Letter To Our Children - June - Mateo

Guess what? Tomorrow is your last day of school! Even though the school year isn't done, it's YOUR last day. Why? Because we are flying to America on Thursday.

Where have the last 9 months gone? I still feel like I'm trying to get us in a routine :) You are finishing 1ste kleuterklas (1st of 3 years of preschool).  In September you started in the peuterklas.  In January Eva started school, so you were together in the class until it split after krokusvakantie. At least you didn't get moved far away. Your classroom is across from hers and the classes do a lot together. Actually, today I went to the library with you guys.

You really like school. I'm glad! I think of the whole year you have only gone 3 or 4 whole weeks. Normally you went 3 whole days, Wednesdays are always half days and I'd pick a day to get you after lunch and you'd take a much-needed nap.

There are 11 family members at the school this year. You love seeing your cousins every day. It is nice for mommy also to see some familiar faces, since mommy still doesn't talk to many people.

You love biking to school! Now you go on your two-wheeler. In the beginning of the year you were using your balance bike.

When the girls stayed the night, they wanted to walk to school, Mateo was also happy.
 

Another area of improvement I can see is that I can sometimes stay outside and watch you go in your class. I don't always have to go in. Growing up.

Being angelic Sunday morning. He just went and started reading after he was ready for church.

At the last parent-teacher conference, both teachers said you are doing well. Much more mature than last year :) You sit now, understand and follow the rules and help with the little ones. Keep up the good work!

You are a big boy! The 2nd tallest in the class.  We just bought size 28 (10?) shoes. You wear size 110/116 (5/6 year).  I'll try to measure you tomorrow so we can know how tall you are. When we weighed you a few weeks ago, you were the EXACT same weight as Victoria. 18.2 kg/ 40 lb.

New Birkenstocks

I made the mistake of telling you that your birthay is next month. You started asking if if was your birthday and informing me of who you want to invite. We'll plan it after we get back from Grandma's.

Letters to our Children // May

I hope this is correct. To close the circle.

Since last month I wrote about Liora, this month I'll write about Mateo.

Mateo likes to describe himself as a "Super sterke, grote jongen." A very strong, big boy. Pretty good description. He looks more like a 5 year old than a 3 year old.

Right now Mateo is on his school field trip which says a lot about this guy. He goes to school 3 full days and 2 half days/week. He LOVES it. You'd think it would wear him out, but it doesn't. He is continually becoming more independent. Yesterday was the first day he let me leave before the bell rang.  Today I asked him what he needed to make sure to bring in the car when we were leaving and he answer, "Mijn boekentas." (backpack). Yes! Progress.

Yesterday afternoon he said that he just had to sleep one night before he could go to the indoor playground. He is starting to understand time. He actually is slightly obsessed with clocks, but he understands one sleep and tomorrow. "Yesterday" means anything that happened before today.

The past 6 months I feel like I have failed in writing down the kids' milestones. Liora turned 1 and it was like I forgot about that.  Mateo has definatly started talking. It was a very slow start.  Now other people besides just his parents can understand him. This week he started saying "Ik denk dat..." (I think...). He is even using the correct sentence structure in Dutch. We practice a bit of English every day by me asking what the words are in English. Often he guesses correctly.  This morning he said, "Mama. Leah is English." I was confused, asked him to repeat. He decided that Mama is Dutch for Leah. Or the opposite...I said Mama=Mama, but he didn't believe me.  Actually the playground they are going to today is called Play Beach. He recognized that it was English and asked what it was in Dutch and I said that was just the name, that it was the same. He wanted to know why...I said because the people liked English better than Dutch ;P

Mateo can ride a two-wheeler. He loves it! Scary for mommy, but I'm proud of him.

2 weeks ago Mateo participted in a Sports Camp. He really enjoyed that.  His cousin went, which was nice. He has actually 7 first cousins and 2 2nd or 3rd cousins that attend his school. I think that is pretty special. He is growing up seeing his family 6 of the 7 days of the week, if not 7/7.  He adores them all.

Last week Mateo and Liora started playing together. She started walking and climbing up the slide. It was cute to see. Finally he wasn't jealous of her or trying to hurt her. That's not every day, but it was nice to see a glimpse of the future.

What I like about this age is that everything is still exciting. We went on Saturday to see blossoms. He enjoyed it and asked this week to go again. I am guessing in 3 years he'll be complaining how boring it is.

And now some photos...

Egg Hunt with his bestie (cousin)

What we look like as a family of five

Mateo learned a bit how to use the camera. He thought it was pretty funny to photograph a sleeping papa

Copying his sister

I just love this one

Biking in the Netherlands

Limburg

We brought a friend along for him

Rain doesn't bother this guy. I think he actually enjoys it because it makes mud.

Lots and lots of blossoms to be seen...

Letters to our children - Liora

Click here for the next blog in the circle.

This month's letter is for Liora. I realized I hadn't updated her FB album since her first birthday! Oops. Yesterday Liora turned 17 months.

