Vechtoever again

	For the first time in a couple of weeks we go to the weekend house. The gras has grown long! So there is lots of work for my mama and papa. The view to the neighbour's shed is idyllic
Mama and I enjoy the view and the sun shine.

My Daddy's boat

A better picture of my daddy's boat. She is called the Seahorse. And my favorite toy is a sea horse! Is that coincidence?

This last trip my papa arrived by ferry - after the flight, of course. This picture is made from the ferry.

You can see the rock quarry behind the vessel and some quarry buildings to the left. A small oil storage is there, and besides that there is nothing in Slovag.

Norway is beautiful on a sunny day!

Daddie is home and home alone!

Last night my daddie came home again. It was in the middle of the night, so I didn't notice. Even mama was already gone to bed!

But when I woke up this morning, he was there in the big bed. He said he wanted to rest, but my mama said no, you are gonna be home with your daughter.

Well, he didn't mind of course - I am his sweetest, he says.

And you know what: I even drank the bottle with a whole 150 ml! Only at five pm of course - you've got to keep your parents on their toes.

Tomorrow I am going to daycare, so that my daddie can cut his long hair.

De Haan family

My great-grandmother Franka is from the De Haan family. Remember grandma Franka? Franka.

All her grandchildren and great-grandchildren are meeting. I have not been in such a big group yet. And of course grandparents and aunties all want to cuddle me!


You see that my great-grandmother Franka has many offspring: lots of little children running around. Well, she is already 93 years old. Wow, and still driving a car!

Madelief

It is not easy holding me! Madelief is so sweet, but my mama is threatening with the bottle again. So I have to protest.

The bottle!

Well, my! It is the bottle! Auntie Jacqueline is convincing me.

Jazz and Dance on Iepenplein

What do I hear? Nice copper sounds. It is a saxophone, mama says.

There are people dancing on our square, others make music. It is a modern theatre performance, right on our doorstep. They rehearse all day in rain and sunshine.

The local kids clearly think they are crazy, crazy music and crazy dancing. And perhaps they are crazy. But they do get an applaus afterwards.

To hear and see the movie follow this link: Jazz on iepenplein.avi

Hand games

I am learning so much these days. I have only yesterday started to use my hands. Mama and I have a new game, called grab the face. My mama holds her face close to mine and I try to get hold of her nose or her lips. My fingers are still a bit uncoordinated. I find my mama's face the best thing in the world, I can look at it all the time - and she hopes it stays that way!!

Waiting

The Family Mazda 323 needs to get the yearly checkup. My mama already missed one appointment. Ooops. So, this morning we are there nice and on time at 9 am. Only now we are waiting for Linke Loetje, the garage man .... It is his payback time and he shows up at 10 am.

We sit and watch people. I am intriged by the cyclists coming by.

Another mobile phone picture.

The red sea dragon continued

In the continuing story of the red sea dragon, today another first: I have found out that I can use my hands to move the sea dragon to my mouth. My mama is so proud!

I like the color red, that is why I like my red suit and the red sea dragon. In the picture you can see how I can put the sea dragon in my mouth, all by myself! You see the proud look in my eyes?!

A day at the beach

Amidst all the rain and downpour a forecast of a beautiful day. And it is true! My mama is jumping to go to the beach. And well .... I have to tag along.

They say that the sea is important in my family line.

We pick up Grossmuttie and Grossvatie on the way. They want to eat fish on the beach. And see me, of course, and cuddle me all the time.

We find a shady spot, and my, is this relaxing! It makes for good photos too.


After we have been eating and drinking I sit on Mama's lap and look around for a long time, it is so exciting.

We don't have a photo of Mama catching a little wave in the sea - she had to go for a swim, if you know my mama. She says the waves were good. And now she tastes salty ....

p.s. the beer is alcohol free! She is not a bad mummy.

And I drink again ...

Today I drank 160 ml at day care! But only from Elka.

