Why am I awake at 6am?

Because my 3 year old isn't use to the time change! I guess I shouldn't complain - it's better than 5am, which was yesterday's wake up time!

We took a walk down Kaalverstraat last night - that is the major shopping street in the center of Amsterdam. The new Harry Potter book was released in Europe yesterday, so we went to Wordsworth and bought a copy (and we got a free copy of a book called "Lion Boy"). The people at the American Book store said that they ordered 2500 copies of the Harry Potter book and they were almost sold out at 6:30pm last night.

The weather has been beautiful so far! Sunny, warm, light breeze, in the mid 70s. Record breaking weather seems to follow us wherever we go on vacation, so this has been a nice change. It's nice to see the country when there are leaves on the trees and everything is green. But once again I will not get to see the tulip fields! We were here a little too early to see them bloom in March and now it is too late! It has been neat to see all of the outdoor cafe's though. They were just starting to put tables outside in March. Now that the weather is beautiful the sidewalks are cluttered with tables and chairs - so people can eat out in the sunshine and fresh air while watching the canal boats go by. You just gotta watch where you sit.....yesterday Jagger and I were going to meet Jeff and I sat down in a wicker chair outside of a resturant. Jagger was still in his stroller in front of me. A young dreadockled British girl came out and politely told me I would have to move, as this was a coffeeshop! OOPS! I guess they don't like 3 year olds to smell the "coffee"!

We're going to take a walk through the Jordaan (pronounced "Yor-dahn") today. It is an upperclass, yuppie type neighborhood in the western part of Amsterdam. If we were to move here, that is probably where we would want live. It is absolutely beautiful and we always enjoy our walks there. And then I'm going to try to find a computer or camera store where I can get a darn camera cord! Maybe we should find a toy store too.....I didn't bring much for Jagger to play with. I brought a bunch of his Magic School Bus books (his obsession right now) but I didn't bring any actual toys. I did buy him a plastic cup last night. I was going crazy watching him drink from these thin little glass glasses here- holding it with one hand, not pushing it back far enough on the table, drinking water from a glass at night while his head was bobbing cause he was still sleepy....so I found this little housewares discount store and grabbed this little round sippy cup - shaped like a football with a bear face on the front. I *thought* it was just a cute cup. But Jeff and I watched last night while Jagger played "Hide and Seek" with his new sippy cup! He would hide the sippy cup, then cover his eyes and count and then search for the cup. Then it was the cup's turn to count! It was really quite bizarre! Since the TV shows here are "not real" (Jagger's description of Nickelodeon cartoons in Dutch), the poor kid is bored! I'm hoping to find a toy store that has some neat little compact playsets that we can easily take back with us.