Quinten’s First Birthday

Last Saturday, I went to my nephew Quinten’s first birthday party. The cute baby in the picture is obviously the guest of honor, the son of Rob’s sister Femke and her husband Tomas. It was actually a double birthday, as it was Tomas’s birthday party too. To celebrate, Quinten got a cake all of his own to eat with his hands and get all over everything. He had as much fun with that as with eating the cake!



When we first arrived, I experienced one of the more unusual (for an American at least) traditions at a Dutch birthday party. I am used to congratulating the birthday boy/girl of course. In Holland, you also congratulate the family and friends on the birthday person. You wind up going around the room saying “congrats on your son’s/father’s/mother’s/friend’s/second cousin 3 times removed birthday. While doing this, you give the customary Dutch greeting of 3 kisses on the cheek. I have been told that in France it is 2 kisses, but proper Dutch etiquette says 3 kisses. This is done in place of a hug or handshake American Style….of course there are exceptions to everything. Dutch are manly men, and so a guy gives another guy a manly hand shake.

At home, I only have my immediate family living around me. It is a new experience to have extended family-in-law around me. As well as Rob’s parents, there was also Tomas’s parents, sister and aunt/uncle, and family friends with they’re children. Tomas’s mom told me an interesting story that theirs is a tale of 2 brothers marrying 2 sisters. Tomas’s parents’ younger siblings met through them and also married.

The party went from about 2 PM until about 11 PM. There was lots of good company, sweets and bread/cheese served, as well as soup for a dinner. After 1 ½ weeks in my Dutch course, I could hold some very intricate discussions in Dutch. I can now say “My name is…, I live in …, I come from…..”. The rest of the time, I used a jumble of Dutch and English, but luckily everyone speaks English.

I tried to use some of my fancy new vocab to say “what did they think at the office of your new hair cut”, but I said something like “what think they a lot of on her”. As well as speaking sentences adults can make sense of, I now have marker to see my progress How well can I speak with the 3 year old son of one of the guests. I read him a kids story, and asked what his name was…and he does not mind at all being asked the same question multiple times, so we got along great. He happily told me his and his sister’s age about 10 times during the day.