Happy 5th Birthday, Mateo!

We are almost a month into having a 5 year old. And what a month it's been...possibly the hardest one so far? Or do I say that every month.

I just read last year's post. We ended up going in December to Plopsaland with his cousin as a very delayed birthday gift. It was perfect! I think it was 18 degrees that day!

Mateo wears a size 30 shoe and most of his clothes still fit from last year, so I am expecting a growth spurt. I think he is 118 cm and weighs about 19 kg. Pretty thin.

He LOST HIS FIRST TOOTH some time the beginning of March. I picked him up from school and he hadn't even noticed. I am guessing he ate it. Then he lost the 2nd one when we were in London. Again, he didn't have the tooth. 4 are quite loose, so hopefullly he'll have one to put under his pillow. 

I decided I want to find a child triathalon event. Mateo can bike quite well. We can go together. He had a year of swimming lessons. Can't quite swim alone yet, but he's not scared at all and does really well. We are planning to enroll him in another year of lessons.

Normally every evening there are tears and protests when Mateo comes to the table. Probably just another way he knows he can bug me... But most of the time he ends up liking it. Right now he can eat a lot! Often for breakfast he has 2 or 3 pieces of toast, a yogurt and fruit. A few weeks ago in the evening it was 5 pieces of bread! Plus the fruit and yogurt. I sometimes don't know what else to give him. (hence my growth spurt expectation)

Mateo had the opportunity to practice his English with my sister, his cousins and my mom. I'm really proud of him! It's funny to hear his English with a Flemish accent or his literal translations.

Naps are now of the past. Occassionally he falls asleep in the car, but that messes up bedtime. If we know we'll be out later than normal and he's having a rough day, I'll sometimes have him lay down, but that doesn't happen more than 1x per week.

Next week school starts again. Yippie! He's looking forward to it. He went a few days this summer to a day camp and last week he went 4 days to a sport camp. Something he always enjoys.

I waited until my mom was here to do his birthday party. He was invited to a few classmates parties during the year, so he knew he wanted to invite some for his. I had said we'd only do boys and not all of them. When we were on our family vacation we sang to him and on the actual day we were at a wedding, so he was with all of his friends and family and he received 2 little Nerf guns from us. After drinking his first can of Coke and getting a present from the bride and being sung to, he was as happy as could be. Mom made his cake (brownies per his request) and cupcakes. She actually helped out with everything. Hubby was home sick a few days, so the afternoon of the party he ended up being there, which worked out great. The boys were a tad harder than I had expected. Oops. 7 boys and 3 adults. Everyone seemed to have a good time, so we were happy. I am still enjoying the frozen brownies...

Mateo's big present was a trampoline. It also counts as Liora' s birthday present, but we gave it now. 

What else can we say? I feel like anything else I write may be taken wrongly, so I'll stop here with nice photos. Hopefully there are a few more posts before next year!

With Grandma. 5 years!

Last day of school. June 30

Aunt Grace

Canadian Cousins

Went skiing in Switzerland

Celebrating his half birthday at school

She's 2

Yesterday Liora turned 2. Our not-so-little baby girl. We celebrated a few weeks ago, but yesterday we still had to do something to make the day special, so we invited a few people over for the rest of her birthday cake.

Liora is a (put very by every adjective) independent, bossy, knows-what-she-wants, talkative little girl. I call her our diva.

To quote,

"There was a little girl
 Who had a little curl
 Right in the middle of her forehead.
And when she was good
She was very, very good
 But when she was bad She was horrid!"

She can make us laugh with her dramatic take on life. She gets very excited about babies and is always telling us what she sees.

At her recent visit to the doctor, we saw that she is now perfectly average for her height and weight. This makes mommy happy. She's gained some weight! 11.7 kg and 85 cm. She wears size 22 shoes and size 86/92 clothes.

Liora is still a good sleeper. Pretty soon we'll be down to one nap every day. Right now some days are 2 others, unfortunately, not.

Eating is hit and miss. It seems that she eats better with other people. She loves spaghetti. I noticed that she doesn't really like chicken or turkey and you can forget mushrooms.

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

Her First Birthday Party

I always say the first birthday party is for the parents and pictures...the baby has no idea what is going on for them!  Liora must have known what was happening, because she was taking her second nap already when the first guests arrived. She was a perfect little angel during her party and took a 3rd nap towards the end of the day.

The party was supposedly a Sofie the First party, but I think it ended up only being on the invitation. The rest was princessy. 

