Falling asleep...

This week Tobias is suffering from a cold. His nose is kind of stuffed up and he is sneezing a lot. This results in him having trouble going to sleep. Also he doesn't sleep as long as he normally does, that is, during the day. Fortunately, his night sleep is quite regular. Anyway, because he hardly sleeps during the day he gets really really tired. He does not like to sleep during the day anyway, so he fights it. Today he was fighting it too. I put him in his play pen and he tried to stay awake and keep playing or at least doing something.... That something ended up in screaming so I picked him up and sat him down on the couch. Well, that did him in and I think he took the term "falling asleep" a bit too literal, because, well...., he doesn't seem to be sitting in this picture now does he? In this case I can honestly say that he "fell asleep"! Now, how cute is that?! (By the way: notice the shoes. His mommy got him those this week... nice huh?)

Actions with purpose

Tobias loves to just sit and play. He can do that for long periods at a time. Of course now that he can crawl faster and faster he wants to do that too, but I love to watch him "investigate" his toys. Today I introduced a new toy for him, this lovely train. When you push the yellow thing, depicting a dog, it rides and plays a song and it whistles. Of course Tobias did not know that when I first gave it to him. After I showed it to him a couple of times he figured it out for himself and had to laugh and laugh, especially because not only does the train rides and plays a song and whistles, but also because in the exhaust pipe in the front there is an orange thing, depicting a cat, that goes up and down.... He loves that! I guess what I am trying to say is that Tobias is getting more and more purpose to his actions. He crawls towards something and then picks it up to play with it, he throws stuff on the floor counting on us to pick it up (that's so funny, right...?), and in this case he realizes (or at least seems to realize) that if he pushed the yellow thing something happens with the train (or maybe in his terms; the big blue thing.....)

Hurricane Rita: House intact

We received a phone call from Dickinson earlier this evening. Since power was back on in Dickinson they were allowed to return. At first glance everything seems OK with Lisa's parents' house. No windows have blown out and the roof is still in place and intact. Like I said, power is on and the telephone is working as well (how else would they have called us...). The only thing they don't have yet is hot water. My take on that is that the gas must have been turned off for safety reasons...

This news is a great relief to me, to Lisa, but most of all to Lisa's parents! We only had a brief conversation. They just wanted to let us know everything seems OK, but they had to go back to Lisa's sister's to get their stuff. They want to do that as soon as possible and preferably before traffic starts getting bad... So, I guess they'll be sleeping in their own bed tonight and waking up in their own house tomorrow. Once again, a great relief to all of us!

Hurricane Rita: Everybody safe

Last night we spoke to Lisa's parents and sister and they are and have been safe throughout the hurricane. We spoke to them when they had the worst behind them. They had power and there was no apparent damage to the house or cars. There was stuff flying around, like tree branches and stuff, but that was about it. They are not allowed to return to Dickinson yet, but it is clear that the Dickinson area was hit much harder than where they are right now. So, now we're waiting for the green light for them to return to Dickinson.

Standing up!

As I have told quite a few times before, the milestones seems to be passing by in a very fast pace. Today we reached another big one.... standing up! As you can see he has to hold on to the play pen. Also I had to put him up like this, but once in place he can stand like this for minutes at a time! I have my hands around him, just to catch him in case he falls but I really don't have to hold him or adjust him at all while he is standing... he is doing it all by himself. Once he gets down he just sort of "throws" himself onto his butt and he seems to be fine with that. Personally I was really surprised and impressed by his stamina... This picture was taken when he stood by himself for the first time. He stood there for over three minutes, just holding on to the play pen with two hands (sometimes just one hand) and laughing and giggling most of the time he was standing there.... Once again, a moment of great parental pride for me.....

Interactive play

As Tobias is rolling, crawling and sitting around he is improving his skills in all those fields, including stability when he is sitting. This enables him to undertake various activities when he is sitting, like playing with his multiple headed ball thingy.... (or whatever you want to call that thing laying in front of him in this picture). Initially he just wanted to pick it up and stick it in his mouth, but recently he seems to be more interested in daddy rolling it towards him, because whenever I do so he rolls, hits or pushes it straight back to me. So, with this developments it has become possible to have some interactive play with Tobias and that is tons of fun for the both of us!

