Snowsuit In The Snow!

It snowed! That was not a first-timer for Lorelei. In fact, when we came home from the hospital with her on Nov 30th last year, it was snowing! But, she liked it. I think she was kind of cold at first, but it wasn't really that cold, not below freezing anyways.... She loved it though. We walked Tobias to school and then took a little walk into town. This picture is taken in front of city hall in Gouda (the building behind the tree). Every year they put a huge Christmas tree up on the town square in front of city hall and today it was all nice and covered in white. Despite the fact you don't see much of the context, I do like this picture (knowing when, where and under which circumstances it was taken :-)). Unfortunatly I had to make due with my phone camera....


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Snowsuit...

Question: Do you think she's ready for the cold Dutch winter?

The suit she is wearing is a one piece full body suit, pretty much unavailable over here, but apparently available in Tropical Texas. I guess "cold" is a relative term, right?


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Playing In Her Room

Lorelei still needs (or takes) quite some sleep (which gives me time to blog). This is what my daddy-days look like these days:
7:00 I get up and take a shower
7:15 I get Tobias up, put some clothes out for him and most of the times dress him (although he is perfectly capable of doing that himself, and he told me this morning that he will do that when he is five :-))
7:25 I get Lorelei up and dress her
7:35 We have breakfast, I make Tobias' lunch and prepare his schoolbag
8:00 Tobias brushes his teeth while I comb his hair
8:15 Getting everybody ready to take Tobias to school
8:25 We go to school, these days, me and Lorelei on my bike and Tobias on his
8:35 Tobias is in school, Lorelei and I head back home
8:45 We get home, and take our coats off. I usually try to do some cleaning up downstairs, get a load of laundry going and then play with Lorelei. We usually play for somwhere betwee 45 minutes and an hour before she starts rubbing her eyes. Sometimes we play downstairs, but lately we have been up in her room a lot. We play, sing, read, goof off. This morning, she started rubbing her eyes and crawled to her bed. She stuck one arm through the bars and patted her mattress. It seems unlikely, but I am quite sure it was a deliberate message to me saying: "I want to go in my bed and sleep.". I put her down and she is still sleeping.
10:00 Lorelei is in bed and I do some stuff, drink some coffee and, blog :-)

She will probably wake up sometime between noon and 13:00, at which time we will have lunch. After lunch I need to do some shopping. Depending on the weather I will go into town or just to the grocery store. After that it is almost time to pick Tobias up again. School is out at 15:15. Usually Lorelei has a snack before we go. When we come back and play a little bit, Lorelei is tired again and goes down for another hour or so. That gives me some time to play with Tobias, unless he has a friend over....

Well, by the time Lorelei wakes up again I have to start dinner and before you know it the day is over. As you can see I sometimes capture one of those precious moments of playtime in Lorelei's room! Adorable, right?


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Biking Is Fun

Since the start of the new schoolyear I have been taking Tobais to school on my bike, because Lorelei is able to sit in the bikeseat now. And, she is loving it. In fact, she is loving it sooooo much that she will even sit there, no cries or complaint, when it is really cold outside, raining, wind, anything really. She just sits there, smiles, sometimes even laughs and seems to be having quite a comfortable time out there in that bike seat. She is in front of me and rather high up, so I guess she gets to see a lot, but still, rain, wind and cold....?

Anyway, last week on my daddy-day the three of us went on a little biking trip and as you can see in this picture, I am not kidding about that smiling thing :-). The black straps are from the bike seat, so, she is sitting in the bike-seat eating her cookie, and smiling at the photographer :-).


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Sinterklaas!

Well, Sinterklaas has come and gone, just like Lorelei's birthday and most of the past year is sometimes seems.... Time flies when you're having fun I guess..... Anyway, this was Lorelei's second Sinterklaas and of course she is in much better shape than last year (although she was at the peak of a cold on "pakjesavond" (gift evening, the evening of December 5th, when we celebrate Sinterklaas). Tobias was way excited, but yet he took a (teeny tiny) bit of time to help his sister unwrap her gifts, since she cannot quite do that by herself yet. Sinterklaas brings his gifts in bags and Tobias had the task of getting gifts from the bag, reading who's name is on it and then giving it to that person (and, waiting until that person has unwrapped it before getting the next one, and that was hard! :-)). He was so sweet though, as you can see in this picture. Of course Tobias got the most gifts, but Lorelei got quite a few too. She got two books (one of which laying on the floor in front of her), a ball, a very cute scarf, hat, mittens combo, and of course some sweets!

