playdates and such

we are nearing the end of our second week here and we are getting more mobile andadventurous. on wednesday we had a playdate that i found via an ex-pat facebook site. it was a 3 minute bike ride from our house, located in a cute church on the most adorable little canal street. there were 3 other moms there - one from vancouver, one from england, and one from portugal. i forewarned the kids that they would likely be the oldest kids there since almost all kids their age are in school. and sure enough, the only other children there were ~18 months old. i got to chat with some of the moms before the kids got bored and wanted to leave.

the second playdate was one i found through mothering.com for attachment parenting types. it was at a dutch woman's apartment and, i gotta tell you, the woman could not have been any nicer to me. she made me feel very welcome in her home, made the kids a sandwich, took me to a second hand children's store where i got 2 great ravensburger puzzles for the kids, and then we stopped by and picked her 5 year old daughter up from school for lunch. the kids played a bit and she showed me a toy library that we could join. her daughter goes to a nice montessori school, for which she pays nothing.

at the toy library we found out about another playgroup - a community based one with no main group - sort of a drop in public playgroup. we may do that the week following next, as it is closed next week for spring break. so it looks like we could have a social engagement every day of the week except tuesdays.

upon leaving the toy library i began to put away the toys that the kids had been playing with and i was told to let them be and that they would take care of it. they almost thought it was odd that i was going to clean up after myself and remarked that it was because i was an american - and that a dutch person wouldn't think to put the toys away themselves. i put most of the toys away myself anyway.

we have been taking public transportion - today we took a tram to the playgroup and 2 trams back. the kids really enjoy it. they like listening to the announcements of the upcoming street stops. david is developing an ear for dutch. the tram drivers sometimes do not punch my strippenkaart so we ride for free. i am not sure why.