Anywho, things with the kids are going splendid but last week was admittedly a little tough. Apparently I felt the need to torture myself, staying up til the wee hours of the morning yapping with people in the US and getting an average of 4.5 hours of sleep a night. BIG FUCKIN MISTAKE. I was miserable for most of the days, craving my bed and not wanting to be bothered by anyone whose age was a single digit. Niek has replaced Tijn as my favorite because he's so easy to watch and really is too cute, like it's really not fair. Today I took him to the playground where he bullied some kids for their soccer ball, pushed kids out of his way so he can get to the slide, as well as managed to get fed. He really is an angel. His English is surprisingly good! He may even speak better English than Dutch (according to Eline, the sounds Niek makes are not Dutch; it sounded like the same gibberish to me)! Tijn has some anger issues they may wanna get checked out. The other day he got mad at Niek, had Niek face down on the bed with the comforter over him and was pushing Niek's face down. Luckily I saw it, but that shit is not kosher. All he got was a talking-too, which I found perplexing and preposturous. I understand not spanking your kids but he should've had to go to bed early/not been able to play/no dessert or some combination of the three. Yea he's young but he likes to shove and when he throws his tantrums, he kicks. He's tried it with me but I'm steadfast and don't give in; he can kick and scream all day if he wants, but he's gotten the message and usually gets over it within minutes. Here are some pics of my little babies!
I was suppose to go into Amsterdam last Wednesday but decided to forgo it on account of my immense fatigue, but I made up for it by going to Bitter Zoet again on Friday and Hotel Arena on Saturday night. I stayed up wayyyy past my bedtime both nights but I had so much fun and it was all worth it. 
Despite the usual good times at the clubs, my favorite day this weekend had to have been Sunday. It was Monument Weekend in the Netherlands, which is when the museums/sights-to-see either have free or reduced admission. Jaime and I went into Amsterdam where we walked through the Dam Square and turned down a maze of streets, lined with shops and eateries. Seeing as how we're cheap and they hardly check train tickets, we almost got into a bit of trouble before enjoying the shit out of the sights and beautiful weather. Neither of us bought tickets and of course, they checked tickets. If you don't have a ticket, there is a 35 Euro fine!! We managed to talk our way out of that but the man made it clear that he wanted us to get off at the next stop. Riiiiigggghhhttttt. The train stops and we get up from our seats and move to a place where we can spot him if he's coming towards us. We're thinking, Amsterdam is the net stop in like 5 minutes so we can avoid him for that time. Wrong. I spot him and we go upstairs, trying to be discreet but power-walking like no one's business. We almost get to the end and think we're home free but he's still following. Thank God the doors stay open for a while at each stop because we managed to find an open door and slip out just in time. As the train passed, I spotted him staring out the window; what a douchecock. We got on the next train without buying a ticket and made it to Amsterdam, no problem. All of that was worth it since there are so many retail therapy locations there... it's fabulous! We went into an H&M yesterday that was huge and had 4 floors!!! Not to mention there were tons of second-hand shops with cool/unique/my-cup-of-tea shit.. It was an absolutely gorgeous day and there was so much to see! My eyes were like a pendulum, swinging to and fro as I took in all the sights. We stopped at this place called Wok to Walk and I had Shrimp Fried Rice in a coconut curry sauce.. (my mouth is salavating just thinking about it) it was like the first time I heard the Beatles. 
I'm loving Amsterdam and I can't wait to have visitors! Eline said people can sleep here which is really nice of her and is also going to help me with travel plans, should we decide to do so. Mark is due to come for Christmas which would be awesome. Eline also invited me to Switzerland with the family for the holidays so I'm thinking of going with them for a few days and coming back to enjoy some time off with the house to myself. It's a long vacation (December 20th-January 5th) and I'd love to be free to come and go as I please. Damaly is booking her flight out January 28th for our birthdays!!!!! Words can't describe how happy that will make me.. we've celebated our birthdays (her's February 1st, mine the 3rd) together for as long as I can remember and I'm so happy that despite my living in Europe for a year, that's a tradition that won't change.
