It’s A Digital World…

Can you imagine being exposed to so many nifty digital gadgets so early on? I was kind of an early adaptor of technology because my dad was one of those people who had a computer quite early on… But my kids…. Man! they are not only exposed, they are immersed, from the day they were born…

Weekly webcam, any movie, show, song, game they want available on any device at any time of the day (and in many ways in any place imaginable)…

Now, the question is: should, or should you not, immerse…? Well, my answer: Yes! (but of course within reason and reasonable measures…). They pick it up so easily now and if provides them with so much fun and information! Not immersing would be depriving… right?

So, there it is: Lorelei on the iPad, having fun and learning… (her interest in the iPad is a recent development…).

Monkey Girl…

My girl is a real monkey girl. She loves being outside, running or biking around, and, probably most of all, going to the playground… She uses our own swing a lot, but there is nothing like the playground :-). This picture was taken at the playground down the street where we went last week with Tobias, his friend Jort, and Lorelei. Tobias and Jort were playing on these bars and of course Lorelei had to copy that. I turned my back for just a minute and this happened :-).

I like this picture….

(I tend to take more an more pictures with my phone while I am on the go. I tend to post these to facebook sometimes. If you’re interested check: www.facebook.com/cgdepee)

Hello Kitty Party

On November 10th we celebrated Lorelei’s birthday at home. She had a Hello Kitty party all the way… From napkins to cups, from cake to outfit, everything was Hello Kitty. We had a house full of people and ended up with a house full of new toys :-). We also ended up with a very happy (but tired) and four year old girl! Unbelievable, but true.

Lorelei’s special guests were Jojanneke, her best friend from the daycare who turned 4 just about two months back, Jochem, her after-Jojanneke best friend at the daycare and our neighbor, and Warner, Catherine’s brother and Lorelei’s friend and now classmate.

Her favorite gifts were her bike (of course, she loves riding that thing!), her doll house (although she has not been playing with it much, so far), which was a gift from our neighbor Lotte, and her Hello Kitty (of course…) backpack, a gift from aunt Shelli. Tobias gave her a robe (his idea) and she likes wearing that too :-).

New Bike!

This is Lorelei on her new bike, which was our birthday gift to her. I have always been amazed at her physical capabilities. As you may remember she was able to ride her bike quite early… It is now about a year later and she was definitely ready for a new bike! She had absolutely no problem whatsoever with the transition… As a matter of fact, she loves it, because she can go much faster now :-).

That is not only nice to her, but a lot more comfortable on our way to school….

This picture was taken the day she of her birthday party (Nov. 10th). This was her first “trial ride” :-).

Lorelei is 4!

Lorlei is 4! Of course there were several celebrations, the first being at the daycare. One of the things Lorelei is very excited about is the fact that she gets to sit on the table when it is her Birthday. They do that at the daycare when they sing to the birthday boy or girl. So, as soon as the party started (that is, as I walked in) Lorelei climbed on the table, sat down and waited for everybody to sing :-). Well, they sang and Lorelei beamed! She surely was one happy birthday girl... I was so glad I got to be there and see that!

 

....and kind of sad or melancholic or sentimental (something like that) at the same time since it also marked her last day at the daycare... She is getting so big so fast...

Pancake

Sometimes I just like to take my kids out… anywhere, really. This was one of those times. Tobias was out playing with a friend and having lunch there. I decided to go out with just my girl. We went to the Pancake House just around the corner and had a nice big Dutch pancake!

Look at that cute happy face! Priceless, right?!

Babies

Lorelei has been very much into het “Babies” recently. Things like that kind of come and go with her. Before it was always dolls in the stroller, now it is holding, feeding and “Maxi Taxi” :-). The babies go everywhere with her (not to school though…). She talks their ears off, mostly in Dutch. She tells them off, comforts them, teaches them stuff, and then at night, puts them to bed. It is very cute!

I love this picture: feeding two babies at the same time :-).

Princess

Lorelei got a Cinderella dress a while back. Maybe I should stop this post here, because you can probably predict what’s coming…. Right?

