Hurting Ears, Bumped Heads and Strained Eyes

The Shand Family has had a lot of adventures over the past couple of weeks.

Chloe had been asking us for a while now to get her ears pierced. A pretty bold question for a three and a half year old, but that is Chloe. Craig and I discussed it and really could not come up with a good why we shouldn't let her. We decided to ask Colin for his opinion and he was very quick to veto it, stating that she needs to be older. We ended up ignoring his opinion and brought her to Claire's (yes, they have Claire's in Belgium, too) the next day. We gave her plenty of warning that it was going to hurt, but she still was determined to have it done. Once we found someone to help us, she sat in the chair calmly, let them pin her hair back and mark her ears. They said she was one of the calmest little girls they had seen. They lined up their piercing gun, both at once, and did it. She flinched hard and curled her head down into her chest, but did not scream or wail. There was a little whimpering but no crying. We do have a video of the piercing, but it makes me cringe every time I watch it.


All worn out after having her ears pierced.

The next day, Chloe was able to show off her newly pieced ears adorned with pink crystal earrings at the annual New Year Toast in Grote Markt. It is almost hard to believe that this is the third New Years Toast we have been too. As expected, there was free fries, beer, gluhwine and juice. It is really an awesome event and it was mobbed. We met up with several friends and camped out for about an hour in front of the swing ride while the kids went on over and over. We have declared that it was going to be the last go around when Colin decided to climb out of the swing the wrong way and landed face first on the cobblestone. The egg on his head grew immediately and then quickly turned black and blue and was followed by blood coming from his nose. We rushed over to the first aid tent where his head was wrapped with ice. They told us we should head over to the hospital to have it checked. Assuming we were tourists, they asked us if we were familiar with Sint Vincentius Hospital and I had to laugh since I feel like we are practically on a first name basis with the staff. It took a few hours of waiting, but Colin was cleared by the doctors and was able to go to school with a good story the next day.

The following Sunday, I headed off to London by myself for Diamond Grading Lab. I have been taking e-learning classes through GIA (Gemological Institute of America) towards certificates in diamonds and pearls. I was excited to get away by myself for a bit. Every time I have been to London, I am so shocked at how busy it is. The tube system is so efficient and is always mobbed. One night, all four corners of the Oxford Circus tube entrance was backed up with people leading all the way up the steps to street level. I still haven't figured out whether to stay to the right or left when walking down the street. Honestly, I don't know if Londoners have it figured out either.

I was pleasantly surprised to see on Facebook that one of my friends from elementary school, Matt, had also just arrived in London. We have not seen each other in about 10 years, so we met up for dinner one night. The day I left, Craig was able to manage 2 birthday parties at the same time, then vomiting and soiled underwear in the evening. Unfortunately, the week went down hill from there with all three of them getting sick.

The Diamond Grading course was an intensive 5 full day lab. It is normally taught over 7 weeks for full time students We were warned on the first day that we would feel eye strain and by the third day, I was definitely feeling it. By day 4, I had to walk way from my microscope a few times during the day and by the fifth day, I felt like my eyes were bleeding. The strain I was feeling must not have affected my judgment too much because I scored a 95% on the 2 stone challenge.

I arrived home late Friday night and had a few days to rest up before I packed back up and head of to London again for a Pearl Grading Lab. I felt like I had a very Dutch moment when I loaded my suitcase onto my bike and rode myself to the Antwerp train station. The train station has a large area underground just for bikes. There must easily be a few thousand there. The stairway leading down has grooves along the sides of the steps just large enough to fit your bike tire so you are easily able to walk it down and back up. I arrived back in London on Wednesday in The Pearl Grading Lab was only one day and the day flew by fast. Although I enjoyed having a bit of alone time, it much nicer to be back home.



New Years Toast in Grote Markt



Christmas and Tuscany

We are all back to our normal schedules now after a long holiday break. We ended up having a white Christmas in Antwerp. It continued to snow off and on until about Christmas Eve. The kids were so excited for Santa. The bike shop across the street hung a decoration of a Santa hanging from a Christmas tree above their door. It was in perfect sight from the kids bedroom windows and Chloe keep saying, "Santa is watching me!". She still doesn't understand that it means she should behave. At least Colin was trying. There were so many presents left under our tree. We received great packages from Grammy, Aunt Chris, Mom Mom and Bobby and Al and Joan. We spent most of Christmas day playing with all of the new toys.

We had planned a trip to Tuscany that we ended up canceling because of our friends schedule. After talking with then on Christmas night, we decided to continue on with our plans. We managed to pack up and get on the road by 9 am the next morning. After getting caught in ski traffic in Switzerland, we made it to Milan for the night 12 hours later. The next morning, we continued on to Tuscany to the same villa, Le Torri, we stayed at in May. As before, our accommodations did not disappoint. There were just a few towns that we had not covered before. One of the towns we went to see was Cortona, where they filmed Under the Tuscan Sun. The woman still lives there a few months of the year, I never realized it was a true story. We also went to Montepulciano, which is a big wine town. New Years Eve, we went to Siena. They had a big concert going on the the main square. We were back at the villa for the New Year.Tuscany is so beautiful and Craig is looking forward to going back already. Chloe and I are not big fans of the winding roads that make us car sick. We managed to make the drive home in one day - 12 hours!

The following weekend was the New Years Toast that the city hosts in Grote Markt. Just like last year, they had rides, free beer and frites and giveaways with the city's logo. It was a beautiful day and relatively mild. We meet up for several of our friends and their kids. After the toast was over, we continued the party back at our place until that night. I was considering it a 'vacations over party' and I was happy to send the kids back to school the next day!