One of the books makes a sound. It's a Dutch version of "five little ducks went out one day" and if you push the button you hear "Quack quack!" and it is quite loud. Of course Lorelei went for the button right away and her startled face was so funny...... :-)


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Growing, Learning, Drinking

My girl... such a big nice cute sweet lovely girl. She is so sweet and I just had to put a new picture on here. She is growing so fast, yet she is still sooooo my little baby girl. She is very mobile being a very fast crawler. As I wrote before she is now way too interested in the stairs and as soon as the door to the hallway opens she dashes right through trying to climb the stairs... She tries to climb on the couch, the chairs, the coffee table, anything really... She sometimes accidentally stands by herself without holding on to anything. But as soon as she realizes this she will sit back down or grab something again. But I guess there's another milestone coming up.

She is also eating more normally every day. She is now drinking normal milk, basically eating a little bit of what we're eating and drinking from a sippy-cup rather than a bottle. She likes that. She can hold it and drink from it pretty well, but setting it down is still somewhat of a challenge. Basically she bangs it onto whatever surface is closeby.

Of course we can't end the bed-time bottle yet. She loves it way way way too much. So, I guess we'll keep holding on to that one for a while longer.


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Swinging

We put the swing up on saturday, but the weather was not that nice. We did not do a whole lot of swining, but we had to do some.... of course! Well, she loved it! She was laughing abundantly the whole time! I am definitely looking forward to de some more swinging with her sometime real soon!


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Cowgirl Lorelei!

This picture was actually taken a week or so before her birthday so I am getting the order wrong here, but I just could not resist. Lorelei is growing and developing so fast... well, I think I have already been dwelling on that enough, but it is still true. Anyway, this results in some stuff becoming obsolete and some stuff becoming useful, handy, or just nice to have :-). So, we were going through some stuff, putting or giving the obsolete things away, and getting out some of Tobias' old toys and one of my old toys: this rocking horse! It has quite some history as you can read here.

Lorelei does not seem quite as ready for the Rodeo as Tobias did, but hey, she looks quite confident, right?


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First Birthday!

Lorelei turned one last week! Unbelievable!!! Already she is quite the party girl, because she had no less than three parties to celebrate. I guess she's as happy as we are she made it through her first year, having had the start she did.....

Anyway, party number 1 was on wednesday at the daycare. Whenever there's a birthday they have a little party. The birthday girl can bring a treat, they sing a song and the birthday girl gets a present. Lorelei got a green prickly ball, which turned out to be pretty much her favorite toy... It was nice and Nonny was there to witness the whole spectacle and to take some pictures.

Thursday was her actual birthday and also her second party. Tobias got sick on tuesday and had been sick throughout wednesday and we had already decided that he would stay home on thursday too. This was a good thing for two reasons:
1. He still needed the rest to recover
2. We were able to make Lorelei's cake together
So, Tobias and I made a carrot cake decorated with girly-icing (Tobias wouldn't allow anything else :-)). It was, as always, a nice process having one of Tobias' books titled "Worteltjestaart" (Carrot Cake) as a recipe, and it turned out really well and really yummy (although Tobias didn't like the nuts much...). We had my parents, my brothers and my best friend over for dinner and had a nice time. Our girl was spoiled with lots of fairly sizeable gifts as you can see in the picture. We gave her a baby-swing which we added to the swing-set in our yard. She also got a doll house, some stuffed animals, blocks, a phone en lots more. And of course, unwrapping gifts is still quite a challenge when you're only one, but when you're almost five it's easy. So, Tobias helped his sister out....

Saturday we had a couple of couples over with babies of about the same age. Just around the time Lorelei was born some of Lisa's international friends in the area had babies as well. In fact one of them was born just three days later, when both Lisa and Lorelei were still in the hospital. Anyway, that was nice too. She got spoiled again and was once again the party-girl and the center of all the attention :-).

All in all her birthday didn't go by unnoticed...

PS: I wanted to add one thing, basically for my own sake, so I won't forget... Tobias gave Lorelei a gift that he picked out himself. It is a teletubbies bath toy. Lorelei likes it, and so does Tobias :-).

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Car Seat!

This is not our car seat. This is the car seat in the rental car in France. It was, however, not the first time she was in a seat like this... that milestone was reached the sunday before we left for France, in my own car. I guess it is not such a major milestone, nothing like sitting or standing, but still, it makes driving a lot nicer for Lorelei, and for us. She can see a lot more, and we can see a lot more of her :-).


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Climbing...

During our vacation Lorelei reached another milestone... The house had lots of steps and things and of course this intrigued our little girl. She headed quickly towards them and started climbing. Result: She can climb them, pretty well and pretty fast. A milestone? Yes! A comfort? Well, I guess we just have to pay even more attention to where she's going now, or keep the door to our staircase shut...

As you can see it is lots of fun to our girl!


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Cute Expression

Lorelei has a couple of facial expressions that are just so cute. One of them is this one and it is probably my favorite. She makes a small round mouth and the goes "huuuu". It is kind of hard to explain, but it is not just what it looks like in this picture, but there is a whole process to it. It starts with the lowe lip, then the upper lip, then the round mouth and then the little sound...

