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The Blog
Sunday August 17, 2008
I mentioned that Mariska pronounces her name "slightly" different from what it should be. Although it is in Dutch, here is the proof:
Thursday August 14, 2008
Mariska is taking over the internet. Well, her face is now appearing on a new website that is not maintained by her pappa. As a result of the photo contest, Mariska's face can now also be seen on www.oakville.ca. Here is a screenshot or check the website out yourself:
Monday August 11, 2008
Did you that
- we had a good time at Springridge farm.
- Mariska especially liked the pony ride.
- tears were flowing when she had to get off her pony as the photo's in the pictures section showed.
- we went to the Toronto Islands last weekend
- it started to drizzle as soon as we had set foot on the Islands
- we still spend a few hours on the island and I am happy that we went despite the precipitation
- this picture can tell you how black the clouds were when we were on the ferry back coming from the Islands
- it really started to rain once we got back on shore again
- it actually felt chilly a few days.
- Mariska now regularly says "Oh God, oh God", something she learned this from her cousin.
- we have been 'working out' on the Wii Fit
- both of us actually lost some weight but the Wii Fit can't take the credit for everything
- I am hoping to lose about 20 pounds
- I wouldn't mind more but for now I think losing 20 pounds will be difficult enough
- Catherine now knows that I have problems with standing on one leg
- we had a huge explosion in Toronto on Sunday
- we didn't hear anything in Oakville
- Mariska is really good at saying the word NO
- Mariska can say MA (pause) RIS (pause) KA but that she says 'Madja' when we ask her what her name is
- we think it's weird for a 2 year old to like garlic sauce and to see her sucking on a lemon
- I realised that 3 of my 4 direct reports are actually older than me
- I don't mind being a manager although it is definitely more stressful
- I have mentioned Mariska a lot in this posting again and not Kaylee yet.
- Kaylee slept 15 hours on 1 day last week
- Kaylee now has been mentioned in this post.
- I should also mention that Kaylee also now rolls over and back
- Kaylee now finally sleeps in a crib because she was big for the bassinet
Wednesday July 30, 2008
Did you know that
- we reached the end of July but that I don't have the feeling that summer has started yet.
- this might come because of the strange weather we are having
- we are having the wettest summer on record in Toronto
- I don't mind all the rain all the much
- this must be a Dutch thing...
- Mariska has decided that she doesn't want to be in the high chair anymore
- she even doesn't like wearing a bib during dinner but that she doesn't have a choice
- Kaylee is getting bigger and bigger
- Kaylee really smiles a lot
- Kaylee still doesn't a lot of hair
- Kaylee has even less problems with falling asleep in the evening than Mariska did
- we celebrated Mariska's birthday last weekend since Catherine's family will be out of town this weekend
- Mariska got a little vacuum cleaner (besides other stuff of course)
- she therefore will be tired of vacuuming cleaning when she is a grown-up
- Catherine has been working on the new bed room for Mariska
- we got a heart attack when we got the first quote for finishing the basement
- we were a lot happier with the second one
- we now hope that we have a finished basement before Catherine goes back to work
- flying to the Netherlands with a wife and 2 kids is not cheap
- we still want to go there next year for my parents anniversary
- we just need a good sponsor to pay for everything ;)
Sunday July 20, 2008
As many know, I enjoy taking pictures. A couple of months ago I got an e-mail from the Oakville Camera Club about a contest organised by the city of Oakville. They were looking for a cover picture for their parks, recreation and culture brochure. Catherine had seen it too in the newspaper and she suggested one particular picture for it. So I submitted it and a few weeks ago I was told I won that contest and yesterday the brochure arrived not only on our doorstep but on all the doorsteps in Oakville and yes, there was Mariska on the front cover:
And this is what was written on page 3:
I guess I could call myself now a prize winning photographer ;)
Sunday July 13, 2008
When Pappa is not around and you only hear his voice when he calls, well then you need to kiss the cell phone if you want to kiss him...
(no idea how to get rid of that second picture....)
Thursday July 10, 2008
It's been awhile since I have given an update in this corner of the internet but because of hyves.nl and facebook.com, it is not that I had disappeared completely from the face of the earth. In fact, I think I have never been more in touch with so many people. I think it's really neat to stay up to date with people through these web sites. And I am not even as addicted to these web sites as my mom....
