Hello Spring!!!

It's been quite busy in the Johnsen household adjusting to our new normal and watching our little Colette taking in her surroundings.  Teia has perfected the big sister role helping me with putting Coco's pacifier in her mouth, comforting her when she cries, and cooing with her on her little mat.  It is so sweet seeing their relationship develop!

My mom came out for a month long visit to help with my recovery and lack of sleep, plus to put in some quality time with Teia and Colette.  Most days were spent lounging around inside thanks to the rainy January weather.  When the clouds parted we would walk around the city, hitting up lunch and coffee spots and doing a little shopping.  Thank you, Mom, for making the time to take care of our family and for being such a huge support.  We always love our family visits and look forward to the next one!  We are so lucky and feel so loved!

Luckily my mom was here since Kirk had to take off on a two week trip, flying to New York, Mexico City, and then finally San Francisco. In New York he barely dodged 'snowmageddon' - hopping on an earlier flight than he originally planned. It ended up being one of the last flights out for a couple days. Once in Mexico City Kirk enjoyed some much better weather. On an off day, before the shoot started, he visited the Diego Rivera museum and went on a gondola ride down the river at Xochimilco - the latter was a very unique and cool experience. All in all Kirk really enjoyed his first trip to Mexico city. After Mexico, Kirk swung through San Francisco for a few days of meetings. While he was there he caught a Golden State Warriors vs Dallas Mavericks game at Oracle Arena. Unsurprisingly, the electric Warriors won easily.

Currently we are in the process of researching preschools for the fall - can't believe Teia will be starting up school!  We are narrowing down our choices and should know soon.

Kirk went to NY again.  This time I didn't have my mom around to help so it was a bit of touch and go at first - planning feedings, tram times, school schedule, etc.  So far so good. A lot easier than I thought it would be but I probably owe a lot of that to Colette being such a sweet and easy baby.

We spent Valentine's Day at the Gillman's for a wonderful and tasty brunch.  The kiddos played dress-up and watched Disney flicks while we devoured fried chicken and waffles, with a side of many savory dishes.  Thanks for the invite and sharing the love!

Then Kirk went back to New York again - boy is that getting old... :)

After that our buddy Grant made it back to Amsterdam for a work trip so we went to dinner at Salmuera to have some eats, catch up, and reminince.  It was awesome seeing Grant and hearing all about their new family member, Preston.

During the week before Easter Melanie put together, yet again, the perfect Easter party gathering for our little kiddos.  Besides the awesome spread and mimosas, we enjoyed crafting with our littles and helping out with the Easter Egg Hunt.  Teia couldn't control herself it was just too much fun!

Kirk back to New York again. It was mostly meetings (as usual), but he did also go out to a cool theatre experience called Sleep No More. Rather than the audience sitting in an auditorium and watching performers on a stage, Sleep No More is an immersive theatre experience that takes place in various locations throughout a five-story 'hotel.' Patrons wear masks to distinguish them from the actors, and are self-guided around the performance - deciding where they want to go and when. Very cool experience. Highly recommended.

For Easter Sunday we joined many Wieden+Kennedy families at the office for egg decorating and hunting.  Teia was super stoked to get a special Easter basket and run around outside finding eggs!  And of course all the sweet treats were a bonus.  The Easter Bunny made an appearance but quickly disappeared after too many tears and creeping out everyone - very Donnie Darko. Later that day the Keyrouse's joined us for some pork tacos and movies.  The kiddos played while we caught up and enjoyed 30 mini tacos!

The Nelly's finally arrived from Warsaw. This has been years in the making.  We can't even begin to express how excited we are that Rebecca, Eric and Evelyn are moving to our neck of the woods.  Welcome to Amsterdam Nelson's!!!

Holiday Magic and Our New Addition

Kirk went on his final work trip for the year since baby girl was due right around the corner. Since his meeting was in Vancouver he managed to fly into Seattle for a nice weekend before his meetings. Kirk's mom flew up as well so he was able to spend some quality time with her, his brother Ryan, Ryan's wife Nicole, and their son Peyton. On Saturday, Kirk and Ryan met up with Jake and Dave and the four of them went to the UW game. It was a loss for UW, but a win for Kirk as he was also able to meet up with his cousins Savannah (UW Freshman) and Connor at the game.

In Vancouver Kirk's meeting went well, and he also managed to squeeze in some 5 pin bowling and a concert with A$AP Rocky, Vince Staples, Danny Brown, and Tyler the Creator.

It's that time of the year again for Sinterklaas' arrival. Always an interesting time of the year for us since the Dutch celebration is still pretty cringe-worthy.  Folks dressing up in black-face - yikes. We took Nicole to Leidseplein for the parade - at least the kiddos enjoyed it!

My dear friend Courtney hosted a wonderful baby sprinkle for me. I feel absolutely blessed and spoiled beyond belief.  Thank you so much for the lovely high tea at the Bakerswinkel in Westerpark, Courtney! So beautiful and the food was incredible. And a big thanks to all the ladies that joined for the occasion.

For Thanksgiving this year we joined the Gillman's for some amazing eats. The kiddos played and the adults enjoyed spiced cider (thanks to Nicole) and a tasty, savory home-cooked meal. Thanks for having us over for this special occasion. Hope you enjoyed my first stab at making pumpkin pie!

