Millie was up much of the night with gastro issues. I will spare you the details, but we knew she shouldn’t go to camp today. We were all very disappointed for reasons you can imagine.

After breakfast we had to get out of our room so that housekeeping could replace the sheets, also for reasons you can imagine. We decided that going to nearby museums was the best option, since they aren’t too strenuous and have lots of bathrooms. She has been in that not-quite-sick state where she couldn’t go to camp, but was energetic enough to need to be entertained.

Our first stop was Moco Museum which was small but entertaining. Most of the art was not really my taste. Like, modern pop art and sneakerhead adjacent. Like, what I imagine Justin Bieber’s art collection looks like. Like, we had Sanrio and kids these days have NFTs.

But Millie liked it and that’s my #1 priority, especially on a day like today.

One thing that was cool is they had a Banksy exhibit and we reminded her of the Banksy walking tour we did in Bristol. And they had Invader pieces that my friend Pam pointed out in Paris. Any time I can connect two pieces of this trip it feels like a win.

She loved some of the interactive pieces.

From here we attempted to go to the Stedelijk Museum. This is when things started to spiral. Before we entered, she had a full meltdown about using the bathroom at the museum because it had an automatic flush that freaked her out. She refused to step foot in the bathroom or any other bathroom within a walkable radius. Cut to: me carrying her out of the museum and through hoards of tourists while she screamed “I need to go pottttyyyyy!!!!!!”

I got looks as if I was single-handedly holding her back from a biological need. We walked back to the hotel room to allow the dust to settle in a private room that we could lock ourselves into. It took a while. As with all tantrums there is the trigger and then there is the true reason. Sometimes we never discover the reason, but today we figured out it was because she was sad about missing camp. She cried “I feel leftover!!!” Which was a cute and sad misunderstanding of the term “left out”.

We left the hotel and tried again for the museum but the moods were just not there, and I was not willing to spend €50 to listen to complaining amongst world class art and other tourists. So we walked to the park and beelined for the cafe with a bathroom.

The weather was perfect. The building was cool. After a drink our moods shifted — probably not the healthiest coping mechanism but we were in survival mode. Millie was tired but instead of screaming just got cuddly.

We ate hummus and a toastie sandwich and had another round. We went to the bathroom eight hundred times. But for the first time all day we were synced as a family and no one was annoyed at anyone else.

We walked on to find a playground. She had mixed confidence and patience and lots of feelings about various things but we left without any major drama.

On our way back to the hotel we stopped at a traditional Dutch restaurant. Halfway through Nick observed that it was like Luby’s, in a good way. I agreed.

We got back, took showers, and once again hoped for a better day tomorrow.

It was a unique type of frustration knowing that we interrupted our itinerary and budget for a camp that she couldn’t attend. Plans getting thwarted has been the primary pain we have felt on this trip, and pushes us towards making no plans at all. It is hard to be disappointed if you don’t have any expectations. And unfortunately all three of us have a lot of expectations for this week. I tried to practice acceptance and to focus on the good of today, with mixed results.