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.

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.

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.