She LOVES it!

If it were up to her she would probably wear it all day! When she gets up she wants it on over het pajamas, once she is dressed she wants it over her clothes, but best of all, she just want to wear it like it were her real clothes…. A bit cold at times, though….

I have to admit, it looks kind of cute on her, doesn’t it? She also got a Snow White dress, but she only wore that once so far… It has to be Cinderella at this point.

Maybe that has something to do with her favorite movie (which she is watching in this picture)….: Disney’s Cinderella! :-)

Halloween

A zombie and Tinkerbell, that’s our kids at Halloween… We had a party last Saturday which was really nice, and of course they got to wear their costumes. They were excited! It was a great party with lots of sweets and treats, oh, and also some really good adult-food :-).

There was no trick-or-treating yet, but we will do that tonight… well, kind of… We are going to Oudewater where, apparently, some kids organized a trick-or-treat-trail of about 4 (yes, that is FOUR) doors… Well, it is more than the ONE we had the past few years (our own…). And the kids get to wear their costumes again.

Ready for School…?

Does she look ready? Well, even if she doesn’t, I can tell you she is! Ready for what? School, of course! That door behind her is the entrance to her section of the school and this picture was taken last week on her very first “wendag” (getting used to school day). She was so excited! She got to ride her bike, carry her backpack, pick a chair and a picture for on her chair (she picked the cherries-picture…).

I think I have probably told you that she has been ready for school for a while. I think that is because she looks up to Tobias and wants to do the same thing. Anyway, there was no problem whatsoever with saying goodbye or anything like that. She just sat there, looking around, waving at us, and that was that… Lorelei got used to school :-).

Apparently she did quite well during the school day as well! Today I took her for the second time… I can hardly believe she is going to turn four in less than two weeks! I am going to miss her being home on Wednesdays… (although it does give me an opportunity to blog ;-).

Sleep-over Guests

This is Warner. He is Tobias’ girlfriend Cathérine’s little brother. His is a bit older than Lorelei and just a week-and-a-half ago he came over and spent a couple of nights with us (and so did Cathérine). Tobias and Cathérine had had a sleep-over before, but Lorelei and Warner were not part of it at that time. Both Lorelei and Warner were somewhat upset about that, so, we promised that next time they could have a sleep-over as well. Well, this time it was a good one, because the spent three nights with us (while their parents were away :-)).

We had a nice time, because they all play so well together. And, they mingle as well. We spent quite some time at home and basically they all played in their rooms a lot. We also went to a playground and all four of them played together. It was really nice, both for us and the kids!

Lorelei was so excited and a bit sad when they left. She said the next morning: “When can Warner come again? Tomorrow?” :-).

Egg

I was not there so I did not experience this moment first-hand, but I love this picture. It was taken at the Blijdorp Zoo towards the end of the summer vacation. Lisa went there with a friend and the kids and they had a great time. Lorelei was talking about this egg when I got home and she laughs when she sees this picture. I do too :-).

Reading

Lorelei has always loved books and she still does. This picture shows it. If it is up to her she will read every day, and it really doesn’t matter if she reads by herself or is read to… books are fun! I love that about her and I hope she keeps that up.

That’s really all there is to this picture. She was so cute sitting there with her book that I just had to take a picture… Hope you like it :-).

Home Run!

Tobias’ baseball coach Jovanka Alfons played for the Dutch team in the 2012 women’s baseball world championships this year. Like I said before, Lorelei is a copycat and wants to do everything Tobias does, including baseball. Here she is swinging her bat and hammering the ball out of the front lawn and into the street! Quite impressive, right? Well, I don’t know if women’s baseball is ever going to be a big thing, but in any case, Lorelei will be ready!

Check out here attire :-).

Nail Polish

As I told you in one of my previous posts, Nonny got Lorelei blue nail-polish, her favorite color. Well, nail-polish has to be applied and then re-applied every few days or so. This is a delicate process, not in the least because the nails are so small :-). Nonny got the job done though!

