My own car!

On Sinterklaas evening Tobias received several gifts. Previously I put a picture on of Tobias playing with a shapes puzzle. That picture was taken on Sinterklaas evening. On that evening he also got this car. He didn't like it as much at first. He was a bit scared to ride on it. He has been for a while, but since this past weekend he has started to like it some more. He actually laughed while riding it. This picture was taken today. We increased the speed a little and that was a lot of fun! Also driving by mommy was a big laugh... So, it took some getting used to but now he is able to enjoy his own car. Mommy took this picture while Tobias was zooming by...

Tobias is doing great. His waterpokken are pretty much gone. He has a few scabs left, but it doesn't seem to bother him that much. Overall it has not bothered him much. I think it should be gone by this weekend.

I was thinking the other day.... it is funny how you give your child all sorts of nicknames over time. Of course when we tell about him we refer to him as Tobias, but there are names we use to refer to him when Lisa and I talk about him to each other and there are names we use to talk to him if we want to comfort him or something. And recently we even had some names to refer to him while he had chicken pox (Google is ambiguous about the spelling of this word, I found that both pox and pocks are used frequently. My initial educated guess was pocks, I had never seen the word written. I saw it spelled pox on a friend's blog. That friend is American and a good writer, so I figured I'd use pox this time following her, undoubtedly correct, example. Maybe I should consult the dictionary at some point...). Anyway, some examples are:
- Buddy Boy
- Buddy Buster
- Buddy Bus
- Snicker Doodles
- Toabster
- Little Man
- Knulletje
- Klein Mannetje
- Lieverdje
- Tobias de Bobias
- Toabs
- Speckles
- Speckly Face
- Krentebolletje

I guess many more will follow. I am sure every parent uses nicknames just like we do. I find the etymology of these nicknames quite confusing, inexplicable and interesting.

What is also interesting is the rapid development of Tobias' language. He now has quite some sounds he uses. He uses the syllables "pa" and "ma" and repeats those a couple of times (sometimes two times, which of course makes us think he is calling us :-)). But also "da", "ba", "wa" and some more things like that. I am sure there is nothing deliberate to it, but sometimes we can make it deliberate by making him repeat it after us. That does not always work, but sometimes it does and that's cute.

It is also very interesting to see how he starts to link certain words we use to objects an people. I think I told you before he sort of knows what "kiss"means. Well, now he knows what "ball" means because when we ask him "where is the ball" he will start looking for it and he will start playing with it. He also recognizes the words "mama" and "pappie". He looks at us when we say "where is mama" or "where is pappie".

I am sure the amount of words and sounds he uses and understands will keep increasing. Before we know it he will be talking and listening. Again, like many times before, I am amazed by the speed of his developments and I guess I could say proud of it as well...

Waterpokken

Past Friday Tobias was going to the day case. I was going to take him to the day care so I was the one getting him up and dressing him. While I was doing that I noticed a red spot on his tummy. I didn't think much of it, but closer inspection revealed a blister-like spot. I am one who pops things that are on my body so I popped the blister, just to make sure it was a blister and just to see what was inside. Well, there was a water-like substance inside. I still thought it was just a blister. Maybe his diaper had been rubbing on his tummy or something.

Anyway, I got him dressed, fed him, gave him a bit to drink and everything was fine. Then, when I got him ready to go outside by putting his coat on and everything, I felt a little bump on the back of his head as I was holding him. It was very similar to the little blister on his tummy. This is when it occurred to me that it might be something other than a blister, that it might be waterpokken (chicken pocks). Closer inspection of Tobias' head revealed more spots behind his ear. My diagnosis: waterpokken. Just to make sure I called the expert on such matters... mommy... and she had her colleague confirm it: chicken pocks. I decided to take him to the day care anyway because he was in good spirits and didn't seem to be bothered by it. They took him in because if he had infected other children it would have already happened before the spots started showing. She warned me though that by the time we'd pick him up he'd probably be covered in red spots.... and he was...

