Today is Wolf's fourth birthday, so please allow me to get the following off my chest

Happy Birthday !!!

Imagine that, four years in a blink of an eye. Seems as if it was only yesterday when he peed all over me. Or that could have been Tyl. Anyway...

We celebrated his birthday yesterday, with all the young kids we could steal from my sister's and sisters-in-law. For good measure we invited the grandparents too, and threw in an uncle to run around the kids and do goofy things with them. We had a gastronomic kids' menu of spagheti and ice-cream for desert, and that was the only moment there was any peace and quiet for the whole afternoon.

So everyone had a blast, until they got tired and kids suddenly got hurt and started to cry and he took my toy from me and it's not my fault and she started it and that's mine and no it isn't give it back right this minute... Well, you get it, it was time for all to go home, get in bath and watch the tele for five minutes before bed time stories and night-night.

Total exhaustion, I tell you. I look forward to the moment when he careens off on his souped up motorbike with his friends and doesn't come back until five o'clock in the morning all boozed up. But that will be at least another four years from now.

Just had a raspberry-blowing competition with my youngest son.

He won by about three litres.

This Friday, we'll be married for five years. To celebrate this momentous event, Mrs.B and I will dump the children in a random waste container and head of to an exotic destination. Well that was the plan initially, but for practical reasons we've limited the travelling time a bit, so we're going to Amsterdam.

We don't go anywhere without a travelling guide, generally the Guide Routard or a Lonely Planet. However, that was easier said than done. Here in Belgium you can find travelling guides to Papoua New Guinea, the Falkland Islands or Upper Siberia, but a book about the Netherlands is really difficult to find. But eventually I found one about the capital of recreational herbs and tulips.

When I browsed through the book, I stumbled across the Food & Drinks chapter. Now we all know that the Dutch cuisine doesn't have the best reputation, but it says a lot when even a tourist guide that was written by Dutch people warns against eating Dutch food. The chapter starts with trying to make you warm for their 'famous' sandwiches, including the infamous Broodje Kroket (bread roll with a mushy cardboard/meat croquette). But then they advise travellers to try Indonesian, Indian, Chinese or any other cuisine; just don't enter a Dutch restaurant.

Same for the Drinks chapter: Heineken is mentioned of course, but they quickly add that there are many kinds of Belgian beers available which are truly great.

So the message is clear: when visiting Holland, bring your own food or visit foreign restaurants and pubs that serve foreign beer.

Duly noted.

The last three nights we slept. This may sound utterly obvious - unless you take us for a pair of sex crazed rabbits -  but with a baby sleeping is far from obvious (as is sex by the way). Ever since he was born, Tyl has woken us up one to four times a night. When I say 'we', I have to admit that the burden was more on Mrs.B shoulders, or rather on her tits, because she did the breast feeding thing and for some obscure reason my tits weren't qualified. Well I can only offer, you know. I even removed the hair and everything(*)

Anyway, Mrs.B played milk bar for seven months in a row, but then it was high time to switch to milk bottles because working full time and getting up at least once a night and producing milk all the time... It was just getting too much. So since a couple of weeks, we take turns feeding Tyl, but he is not pleased with the new regime. Instead of instant gratification, he now has to wait a couple of minutes before he gets served. And he voices his feelings of disagreement in a loud and clear manner... from the moment he opens his eyes until the very second that he gets his bottle. Neighbours four houses in every direction snarl at me every time I meet them and say hallo.

But now, for three blissful nights, he has generously granted us the opportunity to sleep for eight hours straight. I can't tell you how glad I am. My body slips in a total coma every night, in an effort to recuperate, but it will take a while before I've caught up with all those missed hours. On the other hand, every evening I go to bed afraid that it's just a temporary respite.

Well, we'll see. I'm going to bed now.

(*) not true

 Sometimes, people have a crazy idea. And then they take way too much time to turn it into reality:

Star Wars ASCIImation

Enjoy