Anyway, I love it.... I guess you'd have to be there....


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My Favorite Vacation Picture

I guess it is quite obvious why I would pick this picture to be my favorite vacation picture from our trip to southern France.... isn't it cute?


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Stroller in the Forest

Since I was by myself this past weekend I took Lorelei with me to the forest. Obviously she had to be either in the belly-pouch-carrier-thing, or in the stroller. I opted for the stroller so that I could partake in any strenuous activities that Tobias (or me actually) made up during our time in the forest. We ended up playing baseball with pine-cones. Tobias' bat is laying on the ground in front of him.

It is kind of hard to take pictures of Lorelei doing something in the forest because she basically sat in the stroller the whole time. Ok, I took her out to feed her, but that was about it. So, I figured I'd take a picture of her in her stroller. That way we have "proof" she was there. Lorelei loves to be outside and she loves leaves and things like that. I gave her some leaves to play with and to tickle her neck with and she loved it. She also loves the sounds of the forest. I am not sure she liked the bumpyness of the tree-roots though...

I had a great time in the forest and I am quite sure both my kids did too!

Note: Baby-bear is on top of the stroller holding on for dear life :-)


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Lorelei Lee Lewis

Lorelei has been comforted by me playing the piano for quite some time. Sometimes she would be crying and I'd just put her down in the play-pen, play some piano and she'd calm down. Well, now that she can sit she has discovered the piano for herself. She gets so enthusiastic about it. She'll hop and bop in her chair while banging on the keys... Of course not very coordinated yet, but it's a start, and hey, you have to start someplace, right?

Another good thing about this development is that Tobias, who hasn't been showing a whole lot of interest in the piano recently, gets more interested too. He tries to help Lorelei and show her how it works. Sometimes he'll put on a demo-song for her and she enjoys that. Also in the past few weeks I have seen him sit down at the piano or even heard him say "Papa, I'm going to play some piano...". So, who knows, maybe they stimulate each other this way...?

Isn't she lovely?


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Milestone: Standing Up

My goodness, another milestone: Lorelei can now stand up.... and she does is all by herself too! In fact, this picture was taken two weeks ago (already!), on my daddy day. I had just taken Tobias to school and put her in the play-pen. She was just playing and I was making myself a cup of coffee. I come back from the kitchen and see this! Unbelievable! She had gotten up all by herself, was standing in the box smiling and havind a great time! Of course it took a lot out of her and when she let go she fell backwards... She did not yet have the strength or coordination to sit back down on her bum or her knees....

That did not take long though. Last week she could do that as well and now there is nothing she rather does than going to the play-pen or to her crib, when she is in her room, and pull herself up, stand and the "walk" back and forth from one end of the play-pen to the other and back. And she is having loads of fun, and spending loads of energy doing so.

Another one of her favorite things to do is crawl and she is getting faster by the day, no, by the hour, no, by the minute! It does not matter too much how many toys are on the floor to play with or even if we are on the floor to play with her... she heads straight for one of two things:
1. The kitchen, where the cat-bowl is
2. The fire-place
These of course are two places we don't want her to go :-). The kitchen because dangerous stuff happens there like hot pans sitting on a stove and such. The fire-place because we have a tiled elevated area around it with quite sharp edges, and of course dangerous stuff will be happening there once we start firing it up again coming fall and winter. But hey, that makes it all the more fun for Lorelei (apparently).

It is so good to see her moving around the house, though, and see her new developments every day, including milestones such as this one!


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Milestone: Crawling!!!

Recently I reported that Lorelei was getting ready to crawl.... Well, as of this past weekend she is doing it! It is so much fun to see and she is having so much fun too... She can actually cover quite some distance and, she is getting faster every day! Unbelievable, but true and so nice... Our girl is growing, developing and it is all just such a treat to see and experience.

Today is my daddy day and I had to iron some of my shirts. This usually takes me quite a while and I do this on the landing to Tobias' and Lorelei's rooms. Well, I put Lorelei in her room with the door open and gave her some toys. She was having lots of fun and started to babble. She is doing that more and more and that is good to hear too. Mostly it is something like "wawa" or "dada", but the amount of sounds and the clarity of her voice are increasing rapidly. Also, she laughs while she is playing. And all the while I am just ironing my shirts. Since she can crawl now it is not such a big deal anymore if she drops a toy and it rolls away. She'll just crawl, get it and play with it some more wherever it landed.

I can tell you that she makes ironing my shirts a lot more fun :-).


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Strolling in the Stroller

So, Lorelei can sit up. This has many advantages, including the fact that she can now sit in her "new" stroller. It is the same thing, without the basket-bed-thing on it. She was almost pulling herself out of that thing, twisting an turning and everything. Also, it was getting quite small for her (or actually she was just growing out of it :-)).

