Tobias goes USA!

Tobias and Lisaare in the USA. They left last saturday for a two week trip. First they are staying in Virginia for a week. Then they fly to Texas, to Nonny. I have talked to them twice so far and they seem to be having a good time. The main purpose for going to Virginia is to visit Lisa's friends. So, they have been on the road a lot and staying at different houses of different friends a lot. Tobias seems to be fine with that although he has had a hard time sleeping for a few nights (probably jet-lag?).

Anyway, last night they called again and mommy and I had a nice conversation realizing how much we miss each other. Of course I was happy to hear that because I miss both of them a lot too... it is kind of quiet without them. But at the same time I know they are having a good time and are enjoying themselves, so I am glad for that too. Not 5 minutes after we hung up the phone it rang again. It was Lisa and she said that she forgot to tell me that Tobias is now pointing at stuff and saying "dit" and "dat" (dutch for "this" and "that" respectively). Also, on the phone I heard him say "papa" (which he had been doing for about two weeks now...). I guess sounds are turning into words.... cool!

Today one of Lisa's friends sent me a bunch of pictures Lisa took on their trip so far. It was hard to pick one for this post because there are so many and so many good ones. I did particularly like this one though, as I know how much Tobias loves reading and how much fun it is to read to Tobias. Apparently, I am not the only one who feels that way because this is Katie reading to Tobias. It looks like they are both enjoying it... 

Love is in the Air...

We have a kind of an easter tradition. For the past few years now we have been going to Paris to visit friends at easter. There is no particular reason why at easter (we are not big easter-egg hunters or anything like that) other than that it is a three day weekend both in France and in the Netherlands. So, this year we did not break the tradition and we went to visit our friends at easter. They have a little girl, Valentine, who has her first birthday next week. We went to see them last year during the summer and our babies were soooo small and now they have grown sooooo much. It was fun to watch them.

One of the main differences with last summer is that they now seem to notice each other more. Thet sort of played together and interacted somewhat, if only by bumping into one another. While we were walking the streets of Paris we stopped every once in a while for a photo opportunity, to get a drink or just to admire some of the nice sights and sounds of Paris. At one of those stops the strollers were positioned so that they were facing each other and this is what happened.... they reached out to each other. It was so adorable that I had to take a picture. 

Music is Cool!

About a week and a half ago Lisa picked up Tobias from the daycare and they told her that they had a music session that day with a music teacher and everything. Since Tobias still is one of the smallest in the group and sometimes has a hard time with all the bigger children screaming and running around him, they expected a music session to be tough for Tobias.... well.... they thought wrong!

Tobias was in fact the only kid in there who did not cry, but instead thoroughly enjoyed it! All the others were crying and very uncomfortable with the music teacher and the music session. At the daycare they were very surprised at this but as you can imagine (especially if you have been reading this blog in the past) that I was not one bit surprised. Tobias is exposed to music every day. I play the piano or guitar (although not often enough) for him quite a lot. We play a lot of music on the stereo and I sing to Tobias a lot. According to Lisa I also whistle a lot although I am not necessarily aware of that....

Anyway, Tobias has quite some exposure to music and apparently that shows. Here he is banging my bongos, well actually sharing them because he had the small one and I had the big one to bang on, but hey, I had to take a picture... :-) As you can see he is quite into it, eyes closed easing into the music... grooving... and what else (or maybe I just accidentally shot this picture when his eyes were closed...) 

Goofing off

A while ago I wrote about the problem that once Tobias sees the camera he comes to it to get the strap or sometimes the whole thing. He reacts to every sound the camera makes, from "bling" when it comes on, to "zzzzz" when it focuses.

So, sometimes there is nothing I can do but to let it happen and start goofing off a little.... This produces goofy pictures like this one :-) Most of the times he gets so close that my compact digital camera can not get into focus. This is one of the better results....
I like it, love his eyes... but then again, I love everything about my little boy.... ;-) 

Nana, Nana

First off I need to apologize to my loyal readers... I have been "off the air" for a while. I have not minded that one bit because the main reason is that I have been on a skiing trip to France. That trip was great. Great weather, great snow, and great company. What more can you want?!

After I got back however, there was a lot of work waiting for me keeping me busy until late at night (and sometimes even early in the morning...). Tonight I finally had some time to go over my pictures and see what there is to publish... So, I am back and hopefully back in my routine... We'll see.

My previous post was about Tobias being able to stand on his own. He has become quite accomplished at that... and he is taking a liking to it. He is also walking around the house pushing chairs. I am sure he will be able to walk all by himself sometime soon. Tonight he actually walked needing only one hand.

Anyway, in this picture he is standing and holding on to the desk. This is not what I was talking about. The interesting part of this picture is that he is pointing to the phone saying "Nana, Nana", which means "Nonny, Nonny". As I have written before we have a webcam session with my inlaws every week. Currently we use the phone and a webcam (we bought a speaker phone because voice over internet is just not quite "there" yet, especially not on busy times like sunday afternoons). So, every time we talk to Nonny we use the phone, hence Tobias' association of Nonny and phone. I guess he likes our weekly webcam sessions :-)

Another funny thing he does is when we hand him the phone (connected or not) he will push a couple of buttons, put it to his ear and say "Nana, Nana". Cute huh?