Anyway, last week we went up North again for the annual week at the Smilin' Moose, the cottage that Catherine's family rents once a year. I actually had to work on Monday but thanks to old technology, dial-up, I was able to work from the cottage. But being on dial-up makes me appreciate my fast (= normal) internet connection even more. Boy was it frustrated to be on dial-up again, but it did the job.
The Smilin' Moose was fun. Gained some more weight (really need to start loosing weight, really....) and Mariska loved the beach, that is on the same property. Everyday she want to go there, where she mainly collected water in a bucket and then poured it out again. Over and over again. There were days where she just didn't wanted to go back to the home, resulting in tears of course.
After the Moose, Catherine and the kids continued their journey up North and visited her grandparents, who were with us at the Moose, so that means that I am currently all alone at home which is weird. It was weird to go to the store to buy groceries for the upcoming week. Not that I mind buying groceries or that I never buy groceries. The opposite. I actually like groceries shopping (most of the time) but this time I had to think about what I was going to eat for the rest of the week.
They are planning to come back to Oakville on Monday so I am still going to be on my own for a couple of days. It will especially be weird on the weekend since the evenings this week go by pretty quickly. I had planned to do a lot but it looks like I am just busy with doing all kind of little things.
Obviously I miss my 3 girls and it was heart warming to hear Mariska enthusiastically say "Pappa, pappa" when I called them up. She hasn't forgotten her daddy (yet ;) and I am sure her mommy is missing me as much as I miss her :)
PS Last year Catherine returned home from the Moose pregnant (as we found out a few weeks later) but I guarantee you, well almost guarantee you, that this is not the case this time. ("deep sigh from grandma")
Sunday June 22, 2008
Did you that...
- it really hurts to be a fan of the Dutch soccer team
- that the Russian team was just better
- two hours before the start of the game Betty's, the Dutch hang-out, was already full
- there was also a line-up for the back-up place
- I therefore had to watch the game from another bar also full with Dutch people, which people looking through the windows from the patio.
- they initially only had 1 person looking after the whole bar
- you therefore couldn't get drunk if you wanted to
- I couldn't get drunk anyway since I drove into town
- at least my biggest fear now won't happen: losing against Italy in the semi-finals
- it still sucks
- I haven't seen as many flags on the cars as in previous years
- we are having rain almost every day
- we are having so much rain that the grass seeds the neighbour put down 2 months ago now finally came out
- it proves that those seeds would have come out earlier if they would have watered the grass earlier
- my dad planted cedars outside the fence it the back a few weeks ago
- one person in the street planted 2 trees in some kind of structure at the back on the other side fence too
- those trees weren't even close to the fence
- that this attracted the attention of the city
- we now got a letter to remove the cedars.
- we still hope that we can keep them
- we wouldn't have gotten that letter if that person would not have planted those 2 trees
- Kaylee still doesn't have a lot of hair
- Kaylee probably has less hair now than Mariska when she was born
- Mariska now doesn't mind sitting on the potty but you need to provide her plenty of books.
- Mariska is going back to the daycare 3 days per week
- this gaves Catherine the opportunity to get Mariska's new bedroom ready
- I got a Marco Borsato CD for Father's day
- Mariska decided to sleep in that day till after 10 in the morning
- Kaylee slept till 9:30 that same day
- it might be a long time before this happens again on a Father's day
- I am enjoying this style of writing since it's so easy
Saturday June 14, 2008
I don't get easily embarrassed but yesterday I really was. Yesterday morning I quickly got my orange shirt out of the dryer and put it in a plastic bag to take it with me to work. In afternoon I said to a female colleague "look what I have" and grabbed the plastic bag. I took the orange shirt out and unfolded it. And then there felt a piece of Catherine's underwear on the ground.... I couldn't help thinking "what kind of freak does my colleague think I am". There have been rumors that Beckham has played football wearing Posh's underwear but that's no reason for me to wear Catherine's underwear while cheering on the Dutch team. Although if it would help....
Maybe I should start using dryer sheets....
Friday June 13, 2008
Did you know that....
