Hi Tribe!

[LilWin]

Hi everyone,
Just coming in to say hi! :) I'm Christine, SAHM to two lovely kids, one DD almost 2 and a baby boy, now 3 months old. We live in Amsterdam (Zuid).
I started reading here on MDC a while ago and loved it from the start, especially since these forums all are so active, there's always something interesting to read. When DD was born, I did a lot of AP things just by instinct without ever knowing that's what it was. :o I kind of got on a different track and drifted away from a lot of old friends, so IRL there aren't many people to hang out with, which is sometimes hard as a SAHM. I'm such a dork when it comes to meeting new people and striking up a conversation. :loveeyes: Anyway, I look forward to being part of this tribe! :banana

[sarahmck]

Hi Christine! It's great to see more MDC people here in Amsterdam. There are now I think at least 3 of us active in the Holland forum from Amsterdam, so we've established a majority!

There are quite a few officially AP or at least AP-friendly activities that I've been going to or discovered recently, including English-speaking LLL, an AP playgroup, and another playgroup that is frequented by several AP people. If you want information on any of those things, just PM me. Also, it sounds like our daughters are about the same age (Eloïse will be 2 next week) and we also live in Zuid, so maybe a playdate is in order?

Sarah

[PumpkinSeeds]

:w

[rzberrymom]

Hi Christine!! Welcome!!

I'm a dork about striking up conversations too, especially on the playground! So, it's been nice for me to have this tribe (plus, the mamas and the kiddos are all the best!)

[wobbema]

Hi Christine...

Welcome!
Where are you from??

I guess i'm one of the few that Sarah mentoined living in amsterdam (center).
I went to the LLL meeting last week and the AP playgroup and ii really enjoyed both activities.

Will be nice to meet you soon as well!

Angela!
(mom to Wobbe, 21 september 2006)

[SuzymomofLaura]

Hi Christine!!! Welcome to Mokum :p
Woohoo! Another MDC mama in Amsterdam! :greet

[LilWin]

Thanks for the warm welcome, everyone! :) I forgot to mention I'm born and raised here in Holland and I'm 32. Thought I'd make the information complete. :wink

[krizzanne]

Hi, Christine, welcome, and Congratulations on your new little baby!

Hey, you Amsterdam people, I think it's fair to say the 'ball is in your court'. invite the rest of us up there, so we can meet!:wink

[sarahmck]

Okay, here's a thought: There's an AP playgroup at Artis (the zoo) every Thursday at around 2:00. Several of us regularly arrive quite late due to naps and such. I've only known about it recently, while the weather has been good, so I don't know what happens with it when it rains. However, perhaps we could coordinate our MDC meet-up with that playgroup? Maybe we could meet at my (or whoever's) house in the morning and then head to the zoo for the playgroup in the afternoon? Anyway, I suggest Thursday, May 17th. Friday, May 18th would also work well for me. I'm happy to host in Amsterdam Oud-Zuid.

Sarah

[wobbema]

hi....

to me Sarah's idea sounds good cause we "always" (ahumm.... since 2 weeks heehe!!!) go to the playgroup as well.
But i don't know if the rest wants / can pay the entrance fee? it's about 16 or 17 euros....
We could also just walk to a nearby childrens farm or the park?
If the weather is like today, we could go to Tunfun?
http://www.tunfun.nl/engels.shtml
I don't know if that's nice, we've never been there but it's an indoor playground, esp nice for young kids.
Has anyone been there?? Is it good?
It's 7,50 euros so quite a bit cheaper.
It's located near waterloo-plein.

May 17 or 18 is good for us.

hope to see all of you soon!!!

angela!

[sarahmck]

That's a good point about the zoo entrance fee. I forget about that because we have a membership, as I'm sure you do, Angela.

TunFun is fun, but I think it's not the best for kids under 4 or so, since they generally require supervision, or simply ask for you to watch them, so it's harder to chat. It's super for bigger kids who are happy to go off on their own. Babies under 1 are free. BTW, there's also a new TunFun-ish place next to the Woonmall -- it's nicer and dead during school hours, in our experience.

We could go to the geitenboerderij at the Amsterdamse Bos, but that's a bit tricky to get to without a bike. Also, I recently learned that those little goat baby bottles contain goat formula, not goat's milk!!! I am seriously bummed by that.

Of course, there's always the Melkhuis playground in the Vondelpark. That's only a 10 minute walk from my house and has the added benefit of a café.

