Filling the Tub

I guess we all have some of those pictures that were taken when we were unaware, but embarrass us when we are older. I guess this would be one of those for Tobias. I will allow him to be mad at me, but I guess even he will have to admit that this is cute.... isn't it? I just couldn't resist...

As I have told you before, Tobias loves taking baths. Until now one of us would fill up the bath while the other would undress Tobias and get him ready for the bath. Recently Tobias started taking more of an interest in the process of preparing the bath. He especially enjoys watching the bath fill and bubble up. As he is able to climb pretty much everything now and stand up against it, he is also able to climb up the side of the bath tub and peek over the edge. That way he can enjoy the whole process first hand! And he loves it, as do we :-).

Tobias, I hope that I have not embarrassed you too much with this picture and that you will agree with me that it is a cute picture. If not you can always claim it is not you because I discretely left your face out of this picture :-).

Aunt Shelli

Like I told you before, aunt Shelli was over for a week during the week of Thanksgiving. That was a lot of fun. Tobias an aunt Shelli got to spend quite some time together. As a matter of fact, they got to spend a full day together, without me or mommy there. So, Tobias gave his aunt the full experience, including smiles, sleep, walk, poop, barf.... the full monty! :-). Shelli loved it (right? :-)).

Anyway, they had fun together and we had a good time too and enjoyed Shelli being around. We all hope she can come over again sometime soon. Fortunately, we will see her again in about three weeks when we go over to the US for Christmas.

The only thing is, we (almost) forgot to take any pictures of Tobias an Shelli together. Just before she left, literally because in this picture they are all set to leave for the airport, we remembered to take at least one picture... I guess we'll have to do a better job of taking pictures at Christmas.

First Tooth!

It is official.... Tobias has his first tooth!

It took quite a while for it to come out but it is now definitely there. I think Oma was the first one to really notice because last week he spent monday and tuesday with Opa and Oma. We noticed it on tuesday night when he came back home.

There is only one big drawback to this.... As I told you before Tobias sometimes confuses "give me a kiss" with "bite my nose". Well, that may become quite painful for us now.... But, well, we'll get over that. This past weekend I bought him a tooth brush and some tooth paste :-).

I think that the tooth coming out did not improve his cold and also bothered him in different ways. He did not cry a lot, but he was not as happy and a bit more tired than usual. Also he had his hand in his mouth a lot and drooled like a madman. Here he is chewing his teething toy, which came straight from the freezer. That I guess helped to numb his gums a little. Currently he is pretty much back to normal, except that now he has one tooth! Up to the next, hopefully a little less painful, one...

Tobias Lee Lewis

Tobias is becoming more and more of an independent musician. A while back I posted a picture where he is playing his own instrument. He also still loves when I play the piano and really wants to be a part of it. He doesn't really fit on my lap anymore when I play, so he crawls over. Then he climbs my chair. His latest move was moving himself over to the keyboard and holding on to the piano. Now, as you can see in this picture, he is able to reach and even play the keys with his hands. He doesn't need any help anymore, well, I just need to turn on the piano for him, that's all. And I have to tell you he enjoys it too! He laughs whenever he manages to actually play a key and make the piano make a sound.

I think his biggest problem right now is that he is unable to see what he is playing.... I guess it will take a while before he can do that all by himself. For now all he needs to do is wiggle his butt a little and he could be mistaken for Jerry Lee Lewis (as long as you are not listening :-)).

Thanksgiving in Gouda

Last week was Thanksgiving. We celebrated in Gouda. We had my parents, my brother and Lisa's sister over. Shelli was here for a week. She went to Paris with Lisa for a few days. She also visited Amsterdam and took care of Tobias for a day. That was nice for us and for her. She did that on Thanksgiving, pretty much while she was preparing the turkey for the oven. Tobias still had a cold he has had for more than a week. It was already a bit better, but it makes him tired, especially in the evening. So, he was tired when everybody was here too and I think it was a little much for him. He did like the company though as you can see here. He is having fun with Opa and Oma! And of course Tobias had both an uncle and an aunt over all at the same time! What a lucky guy huh? Unfortunately he was in bed while we were having Thanksgiving dinner, but then again he probably wouldn't have been able to enjoy that anyway. Shelli cooked most of the dinner. She prepared the turkey, made mashed potatoes and stuffing. Shelli and I made pumpkin pie together. So, all the main ingredients for a true thanksgiving dinner were there. Of course there was way too much food, but the dutchies enjoyed it too :-). Tobias' first Thanksgiving was nice, but I guess moreso for us than for Tobias himself...

