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!


For news on Lorelei's brother Tobias visit: Tobias Quinn

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 :-)


For news on Lorelei's brother Tobias visit: Tobias Quinn

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:

For news on Lorelei's brother Tobias visit: Tobias Quinn

Two Beauties!

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


For news on Lorelei's brother Tobias visit: Tobias Quinn

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 :-).


For news on Lorelei's brother Tobias visit: Tobias Quinn

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!


For news on Lorelei's brother Tobias visit: Tobias Quinn

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... :-))


For news on Lorelei's brother Tobias visit: Tobias Quinn