Growing… FAST!

My goodness, Lorelei is growing and developing fast. This picture was taken on our bike ride last Sunday when we stopped for a drink. We put her in a normal chair and it was fine with her. She would play around a little, but not anything that was too annoying. Besides, we were outside, so there was plenty of space.

Also notice her drinking from a straw. She has been doing that for a while and is now also to a point where she can drink from a normal cup without needing continuous attention (a little bit is still required though).

There was a little playground there with a normal swing. She would go on there and hold on, kind of like she knew she had to because she was on that thing. Of course she still needs pushing, but still…

As you can see she is wearing her sunglasses. She wore them throughout the bike ride without taking them off. Before she would never leave them on for more than two minutes. I guess she finally realizes it actually helps to wear them…

Finally she is speaking more and more. She has been saying Cat, Mama, Papa and such, but more and more words are forming. I will list a few:
Tobias – Aziza
Auto – Tauto
Opa – Opa
Oma – Oma
Nonny – Nonny
Tijd – Tijd (Dutch for Time)
Aan – Aan (Dutch for On)
High – Igh
Up – Up
Boat – Boap
RowRow – Row Row (meaning that she wants us to sing Row your Boat).

And there seems to be more every day. Nice! But also a reminder of how fast she is becoming a big baby (or small girl?)…

Baby Dolls

Lorelei got a baby doll during our vacation from her friend Piper. She has been lugging that thing around ever since. That triggered us to bring out the baby doll stuff that we had bought for Tobias when Lisa was pregnant with Lorelei. On top of that one of our neighbors was cleaning up old toys including a baby doll with lots and lots of stuff, including a stroller. Well, that was an instant smash hit!

She will put a baby doll in there and then put her finger in front of her mouth and say “shhhhh” and make the sign language symbol for sleep. Also she will put the baby in there and say “Hoppeta”, which is a Dutch thing we say meaning kind of like “There you go”. Very funny.

But probably the most amazing thing of all is her ability to manouvre that stroller all over the place! She just rides, stops, turns around and go back and forth and all over the place. The only thing that is hard for her are our steps in the yard, but I am sure it won’t take long before she can go there as well…

“Hoppeta”!

Biking, with Mama!

I got a new bike. A strange start for a post featuring Lisa and Lorelei on a bike. Well, I’ll explain… We have one bike seat. It was on my old bike. I had to take it off, to put it on my new one. It took longer than expected for me to get the new one so the seat was off for a couple of days.

I wanted to take the kids to school, so, I suggested to put the seat on Lisa’s bike. Sneaky me… I told Lisa that this would also enable her to take Lorelei on the back of her bike. She was willing to try and sure enough, it worked! As a matter of fact I think she enjoys it too.

All these years of worrying…. The things a new bike can do, not only mine, but also Lisa’s which we got last year. I think she is way more comfortable than on her old one. Last Sunday we went out for a ride with the four of us. We all enjoyed it. One thing I enjoyed was being able to see Lorelei enjoy the ride on the back of Lisa’s bike.

Cuddling

Lorelei hasn’t been much of a cuddly type so far. Usually she is more like a wiggle worm… But lately she has taken more to cuddling, and, for longer periods at a time. Especially when she is tired of course. Well, this was yesterday after dinner. She was tired but not ready to go to bed yet, which was fine with me. I have always LOVED cuddling with Tobias and he was a cuddly type, from the very start (and still kind of is…). On my daddy days I would just lay on the couch with him and cuddle cuddle cuddle, even to the point of falling asleep together just like that! Well, as you can see both Lorelei and me were quite comfortable. I hope this won’t be temporary!