Ignoring what we do specifically, how are those dates for everyone?

Sarah

[PumpkinSeeds]

Thursday works better for me.

:)

[LilWin]

Yay, this is fun! :banana We could do 17th or 18th, that's fine. I'm not sure about location, we've never been to Artis before with Lily and to be honest, I want to go as a family first. I would vote for Vondelpark. If we were to come to your house, do you have room for so many people, Sarah?

PS: didn't know that about the goats, I'm shocked! I thought they milked the goats and put that in the bottles. :(

[rzberrymom]

Either day works for us. As far as location, something cheap would be great. :loveeyes:

[sarahmck]

If we were to come to your house, do you have room for so many people, Sarah?

Yes. The only problem will be if it's rainy. Then the bigger kids might get stir-crazy here. Hm, come to think of it, the Melkhuis in the park does also have an inner restaurant part, so that's somewhere we could go even if it rains, just for a change of scenery. If some of the kids want to brave the rain and play in the park anyway, the rest of us could stay dry inside. Of course, maybe it won't rain. I guess I'm just worried that we'll now have 6 weeks of rain to match our previous 6 weeks of sun!

[wobbema]

Shall we do thursday 17 then? (as this works better for pumpkinseeds)
Krisssy, Suzy, can you make it?
Gabry? (probably not.... :( )
Anyone else??
Then we'll have to cancel the AP playgroup Sarah, are you OK with that?

Sarah... have fun with your parents!!!!
And thank you in advance for hosting us...
I live in amsterdam as well and would be happy to host as well but i'm afraid it won't be such a succes as we live on 60 sq meter or so and no balconny or garden.... :(

Hope to see you tomorrow or next week!!!

[sarahmck]

Then we'll have to cancel the AP playgroup Sarah, are you OK with that?

Yes. You might have noticed that I haven't been terribly successful at getting myself there lately!

[LilWin]

I live in amsterdam as well and would be happy to host as well but i'm afraid it won't be such a succes as we live on 60 sq meter or so and no balconny or garden.... :(

Ditto here, except we do have a (small) balcony. :o Thursday 17, it's on our calender!

[sarahmck]

Okay, so it sounds like we have me, Angela, Jen, Christine and Katie as definite yeses. Krissie, are you in? Anyone else? I believe that my friend Mina and her 26-month old DD will be joining us as well. She's been having trouble with her MDC account and therefore hasn't posted to join us.

I have everyone but Christine's e-mail addresses (Christine, please PM me with your e-mail). I'll e-mail you all my physical address and basic directions.

Sarah

[clogmama]

Hello! DS has the day off from school that day and so we can come also...

[LilWin]

Thursday 17 is a day off for many people since it's Ascension Day (ok, I had to look that up in the dictionary :lol), I don't know if that's a problem? DH doesn't have to work that day, but he doesn't mind being home alone for the first time in ages. :o

[SuzymomofLaura]

I'm afraid we won't be able to make it this time either :gloomy:
Basicly I'm just running from chiropractor, acupuncturist, pregnancy classes, hypnotherapy sessions to increasingly frequent appointments with my gynaecologist. Babe is breach and only 32 days to go until my due date...:eek They won't let me VBAC if he/she won't turn! EEK!
I'll be happy to host when all this is over though! We live on the outmost border of Amsterdam (quite rural, believe it or not) only thing is there's no public transport close to our home. But we do have lots of space and a giant garden, so it's great for hot summer days (hopefully yet to come)
Please keep inviting me, I so want to meet you all!!
(the goat''s formula thing IS bothering me too, my DD loves the geitenboerderij so much!)

Come to think of it: what she enjoys most is feeding those little bottles to the piggies instead of the goats :laugh:

[gabry]

Hey guys, that sounds like so much fun, but, for this one time that I am also off on a weekday, not gonna happen. Kieran is in the hospital for dehydration. His cold from last week turned into (or was complicated by, whichever) a nasty stomachbug that caused watery diarrhea literally every 30-60 minutes. Vomiting was not as bad, but no amount of oral hydration did any good. We were hoping it was just a 24 hour bug, but after almost two days and no change he started to be weak and had lost about 500 grams!
Thankfully he's much better and hopefully will be released tomorrow or wednesday, but we won't be up for a daytrip just yet.
Everybody please send good vibes our way...

[wobbema]

hi Gabry....

Oi that's soooo sad...
take care!
:Hug for Kieran... and for you! and the rest of your lovely family!

hope to see you again soon!

liefs!, angela