And then for Round 2 Thanksgiving the Haley's had us over for a splendid gathering. Nicole and Sarah also joined for the holiday. We watched some football (UW beat WSU in the Apple Cup!) and we enjoyed awesome food, drinks and times with the Haley's - thank you!!!

The day before Sinterklaas Teia's Dutch school picked Sinterklaas up from his boat on the canal and brought him back to the school to open gifts and sing songs. Teia enjoyed receiving a few gifts for Sinterklaas - it is always nice to have little celebrations leading up to Christmas!

On Saturday for Sinterklaas we woke up to yummy chocolate and some gifts placed in our shoes (by Sinterklaas of course).  Teia was pleasantly surprised and happy for the morning treats!

We followed that up with brunch with Eric (in town for the weekend), Anne and Nicole. Afterward we biked to Museumplein to watch the ice skaters (Teia is not quite ready yet) and then headed to Rembrandtplein for sausages. 

This year for Kirk's Christmas work party, W+K hosted a gathering at Jimmy Woo's Night Club.  I managed to get out for the gathering though there is only so much standing around I can do at 39 weeks pregnant.  It was a nice evening chatting with friends and co-workers.

A few days later we made it out to see Santa at the Amsterdam Mamas Vintage Tram Ride Event before Kirk headed off to meet the Keyrouse's in Haarlem while I went to Nicole's "Goodbye Brunch" with some of the friends she made during her time here.  While in Haarlem Kirk, Teia and the Keyrouses cruised the Christmas markets, stopped for lunch, and dabbled in a Dutch beer festival.

 

With Nicole's final days approaching we tried to enjoy spending time together while balancing Teia's schedule and the arrival of baby girl.  It's been such a joy having Nicole stay with us - she is officially part of the family and we will miss her so much.  I am glad we managed to get in some yummy brunch, lunch, coffee dates, pizza and Victorias Secret Fashion Show, and sitting around the table over a home-cooked meal - thanks Nicole!

Colette Maxima Johnsen (we call her Cole and Coco for short) made her way into this world on Thursday, December 17th at 4:15pm.  She's a tiny little thing weighing 6.5 lbs.  She made her presence known starting on the Monday before.  Unfortunately I had 4 days of 'False Labor' leading up to that Thursday.  It was grueling to say the least - lots of false starts, lack of sleep and feeling pretty hopeless.  But finally we made it happen!  I started contractions the night before at about 11pm and then didn't go to the hospital until 10:30am the next day. The experience overall was a better one than the first (thank god for epidurals) and my midwife team was simply amazing. We delivered at the same hospital as Teia (St Lucas Andreas) and I wasn't told to stop acting like a "drama queen" by the anesthesiologist this time - so that was nice. Instead she hooked me up on the epidural and went on her merry way and I loved every second of it. Colette came out in about 8 minutes after a few pushes. Such a breeze. We got home in time for Nicole to hold our little one -  so thankful that she got an opportunity to meet her before leaving early the next day.

Teia is so excited to be a big sister!  As for the name - it was something I heard and fell in love with and we also really liked the idea of calling her Cole and Coco. Maxima is the current Queen of the Netherlands so it seemed fitting to have her middle name be after the Queen considering Teia's middle name is Beatrix who was the Queen when Teia was born. They are both named after Queen's of the Netherlands.

Our Baby Nurse (Kraamzorg) is the lovely Marjolein.  She is with us for the week reminding me of all things Baby 101.  It's an awesome post natal care program that they have out here.  Instead of staying in the hospital for a few days you head home immediately and have 8 days of care - everything from taking care of your newborn to cleaning, cooking, running errands, helping with breastfeeding and giving you opportunities to rest and recover. I would label it as a luxury - I feel so spoiled! Not only did we have a nurse for the week, our friend Amber set up a meal train and our sweet friends brought over meals so that we could focus on sleep and adjusting. A big thanks to Amber, Sarah, Renee, Erica, Fran, Courtney and Katie for filling our tummies with delicious food and making our lives a bit easier for our first week!

Kirk got out for the day with Teia and the Keyrouse Family.  I think she is really enjoying all of her Daddy-Daughter outings.  This time they went to the Park and the Ship Museum.  Kirk also took her to a work holiday party, Nemo and the Winter Circus over the course of our holiday break.

For Christmas Eve and Christmas we stayed in and had some visitors. Katie, Ryan and the boys came over on Xmas Eve to make us pizza and serve up the littles some Frozen themed sparkling cider.

On Christmas we started the morning with an awesome breakfast and Teia unwrapping, and playing with, all of her gifts!  Kirk prepared our yummy dinner and Erica and Ben came over for a nice visit.

John and Amy (Amsterdam Alums) came out for the holiday.  We met up for breakfast at Breakfast Club and then for bites and drinks at Bosboom Tuissant. Always a pleasure to see old friends and so happy they got to meet our new addition!

And finally for New Years we had dinner at Fran and Colin's before getting home at a reasonable time to ring in the New Year. I was in bed by 12:01am.  Still adjusting to our family of four but loving every second of it.  Happy New Year everyone!!!