... Kaylee was baptized on Sunday (photos to follow)
... parents went back to the Netherlands again on Monday
... last week was a nice relaxing week at home
... my dad did a lot of work on the house while he was here which is greatly appreciated
... I am not going to mow the lawn 4 times per week as my dad did
... we visited Niagara Falls last week
... I took about 600 pictures over the last 2-3 weeks
... Mariska is now using the potty to get out of her chair after dinner but she never wants to go on the potty
... Mariska told my dad in morning to make the coffee and for mom to put her bath robe on
... she did that because she wanted to go down stairs
... Mariska is now asking for Oma and Opa, especially Opa
... Mariska has now a lot of new Dutch words in her vocabulary. Enough to confuse the day care
... we watched the Netherlands - Italy game with Dutch commentators thanks to the internet
... seeing less Italian flags on the cars after the game on Monday was a nice side-effect
... I won't put a Dutch flag on my car unless 'we' get really far in the tournament...really far
... Mariska now needs to wear her orange shirt on each game day
... Marisa, since she is also Canadian, is also not allowed to shave during the Euro
... I wasn't as excited about the Germans losing as I would have been 15 years ago
... I am enjoying watching 'NOS Sportzomer' on the satellite every evening
... within 1 month I got 2 'made a difference' awards at the bank
... I got 1 'made a difference' award in the first 11 years at the bank
Tuesday June 3, 2008
Did I forget to mention that I needed to buy a new frame for my glasses because Mariska broke it when she took it off my head....
Anyway, today she did it. She had been telling us that she had to poop and we had been putting her on the potty but the potty stayed empty (unless you count the time that Opa put some water in it after Mariska was 'done'). Well today she stayed on it for quite some time with a book and when I got closer later, the smell gave it way. She had made a delivery in the potty. I have a picture of the 'contents' but I guess you are not interested in seeing it.
Monday June 2nd, 2008
It has been quiet in this corner of the internet but not in this corner of the world. Two weeks ago my parents arrived and they have kept us busy. Well, they kept themselves busy too and they have kept the kids busy. We are not sure if my parents are going to leave on the 9th... On the right, you see that Mariska found a weak spot of Opa.
This week I am also at home to spend some time with everybody. Even Mariska is not visiting the day care although she is normally going only twice per week anyway.
We are also getting closer to the kick-off of the European soccer championships and Mariska has received the proper outfit but I don't think she has high hopes...:
I uploaded some pictures of the past 2 weeks and they are spread over several folders but the main pictures of my mom and dad's visit can be found here: http://braeken.com/tools/gallery/visit_pa_and_ma
Since I was scanning anyway...
Here is Kaylee's official birth announcement card (click on it for a bigger version):
Saturday May 3rd, 2008
I put the photo collage that we give to my mother-in-law under the scanner and here are some scans:
Friday April 25, 2008
Not the typical Friday. Instead of going to downtown Toronto I went to Guelph to attend a business contingency session. So I was expecting a tour and some presentations. Turns out that all they wanted you to do was to verify you could do your work from there. Well in my case that means checking my e-mail. So basically the whole day I was 'working from home' but now in Guelph. Well at least there was a change of scenery for me.
In the evening we celebrated the birthday of my mother-in-law. We would normally go to a restaurant but since we now have so many small ones in the family we decided to get the restaurant to our house: we rented a chef and he did all the cooking in our kitchen and his partner did all the serving and cleaning. I have put some pictures of the evening on the pictures siteWe had a lot of fun and our present for mom was the picture collage of her whole family. Mariska had lots of fun too and she was full of energy (must have been the chocolate cake...) and she stayed up till everybody had left. In fact, we all went to bed together. Unfortunately a few hours later she woke up and cried and for the very first time she slept in our bed although she was moved back once she had fallen asleep peacefully.
Sunday April 13, 2008
Another week came and went. After 4-5 years I finally visited my dentist again. I am not necessarily scared of the dentist but I am blessed with good teeth so don't necessarily see the need to go every 6 months. But maybe 5 years is maybe a little bit too much. Nevertheless there wasn't much work for the dentist. No cavities and the person who was cleaning my teeth couldn't believe how well my teeth were. The word "unbelievable" could be heard regularly. Despite that I don't want to wait another 5 years for my next visit. Eventually you will lose the gamble.
In other news, Kaylee has slept through the night!!! And she did not do it once. She did it 3 times this week. Very promising to say the least. She must have listened to Mariska's tips.
