Getting up!

You may wonder what is so special about this picture. Tobias has been able to stand for quite some time now, right? Well, for the past two weeks or so, Tobias has been able to get up and stand by himself without us assisting him. Of course he still has to hold on to something, but oh well, fair enough... He usually sort of drags himself up although he is getting better an faster every day. Anyway, whenever he gets up like this he starts giggling. Apparently he likes his newly acquired point of view. Until last thursday, whenever he did this I never had the camera close at hand, and by the time I got it the opportunity was already gone. Fortunately he can stand like this a lot longer now and that's what enabled me to take this picture. As you can see he is really enjoying it. Here he is using the couch to hold on to, but he also uses the chair, the play pen, his daddy, and basically anything else that will allow him to do so :-).

Here comes Tobias...

Tobias LOVES taking a bath. He has one of those seats that stick to the bottom and he really enjoys using that. We have all the other stuff too, you know, a tummy tub, a baby bath, a stand for both, but so far we mostly put him in the regular bath and one of us is in there with him. In this case mommy who I discretely left out of this picture. She was having some fun with Tobias as you can see. I heard lots of laughter as I was making Tobias a bottle and I thought I'd go check out what was going on. I found this little man with foam hair and beard..... As you can see Tobias was lauging as well!

Car Seat

I guess biking wore Tobias out... As you know Thursday is my daddy day. Friday Tobias stays with my parents. On Thursday afternoon/night I take him there. Last weekend we tried the car-seat, instead of the Maxi-Cosi, for the first time. This was in Lisa's car. We only had one seat, but we had already ordered a new one. That arrived yesterday so Tobias got to try it out today in my car, on our way to my parents. Well, I guess he liked it because to me he seems pretty comfy here.... :-). By the way, he also likes it when he is not sleeping, because he can look out the window now. That was not possible before, in the Maxi-Cosi. When we went out in Lisa's car this past weekend he was really enjoying the view and laughing as we rode along.... From now on when he is in the car, not only does he have a good view, if he chooses to enjoy that, but he is also riding forward like a normal person, instead of backward like a little baby in a Maxi-Cosi :-).

Biking with Tobias

The dutch are known for many things... In order of fame, based on observations of the average tourist in Delft, Gouda and Amsterdam and reading such classics as "The Undutchables": Coffeeshops, Legal Prostitution, Wooden Shoes, Windmills, Tulips, Cheese, Hans Brinker, Johan Cruijff..... etc. Somewhere in that list must be: bicycles... because biking is "poured in with the porridge spoon" (wordt er met de paplepel ingegoten) as we say. So, rather sooner than later should any dutch kid have their first biking experience. I have been out on my bike with Tobias in my belly carrier before, but today I mounted the bike seat. We went for a ride, and although initially Tobias had to get used to the feeling of it, I think he liked it. Of course I stopped to take a picture of which this is the result. Anyway, not only did Tobias get to ride the bike in the seat for the first time today, we also improved OUR mobility significantly!

New sweater!

Just after Tobias was born his grandmother gave him a sweater she had knitted herself. Of course that sweater is much too small now, but grandmother had been busy and she knitted another one! Tobias is wearing it in this picture. Isn't it nice? Since the weather has turned a lot colder in the past week it is now appropriate to wear. Judging from the size he will be able to wear it more often than the other one because we still had to sort of roll up his sleeves a bit. I wonder how long grandmother is going to keep up with him....? Who knows, maybe she is already working on a new one.... :-).

Tobias 'Ray'

I think I wrote before about how Tobias likes it when I play the piano. Now that he is more stable when he sits, and now that het has a booster seat, he does not necessarily have to sit in my lap anymore to play the piano by himself, and he likes that! Initially, I guess he had to get used to the fact that if you bang a key it makes a noise, even when daddy is not there, and that the piano is not made to drool on, and that the purpose is to hit the keys, not to eat the sheet music, and stuff like that. He seems to get all that now and he just plays, or maybe I should say pounds, the keys. It doesn't sound like much, but he is having loads of fun. When I took this picture he was actually enjoying himself at the piano for like half an hour or so, without interference, well, except this "staged" impersonation of Tobias 'Ray'.... :-)

Hurricane Rita: Back to normal

We 'webbed' (chat with webcam) with Lisa's parent earlier tonight. Of course the aftermath of the hurricane was still an issue we discussed. The sole fact that we were able to 'web' is a sign that things are back to normal. Lisa's dad is back to work at the UTMB hospital in Galveston and the entire UTMB campus has been left unharmed in terms of storm damage and flooding. The patients were moved to other hospitals but they have returned. Tomorrow Lisa's parents will have new furniture delivered (they already ordered that before hurricane Rita came along...) so logistics in the are seem to have been restored as well.

In conclusion, everything in the area where Lisa's parents live is pretty much back to normal. Of course many others further east are still struggling to recover from the massive damage hurricane Rita caused. I guess we, but of course mainly Lisa's parents, have been pretty darn lucky......

This concludes my 'coverage' of hurricane Rita.