Henk and Klare last saw Thomas for his first birthday and it had been even longer since we'd been to Holland so it was high time to make the trip across the Channel again. Mike had a hospital appointment so he stayed behind. I decided to go by plane this time and Mike drove Thomas and me to the airport at four in the moring. I had been a bit worried about getting Thomas up at this early hour to start our travels but he did really well and slept on the airplane. He had his breakfast on the train to Rotterdam and stayed awake until we arrived in Krimpen aan de Lek without too much trouble.

It was great to see that he didn't need very long to get used to my parents again. He must remember them by now, even though he doesn't get to see them very often. And good thing he did as I had to leave him the next day to go to a wedding of a University friend of mine. Thomas had a great time with them and they enjoyed having him to themselves.

The highlight of the trip was the time we got to spend with Cousin Daphne. We met at the swimming pool on Saturday morning and she decided she wanted to stay the rest of the day and night so we had lots of time to play together. We even went to the playground but as Thomas is a bit too young to actually play with her, Oma had to step in and run around with her.

As time is always limited, I asked several people to come and see us rather than me racing around trying to fit everything in. Sunday was quite a busy day with various family members and friends coming to say hello. It was a bit much for Thomas to see so many new faces. He didn't cry but his smiles and babbling were put on hold for a while. As soon as some people had left, he felt much more comfortable and continued running around in the garden, 'talking' about everything he saw.

On the way back Thomas didn't sleep very much. He had just fallen asleep when we had to board the aircraft so that was the end of his nap. Somewhere over the English Channel he stuffed too may raisins in his mouth and spewed quite bit of his dinner all over himself and his seat. Apparently this is a very common thing to happen as tissues were brought to me in seconds and 10 mins later T's seat cushion was replaced. And all that on EasyJet where you think they might just leave you to fend for yourself or charge you for the tissues :)

More Pictures of the trip are in the gallery.