Crawling around

Tobias is really crawling now! He is getting faster and is increasing his reach every day. Not only that, but he is loving it too! He will go after a toy, after electrical wires, after a magazine laying around, after the cats, after mommy or daddy, or just aimlessly crawling around..... This is lovely to see and it is obviously amusing to him as well because most of the times he is laughing as he goes. It seems that he sometimes understands that we want him to come to us when we call him, although any distraction when he is on his way may stop him and change his direction instantly. His crawling endeavors will also take him to funny places at times, like here where he ended up right under mommy's chair :-).

Cuddling with mommy

As I have told you Tobias is moving around more and more and of course that makes him tired at times. It is at those times there is nothing more comforting to him than to cuddle with mommy or daddy. Here he is cuddling with mommy and loving it. A lot of times he will just fall asleep like this. I can tell you it is nice for mommy and daddy too! Don't they make a cute pair like this? That's what I thought when I shot this picture.

Hurricane Rita: Evacuation

As I am writing this we have had a couple of days of holding our breath. This has to do with Hurricane Rita because Dickinson, where Lisa's parents live, is right in the affected area. Initially the predictions were for the eye of Rita to pass straight over Dickinson, but "fortunately" (if I may say that...) it hit a little further east in a much less populated area. Lisa's parents, her brother and the cats evacuated on wednesday to Lisa's sister's place to the north west of Houston. We spoke to them this morning and they are fine where they are. They had a brief power out and lots of rain, but that's it. Of course there is no way of knowing what shape their house in Dickinson is in at this time, but judging from the path Rita took is seems that it could have been worse... We're still holding our breath somewhat until we find out.

Using Utensils...

Every wednesday Tobias goes to the daycare. I take him in the morning but before I do that I write in his notebook. This is a way the daycare communicates with parents when the children can't tell the stories for themselves (which means until the children are about 18 months old). It is a nice way to communicate, because not only does it help the parents and the daycare to communicate, it also creates a sort of a diary. So, I try my best to keep them posted on his developments every week and so do they (of course we also communicate in person... :-)). Yesterday they wrote that Tobias had eaten a slice of bread using a fork. That was hard to believe or imagine and kind of cool. So today I thought I'd try that at home..... As you can see here it worked fine, although I had to cut the bread and prick the pieces on the fork. Also I had to make sure the plate with the bread on it was out of reach so he would not grab a piece with his free hand... I do think he likes eating this way, but I am not sure if he likes the bread better than he does his oatmeal, but then again "a change of food makes one eat" (which is a literal translation of a dutch saying...) so, we'll keep trying different things.

Restless Sleep...?

Judging from how we put him to bed and how we find him when we get him out of bed Tobias must be a restless sleeper... Most of the times we put him in bed laying on his back like a normal person, head on one end, feet on the other. A while back I posted a picture where he had turned himself over. Well, before that he already started turning himself around. Now he is also moving around and if you add all these motions together there is no telling how we find him in the morning. Today he added his newly acquired capability of getting himself into a sitting position.... resulting in me finding him like this when I got him out of bed... cute huh? Not only that, but it is also time for me to lower his mattress a notch before he manages to drag himself out of bed....

Cowboy Tobias!

Here is Tobias sitting on (or is it in?) his rocking horse. Well, on what he may now consider his rocking horse... Why do I say that? Well, this rocking horse was given to me by my grandfather when I was Tobias' age (or maybe for my first birthday, I don't remember that accurately :-)). It was relatively recently used by my cousin Carolien's daghter Sabine and yet even more recently returned to me for Tobias to use. So, technically speaking it is my rocking horse Tobias is sitting on or in here. Since I am not using it that often anymore I guess he can consider it his as you can see he does. I think it is important for Tobias to keep all options for future developments and plans open, including becoming a professional cowboy... It looks like he has got what it takes :-)

Can I sit on the couch?

