Belgium

Playing in the backyard in Hody.

I wish I had the energy to go into deep details of our trip to Belgium. But seeing as we got back and I came to work the next day, this will have to suffice. Where our memories end, this fills in. And photos soon to come.












Our Schedule:
June 4- Plane takes off from D.C. at 5pm EST. Luc sleeps 3 hours total and entertains himself with the TV screen in front of him and the lady behind us playing peek-a-boo.
June 5- Land in Brussels at 7am, trip to the store for diapers and random things for Luc, go for a walk and visit Guy and Carine.
June 6- Ruins, Maredsous, Namur with Pierre-Yves. Dinner with Guy and Carine.
June 7- Drive to Hody/Liege to Jean-Luc and Corrine's house. Relax in the backyard, drink wine, talk, etc.
June 8- Chocolate museum where Luc had a meltdown from hunger and refusing to eat anything. Visited the center of the city and my Favorite bar in all of Belgium- La Maison du Peket! BBQ for dinner.
June 9- Bastogne. -Cold. Rain.
June 10-Back to Brussels, spent the day shopping with Melanie and her daughter, Ella.
June 11-Downtown Brussels walk and shopping with Marine and Phillipe. Lunch with Kathleen. Dinner with Frederic's aunt Dominique, cousins, and Iris.
June 12-Antwerp with Phillipe, Marine and Kadima. Dinner with Kadima and his girlfriend.
June 13-Ghent with Aunt Dominique and Steph, Philou, and Marine.
June 14-to Caroline & Matt's house in Vilvoorde. Visited Caroline's brother, David, his wife, and their twins.
June 15- Pairi Daiza with Caroline, Matt & kids.
June 16- chill day at C & M's house, BBQ.
June 17- Plane takes off for USA at noon. Luc sleeps an hour before take off, the entire plane ride (8 hours), and the car ride home. That is SO not like Luc. And sure enough, Luc had a high fever for the first few days home. But there were no other symptoms (other than cranky and not too hungry) and then it all went away.

We were extremely lucky with the weather in Belgium this time, just like the last time. Only one day it was miserable cold and rainy. The other days it was hot and sunny, or just a few sprinkles of rain but nothing lasted long.

Luc did a great job on the plane rides. He never once needed to walk around in the aisles. That shocked me since at home he can't sit still for more than 3 minutes. He did not like having the window up to see outside, which annoyed me because I love to look out the window when flying because it helps me feel not so claustrophobic. All the toys and the Busy book I made that I brought with us especially for the plane weren't used at all. sigh. At least I was prepared for the worst. I'm happy Luc acted his best. And I'm happy I ran trials with Luc standing up while changing his diaper, it came in handy on the plane when the nearest toilets didn't have any changing tables.

I'm also super proud of Luc for the way he acted while away from home. He seemed often confused about where he was and since we stayed at three different homes, when it was bed time we stayed in the room with him until he fell asleep. Luc quickly warmed up to everyone he met. And considering he was meeting new people almost everyday, I'm surprised he didn't have a meltdown and cling to me or Frederic and never let go. I know I was exhausted from the trip. But then again, I think it helped that everyone was so in love with Luc and gave him endless attention (and chocolate). That made it all right in his mind.

It took Luc almost a week to get back into the swing of things at home. The sleep routine wasn't too off since he stayed up super late in Belgium. It was more his eating schedule that got off, plus him not feeling well.

And now that we're home, we're slowly taking away the pacifier and keeping the blankie for bed times. Sometimes this goes really well and Luc is so distracted with playing he never even notices. Other times, it's a complete meltdown if he doesn't get them both. Since we allowed him to have them as often as he wanted when we were away to ease any discomfort or unease with being somewhere new, it's making it harder to break his habit.  The next trick is to start poking holes in the pacifier to 'deflate' it and make it less satisfying. We'll see if that helps...

Since we were in Belgium for Father's Day and completely forgot about it, we waited until we got home and the following weekend had a BBQ with my family. Even though we didn't specifically celebrate the day on the day, Frederic spending 2 weeks, every day with Luc was a pretty good present, I think.

Lil walk with Granpa on "Father's Day"