Notice the chicken pox. By this time most of them had crusted over…

Hair…

Lorelei has hair issues. As you may have noticed, her hair is quite short. As you may realize, she is almost four years old. Point of fact: She has had a haircut only once, just before our vacation this year (partly in hopes that it would trigger faster growth). We may not give it a second thought (initially) and shrug and say: “It will be beautiful when she’s older…”, but mind you, a little girl like Lorelei can have a complex too! And she does. She talks about hair a lot and in this picture you may see a girl with a hoodie draped over her head and shoulders, but you would be wrong… that hoodie is… long hair! She walked around like that all the time this vacation swinging it around, putting it up and all sorts of other things. I have to admit, it is kind of cute, but I sure hope her hair will grow… soon!

By the way: her chicken pox did not come out yet when I took this picture, but in case you were wondering: she is watching Elmo’s World. After she got sick from her chicken pox she watched that even more than before… :-).

PS: Notice the blue nail polish on her toes… Nonny had her pick any color she liked and of course she picked her favorite one… blue.

Coloring

Like I said in my previous post Lorelei is quite the copycat. She wants to do everything Tobias does. Sometimes that can be quite annoying, especially to Tobias, but in situations like this it makes for utter sweetness. Not only will Tobias share his stuff with her (in this case his markers), but he will also help her with things and show her how it’s done…

Texas in the middle of the summer is quite hot. During the day, especially in the middle of the day, it is just to hot to go outside, even in the pool. You will just burn up! So, forced by the sun we spent some time inside the house as well. We played lots of games, watched a lot of Olympics, and the kids did quite some handy-work such as painting, play-doh, and of course, coloring! Cute huh?

Diving

If there is one picture of Lorelei that sums up our vacation it would be one where she was sitting around with her new pink Gap hoodie on her head as her “long hair” and chicken pox on her face… I will post something of the like, but although Lorelei was not one for being in the pool all the time this vacation, once she was in there she was absolutely nutsy and gutsy!

Obviously, we spent a lot of time in and around the pool. Tobias is the craziest about it and once he gets in he wants to stay in. Lorelei is crazy in the sense that she tries to do anything and everything that Tobias does, including jumping and diving into the pool from the diving board. Here I caught her in mid-air. I like this picture because to me it captures the uninhibited joy and laughter Lorelei displays when she is in the pool. I love it!

Put to Bed by Tobias...

Tobias is such a sweet big brother to Lorelei. Last Sunday during dinner we were talking about what a nice big brother he is. Lorelei completely agreed calling him the sweetest brother in the world :-).

I am not sure how the conversation got started but it came to a point where putting Lorelei to bed would make him the sweetest big brother in the whole world. That triggered something and made him want to do that. So, that night Tobias put Lorelei to bed for the first time!

And let me tell you, it was sweeeeeeeet! He brushed her teeth, helped her take her clothes off and put her pajamas on, he took her upstairs and read her two books! She was so happy, and he was so proud!

Here he is reading to her... He has put her to bed two more times since then! I am curious to see where this is going...

Coloring

Lorelei likes coloring. She has her own markers and Lisa got her a new coloring book. She will drag that stuff around the house and sit down anywhere to color. She is gradually improving her skills too. Here she settled down by the cat bed because she wanted to show Darwin what she was doing :-). Darwin was not that interested and left. Fortunately for Lorelei, Lisa was very interested and willing to join the fun!

I like the resulting picture.

Easter Princess

I know, I know, I am a guy and I realize I may get somewhat over-excited about girly things my little girl does, says or wears... But hey, I am a guy, I love my baby girl! So, just read!

So, she gets this super-duper cute pink silky beautiful dress from Nonny. It came with a little head band with a pink bow on top (which she was not too excited about wearing...). We put it on and my god! She was sooooooooooooooooooo cute!

Oh, don't forget Tobias though, because he also looked great in his new clothes. But, be honest, who can resist that little Easter Princess?

