don't know if it is due to the history as traders or their old spheres of influence. They love coffee here!!! And, there is something called coffee milk. We always have mini-coffee milks available for the neighbors who rarely stop by, but do enjoy coffee when they stop by.

So, please no gifts, but come share a slice of cake (or read the blog and think about cake). We'll post pictures of the baby with cake smeared everywhere!

Off to a resort for a week of meetings...

Okay, Eileen and I are going to see the mountains and the skiing next week...not that either of us ski. Eric is going to work (sound familiar, gentle reader?). We hope to pry him away and into a pool or a hot tub or a nice meal. Anyway, we will be off the net for about a week. Hope to have some pictures to post when we return.

birthdays and anniversaries

Well, perhaps it is that we are in the country, or perhaps it is only our neighborhood, but I think not. We have been invited on several occasions to participate in birthday and anniversary celebrations. Inevitably, these are for years that are divisible by 5. And, all of those have ended up with large catered parties. Lots of fun, although, we are hampered by our lack of Dutch.

Eileen normally loves to play with other kids, but this last party had a boy who was about twice her age and wanted to treat her as his older brother treated him (a do unto her as he did unto me thing). Well, Eileen was dragged, and pulled. I let her try to deal with it, but when every interaction ended in tears (the last one being a body slam from behind the crawling girl), it was time for hovering mom to become Mom of Action. So, I gave both kids some raisins, and from then on played on the floor with her and when he came near, picked her up, or hugged him until she was done with what she was doing and could be picked up.

I think things would actually be much more uncomfortable for us at these parties without Eileen, as our Dutch is basically still non-existent (despite being able to communicate for what we need, it just won't hold up to a conversation -- even about the weather).

Anyway, all is great here...and Eileen is becoming more mobile and excited about the world with every moment. Today she scaled the 18 inches to be on our hearth (Eric has now barricaded our andirons with a gym mat). And, while it is freezing outside -- coldest winter in 20+ years, we do have heating gas - so please don't worry.

Baby wellness for 11 monthes

Eileen is 18.18 lbs and 28.6 inches long, though I got it in metric -- she is 8245g and 72.7 cm long. Eric recently posted a bunch of photos and a short video clip. I am posting the clip with Eric's permission (he filmed this the day after we unpacked the toy). Apparently BLOGGER didn't upload this...working on it!

Happy New Year

Everyone coming to our small gathering had an ailment of one sort or another (we are I think all thankfully on the mend now, except maybe Eileen who is a little congested). So, we did not stay awake until midnight (except me). Then the fireworks really started happening. Eileen is not a fan of awakening to cannon fire...but they were beautiful, and it was a great excuse to have a family cuddle.

Anyway, we have some fireworks already saved for next New Years!

Most Dutch who work in offices had the 2nd off -- similar to many in America this year.

The rest of the week was preparing for a party that didn't quite happen (anyone want some leftovers? -- just kidding, we are plowing through them).