Days 362-363 – June 4-5, 2012 – Baby-sized favors…

Number of days in Amsterdam – 362-363

Number of days without a bike theft – 358-359

Days since it last rained – 0

Musical interlude: NOFX – “Franco-Unamerican”

Tonight, we went to a concert. I guess if you hadn’t guessed, it was NOFX.

NOFX is another great band that we’ve been into for a long time. A looong time. In fact, it’s a sign that you’re getting old when you can say that you’ve been into a band for almost 20 years and that you saw them almost 20 years ago, too.

Nicole and I saw Fat Mike, the singer, perform an infamous show that will forever be known as the Cokie the Clown incident. Our witnessing this… incident… ended up with Nicole’s photos in multiple publications, including Spin. It’s a long story about what exactly happened there, but I did chronicle the event, along with photos and a timeline of the aftershocks here.

But the show was great. As part of the trend that bands who’ve been around a while are adopting, they played their 1994 album Punk in Drublic in its entirety, although not in order, and they played a bunch more stuff.

It’s interesting to note that this is a band that made it’s name with music that’s pretty political, making a name out of being critical of the US government, and yet everyone in the venue in Amsterdam knew all of the words. And they know more about the meaning than many kids in the States.

It seems that people are more politically aware here in general, not just when it pertains to their own politics, but they are all on top of politics elsewhere. I don’t know if it’s part of being in the union, but not only do folks keep up with the goings on in the other EU nations, but they’re well aware of what’s going on stateside. The youth in Europe know more about American politics than the youth in the States do! What does that say?

Ranting aside, the Kitten was staying at her BLF’s house while we attended the show with her boyfriend’s mom.

I’m so glad that we’re building a network of friends here who are also parents. It not only gives us a chance to allow the babies to hang out together, but it also allows for babysitting options. We have had a difficult time with babysitters here, having found two that were great, only to then have them move out of the country (I think it’s only coincidence that they decided to move away after watching the Kitten), so having parents we know as friends and trust for the occasional babysitting gig is all kinds of awesome.

Almost as much fun as the show was having the chance to ride bikes with Nicole, even if it was just from the neighborhood to the show and back again. I can’t wait until we have a bike with baby seat to take the baby with us. Unfortunately, we need a whole new bike, as our bike frames simply won’t accommodate a seat. But it will be soon, financial gods willing.

I truly could have just ridden my bike all night, but we were ‘sponsible and it was a school night, so after the show we headed back, collected the Kitten and called it a night.

The babysitting favor was in exchange for another babysitting favor to be named later, but I had no idea when asked for that it would be claimed the next day!

While Kitten’s BLF’s mom got her hair cut, I had two babies. All by myself. For about four hours.

Now infants are not like dogs in one way and one way only – two infants are not less work in the way that two dogs are. Infants do not entertain each other, and they require twice the care of one, and they like to have needs at exactly the same time. I actually pulled off a move that will go down as an historic moment – I managed to feed them both simultaneously, sitting on the floor, one in my lap with a bottle in her mouth, one on the rug next to me with a bottle in her mouth and a phone tucked under my ear! If I’d had a third hand, I’d have taken a photo. If someone else had been there, they wouldn’t have taken a photo, because I’d have asked them to put down the camera and help.

But, when the dust had cleared, I discovered that we’d done OK.