Afternoon in Vondelpark

I spoke a bit too soon in my presumption that Michael was better. He still had a fever on and off until Saturday and had a pretty horrendous night last night. He woke twice and on the first occasion he was very distressed and snuffly. It took some time to get him back to sleep and he woke again a few hours later needing a feed. He almost never wakes twice a night and I really can't tell if it was illness, teething or a growth spurt that was responsible.

Today, however, was a wonderful day. For the first time in what seems like weeks, the sun shone all day long in a beautiful blue sky. It was a day not to be wasted. We spent the latter part of the afternoon and much of the evening in Vondelpark in Amsterdam. We strolled around with Michael in his pushchair and just soaked up the atmosphere. All around us people were enjoying the weather. We took Michael to a play area and he got to experience the joys of a sandpit for the first time. He was a bit sceptical and seemed perplexed that the ground kept shifting beneath his fingers. One of the real joys of Vondelpark are the wild parrots. It really is something to sit beneath a willow tree and watch them fly from tree to tree. The nicest thing of all is that I get to be smug about the fact that I LIVE HERE and don't have to leave like the tourists do.

Michael had a great time and soaked up the attention he got from passers by. He was chattering non-stop by the time we left the park. The only small dark cloud in the sky was that the kitchen closed early at the Tig Barra and we couldn't finish off the day with cheesy chips. Boo!

Michael has learned a couple of new things this week. Somewhat... less than desirable. A couple of days ago I had the dubious pleasure to watch as he discovered that his fingers (and even his thumb) can fit up his nostril. Lovely, darling(!) Whilst I was giving him his dinner he jammed a potato-covered finger up his nose, looked thoroughly pleased with himself, and then stuck it in his mouth. He isn't going to win fans and friends if he keeps that up. The second thing was that I think I saw the beginnings of a tantrum last night. It was very funny at the time but I don't imagine it will be funny forever. He had been sitting on my knee playing on the KneeBouncers website when I needed to do something in the kitchen and put him on the floor. I held his hands in order to walk him over to the kitchen. He refused to walk, bumped down on his bottom, started to howl and then started flapping his hands up and down like an oversized, fat-bottomed duckling. I was trying to smother my laughter which probably didn't help matters.