My own instrument!

Not only does Tobias like to play my piano, he also has his own instrument! It is a keyboard/xylophone and of course it is much nicer and much more colorful than my piano... Fortunately for us it does not make as much noise. But Tobias likes it all the same. It even has some sheet music (not in this picture because one of Tobias' favorite things is to play with the music stand that is attached to it....) and xylophone drum sticks (or whatever you call those things...).

Here he is enjoying it and playing me quite the symphony. I really hope he will enjoy music as much or maybe even more when he grows up. At least he is off to a good start....

Reading skills

We try to read Tobias a story every night before he goes to bed. He seems to like that because usually he sort of smiles. Although, now that I am writing this I realize that he smiles particularly when the story is "uit", which means over. Then we "tap" the book and say "boom boom" and he loves that. I wonder whether that is because he liked the story so much or because he knows his bottle is coming :-).

Anyway, he now not only bites, drools on, waves, and smacks the book anymore, he also knows what "omslaan", which means turn page over", is. As you can see in this picture he also knows how to open up a book. So, I guess he's got all the moves involved in reading a book down. Now he just needs to learn how to read.... :-).

Piano lesson

I am glad that Tobias loves it when I play the piano for him. What is even better is that he enjoys playing himself. I guess he loves to make some noise because that's all he does right now. Although, he has made some improvements over time. He now plays with two hands and as you can see here he puts all his energy into it. It is fun to watch but good that we have a digital piano so we can turn the volume down because sometimes it is not so much fun to listen too, especially when he gets over-excited. Let's hope he doesn't figure out how to adjust the volume by himself anytime soon....

Making a mess

Tobias has found a new game: making the biggest mess possible.... He has discovered his own diaper bag. He was sort of pulling on it and then he pulled the strap and it fell over. When pulling the top he heard funny sounds, probably the toys that are in there. This aroused his interest even more and he started pulling the top until it opened. Then he found the dirty diaper baggies and man are those fun! So he started pulling them out, one by one. Then he started playing with them one by one. Then they flew all over the place one by one. Man, did Tobias have fun doing all that! In this picture you can see the result, one big mess... and in the middle of it a happy Tobias checking out his work. I have to admit it was quite a show to see.....

Daddy's Crib

As I told you before, Tobias spends one night a week with my parents. Sometimes a little more, when my parents allow us to go on a long weekend :-), but the regular schedule is one night a week, which is wednesday nights these days. My parents have a big attic and on that attic they store a lot of stuff. Most of it is stuff that has been in several attics through several moves but has not been touched (other than for the purpose of moving) in years. Well, now that there is a grandchild some of that stuff is allowed a second life, like some of my old toys. I think I have put some pictures with some of my old toys on before.

Anyway, on that attic they also found my crib and some baby blankets. That is what Tobias is sitting in and on in this picture. Nice huh? My son is sleeping in my crib :-).

Kissing

Tobias now seems to understand the word Kiss.... at least that's what we think or hope or something like that. Anyway, his kisses sort of constitute licking really. But, it is cute. Here we both had to laugh so hard that in mid-kiss Tobias started laughing too. Not only that, but he made it really hard to capture one of his kisses. And sometimes he confuses "Tobias, give me a kiss" with "Tobias, lick and bite my nose". He does this because we made a game out of that. He sort of bites your nose and then expects you to rub it on his tummy. For some reason that is loads of fun because he laughs and laughs whenever we do that. Great fun for us too by the way, although it may sound a bit disgusting, but hey, he's our kid you know :-).

Anyway, in this picture you can sort of see how it works an how much the participants enjoy it.