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.