Roots Festival

It is still a very rainy day. But the weather forcast said it would clear up in the afternoon. So, full of hope we set off for the Roots Festival in the Oosterpark.

The battery of the camera runs out, but the mobile phone can also make pictures.

The music is great and I fall asleep to it. Mama enjoys the music from a distance. She thinks loud music is not good for me.

After my snooze we visit Rokaya, remember Rokaya .

For Father's Day

Look papa!! Your present for today! Because you are the best papa in the world.

I made this in day care, all by myself. We didn't tell mama. Mama was asking me what the strange color on my leg was from -probably the paint was all over my body, the way I kick my legs - , but I didn't spoil the surprise!!

Playing and sleeping

I play with the red sea horse, the yellow sea star and the blue dolfin and I get tireder and tireder and tireder ......




And then I am most tired .... ssstttt.

The puffing club revisited

The puffing club met again in café De Poef. The Mama's ate tosti's and the babies were kept happy at the breast.

Mama and I walk back home while I sleep. In the picture below you see me while we cross the river Amstel, you know, the river Amsterdam was named after. We are lucky with the weather: an hour ago there was a real downpour!

No bottle

Correction on yesterday's blog: I refuse the bottle. Even if it means that I feel lousy. SO!

For papa

A picture for papa. Not sharp, but the both of us last Sunday.

My mama was a total mess today, her first day at work. I thought she had had plenty of opportunity to learn the tricks of bringing me to day care, but no. I hope I will be a better learner than she is. She forgot to bring my bottle - the one I finally accepted. Darling Elka at day care had to give me a new bottle. And mama forgot to take cups with her for storing the milk. Ah, well, it is not nothing, perhaps when I am eightteen ....

I was happy at day care. I now understand that if I drink from the bottle I feel better. But I am always tremendously happy when mama comes to pick me up - and to give me a proper feed!

For Uncle Maarten en Aunt Catherine

I am still going to day care to get used. My mama says that I am doing really good, she says she is proud of me. And today I indeed slept and drank, so I am a bit more relaxed.

Uncle Bart visited us. Bart comes on his bicycle from work: a bicycle and a tie, that is a business man in Amsterdam!

He brings a present from Uncle Maarten from Boston, USA. That is very far away, mama says. So we say Hello to Uncle Maarten via this web-site, and a thank you. This is Bart and me.

Grossmuettie's care

Grannie Grossmuettie is baby sitting.

Cooking for Babies

Weblog entry from my Mama.

The workshop Baby cooking was great. The workshop was a bit early for me, because Ces is not eating yet, but my sister Hannie's son has just started eating, so for her it was good timing. It was very motivating.

The blind tasting was very confrontational. We tasted baby food from 'biological' jars and the same food home prepared. The jars were awful: tasteless, mealy, sometimes too sweet. I spat it out, so why wouldn't Ces? Hannie tasting the home food - obviously, she is not spitting.

We learned how you can prepare baby food while cooking tasty meals for the parents too. This was mostly achieved by starting with baby proof ingredients, then isolating a baby portion and continuing with the onions, salt, garlic, meat and so on. These date and raisin cookies were great! But we also had great chili con carne and a wholesome soup with chicken and lentils. The red lentils were an eye opener: they are easy and baby proof.

Read here: www.babycooking.nl

Weekend

It has been a week of hard work at the day care. It's weekend. My first weekend!!

My Mama wants to sleep in. She whinged all week that she had to get up early. Wellllll early...... working days so far started at ten o'clock in the morning only. Wait till next week, when a working day starts at eight!!

Haha, I didn't feel like sleeping in, so I kept her on her feet.

Mountain Flower

Centaurea jacea, captured May 27 in Switzerland

Day care

Next week my mama goes back to work.

Aaah, so soon!! And what about me? I go to day care. You remember Diane? She is mama's friend who works at the day care. Well, I will be in the loving hands of Elka and Saskia. Today we have our first day, to get acquainted.

