Birthday Girl!

My little girl is 2!!! It is hard to believe but she really is… And she had quite the celebrations, in three episodes…

Episode 1: Daycare
They always celebrate birthdays at the daycare, but this time was special to me, because I was there… Since I work so close to home now I was able to ride my bike up and down to the daycare to be there for the party. I am not sure it was such a good idea, because all Lorelei wanted to do is sit with me, and when I left she had to cry, but at least I enjoyed it. I was also lucky enough that one of the people there was so kind to take some pictures. They sang songs, she got a gift, and she got to hand out her treat bags. It was very sweet!

Episode 2: The actual birthday, with family
Her actual birthday was on a Friday this year. My parents babysit on Fridays, so they were already there. Uncle Ferdinand came by as well and we had a nice celebration, a nice dinner, and a nice conversation. We also opened all the gifts Nonny and Aunt Shelli had sent us. Lorelei was one happy camper! One of the things she got was a coat and hat. We put it on her and it looks great, but she never wanted to take it off… We gave her a walk-bike (a bike without pedals), she got a doll-bed, a doll, a coat, boots, a puzzle, a book, and a Dora doll hand-picked by Tobias .

Episode 3: Party with friends
On Saturday we had invited friends over and we had a big party with a house full of people, mainly (or dominantly) kids. It was a very nice crowd an hence a very nice party. Lorelei got spoiled with lots of presents and lots of sweets, and a very nice cake . She actually blew the candle, and with some help from Lisa she managed to blow it out . We even had Nonny over through the webcam. Luckily one of our friends knows how to handle a camera and took this very nice picture while I was busy holding the webcam…

Like I said, it was quite the celebration…. and now my little Birthday Girl is 2!

Toy Catalogue

It is that time of year again…. the toy catalogues have arrived. This is one of those examples where you can tell Tobias gets upset when Lorelei is not careful and rips it up when she reads it. Good thing we got more than one, so they can each have their own . As you can see Lorelei’s looks more like a pile of paper trash than like an actual toy catalogue, but it does not seem to bother her…

She loves all sorts of things, especially things that she can say like:
- Dora and Boots
- Baby or Pop (Dutch for Doll)
- Motor (motorcycle)
- Auto
- Orse (Horse)
- Baah (Sheep)
- Boy
- Meisje (Girl)

If it is just the toy catalogue she rips up it is fine with me, especially because she obviously loves “reading” it…

The Reader

Lorelei is quite the reader… She has always been fond of books. Initially she just took them off the shelves and put them on the floor, and then back and off and back… Then she started to develop favorites, so now we have to read the same book every night. Her first favorite was probably Monkey Puzzle. Currently it is Snowy Day. But these days she is also pulling books out and reading them by herself, like in this picture. She is reading Where The Wild Things are, one that she has been pulling out quite frequently.

She is quite a wild thing herself, though… So, when it comes to reading books we have to kind of keep an eye on her, because she might just rip all the pages out. This has not happened yet, but her books are way more dinged up than Tobias’ ever were, and of course she uses his old books too… Quite painful for booklovers like ourselves, and I can tell it sometimes bothers Tobias too, but she is getting better at it….

I do love that she loves books and I love reading to her every day!

My Little Pumpkin

Oh my goodness, was Lorelei cute in her Halloween costume! I know, Tobias is quite the superhero, and let me tell you, was he excited to be Spiderman! He said his suit was so comfortable, he wanted to wear it all day! He did wear it for quite a while, but the mask came off after some time…

But Lorelei…. well, just look at her. She was especially fond of her hat (though that came off after some time too…), but she did love her costume from the minute she got it. We put it on just to see if it would fit, and then, when we put her to bed she did not want to take it off anymore . Of course she looks adorable no matter what she is wearing, but for Halloween she looked especially adorable this year! She did not have a whole lot of candy and I doubt she saw any of the bats or understood any of the games, but she did have a great time (I think), as did I!

A Walk in the Woods

A week and a half ago we went for a walk in the woods. Our primary purpose was to find chestnuts, but believe it or not, there were no chestnut trees in this forest…. (Haagse Bos). It was a beautiful day, so, we had fun nonetheless, but that was kind of disappointing. We did find a hut someone had built, some mushrooms, a herron who was catching a bug as we were watching him, some sticks etc.

In this picture Lorelei is taking a well deserved break. We had taken the stroller with us, but we did not use it. She just did not want to sit in that thing, but instead she wanted to walk and run and explore. Needless to say she got tired, hence this well deserved break and drink.

I guess we’ll have to go find chestnuts some other time…

Carnival in Gouda

The Carnival was in town a few weeks back. We went a couple of times, and really, it is more Tobias’ thing than Lorelei’s, but you should have seen her in this car-merry-go-round (it that’s how you spell it…). She was having sooooooo much fun. Each car has a horn and when Tobias would push the horn Lorelei had to laugh. And every time we took her out she had to cry. I let them go on this ride quite a few times because I enjoyed watching them together like that. Just look at them!

Lorelei had another first timer at the carnival: an oliebol. I think I have written about oliebollen before on Tobias’ blog, but the short version is: it is a typical Dutch new years treat often found on occasions such as carnivals as well. Lisa does not like them at all, but Tobias and I do, and so did Lorelei.

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?)…