Drinking from a straw

Tobias has been able to drink by himself for quite a while. Mostly he drinks from a sippy cup, but he can also drin from a normal cup as you may remember from previous posts. Recently Tobias added a way of drinking by himself to the list: drinking from a straw. To us that is very convenient because at restaurants we don't have to bring his cup necessarily anymore. We can just sit down at one of the lovely terraces in Gouda, or in this case Oudewater.

Not only is it convenient, it also makes for a nice picture, like this one... We were on a biking trip in the Gouda area and stopped for lunch in Oudewater, a lovely small town, not unlike Gouda, just a lot smaller. I like Tobias with his hat and sunglasses on, and the good thing is, he doesn't take them off. I think he likes wearing them. The wind just took off his hat once during the trip... 

Loving the Cats

Tobias is a very affectionate guy who loves his daddy :-). He will kiss me. He will hug me, which means putting both his little arms around my face and pulling myface against his, or putting his face sideways to push his cheek against mine. He will also "nose" with me which means rubbing our noses together. Of course I am a very affectionate guy who loves his son, so I think it is great.

Needless to say Tobias loves his mommy too and he does the same with her. What is a little disgusting to me though, but at the same time quite cute is that he does the same to the cats, especially Janneke, the disgustingly fat one... Tobias figured out that the cats need a very silent and delicate approach in order for them not to run away. So, now he approached them from behind and technically hugs their butt.....

Anyway, the cats get kisses too, on their noses (or in that area anyway). In this picture Tobias is kissing Janneke on the nose, cute huh? 

Bug-eyes

Even though sometimes it seems like the Netherlands is completely full, flat and boring there are some places, even close to where we live that are just beautiful. Recently I have been biking a lot because of a challenge at work: a two day, 150 mile biking trip through the Belgian Ardennes, which, for Dutch standards, is mountainous (I would estimate that the mountainousness (is that a word?) is comparable to the Blue Ridge Mountains). Of course the occasional dike is the only mountian I get on my trips, but that was not the point I was making. Biking around Gouda can be absolutely beautiful, especially when the sun is out. That was the case last weekend so the three of us went biking.

Tobias loves the countryside too, because there are lots of cows, sheep, ducks, horses, dogs etc. He especially loves cows and makes his own cow sound when he sees some. He also does his dog sound when he sees or hears one. That is so funny. He is riding in the front of my bike and whenever he sees something he is really enthousiastic about he looks up as if to say "look at that daddy!". Soooooo cute!

As I said it was sunny last weekend when we went biking. So not only did we grease up Tobias with sunblock, we also put his cap and sunglasses on. Lots of people are surprised by the fact that he keeps them on, and he did keep them on the entire 20 mile ride.... To us that's quite normal, because he would already keep them on during walks we took last summer.... Well, aren't we the cool dudes with our "bug-eyes"? 

Taking a bath (lying down)

As I have reporte (probably more than once) before Tobias loves taking baths. I usually take a bath with him. That accounts for lots of laughs for both Tobias and me! Sometimes I would lay him down just to see his reaction. Well, he would like that, just as long as I would hold his head while doing it.

The other day I already layed him down while the bath was filling up. At first he was a little hesitant, but as soon as the water surrounded him he stated laughing and never stopped... He loved it. Now we start of the bath like that every time. So, I am only welcome in the tub for part of the time..... but, it is still lots of laughs and lots of fun....

Another bathing thing that started recently is Tobias' new shampoo bottle. It is "kandoo" and it is a pump system in the shape of a big frog-like creature. The shampoo comes out of it's mouth. Tobias just loves that thing and playing peek-a-boo with it is the best thing ever.

It is interesting how things other than toys can be loads of fun. Sometimes even more fun than the toy itself! Anyway, for Tobias' sake I arranged the bubbles in a discrete manner before taking this picture ;-) Isn't that smile adorable? 

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....