Internet

So our neighbors must have noticed we were "borrowing" their internet because it suddenly went away on Saturday. So we probably won’t have any new posts (and no Skype :( either) until we get our internet in about two weeks. I am sure we will have lots of talk about by then. We are getting our air freight delivered tomorrow so that will greatly improve our quality of life, especially John David's because all his toys will finally arrive. This weekend it rained and has pretty much continued to rain ever since. Welcome to Brussels! The rain covers for our strollers have arrived so that should make it just a bit more tolerable for John David at least. We went out on Saturday to explore a little and this is a very neat city. Cannot wait to get out and see more.




Stay tuned....

Trash

So the Belgians take a lot of things very seriously including their beer and chocolate but nothing has been drilled into our heads more these past few days than their strict rules and regulations regarding trash.  Basically you cannot just throw whatever you want into a Glad bag and chuck it out on the curb.  You actually have to buy specific trash bags at a grocery store in your commune (neighborhood) for plastics (blue bags), papers (yellow bags), yard waste (green bags) and household waste (white bags). The reason you have to buy them in your commune is because every commune charges differently for these bags and they are specific to your commune.  And of course in an effort to get you to take the time to sort your trash the household waste bags are the most expensive.  Some communes charge as much as 50 euros for these bags if you can believe that!  So prior to Monday no one mentioned anything to us about the trash so I have just been collecting it as usual.  Finally when the housing person from the Embassy came on Monday to do our residence walkthru he explained everything to me.  So Baby and I took the tram to Carrefour (our grocery store) yesterday to pickup some trash bags.  I was fearful of the price but ours where pretty cheap about 2.5 euros for the regular trash bags and 1.5 euro for the paper and plastic bags.  While we were pretty good about recycling before we are going to get real proficient during our tour in Brussels because if you do not sort correctly the "trash police" will ticket you and even diplomats cant get out of those tickets.  While the initial sort was less than fun, since I had already been compiling all this trash in one large Glad bag, the subsequent trash collection should go much more smoothly.  And now you know.....

Our New Home....

So I have been trying to take pictures of our new house and neighborhood over the past couple of days in between dealing with a, at times, very fussy very jet lagged baby boy.  So here are a few of our house pre HHE (for those of you who do not know our "HHE" is our shipment via boat from the States that takes anywhere from a month to 4 months to arrive).  I promise after we get unpacked and settled I will have another post.

So I think I mentioned before that Sunday was the "Annual Car Free Day" in Brussels so here are a few pictures of the major boulevard in front of our house with the tram line on Sunday. 

Check out our cute little tram that David takes to work every morning

 

Here is a picture of our house (you can see John David in the foreground chillin in the stroller).  Our place is the first and second floor and then there are two single story homes above us.  We also have a parking space in the garage

This is a view of our living room with the dining room and kitchen in the background.  It is a very similar layout to our place in Athens but it is just a little larger.  

Here is John David playing on our incredibly ugly sofa which has a slipcover in its future.

 

 

Dining Room

 

Kitchen (yes it is very blue)

This is a little sitting area off the kitchen which I am going to turn into a breakfast nook and pull all this other furniture out once our little table and chairs from home arrives.   

Stairs leading downstairs (yes I have ordered a baby gate for them)

This will be John David’s room.  It is pretty empty because we shipped all of his furniture from the states.

 This is our bedroom which looks like it will look exactly the same as our bedroom in Greece as it is the exact same furniture.

Little atrium off of our room and John’s room.  Not sure what we are going to do with this yet.  

One of two downstairs bedrooms.  One will remain a guest bedroom and the other will be turned into an office/gym/sewing room.

View number 1 of the courtyard (from 2nd floor)

 

View number 2 of the courtyard

 View of our neighbor’s garden because it is so pretty

View from our balcony of the park

 Here are a few views of our little park and pond right across the street.  It is pretty nice I have to say because the big trees block most of the big boulevard so we don’t get as much noise and we don’t have to look out the windows and see it. 

John David enjoying the park

Settling In...

So we are starting to get settled into our new home here in Brussels.  I absolutely love this neighborhood.  We have a Sunday market at the end of our street which sells produce, meats, cheeses, crafts, clothes and premade food from mussels with wine to Thai and everything in between.  John David and I walked around there yesterday and bough some produce while David was at his flag football game (believe it or not there is a flag football league here in Brussels).  We also found more restaurants including a couple very cute bistros so we will have to check them out.  


On Saturday our Sponsor took us out to the Army base about an hour drive outside of Brussels to go to the commissary.  After that trip I now know I am going to be very spoiled at this point.  The commissary is a full American grocery store.  AMAZING.  For those of you who have never lived overseas this is the most amazing, wonderful, fantastic (insert more adjectives) thing ever.  You don't know how wonderful it fills to walk into the grocery store and be able to find exactly what you are looking for.  Anyway we spent a small fortune stocking up on essentials.  The local grocery stores here in Brussels are the same as we had in Greece (Carrefour) so I know what I can get there that is comparable to what you find in the US so I that is wonderful as well.  The big difference is price you just cannot beat the price at the commissary it is cheaper than DC significantly. 