Tobias didn't start feeling bad until much later. He had a good day at the day care and saturday was fine too. The night from saturday to sunday is when he was not able to sleep. He woke up at one, as did we, and didn't go back to sleep until six or so, as did we... Sunday he was not feeling well at all. He was tired an did not have much of an appetite. He was so tired that he did sleep quite well that day. He also slept through the night on sunday but still was not feeling well on monday. Monday night he slept well again and today when I got home from work he was back to his happy self.

This picture was taken on monday night. As you can see he is doing OK, but covered in spots. Most of those spots had not opened yet at tha point although he already had some scabs too. The funny thing is that when he checks out his tummy he does not touch any of the spots but goes right for his belly button, as if the spots weren't there... odd...

Well, if nothing else I learned a valuable lesson: Do NOT pop spots, speckles or whatever on your child's body (the one I popped is the bigger one just above his belly button...)

Zwarte Piet

On the actual Sinterklaas day there was a "Sinterklaas breakfast" at the day care that Tobias goes to. We all went (although I had to leave a little early) and had a nice time, particularly enjoying seeing Tobias enjoy himself.

Tobias made himself a "zwarte pieten muts" (a black pete hat (a black pete is a helper of Sinterklaas)) last week that he got to wear for this occasion. The yellow stuf are his handprints, the blue thing is supposed to depict a feather that a "real" black pete wears on his hat. The black facial paint is the finishing touch, isn't it?

Tobias, zwarte piet, is unwrapping his gift here. He got a wobbly seal with a ball on his nose and a draw string to pull it forward. I don't know what he enjoyed more, the gift or the wrapping paper... But he had a good time, and his group leaders were so proud because he did not take his hat off once!

Sinterklaas

Hmmmm... how do I explain a guy in a red robe with a red mitre riding a white horse and tons of black helpers in even funnier and more colorful outfits handing out gingerbread dough balls (pepernoten) and presents to children on his birthday. On top of that you have to know that he rides the horse on the rooftops and the helpers go down the chimnies to put the presents in the shoes where the kids have to put a carrot for the horse......

Well, I guess Americans would have an equally hard time explaining a fat guy in a red suit with a hat riding a sleigh with reindeer through the air putting gifts in stockings.... The Dutch guy, who supposedly comes from Spain, is called Sinterklaas. That sort of sounds like Santa Claus and maybe they are similar, except Sinterklaas is celebrated on the 5th of December.

For practical reasons we celebrated at my parents this past sunday. Here is Tobias enjoying one of his gifts. It is a geometric shapes puzzle. He knows how to take it apart, but putting it together is a bit more challenging. I am sure he will figure it out soon. We had a nice time enjoying pepernoten, hot chocolate and gifts.

Brushing our teeth

Like I told you before, Tobias has his first tooth now. Well, even one tooth needs to be brushed, right? So I went out and bought him a tooth brush and some tooth paste. This past weekend we tried it out for the first time. The funny thing is that Tobias actually liked it.

I was prepared for a struggle, because as you can see I am sitting in the floor. But there was no struggle at all. I fact as you can see in this picture he is brushing his teeth (well, tooth I guess) all by himself.... Of course he had a little help from me too. I think he even enjoyed it! Now I am hoping he will keep liking it like this when more teeth come...

Tobias Crockett

Tobias is becoming quite the explorer. He is able to stand up and grab stuff. Sometimes he crawls into the kitchen and he will start banging one of the kitchen doors. This is not because he enjoys banging it (or maybe he does) but mainly because he will tip over when he tries to open it all the way. He can stand, grab, move a little, but not all together at the same time. So that's what makes opening the cabinet door all the way quite impossible....

He demonstrated that yet another time when he tried to open a drawer of our dresser in the bed room. He was standing against out bed with his back to the dresser. Then I grabbed something from the dresser so he got curious. He turned around and tried to grab a knob. Then he lost his balance and fell with his face on the carpet. That scared him a little bit, but not enough to keep exploring...

Here he is opening a kitchen drawer. Of course here he only has to sit and pull, but well, it is fun to watch him take every single thing in that drawer out an spread it out over our kitchen floor...