First Haircut

Lorelei had her very first haircut last week. I know, unbelievable after three and a half years! And we thought Tobias was late having his first haircut... But, true nonetheless and as you can see in this picture, she enjoyed it... thoroughly. She was even able to sit still throughout the process. Of course we tried to save a lock of hair, but that turned out to be impossible. There was so little hair cut off, and the hair that did end up on the cloth was just fuzz... So, no lock from her first haircut in her album. Hopefully we will have one from her second haircut...

Oh, the hairdresser is my mom, and she enjoyed it too. She is convinced that the little hair she has now will grow into a beautiful full head of hair before we know it. After three and a half years that is kind of hard to believe, but hey, what can you do but wait and see :-).

Playing with the Neighbor

It seems that 3 is the age at which playing together is the thing to do. The summer after Tobias turned 3 he ventured out into the alley behind our house a lot more. Lorelei is doing the same. In doing so, she attracts the attention of other kids, including boys :-). Here she is playing with Jochem, our next door neighbor's oldest... "Jochem is my friend", she'll tell us, which is not a title she grants everyone. Emma, for example "does this" (she will show how Emma pulled her shirt) and therefore "is not my friend". Jojanneke, Lotte and Euan are among the lucky few who are allowed to be Lorelei's friend. We'll see how that develops :-).

Roller Skating

It is springtime... All the kids come out to play, including my kids. Tobias must still have some of the skating virus left in him from this winter, because the other day he wanted to go roller-blading. This has hardly ever happened before. He's had the blades for quite a while but they have hardly been used... Anyway, he got them out and off he went. Then, of course, Lorelei wanted to do that too. Fortunately we have these strap-on roller-skates for your shoes. I can tell you one thing, the also fit on cowboy boots :-). And, just like on the ice, Lorelei kind of "runs" on them with the occasional roll.

Sooooo cute :-)!

Biking (continued...)

Lorelei has been able to bike for a while now, but during winter we haven't been outside that much, let alone biking... Well, it is springtime now and the bike is out! And the girl is biking like crazy! She loves it and is doing really well. She is now able to ride for quite a ways and pretty straight. She is able to round a corner without having to stop. She is able to start by herself. The only thing she can't do yet is break very well. She knows she can squeeze the hand break, but she doesn't hold it... so, she doesn't stop. I don't think she quite gets the concept of the pedal break yet. So, what she does is dragging her feet on the ground, which is definitely not the most efficient way to stop...

There is still some work to do, but as you can see, she is getting there. Maybe soon we can get rid of our bike seats :-).

Strong Big Brother

Lorelei was quite lucky on the ice this past week. First, Tobias was a good coach to her, then, he started pulling her on the sled! This was loads of fun for Lorelei. It started out like this, with her sitting down, but later on she was lying on that thing face forward. She fell off once in a while, but that only created more fun and laughs, from both of them! On top of that, Tobias was sooooo proud of himself…!

Needless to say, lots of fun for me too :-).

Skating All By Myself!

If you look outside today it might just as well have never happened, but this picture was taken last Sunday, the last skating day of the season and the last time we went. It was just me, Tobias and Lorelei. Tobias is completely self-sufficient now, and as you saw in a previous blogpost, a pretty descent coach as well. And guess what, it worked! Here you can see Lorelei skating all by herself. Well, it was more like walking on the double gliders, but she did actually glide every once in a while. And she was actually going quite fast. Most importantly, she had a great time… at times she just could not stop laughing, this was mostly after falling though…

It’s a shame that it’s over, but it sure was great while it lasted!

My Private Coach…

So, yeah, obviously, if Tobias wants to skate, Lorelei wants to skate too! She has the baby skates with double gliders. It is basically walking on the ice with funky shoes on that make it extra slippery. Kind of cruel if you describe it like that :-).

Anyway, the three of us went to the ice yesterday to go skating. I put Tobias’ skates on first and off he went. I went with Lorelei holding on tight. Of course we went very slow and I was probably telling her the same things I have been telling Tobias when he was learning: Glide, one foot, other foot, calm, glide etc… So, after a while Tobias skates up to us to see Lorelei skate. He skates up next to her and goes: “Very good Lorelei, keep going, glide, other foot, calm… Good girl!”. Sooo cute! He is such a good big brother (most of the time :-)).