Sunday April 6, 2008
Finally some time to catch up. My work situation has changed. First we moved a few weeks ago to a different building. Not a huge change but now the whole group sits together and so are the people who I deal with the most. It makes my life a lot easier and I don't care what other people think but having all the people you work with close to each other makes a huge deal. I have seen it in the past and I can see the difference now. Phone and e-mail are nice but nothing beats face-to-face conversations.
Also my role has changed. My manager is expecting her first baby in May but she had to leave work early because of high blood pressure and so I have been asked to look after the group for the upcoming year. This will be the first time that I have people reporting to me and I have to admit that it feels kinda weird to be a manager. Fortunately I will be working closely in some areas with a colleague since we go back together a long time and I couldn't imagine a typical manager-employee relationship with her. As I said, it feels weird, but I have survived the first week :) It will be a good experience for me and even if it's something I am not going to like, I know it will be temporary. For now I think I will be okay. It really has given me more focus on the job I am doing.
Home life is well. Mariska is now at the day care 3 days in the week and Kaylee is still sleeping a lot. It's hard to say if she will be a good sleeper as Mariska is but the fact it is hard to say this is probably a good thing. She is at least not a crying baby. In fact, I sleep pretty well during the night. Sometimes I don't even know if she was feed during the night and if I wake up because some light was turned on, I fall asleep pretty quickly again.
Finally I am happy to see the warmer temperature. We went for a nice walk yesterday with the whole family and Mariska walked the whole way. In the end she even started to push the baby carriage with mama. She has also started her 'swimming' lessons again and I enjoy that hour of papa and daughter time. I truely enjoy being a dad.
Happy Easter
Happy Easter to you and your loved ones. Also on behalf of the 2 Easter Bunnies in Catherine's family:
Sunday March 16, 2008
According to my wife I got 2 babies last week. She refers to the iPod touch that I bought last week. I had been thinking about buying it for awhile since I think it would be ideal for my GO train ride. I try to read or do other stuff in the train but somehow I have problems with keeping my eyes open. Despite that I can't really sleep on the train, since I am too freaky tall for the chairs, I am afraid that I miss my stop. So I thought watching movies would be a nice alternative. And with a new developers kit on the way, the iPod touch can become a little gaming machine too. So I bought the 16 gig version although I feel a little bit uncomfortable with taking such a valuable toy with me on the train and to the office. So far I really like how the videos look on it. There a couple of things that irritate me though. The lack of control about which pictures to put on it and the fact that I can only sync with 1 computer is annoying but from the user interface point of view, it works great.
My mother-in-law is still with us and she has been a great help. It makes our lives a lot easier especially since I will be heading back to work tomorrow. I have to admit that I can already see that having 2 kids in the house instead of 1 makes a big difference. It's going to be interesting, that's for sure but as the picture on the right shows, it looks like that Mariska will taking over all the vacuuming in the house hold. But for now we are very grateful to have my mother-in-law in the house.Finally a picture that shows what a difference 1 week makes. The pic on the left was shot on the 9th and the next one today. No worries, we still have lots of snow but it is melting and with the sun shinning, it feels like that spring is on its way (but first we probably still have a few snow storms...)
Thursday March 13, 2008
The previous night she kept us up for a couple of hours, but last night she slept a la Mariska. In the meantime I can't stop taking pictures of her and you can find the best of them here: http://braeken.com/tools/gallery/kaylee_s_birth
Tuesday March 11, 2008
Kaylee has tiny little bit of jaundice so we put her in the sun for a few minutes and daddy was happy for an opportunity to take some pictures:
Monday March 10, 2008
Both Catherine and Kaylee are at home. I am happy to report that Catherine is feeling well and that Kaylee has no problem with drinking from the breast.
Sunday March 9, 2008
Because of the diabetes that Catherine developed during the pregnancy, she has to stay at the hospital for an additional day. On the good side both mom and kid are doing well and Catherine is eager to come home.
Saturday March 8, 2008
Catherine and I are proud to announce the birth of
Kaylee was born today at 14:37 at Trafalgar Memorial Hospital in Oakville. She weighed 6 pounds and 15.5 ounces (or 3.16 kg) and she was 20.5 inches (52 cm) tall.