We set on our way with a chaos of bags, bottles, mother's milk in bags, change of clothes, diapers, name tags, etc. And arrive in a big pool of kids running around.

Luckily the baby department is a bit more quiet and Elka and I look at each other. She is so nice!

There is only a slight hurdle to take ..... the awful, gross, horrible BOTTLE. Oh no! I protest against it, but Elka is so sweet and she actually convinces me that I should try it, at least. Mama and Papa are beaming. And then I take a little nap in the baby bed. All in all a big hour for me. Tomorrow two hours.

No photo yet. No photo of my papa going to work either. A photo of papa's boat then, up in cold but beautiful Norway.

If you are interested to read about my day care, then read here: http://www.bartele.nl/

Monthly checkup

Once per month I go to the children's doctor. Papa and mama are always very excited, because this is where they hear if they are doing well: when I do well.

Nurse Kim was very nice and looked at me intently. She said I was to become one of the ten types of beauty: the type with clear eyes and dark or red hair. Wow, I hope so!! My eyes are still blue, will they remain blue? Of course I beamed with laughs at her!!

Kim tested if I could follow her with my eyes, if I could lift my head (we know I can!!) and she measured my weight. I passed all three tests excellently and so papa and mama will get a stamp of "good parenting".

And so all was well and I behaved well - remember the last time I peeed on the doctors table. And then they gave me the jabs!!! AAAHHH!! Vaccination! I was so angry and screamed from the top of my lungs. My mama apologised and tried to make up with extra nice breast milk.

Here you see me with the two plasters on my leg, still at the children's center. Papa is doing his upmost friendliest to make up for his betrayal. I will see if I forgive him .....

Our balcony

My papa needs to go back to work in two days again. Therefore a picture with him. We sit on our balcony, just out of the sun in the shade. I am crying in the picture, but actually I like looking at the plants, and of course I like sitting in the strong arms of my papa.

Look around in the world

Now that I can keep my head up for a little while, I want to do that all the time.

It is hard work, but you get to see so much! Papa or mama still need to hold my body up and sometimes catch my flopping head.

Look, I can smile as well!!

Head up high

This is a mile stone that I want you to know. Look! I can keep my head up!

I did this in Switzerland, seven days ago.

I puff and I huff, but I can keep it high for a while. Papa and mama are so proud!

The world is so exciting that I want to keep my head up all the time, even if it gets too heavy and flops.

I put this now on my weblog because today was otherwise a dull day: papa is ill, mama is still working on her cold, and I gave a couple of coughs, but am the toughest of us three, of course.

Morgins

So, about our holiday to Switzerland. It was so exciting! We drove with our 'family Mazda 323'. The car was packed to the top!

We drove in two days. You know how uptight mama is about me sitting in the maxi cosi. Well, this was a long sit! We stopped every two hours. Still so, papa or mama sat with me on the back seat to keep an eye on me, while the other one was driving. Like having a chauffeur! Here you see me getting a diaper change.

Unfortunately they were very warm days. I didn't mind too much, because I was mostly sleeping, but in the afternoon even I was completely sweaty and then I cried! Mama sat with the open window and got a terrible cold for the rest of the holiday.

The second day, papa and mama were more clever. We didn't drive through the heat of the day, but made a stop in the forest of Basel. I loved the forest. It was cool, the leaves were all whistling and so were the birds. I slept for a couple of hours.

Then we arrived in Morgins in Switzerland. The mountains were beautiful. Every day my papa and mama took me for a little walk.

The Pas de Morgins is the border with France. So now I have even been in France!!

And then the weather turned: it started to snow! At the end of May! Mama counted 4 centimeters on our car. You have already seen me in the snow, here are papa and mama in the snow.

We went to visit papa's friend Laurent in his restaurant in Neuchatel. Laurant's girl friend Natalie came also. Look at how well she takes care of me!

And to finish it off, a picture of me on the way back.