Even though hubby probably disagrees and thinks I made it more complicated than necessary, I tried to keep the day reaaaaallly simple.  However, I did want to make a birthday cake.  I had great plans and thought I was very prepared.  But, of course, there were complications and I felt that the whole morning was stressful trying to prepare.

It started off when I didn't have enough sugar last night. Thankfully my SIL lives in the same street. Yay. Cakes were baked. I started the icing and could not find any of my food colorings besides yellow. I needed to make purple! I borrowed that also, but couldn't get purple.  First thing this morning I drove to the store to get more food coloring.  My icing was a light gray and an ugly brownish purple. Mauve? After quickly googling, I found out that mixing red and blue does not necessarily create purple icing like one would thing. Yes, it makes gray...

At this point of the day I gave up. There was no time (or energy and ingredients) to start all over.  I iced with what I have and stopped to clean up.  I figure I may use my same ideas next year. If I don't show anyone what I was aiming to create (and they don't look at my Pinterest board), it is ok. I am pleased, however, to say that the cake and icing was yummy!

It was a nice afternoon. I'm glad for the ones who could make it.  I think everyone had a good time and that is what is important to me. 10 of the 12 played outside most of the afternoon.

Video of the pinata. I bought them in Spain. I'm not sure if that's how they do it there, but it was cheap fun. Another one.

Someone is THREE!

You've already seen photos of the cake, now to hear about the birthday boy.  We are transitioning from the terrible twos to the terrific threes *fingers crossed*

He's 101 cm / 3 ft 4 in and 16.3 kg / 36 lbs and wears a size 26 / 9 shoe. At the end of the school year he was the tallest in his class and had the biggest feet.

Eating
He's still a decent eater, although he is easily distracted and will often say he's done just so he can play, but then we run into problems when he is in bed. He then realizes that he is hungry. I am so glad he likes fruit!  The YES veggies are corn, green beans, beets occassionally, sweet potatoes, raw bell pepper, cauliflower and broccoli. The NO ones are mushrooms, zucchini and tomatoes, along with kidney beans and onions.  Carrots are inbetween.  He loves his 'boterhammen' (untoasted toast). He would be happy to eat that every day, although it is always an issue with the crusts. His favorite spread is chocolate (kind of like his mommy in that area).  He is allowed a cup of chocolate milk every morning.  He doesn't seem to really like milk, so I don't force it, since I am also not a milk drinker, but, again, like me, he loves yogurt, so I figure he gets calcium that way.  Overall I am happy with his eating. Only sometimes not with the fights we have to make him try a bite.  I asked him when we went grocery shopping what we should get. He answered, "Apples, bananas...and chocolate."

Sleeping
Part of the reason this post is delayed is because around his birthday we were having sleeping issues. I am going to say they are done now. The last 2 weeks he has been taking naps again! And since we moved there have almost no fights (beside last night) to get him to stay in his bed and sleep. He doesn't wake up at night and normally is awake at 7:45. He goes down anywhere between 7:00 and 10:00 (depending on if he napped, if we are out and if he is behaving).

Potty Training
I think the worst is over! Since his birthday. Literally on the day itself, he started going #2 on the potty and going ALONE and SAYING that he needed to go ON TIME! It makes for one super happy mommy here.  Not sure what happened today, because we had two poopy accidents, but for the last 3 weeks there have been maybe 1 or 2 accidents and I have been very brave and not put on any diapers when we were out and about, at church, visiting friends or when he was away 4 days (I sent the potty with him). I'm so proud of him! He totally gets it now. So my great advice (now that I can give it) is to NOT force it.  We are working on nap time and I'm not worried about nights. Sometimes he's dry other mornings not.

Talking
Every day I say I need to write down what he says. He is really talking now. In general is he a quieter fellow. He likes to observe. I don't mind if he is a quieter kid. His teacher also said that at the end of the school year. I asked how it was with the 2 languages and she said she didn't notice any problem. She mentioned that he doesn't talk a lot, but he definately talks when he needs something.

I think it is so cute right now the words and phrases he is saying. He is also starting to use his imagination, so I hear him talking to his animals or cars. Often it's about Mama, Papa, Oria (Liora) or Hanne and Lise. 

I noticed he often says a P for K. Petchup. Pamer. Poffee.  I'm sure I've said it before, he understands both languages perfectly, but he speaks 95% Dutch.  Hopefully speaking English will come...Yesterday I did notice he said 'cars' to my mom instead of 'autos.' I'm not sure if it was on purpose, coincidence or because he's now seen Cars 1001 times.  He is into talking on Skype now. It is pretty cute. Yesterday he was saying whole sentences to my mom, but some I couldn't even understand.

