New Arrival

New Arrival

I am happy to announce the birth of Matthew who, like a confused tourist with an inaccurate guide book, missed the King’s Day celebrations and arrived a few days ago.

My wife and I are both tired but very happy. Our daughter is already enjoying her role as a protective big sister and often tells me I am being too loud while Matthew is sleeping. I am extra happy because the birth of a son evens the odds in the house. I would have been greatly outnumbered had he been another girl.

It probably comes as no surprise to anyone that I almost made a huge mistake while officially registering his birth at the city hall. When it came to the question about his gender I accidentally ticked the box for a girl. Luckily the eagle-eyed city registrar noticed that Matthew is not typically a female name and asked me if I might want to check the form again. It’s a good thing the mistake was spotted otherwise Matthew would have had a big surprise later in life when he tried to apply for a passport or any other official documentation.

When I moved to the Netherlands almost fifteen years ago I never would have imagined that I would end up calling the country home and staying to start a family of my own but I am very happy that that is exactly what happened.

While we get used to the sleep deprivation and hourly nappy changes again I’ll be taking a short break from writing. There might be a few posts in between here and there (a very big anniversary post is coming up soon) but for the most part, I’ll be away. The blog will return to a more regular schedule once I remember how to operate on minimal sleep again.

Stuart

Stuart is an accident prone Englishman who has been living in the Netherlands since 2001. Even his move to the country was an unintentional accident, the result of replying to a cryptic job advertisement he found one day in a local British magazine. Since then he has learned to love the Dutch (so much so that he married one of them) and now calls the country home. He started the blog Invading Holland in 2006 as a place to share his strange stories of language misunderstandings, cultural confusions and his own accident prone nature.

6 Responses

  1. CaptainKirt says:

    Congratulations. Well done on not becoming outnumbered. I’m completely outnumbered in our household, even the cat is a girl.

  2. William says:

    Congrats! Almost 7 years ago my wife and I had a son and we named him Matthew… except since he’s half Dutch, it’s Matthijs. We were thinking it was a great name to Americanize, just call him Matt. Well, for some reason, Thijs stuck, spelling and all. Since I also have a weird last name, I’ve shouldered him with a heavy name burden.

  3. dragonlady says:

    He is a very lucky boy, he has two smashing and talented parents and a really great big sister.Congratulations.
    See you all soon.

  4. vallypee says:

    Congratulations, Stu and Simone! It must be a huge relief to have your own backup now! Looking forward tomseeing more pics!

  5. AQK1982 says:

    Congratulations!!!! Enjoy your time off.

  6. Congratulations!! All the best to you and your family! :)

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