Lorelei said she enjoyed skating, but after about twenty minutes or so she said she was too cold. Good thing Lisa came by to pick her up. Tobias and I kept on going for a while, but before Lorelei left, I was able to get this shot of the two of them!

Papa, Look at Me!

Lorelei is a genuine girly-girl, that is in the sense that she loves her dolls! She’s got a lot of doll stuff and plays with it pretty much every day. They are her babies… They laugh, they cry, they sleep, they go poo… everything :-). Anyway, all that stuff accumulates in a corner of our house in a big basket. Of course, sometimes the stuff is all over our house and the basket is empty. And when the basket is empty you can sit in it. And when you sit in it you can cuddle with your dolls. And when you cuddle with your dolls and call out: “Papa, look at me!” Papa will get his camera and take a picture. And when Papa takes a picture that is so unbelievably cute he puts it on your blog….

Well, that’s what happened :-).

What Do You See?

Last week on Wednesday Tobias had a friend over and usually when that happens Lorelei kind of follows them around the house. Sometimes she interferes with their play or acts annoying, but sometimes it is just like: Tobias plays in his room, I play in my room. So, when Tobias and his friend were upstairs I assumed that Lorelei went after them to play in her room. I was downstairs, but at some point went to check on them. Well, no Lorelei in her room… So, I went to look for her and had a hard time finding her, even though she was not hiding… not purposely anyway.

This picture was taken in our room… what do you see?

Well, Lorelei, obviously, but what else? She is sitting there behind our drawn curtains with a book in her lap. That black thing is Jip and she is reading to him. That’s how I found her and she was actually reading (that is: turning the pages and kind of telling the story :-)).

That gave me a good laugh!

TV Junkies

Like I told you, while we are in the US we usually let our kids embrace some of the American culture and heritage. Well, what is more American than watching TV!? I also told you that our kids were spoiled. Result: there was a lot of TV watching. Tobias got Transformers DVD’s as a gift and Lorelei watched a lot of Elmo (a DVD that was already there). I am not much of a TV fan myself, especially not for the kids, but hey, what can you do… we were in TV Country after all…

We also watched a lot of Christmas Ice Age, Despicable Me and classics like Frosty the Snowman and Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer. I guess Christmas time is kind of TV-time anyway…

As you can see there were no complaints from the kids :-).

Favorite Gift

It is always hard to determine what gift is going to be the favorite in advance. Sometimes it turns out to be no gift at all, but something trivial like wrapping paper or a box. This time there was definitely a favorite gift for Lorelei: her computer! She did not even seem interested in opening any other gifts after opening that one and during the vacation alone it got quite enough play-time to make it worth it’s while…

There were many other gifts that got significant play-time, but this one was by far the favorite. This picture was taken right after opening it.

Christmas

 
Christmas has come and gone, as has our jet-lag… So, time to start blogging again. I thought I’d start of the new year with a very very cute Christmas picture (and believe it or not, it took only one shot to get it… :-)). You can see a couple of things in this picture that kind of sum up our vacation in Dickinson, TX:
- The kids were very happy to be there (and so were we)!
- There were lots and lots (too many?) presents
- There was lots of candy (canes) (and an equal amount of legitimate spoiling of kids)

In addition to that we did some travelling to visit family, went to some sports games, played a lot with the toys (but not so much in the pool, that was a bit too cold, even for Dutch people), we played baseball, we drew, colored, baked cookies, we…. well, lots more fun stuff!
There was definitely some jet-lag going there, but the jet-lag coming back is always much worse, especially since Lorelei has a hard time getting back into here normal schedule. Tobias had hardly any at all, we had a couple of nights more than Lorelei…
But like I said, that’s all come and gone and now we can look back on a wonderful two weeks in the US, and look forward to our next visit!