He is starting to grasp concepts, which makes him really seem more grown up. For example,  his daddy was putting on his pjs and they were too big, so we put other ones and he said, "It's better, yeah?" I was so surprised to hear him figure that out. He now always is saying what he likes or doesn't. "Ik vind het niet leuk" of "Het is leuk, huh?"  He also gets if I go "grrr" that something is wrong and he says, "Wat is, Mama?"

And the questions have begun...right at a handy time with us doing some projects in the house. "Wat doe jij?" "Wat is dat?" " Repeat 10x..."What are you doing?" "What's that?"  And then he likes to know where everyone is. Where's Liora? Where's Daddy?  I am waiting fohttp://www.webmd.com/parenting/guide/3-to-4-year-old-milestonesr "Why?"

Motorically
Advanced gross motor skills  :)  He is a pro on his balance bike, can pedal on some things, climbing stairs and slides is NOT a problem. I always laugh when I read that he should be able to throw and kick a ball. He mastered that before he could walk... At the indoor playgrounds he is always on the 6+ toys right along with his cousins.  The fine motor skills I haven't noticed as much. He can turn the pages in a book no problem, but I never let him play with scissors, so I'm not sure how he is at that. He enjoys drawing and is just now starting to say what he is drawing.

Personality
Mateo is a happy fellow. Smiling even when he shouldn't be.  He is a super social kid. LOVES to be around people.  He really enjoys school and is kind of bored when he is home with just mommy and his sister.  I am sometimes surprised at how good he does in new social situations. Last month we were in Germany and he went to Sunday school with his little friend. I asked him if he wanted to go and he said no, but I took him anyways and stepped out when they were praying. Apparently he was a perfect angel. I would have been scared as a little kid to do that.  Yesterday he started a sport camp for 2 weeks and it was the same story.

Three things that are important for me for him are that he is Respectful, Responsible, & Independent. The latter 2 are coming along ok. The last one maybe a little too well...  To me we have a lot of work in the RESPECT corner. Respecting his parents, sister, toys, rules...the good news in this area is that apparently he behaves when he is with other people (when his parents, and especially his mother, are away). 

We have an extremely stubborn little fellow on our hands. I've already read Dr. Dobson's Raising a Strong-willed Child and I think I need to reread it.  His strong will and jealousy issues make for many daily conflicts. Hopefully by next year we will be conflict free. Hahahaha

30 months = 2.5 years = SCHOOL AGE

Today Mateo is 2.5 years old. I had already asked his cousin (bestie) to come spend the night when I realized what a special day it was. So we had a little 'appy do you' ('party' in Mateo language).

After a 1 minute search on Pinterest (this morning...), I decided a half cake was in order. Since mommy is on a diet, this was a perfect excuse to have some chocolate. How can I *not* celebrate this important day. I had fun at the little party and so did the 2 toddlers. Or are they preschoolers?

I removed Liora's banner and hung up a blue one that ways 'Party Time!' We had cake, they each got a present and we had music. Fun, fun, fun...

Actually having a party today was probably just as good for mommy as for Mateo. It has been a ROUGH week. A big week, so actually a good week in a weird way.  The reason it was good for me is it make me reflect on how much I love my little man.

Last week I decided it was time to be strict with bottle and pacifier usage. I also took out the crib, so Mateo had more space to play. That meant he had to sleep in the big bed. No more switching back and forth.

Loving his jungle animals

Last week went well until this:

What an artist I am-hehe

Broken computer screen! From his pacifier. We decided an appropriate punishment would be to take it away. We have been putting it off for over a year. Always another vacation coming up, mom and dad going away, new baby, etc. Finally.we.did.it.  He is doing better in one way than expected. He does not really ask for it. What I did not think about is that he would have a hard time sleeping. Hard time as in a FIGHT, DRAMA, TEARS, YOU-NAME-IT.  Since Sunday almost every bed time has been a drawn out process.  Once he falls asleep he is then awake earlier than normal or after an hour nap. He has been very grumpy and defiant all week. But...*drum roll* we are pacifier and bottle free! Next up potty training.

 

He starts school February 4th. Mommy has to admit she is pretty excited about this. Potty training will commence sometime in February after he sees other kids at school doing it.

 

Next week we go for his height/weight/overall check-up.

 

 

Now some photos of the day...

Half a cake for a half birthday

Loves chocolate like his mommy does

Such goofs

He copies everything she does...

Goofballs

His banner. Playing with their gifts

She is 14 months older and they look the same height.