Unexpected actions and laughs

Sometimes Tobias does the most unexpected things... In our office we have a basket of toys. Well, Tobias was playing with his toys and with other things while I was working on the computer. I was turning my head every once in a while to check how he was doing. Most of the times he was playing with one toy or another, with my guitar or harmonica or just sitting and bouncing on the couch.

Well, at one point he had taken all the toys out of his basket. Instead of playing with all of them, or putting them back into his basket (which he seems to like a lot because sometimes all he does is take them out and put them back in...) he put himself in the basket.... literally. Of course I could not let that CCD moment (digital version of the kodak moment :-)) pass. I carried him around the house in that basket showing mommy as well before taking this picture.

We all had to laugh :-) 

Milestone: Walking!

Another milestone was reached last week on wednesday (just one day before he turned 16 months, although I have no idea what the significance of that fact is... :-)). Tobias can now walk all by himself! I was so worried that this milestone would be reached while Tobias was in the US... I so wanted to be there to see it. Well, I wasn't.... and Lisa wasn't either.... Opa was there, and he loved it.... he was probably the proudest Opa in the world when I talked to him on the phone!

What happened? Well, on wednesdays Tobias is at the daycare. This past wednesday, May 17th, it was a special day at the daycare: Opa and Oma day. They invited Opa's and Oma's to come over and see what their grandchild is doing while at the daycare. A very interesting proposition, so my dad went to check it out. They had a great time with all sorts of activities, like story telling and dancing and stuff. After that was over Opa took Tobias home with him so that we would not have to drive over to their place to drop of Tobias at night. Very convenient, right?

Well, that afternoon it happened, at my parent's place, with just Opa there... Tobias started walking by himself. Just a few yards at a time, but he did it! That was last week. Now he is getting more comfortable and he can do more than just a few yards at a time. Also now he does not need much encouragement anymore, he just starts walking whenever he feels like it. As you can see he holds his hands up in the air and even though he is smiling in this picture I can assure you that it takes all his concentration and energy to walk. He is still a bit shaky, but getting steadier every day.

I am proud of my little baby.... oops, I mean my little boy :-) 

Self (almost) sufficient...

Tobias is becoming a little boy fast right now. There are more and more things he can do himself. I posted a picture a while back of Tobias drinking from a regular cup. It took a while before he got comfortable doing that, but he is getting there. We can now pretty much put it in front of him and he will just drink it without much of a mess.

Also he cleans his mouth after he eats and just yesterday it took very little help from me for him to take off his clothes. Of course a lot of his motions are not very accurately coordinated yet, but like I said he is capable of doing more and more stuff by himself... he is becoming a little boy, or sometimes even a big boy, like in this picture where he is feeding himself. He has some trouble getting food on his spoon, but once it is there (most of the time with some help from daddy) he can eat it himself. He looks so proud when he does that.... and I guess he should be. And I should add that he is not a very messy eater at all!

Even though I still love to think of him as my little baby, I think I have to get used to the fact that really he is becoming a little boy.... 

Spoiled...

Tobias loves to be with Opa and Oma, and Opa and Oma love him! He is with them on thursdays now and they do all sorts of things with him. A lot of times they will go biking, or they go for a long walk with the dog (and Tobias of course), or they will take him to the petting zoo, like they did on the day this picture was taken.

Tobias loved it there... he likes animals and apparently now not only knows what a cow, a sheep and a pig is, but also what a dog is because apparently if he sees one he goes "woof". I haven't experienced this, but Lisa has. He also saw goats and sheep and horses and he even sat in a tractor.

So, as you can see Opa and Oma are really good at entertaining their little grandson. But as we all know there is one thing that grandparents are masters at... They excell at this particular skill and I don't think there is one grandparent that does not in one way or another exercises this skill on their grandchildren. In fact, I think this skill is inborn in every grandparent in this universe, including Tobias' Opa and Oma: Spoiling grandchildren! As you can see in this picture they did quite some spoiling here too... he had never had an ice cream cone before, but he loves pretty much any desert we give him. As you can see we can add ice cream to the list of things he loves.... Thanks Opa and Oma :-). 

Climbing the Stairs

Tobias and Lisa have been back from the US for almost three weeks now. I have not put a post on my blog since... That is in part because it wasn't until last friday that I had a daddy-day and work was quite busy. The little time I had to spend with Lisa and Tobias I wanted to use to the full extent. But then I did not post on my daddy day last week. So, still a lame excuse.

But, I will make it up today because I will post a few pictures today showing some significant developmental steps for Tobias, starting with one that occurred in the US, at Nonny's house. Tobias started climbing the stairs! Apparently he already started at somebody else's house with just one or two steps to a platform, but he really started at Nonny's house as you can see in this picture. As you probably remember we have quite challenging staircases in our house... but the ones at Nonny's ar straight. Also, the steps are wider and nicely carpeted, which makes things somewhat easier I guess. But still, look at him... It seems like he is saying "come on mommy, hurry up, I'm waiting for you!". Anyway, he enjoyed it a lot.

Today he also started climbing our stairs. We have two staircases in our house, one from the first floor to the second floor which is "the evil staircase" and is not carpeted, very narrow and takes some getting used to. The other is a little wider, carpeted and in that respect less of a challenge and easier to climb and descend, which is exactly what Tobias did today! We are trying to teach him to call one of us before he climbs the stairs and he did that too, so, he was a big boy! Way to go Tobias! 

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.