Also on Saturday we went to a couple at the Embassy (Abby and Adam) daughter's 2nd birthday party.  It was very sweet of them to invite us and it was wonderful to meet them and lots of other very nice Embassy families.  John David was a big hit and everyone wanted to hold him which of course he was just eating up. 

Sunday night we went to our Sponsors Ashish and Emily's house for dinner and Abby and Adam and their daughter Clair were also there.  Emily made a wonderful dinner and they have a very cute home.  It was nice to be in a house with more than just bare Embassy furniture.   


I really think we are going to enjoy living here! 

We made it!

Well we made it to Brussels safe and sound!  It was even sunny today which is rare so I would say that is a good way to start off a 2 year tour.  John David did great on his first overseas flight.  He was sound asleep before we finished climbing and stayed asleep for close to 4 hours.  Then he was awake for about 1.5 hours before he went back to sleep until right before we landed.  We actually received a bunch of complements from other passengers about how well behaved he was.  We were so proud of our baby boy! 

Our sponsors picked us up at the airport and drove us to our house which is very nice and big!  Stay tuned for pictures.  Brussels is how I imagined it to be--very European with beautiful architecture and tree lined streets.  We live in a very nice neighborhood with lots of restaurants and shops within walking distance.  There is a little pond with a walking path around it right in front of our house with ducks and geese and just past that across one of the major roads into our neighborhood is a good sized lake and a big park which we will have to check out this weekend.  The tram stop that David has to take to work in literally right across from our house on the other side of the pond and he has about a 45 minute commute so not horrible considering he can read or listen to music and doesn't have to drive.

John David and I went out exploring this afternoon while David went into the Embassy.  I am trying to keep him awake so he will get on the time quicker but it is hard his kid can fall asleep at the drop of a hat.    Well need to feed John David and get back to unpacking. 

Lots of love and take care!

David, Lauren and John

Indiana and Texas

We got recently returned from a two week visit to Indiana and Texas.  Dad was unable to be make it to Indiana because of issues with our move that have since been resolved but he met up with us in Austin.  John David had a great time in Indiana swinging on the front porch, watching the dogs play and the birds and squirrels in the backyard.  He made his first trip up the Lakeville to spend the day with the Fuchs family and it was wonderful to get to see everyone before we head to Brussels.  Grandma and Grandpa of course spoiled him and he wanted for very little while we were at their house.

Hanging out with Grandma

Watching the squirrels and birds in the backyard

Swinging with Grandma on the front porch

 At the airport with Grandma and the Indiana Pig

It was hot in Texas so we didn't spend too much time outdoors.  John David spend most of the time hanging out with his Gigi and Granddad while Mom and Dad enjoyed some delicious Texas food and some time on their own.  He also got his first taste of baby food while we were in Austin.  We also made a trip to Dallas while we were in Texas for his cousin Mallory's baptism.  It was great to get to see Aunt Meredith, Uncle Marshall and his cousins again before we leave as well as participate in such a beautiful and important sacrament.

 

 First taste of carrots and we are not real sure

  

You can't tell from the pictures but he actually loves carrots

Must have been a success we got a pretty big smile

Sleeping with Dad in the big bed (which he loves)

In the car on the way to Dallas

Playing with Granddad

 

You can see more pictures from the baptism and our time in Dallas on Meredith's blog  http://dallasyates.blogspot.com/2010_08_01_archive.html 

5 Months

John David turned 5 months while we were in Texas (almost 3 weeks ago now as I write this) and with all our travel and the impending move I am just now getting to his post.  He has changed so much in the last month.  He is now rolling over with ease from back to belly and belly to back.  He as started to roll around in his crib in the middle of the night, which of course makes his mother a little uneasy. He still sleeps through the night but our two week vacation to Indiana and Texas has definitely made his bedtime a challenge and packing up with crib and all his toys has not made it any easier.  He still loves is exersaucer and playing on the floor with his toys.  He is eating baby food and rice cereal twice a day now and really likes carrots, sweet potatoes and bananas and hates peas.  Frankly, I don't have the heart to even attempt the peas again because they smell and taste awful.  John David is developing a little bit of an attitude and maybe even a hint of a temper.  We noticed this initially when we were in Arkansas and he wanted to play with the plastic bag we carry his toiletries in when we travel and the meltdown that ensued when Dad took it away from him.  Not sure where he gets that from....


Below are a few pictures from the past month....

My two guys taking a nap

First taste of rice cereal

Pretty unsure about the whole thing

Love, Love, Loves his Exersaucer

 

How sweet is that face?!?!

Bath time!

 

First UT Football game