This is my new home! We are moving! This is such exciting news. And a bit scary too. I have to go to a new child care and what about the new town - Alphen aan den Rijn? But I will have a street to play on with other children and a big garden and lots of schools I can choose from. And my mama doesn't have to drive so much anymore.
And what a house it is, isn't it? A room for everybody and then some more - there is even a table ready for mini trains for my papa!
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My papa goes back to work. His suitcase comes out and he packs his tropical shirts: he is going to Dubai.
Of course I am not happy with that, even though I am excited about standing against the suitcase. And he is going such a long time: eight weeks!
But my mama says we are going to visit papa: surely we can do with a week holiday in the sun. Wow, that will be so exciting!
On Tuesdays my mama doesn't go to work. In the morning we go swimming. Then I am tired and sleep. When I wake up my mama is usually working. She stops when I am awake - not that I keep her from work, of course, but she just likes to be with me.
But sometimes she has to finish her work and I help her.
Look what we can! I love this! Haha, the higher the better, I say. You see how well I repositioned the door step? That is my three-daily task in this house hold.
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I have made my first steps!! Not on my own, but while holding on to this step and pushing it. Here you see me after I crossed the whole kitchen and I feel very proud!! Now I have reached the end of the kitchen and my papa turns me around so that I have a fresh stretch to cross. Wow! We are all so excited about this.
But stepping while holding papa's hands I still find scary. I don't like it.
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A good toy, this is where my diapers disappear. Sometimes this thing is strong and heavy and I can lean against it, sometimes it is not so strong and it flies away when I lean against it.
It is definitely a most exiting thing! Take the lid off, bang the floor with it, look inside the bin and then make a few steps with it while pushing it.
If it is heavy, because otherwise I fall.
Why can't I touch the things inside? They are too deep. Still.
Some people call me chubby, and perhaps I am or a bit more. I am still learning to eat, but I am eating a lot more already. Today I have surprised my papa at breakfast: I ate two slices of bread! Not just part of one. I eat bread with soft cheese or soft meat spread. Mmmm, yummie!
I like putting the bread in my mouth myself. I pick it up, put it in my mouth, take it out again, put it in deeper. I put my whole hand in my mouth, just to be sure I've got it all.
When I am very hungry I put it in two pieces at a time. My mama can't give it to me fast enough! I asked her if she would give me all the bread pieces, but she said No: you will swipe them all on the floor when you move your arms. A pity, now I have to wait until she gives each piece.
Around eleven o'clock I get fruit. I love banana, mango, pear. It is winter now, so we don't have a lot of choice, but between these I am getting plenty.
Yesterday I was very surprised. My mama gave me part of her dinner food: I got a piece of the brussel sprouts that she was eating. Not mushed, but as a piece. That is such good fun: eating with your hands. Today we had beetroot. You see how I put that in my mouth?
Not everyday I eat as much as this evening: that is because I am still learning. After dinner I get my milk bottle; hungry I am not.
These days I can eat and eat. Now that I can stand I need to eat a lot too, of course. Especially nice things I like.
I still need to wear my brace at night, but for my afternoon nap I can sleep how I want. And this is what I want: on my belly with my bum in the air. You see my sleeping mates: the white unicorn, my cloth with label and the wasp.
I forgot to post this picture: it was taken last Friday. It was so sunny and warm on Friday: it felt like spring. Although a soft polar wind made that we still had to keep our hats on.
Still a green photo amidst all this winter is worth putting on my log.
The wood you see is for the terrace of the holiday home. My papa is working on the next section: only two more to go!
Look at me! The doctor said my hips looked really good. I don't need my brace anymore.
We still put it on in the night, just to be sure. But who cares? That is when we sleep.
Actually, I didn't mind the brace too much. I could do anything I wanted with it. But my mama and papa can lift me much better without it. And I like being lifted and carried in their arms!
Don't you think I stand nicely on the picture?
Today is a big day: we are going to the hospital to check my hips. A photo and then the doctor. Will it be good enough so that I can take my brace off?
Here we are waiting for the photo. I climb over mama, so that I can see the people below us. Everybody likes lookout points, and I like it too!
Mama also wants to get rig of my brace: when I climb I am difficult to hold.
A pity the paint seems to come off the white rail: what kind of paint would that be??
My grandparents are invited to visit child care. My grandmother really thinks we are being kept chained, so this is a good chance to see how nice child care really is. And grandpa is all excited, because when he was a child, he lived in this neighborhood, just around the corner.
It is very busy in child care: lots of mothers, grandparents, cakes, coffees and of course my 'aunties' Saskia, Elka, Hortence and Diane from child care.
Grandmama and Elka meet each other and then suddenly they are talking and talking and talking. We can't tear them apart even though it is time to go. Grandmother of course wants to learn from Elka, so she can take care of me even better.
Afterwards we eat a sandwich and then, finally, we walk through the neighbourhood to see where grandpa played when he was a child.
But I am tired and want to go home. The grandparents have to find the train home themselves.
Newspapers are fantastic! They knisper knasper and wrinkle wrankle. They are large and I can cover under them. Mama and papa seem to like them too, so that makes it better even.
We are going to my papa's old school. There is a High Tea Jazz Sunday Afternoon. That is good fun. I get to see papa's school and we hear music and drink tea. My uncle Dick went to school there too, so he and Auntie Jacqueline are coming too.
I get to sit on the table too and play with the cookies. There is also a child care facility, with nice ladies. But then I want my mama back, so I get to play with more cookies: stomping them with your hands is good fun. And Uncle Dick has a training in restaurants, he knows the trick: just cover it up with a napkin!
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After the tea I am tired, but the old folks want to walk around the school and on papa's old play ground. 'This is where .. and that is where such and such was. This was different too...??' All this talk, I fall asleep. But a nice school it is!
We are on our way to have lunch outdoors. It is a cold day, but is it so cold that we need to wear three hats for two people? Perhaps it was that bout of flu that prompts my mama to pack me up?
I have a bit of papa's omelet, yummie!! And I get my own glass of apple juice. I am a big girl, you know! Or is that because papa and mama have those brown beer bottles again?
We are walking on the street. Some people really make art objects of their window! My mama likes vases too, do you think I will live in a house like this some time?
Sterre is visiting my mama's work. I have done that a long time ago too, but I was tired and cried.
Isn't Sterre cute? And very switched on too, by the looks of it. I am so looking forward to playing with her. But she is eight months smaller than I am, so I will have to wait a little bit.
