Happy 4th Birthday

Yesterday was the original Baby Belgium's 4th birthday! It was fun because he realized that he was finally 4. It was actually a peaceful day. Mateo had slept at Oma's the night before and we picked him up in the evening. There I gave him the card from my parents and a present. 

We had a little party in Canada when we were visiting. A few little friends and some family. A cute cake and some gifts. It was perfect. No stress.

Last Saturday we celebrated here with M's cousin together with the family that wasn't on vacation.

I decided instead of getting him a gift, we will plan a trip to an amusement park, just him and us parents.  The kid has been showered a month long with gifts. He didn't even realize that he didn't get to open anything from us. I did get him a €2 toy I'll give him when he wakes up.

The 4 year photos are still coming. He needs a haircut first *grin*

Babycenter told me basically that this year should be better than last year. Sounds good! Independence and understanding what's going on. Sounds like we are on track! (I just read what I wrote last year. I hoped we'd be conflict free...oh, dear. We deal with lots of conflict every day between the two kids)

I'm finding out Mateo is more sensitive than I thought. Maybe not to me, but to the rest of the world. He can tell if someone looks funny at him or if they say something hurtful (although it doesn't seem to register that he shouldn't treat people that way).

He's very active and good at sports. He loves his bike and now we've tried a few times where he bikes alone side us biking.  He will be attending 2 sport camps in August and we hope to enroll him in gymnastics when school starts. Something to burn off that energy.

I find him loud, but actually, compared to other kids, he's not much of a talker.

My last post was about his language skills. He's speaking more and more English, so that just makes me so happy.

Eating? Well, kind of hit and miss. Lots of discussion. Probably not what's supposed to happen according to one theory or another, but I hate hearing when he's in bed that he's hungry. Also, when I see an empty plate after all the discussion, I figure he really was hungry and needed the food I "forced" him to eat.  Not a big milk drinker, but neither am I. He loves fruit and does eat most veggies. No mushrooms or tomatoes, but tomatoes are a genetic thing...

Sleep. At night still about 11-12 hours. And a nap when we are driving in the afternoon or once or twice a week.

Mateo is still a big boy. Wears size 5/6, has size 28 (11?) shoes. He weighs 18.3 kg/40.3 lbs. Height still needs to be measured. What is funny is that he and his girl cousin who is 14 months older keep weighing EXACTLY the same. The last 3 times I've weighed they they have been on the dot the same.

We are very happy with our boy. I shouldn't say little, because he doesn't like that. I am going to try to enjoy this year, because I have a feeling after next year, everything won't be as cute and he won't be as excited over all the little things in life.

Fun at Grandma's

At least this child loves flying

Griffith Observatory

We {heart} California

His happiest place on earth, the ocean

Growing up! Santa Monica Pier

Made with love by mommy

Letters To Our Children // July

We are back from America. It was a full trip!

This month I am going to talk about my children's language skills.

Both of them had a "language explosion" this last month. I don't even know if that phrase is English or Dutch or one I made up.

Before we left Liora was chattering some and would often imitate sounds. During our time away, she started saying so many words!!! Every day we were laughing at what she'd say. I read an article on babycenter that said she should speak between 10 and 50 words. I decided to write down every word I heard her say. By the middle of the day we had 30 already.

For me it is strange, because Mateo was slower at talking.  We also noticed Liora started making 2 word sentences. Often along the lines of "Mama, look!"  She also is quite the little tattle tale *rolls eyes*.  Any time Mateo does something to her, she comes and says, "Mama, Teo mkqjkjqzerkjmqskerj."  The funniest so far, that I need to write in her book, but I'll write it here was a time we were driving. "Mama! Mama! Teo num-num." Normally I try to ignore her when I'm driving, but then I tried to think what Mateo would be eating, I hadn't given him any food. I turn and look and he was eating his boogies.

In general Mateo has been surprising me with how much he's been saying. It's probably  normal, but as I said, he has been a bit slower. Not that he couldn't perfectly communicate what he wanted, but he did it with few words. I am impressed with his word order in Dutch. It comes natural. Duh. But for me what is still hard to remember is normal to him.

People said that he'd start speaking English when we were in America. I was very doubtful. I told everyone he could understand. I left him with my parents and sister. Sometimes he'd be frustrated if they said they didn't understand him, so they just pretended they did.

After about a week if you told him something to say in English, he'd repeat it.  On July 3rd when mom got back with him she said he had been speaking tons to her!!! *happy dance* That last week he was speaking every day new words and phrases. Super cute, becuase he has a bit of an accent and his great Dutch word order he's using in English. It made me so happy that finally something clicked!  I asked him if he'd keep speaking it when we got back. He said he would and he has been the past 2 days. (As I'm typing, he said "Do this. Mommy. Do it NOW! I schiet (shoot) Daddy")

 

Next letter in the circle.