Since it takes some effort to convert the stroller into this thing, it kind of felt like "closing an era". I think I have written many times the mixed feelings I have when closing eras.... This time was no different, although I have to say that, even though I can't believe or comprehend how fast it goes, there was somewhat of a relief too. She has grown into a big healthy baby and the fear of an RS-virus relapse is now pretty much gone. Of course it is summer so it is not the RS season, but I can tell you that every cough, fever, or booger still causes (relatively) severe concern....

Anyway, back to the stroller: she loves it. She can see everything now and that is so nice for her. It is still a bit big, but so much more fun. And there is the matter of convenience for us since it collapses into a somewhat smaller nuisance to take in the car with us... :-). The buggy board still works, so Tobias is happy too!


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Biking!!!

Biking is "the thing" in the Netherlands. Some claim that Dutch people learn how to bike before the know how to walk... This is not true, but biking is a big part of the Dutch culture. I have posted a picture before of me on my bike with both Tobias and Lorelei, but at that time I was carrying Lorelei on my belly. Like I said, that was not as comfortable. Well, now that Lorelei can sit by herself she is ready for a real bike-seat! So, I pulled it from the garage, put it on my bike and we went riding. Me with two children (one in front, one in back), and Lisa by herself. We had a nice ride during which Lorelei laughed a lot, but ended up falling asleep :-).

Looking forward to more of those rides!


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Yardstone: Ready to Crawl?

Granted, she is not quite there yet, hence the word "yardstone" in the title (if that is even a word...). What I mean is that she is not really crawling yet, but it sure looks a lot like she is getting there. She will sit on her hands and knees like in this picture and rock back and forth. When she gets too enthusiastic she push so hard with her feet, but forget to move her hands so she will roll over. If she is not on het knees like this she kind of pushes herself backwards with her hand. So, she is moving, but I would not call it crawling yet.

When she gets there we'll call it a milestone :-)


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Milestone: Sitting

My Goodness, my girl is growing en developing fast! She reached a serious milestone today: She can sit! Well, she actually reached this milestone this past weekend, but by then it was still rather shaky. Today she did not only sit, we played, with a ball. It was not just a minute or so, we played for quite a while! Later we even had two balls going and she was holding one in each hand. As you can see she is enjoying it. Here is another picture showing her enthusiasm for the game we were playing:

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Two Beauties!

Soooooo Beautiful! I'm in love, in awe, and at a loss for words..... :-)


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Cookie Monster

Lorelei has been increasing the number of different types of food she eats. I told you before she started on various kinds of fruit. Well, in the morning she eats cereal these days. Fruit is for the afternoon and at night she gets some sort of vegetable. I try to vary the source as well (i.e. alternating between jars vs. fresh food). She eats all of it. And, recently she has even added an occasional snack to her diet: a cookie. As you can see here she is quite the cookie monster. I can tell you that the "painting skirt" is quite necessary (although a bib of the somewhat more serious variety will do fine too...). It is quite interesting to watch her devour that cookie. It takes a while, and a significant percentage does not enter the digestive system, but fun all the same :-).


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First Attempt

Well.... the second actually, or maybe even the third. Anyway, Lorelei is a real grabber, and she has been. She will grab her toy, my hand, my face, my hair (or even better: Mommy's hair :-)) and so on. So, when we feed her she is also grabbing. She would grab her bottle, or, now that we are feeding her solid foods, the spoon or the bowl. Well, last Thursday I thougt I'd take advantage of that and put the handles on her bottle and see how she would do by herself. That was the actual first attempt and she did quite OK. I tried again when I put her to bed yesterday and she drank the whole thing all by herself albeit in my arms. This morning we gave her the bottle in her own chair. She did not manage to finish all of it, but as you can see she is doing a pretty good job holding that thing!


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First Biking Trip

Summer (or at least sunny spring) is here! We had a very nice weekend. On saturday Lisa and I attended a wedding of one of my best friends. Tobias and Lorelei spent Friday (regular baby-sit day), Saturday and part of Sunday with my parents. They all had a great time, but of course we were eager to pick them up again. We ended up spending a nice and sunny afternoon at my parents place before going back home.

Monday was a holiday in the Netherlands. It was nice weather again, so, we decided to go on a biking trip, with the four of us. Since I am the most experienced biker I took both kids on my bike. Tobias in the back, Lorelei on my belly. We ended up biking for about 25 km or something. Lorelei was fine, she even fell asleep for a while. I was fine too and as you may have guessed, this first biking trip for Lorelei is definitely not going to be her last! (although I hope that she will be able to use a regular bike seat soon, because that belly thing is not the most comfortable way to carry a child on a bike... :-))


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