Contrary to Mariska's arrival, Kaylee gave us less trouble. Catherine was induced this morning at 8:50 and received an epidural at 11:00. She made gradually progress and just after 2 she requested a nurse since she thought that it could be time. She was right. She had 3 "push sessions" before Kaylee became Mariska's little sister.
Her middle names have the following meanings:
* Wynter refers to Winter and given the winter that we have and the huge snow storm that was going on outside the birth room, we thought a reference to the season was appropriate.
* Amby is the name of the suburb of Maastricht where I grew up. It turns out that it also gets used, although uncommon, as a girl's name and it is an alternative of Amber.
I am happy to report that mom and daughter are doing well and we have good hopes that both can come home soon.
More pictures of the little one can be found here: http://braeken.com/tools/gallery/kaylee_s_birth
Friday March 7, 2008
"The day before" picture:
And Mariska doesn't know that her life is going to change too:
Wednesday March 5, 2008
Catherine has gotten bigger and bigger. Kinda normal when you are pregnant I guess but she will losing weight very soon. VERY soon. Her OB decided that Saturday will be the day! He wants to induce her on Saturday morning as she is almost 38 weeks. Everything is fine, the doctor would rather be proactive rather than reactive. We were told that typically they induce women with gestational diabetes about 2 weeks before they are full term. He also would rather induce Catherine before her blood pressure has a chance to go up like it did last time.
So we are going to be parents for the second time very soon. A little bit scary since this baby kinda sneaked up on us but we are very excited about it and looking forward to have the little one in our arms.
So send some good thoughts to us on Saturday.
Sunday February 24, 2008
You would think that I had more time to write something since I had the whole week off but it never happened. I realised that I am ready for retirement since I never have the time to do everything I want to do. Same thing this week.
So I was the whole week off since I wanted to use up 4 vacation days that I still had left-over from last year. I was all alone at home. Basically single from 8 am till 5 pm. I wonder how often that is going to happen in the future?
I played some Wii games but never went out to rent one, as I had planned. I took some lessons in photoshop but really need to experiment more with it. I wanted to go out and take some pictures since I hadn't done that for awhile but I never left the house for that. Didn't buy myself a new lens since I can't make up my mind what lens to buy. I did go out to buy some new clothes although I had to buy 2 pair of jeans over the internet since it's almost impossible to find a pair in the stores that fit me. The good thing is that I always have the same size Levi's so I know what I want. I just cant find that size.
This week was also Catherine's last week at work. She will be using her vacation days till her maternity leave starts. So in other words: she will be off work for the next 13 months and yes, I am definitely jealous and a little bit concerned about the reduced family income in the next couple of months. But we will manage but it makes me wonder how other families to do it who make less money than us.
Today is the last day of my vacation (sigh). My next week off will start with a visit to the hospital when baby number 2 arrives. Only 1 month to go...
Sunday February 10, 2008
Right now we are letting Mariska say 'sock' as much as possible. Why? Well the little girl is not pronouncing it as 'sock'. She says the 'ock' part but the 's' really sounds like a 'c'...
Friday February 1st, 2008
It's a snow day for the Braekens. We are all at home today. Catherine and I both didn't have any meetings so we decided to avoid the winter storm that is going on outside.
Even Mariska is at home with Catherine and I taking turns looking after her. Good thing I have some things to do that don't require a computer.
Mariska's vocabulary is growing and growing but I am getting called mama all the time. Yesterday evening she said Papa again but we are not sure if this is an exception or not. She has also started saying "Ja" (yes in Dutch) while she would always "No" even if she meant yes. And she has no problem with saying cookie and knows exactly where we keep the cookies.
Swimming is going great. The tears have disappeared unless I push a little bit too far ;) She has no problems with having her chin in the water although she prefers to drink the water rather than blowing bubbles. She is also getting more stubborn. She is supposed to go down the stairs backwards but the last couple of days she wants to do the final steps the grown-up way. And this morning she realised that there are some risks involved...
Catherine is doing well. Unfortunately she has developed gestational diabetes. The good thing is that she is just over the limit but she needs gives herself insulin before bed time which caused her some anxiety when she tried it for the first time. Seemed it makes a difference giving insulin to somebody else, as she has done in the past, than to yourself. So I gave it to her that time. Not often a woman is so eager to drop her pants for me so I can give her an injection...
