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

We love each other

Letters To Our Children // January // Liora + Sayings

Missy learned to climb out of her bed a few weeks ago. The 15th was the first time she started coming out at bedtime.  The next day she decided she wanted to sleep in the big bed in her room. This week she decided she wanted to sleep in Mateo's room. SO? What do you do, but go with the flow.

The 8th I had decided to move Liora into Mateo's room. Now he's sleeping in the big bed in her room, which actually was his bed before we moved and she is sleeping in 'his' room (I had planned to call it their room) in the toddler bed.

Since bedtime is a drama, naptime is also somewhat of a drama. Needless to say, we are down to 1 nap.


A day she snuck down out of bed

On the 8th I also started potty training. We went and bought Frozen panties. I tried the "be-with-them-all-day-don't-let-them-out-of-your-sight" method. Sort of worked, but not really. Like the 2 times I went out of the room, she peed on the floor.  I tried a few other days, but decided to postpone. No need to stress myself out, right?

Liora's life is her babies. It's really cute how she says what they are doing. Normally they do what she wants to do. Make sense.

I started a photography class last year, so my goal for this year was to post 1 photo from my camera per week. The last 2 years most photos have been on my phone.

I just read the post of Mateo's 27 months. It looks like they both cut their morning nap at the same time. It's hard to adjust right now, but I should be glad for how long she has 2 naps.

She does also the same thing as in identifying what is from whom.

Liora taught herself to put her jacket on how they learn it hear at school. Very convenient!

We have a little helper at the moment. Unloading the silverware, putting clothes in the hamper, sometimes cleaning up the toys, wiping up messes, putting things in the garbage.

Liora is also talking and talking. I need to start writing down more of what she says.

Kom een keer
Mika tuutje (because he was crying)
Mika spanking
Mika wakker
Lola wil niet slapen
Lekker, yummy
Alina (for Aline)
Lola chuch sing
Filmpje kijken
Protje gelaten
Hairs (for hair)
Toes, tummy, eyes, nose, ears
Boots (one of her favorite words)
Bang, scarwd
Noepie (snoepje)
Lola mee
Pwincess
Baby nigh night
Baby eten
All done
Op
Juice, milk, water
Noodles, friejtes, Donalds, chicken, boterham, tilla (tortilla), ketchup, raisins, bina (banana)

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.

Letters To Our Children // October // Liora // 23 Months

Liora turned 23 months yesterday. Terrible twos are early.

We have a smart little girl on our hands. Too smart. Smart as in she knows how to make her parents and brothers crazy. We'll just leave it at that.

She's interested in the potty, so I'm looking forward to having her trained at an earlier age than her brother was.

Liora can now open the doors and fridge. This month she started riding her little bike. She adores her dolls. They are her babies and she likes to change them, feed them, put them to bed, put a blanket on them, hug and kiss them and then start all over again.

She's grown and gained weight! Size 22/23 shoes, 83 cm and 12.2 kg with clothes on.

I started a photography class in September. I'm taking it with my SIL. I've already learned some great things. So here are some photos of the kids from yesterday, Liora's 23rd monthday.

Letters To Our Children // September // Mateo

Today was the first day of school. In Belgium they go to school from September 1st until June 30th.  I was pretty excited about school! Mateo seemed to have forgotten a bit about it. We left the 2nd week of June on vacation, so he had a long summer.

Daddy came to school with us today, which was special for Mateo. The school is celebrating 50 years, so they had a party-theme going on. Each child had their photo in front of an old timer. Curious to see them!

Liora seemed to sense the excitement. I decided to dress her up also for some photos. She loved seeing all the kids. I'm sure she wishes she could go. Next September...

Mateo is starting 2de kleuterklas or 2nd kindergarten.  For those who don't know, here they start school at 2.5 in a preschool class, then age 3, 4, & 5 are kindergarten.

Letters To Our Children // August // Liora // 21 Months

http://carriesaindon.blogspot.be/2015/08/back-to-school-2015-letter-to-my.html Link to the first letter in the small circle.

I remembered on Liora's 21 month day to take some photos. Just posting them 2 weeks later.

I checked what I wrote in June about her. She is the same height, but has gained a kilo! That's 2.2 lbs. I noticed that her face looks rounder and her tummy a bit bigger. It's nice to see her with some chub.

Her feet have also grown. I drove to a store to get her some shoes that were on sale. I checked online which store had size 20. I got there, asked the sales lady, she agreed it was a good size. The next day Liora refused to put them on, so I put them on and she screamed. I realized they must be too small. Took her back to the store and left with 22's!

A few weeks ago I took down the gate at the top of the stairs. The first time in probably 3.5 that we don't have a gate. Feels great!

Liora is starting to bike on our little plastic bike. She doesn't seem as sportive as Mateo, although she is a great climber. She goes UP the slide all alone.

This girl is TALKING! Today she said, "Mama, kijk, shoes." (Look at my shoes). She had drawn on them with a marker she found...she knows all the names of the cousins she sees the most. What else does she say? Seatbelt on, Shoes on, eat, drink, night night, bye bye, da-da, teeth (for wanting to brush her teeth), stom (stupid), horse, wa-wa (dog), fiets (bike), applesauce, cheese, apple, bana (banana), pee-pee, wet, hot, cold, open. Probably more, but these are what I can think of. These are the ones she says her self, but she copies the words and sounds that we make.

She's down to mostly 1 nap per day, but I'm hoping when school starts that we'll go back to 2 naps. I'll have to wake her up in order to get Mateo to school on time.

And now the photos of my 21 month DIVA.  Her skirt in the bottom photos I made from a woman's mini skirt I got from Freecycle :)

*edit* I thought I'd see if I posted about Mateo when he was 21 months, sure enough. Fun to compare.  Liora is talking WAY more. She also says kijk and more or nog. Funny thing is she also switches between languages for No. She'll first say it in one, then in the other. For emphasis? She also enjoys jumping on the trampoline, but isn't as brave. I feel like she's been climbing up the ladder more than a month, but then, now we own a swing set, so she has had more practice.  

http://carriesaindon.blogspot.be/2015/08/back-to-school-2015-letter-to-my.html

Link to the next blog in the circle.