Loving her outfit and hair...

I think she is purposely deciding not to walk. It is NOT that she's not capable. She takes now about 8 steps then sits or lets herself fall. She sneaks up the stairs whenever possible and has now mastered climing on and off of the couch. Including climbing from it onto the end table and over onto the other couch. I also caught her one time ON the keyboard. Shhh, don't tell her daddy. That she managed to do by climbing on the amp, to the chair, and up again.

Right now she's in a stage where she is copying up a lot. We all find it pretty funny. Especially sounds. But also movements. If she sees me shaking my finger, she beings.

She is getting more apt with clothing.  She knows that shirts goes on her head and shoes on her feet. She tries in her way to dress herself. I think she's going to be pretty girly in this area. She already likes to have things on her feet. Socks, slippers, shoes. If it falls off, she brings it and sticks her foot out. She also will put things around her neck, like a shirt or blanket. Either it brings her comfort or she thinks it's a scarf or necklace.  She likes to play with hats, but not really leave them on. I guess that's normal.  I'm tickled anytime she leaves an elastic in her hair for more than a few minutes.

Most of the time I let her feed herself. Especially since I read it's good for them.  Mostly she does pretty well. Of course, she and the floor are a mess after, but I don't mind. It means I can enjoy my food and then help her when I'm finished.

The past few days Liora has enjoyed exploring the lawn. It is so cute to see! She goes in the playhouse, stands at the fence to watch neighbors' cats, she then goes to her little slide and then comes in and checks what I'm doing.

I'm afraid the time of two naps per day are nearly over...it was great while it lasted :)  But no complaints from me. She sleeps 12+ uninerrupted hours per night.

This is going to be an exciting month for Liora.  She gets to meet her great-grandma for the first time! And then she will go to daycare for two weeks. I'm sure she's going to love it.

Playing outside a few weeks ago

She can clearly communicate her wants...

Putting her shirt on

New tricks: unrolling the toilet paper, climing on the toilet

For some reason I like this one...

Little lovies



17 months! Taking a few steps

13, 14, 15

Playing a little catch-up today...

http://missamericamisterbelgium.blogspot.be/2014/12/family-christmas.html (13 months). This was also the day I stopped nursing.

14 Months

14 Months

http://missamericamisterbelgium.blogspot.be/2015/02/valentines-2015.html
(From her 15th monthday)

16 Months

15 month check up. Average weight, a bit on the tall side, making her slightly underweight.

Standing! And climbing stairs!

Drivings cars

Obsessed with the computer

Fun at the petting zoo

Fine dining while waiting at the doctor at 7:50 am

Baby gymnastics

She loves feeding herself

First time playing outside

Letters to our Children - March

Last Month's Letter

Link to the next in the circle.

March 12, 2015

Where did the month go? Last month I said I was sure Liora would be walking. Guess what, she's not. But now she takes about 5 steps, then starts laughing and plops down.

I thought my topic for this letter would be "The same, but different."

I think it's natural that when you have a 2nd child, you often play the compare & contrast game. I think having the 2nd is an eye-opener that not all children are the same as your 1st. The 2 kids have the same parents, live in the same environment, yet you can already see at their young ages differences.

The game started with the pregnancy. The first one I got pregnant the first month, so I expected that with the 2nd. It was the 2nd month. What was the same was that I never threw up, but had about a month of a continuous naseated feeling.

I gained twice as much the first time around and needed to visit the bathroom ALL THE TIME, but with the 2nd I kept waiting for that phase and it never came. Yay! I had a hard time sleeping with the first, but the 2nd time around, I slept great, however, everything seemed to take much more effort. Was it having a toddler running around zapping all the energy? Could be.

With Mateo I went to the hospital the day after my due date. With Liora I had to be induced at what the doctor figured was 9 days overdue. If it based on an online calculator, I was 42 weeks. That was a big lesson for me! I know this will sound silly, but I always thought when people went that far overdue, they had just miscalculated...now I know, babies come (or don't ?!) when they want.

My recovery was much better with my daughter, but the homelife adjustment was much harder. I actually still feel like I'm not totally adjusted. Hard to know which ones' needs are the more important ones at a given moment.

Both babies nursed like pros already in the hospital and I don't think every dropped beneath their birth weight, but Mateo started taking a bottle (pumped milk) at 6 weeks and Liora NEVER did. Both loved eating real food, but one ate earlier than another.

Liora slept through the night a few months earlier, but needed to drink much more in the day.

Some differences I attribute to the boy/girl discussion. Mateo crawled and walked earlier, but Liora seems to be speaking earlier and copying lots of sounds and actions earlier.

BOTH kids love attention and try to get it in their own ways and both are easier for other people than for mommy and behave nicely for others.

One area I am hoping for a difference is that Liora is potty trained earlier! She never had a pacifier like her brother, so dealing with her thumb sucking may be something we have to address in a few years.

Differences and similarities...always paying attention to them.

Liora 12 Months