As I have said quite some times before, the development of Tobias is going really fast. Sometimes though, I think he wants to go a bit too fast. OK, he has been able to sit by himself for about a month now and he is getting better and better at it. He is becoming more stable when he sits, but also more agile. He can move from one toy to another, grab it while sort of laying and then come back into sitting position. Also he can crawl and them get back in sitting position in a different place. I think his intention in this picture was to sit like the "big people" sit... He must have been sitting like this for 15 minutes or so, just pulling himself up on the couch, making noises and, every once in a while, look around him so daddy could take a good picture... :-)

Cool dude!

On most of my daddy-days I take Tobias into town for a walk. This gives him the opportunity to be outside and me the opportunity to get some groceries and stuff. As summer approached and came, the sun in Tobias' eyes became more and more of an issue during our walks. So, I decided to get him some sunglasses... At that time (that must have been July I think) and the weeks to come the sunglasses seemed totally wasted on him... Whenever we put them on his face, he would take them off immediately. Today is a beautiful and sunny day so, when we went into town I thought I'd try the sunglasses again. Well, he didn't take them off. As a matter of fact he enjoyed having them on and I think he even realized why he was wearing them. I didn't even have to readjust them during our walk. I only had to take them off whenever we went into a store because, you know, that's just common courtesy, right? And of course Tobias is a descent kid who knows good manners :-). As we were walking, not only was Tobias enjoying his sunglasses, but also lots of attention from everyone because, well... he looks sooooooo cool! Doesn't he?

Ready!.... Set!.....

I think I have been telling you before that we think Tobias is almost ready to crawl, although sometimes we have a feeling he might just skip the crawling phase, the walking phase, and start running right away.... To me, in this picture he looks ready for the track! He has been doing this for quite a while. Sometimes he realizes that it is easier to crawl when he is on his knees, but most of the times he is trying to move forward like this (and he sometimes manages to do so too!). He is literally taking it one step (or should I say crawl) at a time though.... Most of the times after one "step" he rolls over or lays flat in preparation for the next step which sometimes turns into a roll. This way he manages to cross our bed at increasing speeds..... On the floor it is a bit harder because there are no sheets to hold on to, but the principle and the result are the same.

Going to sit

Why is Tobias having such a funny smile on his face? Well, he is making a big effort in this picture and with success. I guess it was yet again one of those milestones... Today, he managed to get himself from a laying position into a sitting position and as I took this picture he was right in middle of this transition. As you can see he is almost sitting up here. It is incredible. It hasn't even been three weeks since he can sit on his own and now he can already GO sit on his own.... what's next? Tobias continues to amaze me in how fast he develops. I guess that will never stop, only the changes may become less noticable... but right now the developments are still quite major, noticable, and fast! Hence my amazement.

Love or Confusion?

Last weekend we went out with Kasper and Liesbeth, or should I say Tobias went out with Annalief? Anyway, we went to the "Kralingse Bos" (bos = forest), a park in Rotterdam. I had biked through it before, but never really spent much time in it. It was a nice day and a nice park. We had lunch there and so did Tobias and Annalief. Annalief apparently didn't have enough lunch. Initially we thought she was going to kiss Tobias' hand, but at closer inspection she was trying to eat his hand! And I have the picture to prove it :-). I think Tobias was a bit confused or disappointed, doesn't it look like that, or is he just looking at something different altogether. Anyway, I think they enjoyed themselves too. They were noticing each other much more then they did the previous time they met. The strollers were facing each other as we walked and they were laughing, we suspect at each other, but we can't be sure....

Sitting experiences

Tobias has discovered that sitting does not only enable them to have a different view of things, but also that it can provide different use of things. For example, the play pen could also be used as bleachers that provide a front row seat to everything happening in the living room. On top of that it provides a way to figure out how sturdy the play pen really is, what wood it is made out of, and what the rim of the play pen tastes like... :-). In short, a whole range of new experiences due to the ability to sit!