There was an elementary school garden across the way that you can buy from and tour. I love that showing children how to grow food and plants is so important to this culture.
At this farm, there were bunnies, geese, ducks, chickens, roosters, goats, cows, peacocks and peahens, and an assortment of little birds. At one point a duck rounded a corner and ran right into Colin, knocking him over. It was hilarious!
This was at the entrance of the children's farm.
This is the grazing land for the goats and cows.
The back of a mighty peacock
Trying to show off. He did this thing where he shook his feathers and made this vibrating noise.
The wheelbarrows won the coveted "What Will Enamor Colin" award.
One reason I went here was because it is fun to see animals but also because I haven't found a local playgroup (even if i did, it would probably be in Dutch) and need adult Mom friends or just conversations. I went to the playground at the farm which Colin is still too young to really go to. I thought I might find a Mom to talk to. This one little boy took a liking to Colin and followed us around. I tried to strike up a conversation with his caretaker (you never know who is a mom or a nanny since it is much less common to find a stay-at-home mom here). I asked her what the boy's name was and she told me. I then told her Colin's name and she replied with an unenthused "ok". Tough crowd. I don't know if she just didn't speak English well enough or she genuinely didn't want to talk but I took the hint and went elsewhere. Her son kept following us and awkwardly put us in the same vicinity and every time I tried to engage, she didn't care.
You can see why it is hard to break cultural and language barriers. Everyday I imagine how much easier it would be if I lived somewhere French speaking and tried having this European adventure. I would be outside interacting with women and children all the time and I could go to playgroups. So I am just focusing on Colin which is great but I miss the Mom community there was in NYC. What's really killing me is that the baby population in our ward is 2. Church was my automatic connection to mothers and it is pretty dead here. Plus everyone from church lives too far away here to visit with regularly. There are a ton of single middle aged women that are quite nice but the ward covers a ton of cities and these ladies work.
Luckily, the other baby of the ward lives in Zaandam and we get together once a month. Just today I ran into another woman who lives in the building and she has two kids about Colin's age. She is Brazilian which goes to show that expats are my best bet and she was so friendly. She invited me to stop by any time. She may even know some mommy resources in the community. God answers prayers, I tell ya.
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