Baby Belgium

Friday, July 24, 2015

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

Monday, July 13, 2015

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.

Tuesday, June 9, 2015

Letters to My Children // June // Liora // 19 Months

Liora turned 18 months when I was away with my grandma. 1.5 years old.

We've had a rough few weeks with her and she was very trying for her dad when I was gone.

Today we went for a check up. A follow up since a few months ago the doctor thought her head hadn't grown enough in comparison to her body. Today the new doctor said everything is fine. She weighs 10.3 kg and is 82 cm long. Her head is almost 48 cm around. (22.71 lb, 32.28 in, 19.9 in) She's wearing size 1 year clothes and her feet finally have grown a bit. I put size 20 shoes (4's) on on Sunday.

These pictures are of the moments I WANT to remember.

Many new discoveries! "What? There's a whole THERE?"

She loves babies and dollies.

I made Liora a matching dress =)

We had some sunny days! And Liora is finally enjoying playing in the sand.

She loved being at the spelotheek (toy library) last week.

Playing independently

Loving her hair

Ponytail! And feeding herself.

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.

Thursday, April 30, 2015

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...

Wednesday, April 15, 2015

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.