Today was my first father's day. We are not much of mother's or father's day people.... as a matter of fact, we both kind of forgot about mother's day entirely. The only thing we have to show for that is a card from Shelli. Maybe now that we are a mother and a father ourselves it might change a bit. Anyway, Shelli sent me a father's day card, which was great. Also, Lisa bought Tobias this t-shirt a week or two ago and he wore it for the occasion. It says "Mijn papa is de aller, aller, allerliefste" which means "My daddy is the very, very, very sweetest". Cute huh? It was already kind of too small, but he wore it anyway :-). I love this picture, don't we look good?

Tobias has figured out how to roll himself over. He had figured that a few weeks ago, but this past week he has become a more skilled "roller". The roll from back to tummy is still easier than the roll from tummy to back, but he can do both ways and he loves it too. So much I guess that he even uses it when he is sleeping. Yesterday morning we found him like this. We had to wake him up so apparently this is a comfortable position for him. We just thought he looked cute like this so we took a picture. I am proud of Tobias because this is of course a big step in his development as well as a big step towards mobility. There is one drawback though, we have to be more careful where we lay him down to sleep. So, yesterday when he was at a Mel's place, a colleague of Lisa's, while we were at a wedding, instead of just putting him in the middle of a big bed, we used our camping bed for the first time......

Tobias is ready for solid foods, well, I guess I should say semi-solid foods. This is the first time we fed him something other than breast milk or formula from a bottle. He is eating a smooshed banana. As I said, not very solid, but, well, it once was. As you can see Tobias is not quite sure whether he likes it or not. He did eat it, but some of it came out later in an even more liquified form.... We have been feeding him some smooshed fruits, but also some rice cereal. He still likes the bottle a lot better although it is hard to tell if this is because of the "ease of use" or because of the taste, and I am not sure he knows either. Anyway, we keep trying and we keep making a mess but I'm sure one day he'll love it...

"Een foto met een 10 moet je in het groot zien" is what my mom always says. It means something along the lines of "A great picture should be framed". I think this picture would qualify easily... It was taken by my old neighbor from when I was growing up, or, as my parents call her, the house-photographer, Tante Anja (Aunt Anja) when Tobias was at my parents house. Nowadays I guess the equivalent for framing is putting it on the internet, so here it is!

Tobias is such a great guy. He is growing rapidly, both physically as well as emotionally/mentally, or should I just say "as a person". He can really get into things now and sometimes play for almost two hours, just by himself. He can get really happy about a toy, a rag or anything else, really. He can also get really mad at the same thing for no other apparent reason than that whatever it is is not cooperating with him..... Obviously he cries, he has done that ever since he was born, but he can now also whine in all sorts of variations. Fortunaly he also has a great smile that he uses very frequently and more abundantly as he is growing. He now not only smiles an giggles, but het also just laughs. He loves music, being played or sung to him and he also loves dancing (basically one of us rocking him up and down on the beat of the music). As you can see in this picture he also likes reading. He seems to be into the book, but I can assure you, he had a hard time deciding what to do with this book before I took this picture: Should I eat it? Should I throw it? Should I jam it into my head? Should I jam it into daddy's head? Eventually he decided to "read" it....... I guess.....

Lisa is back to working full-time. As I am writing this I am having my "daddy day". That is every thursday. I am liking it and so is Tobias (...... I hope.....). Anyway, Lisa is finishing the school year full-time. The end of the school year is July 2nd I think so that is only 4 more weeks or so. During this time Tobias stays with me one day, my daddy day, one day with my parents and the other three days with a friend of Lisa's, Charlotte, who is taking really good care of him. I told Tobias that, with all those new things going on and his busy schedule as far as care taking is concerned, he should make a start in learning how to take care of himself. He agreed and see how far he has gotten already..... he is feeding himself! Ok, he was not able to finish the bottle entirely by himselft (mainly because he dropped it when he fell asleep drinking it....) but it is a good start, right? The busy schedule is working out well so far. After the summer vacation Lisa is going to work part-time as well, she will be working 3 days a week. Tobias will be with my parents one day and in a day care another.

I have a feeling Tobias is approaching the teething stage..... Grandma Mayhall gave him this biting toy and as you can see he loves it. He can get pretty fanatic about biting it. For Lisa and me it is a good alternative to our finger because his jaw muscles are getting more powerful by the day.....

It has been way too long since the last post, so it is time for an update! Tobias is doing great! He is growing like cabbage, as we would say in the Netherlands. He seems to be having loads of fun as well.... he is laughing and smiling a lot anyway. One day I came home and Lisa and Tobias were on the couch laughing like crazy. I was wondering what was going on..... well, take a look at this picture.... Tobias probably doesn't realize we're making fun of him, but when you pull his ears like that, he sticks his tongue out :-). By the way, it made him laugh too......