Welcome Baby Sylvie Jane

On July 17th, our wedding anniversary, our 4th family member arrived, Sylvie Jane Cooper.  She was 3 days early and born here in a Dutch hospital.  She was 3.45 kilos (7 lbs - 9 oz.).  We don't know how long she is as they don't measure right after birth.  We have to wait until she is 6 weeks old and has a check-up.  

  
Archie is adjusting well to the new addition to the house.  He ignored her for the first day and ignored me for a couple days.  Every once and awhile he gets a little needy for some mommy-time but that is to be expected.  He is busy being a toddler and beginning to express all the great toddler behaviors.......we have tantrums, time-outs, and different expressions of frustration happening on a daily basis.  So he doesn't have a lot of time to pay attention to his sister.  Here are a couple more photos of Archie.  He is still a character and making us smile every day.

The End of June and onto July

Here are some more photos of Archie.  He is making "moo" sounds for cows and "brrmmm brrmmm" sounds for vehicles.  He is really enjoying wearing sunglasses (mine of course).  So here are a few recent pics of him this week.

New friend Magda (her husband works with Campbell) and her children, Marco & Maya.

We shared some gelato and Archie thought it was a hit!

"No more photos, please."

Mmmmmm, watermelon!!!

We made it to Dusseldorf, Germany, this weekend.  It was a really nice city (at least the parts we visited).  Beautiful architecture, new and old.  We stayed in a new area with some famous modern buildings, a beautiful harbor off the Rhine, and many trendy cafes and restaurants.  Archie liked the boats.

View from our hotel room.  The bridge is a pedestrian bridge that has seating along the whole way.  The "box" in the middle is a super cool bar/restaurant that had some great night life.....that we viewed from our room. :)

Looking back to the hotel from the bridge.  Note the sculpture on the building nearby.  They are figures of people crawling up the building.

Mmmmmmm, croissants.  This is the best photo I could get of Archie munching his breakfast.  He was a big fan of the bakery we found as were we.  It was a nice night away and a city we could easily visit again.  Unfortunately I didn't take many photos but Archie can be the subject of this blog entry instead!