Yesterday we enjoyed yet another beautiful day. This past year has been amazing compared to my previous 4 here. I am so grateful to be enjoying such remarkable weather :-) Matthijs spent yesterday morning working on his farmer's tan as he and his brother assisted their dad with the garden. Afterwards, Matthijs ran home and, together with the kids, we enjoyed the remainder of the day at the zoo. Hannah always loves to see the animals and learn their names. Christian just enjoyed hanging out in his stroller. I took him out occassionally, but mostly kept him protected from the sun. At the zoo, there is a large playground for the kids that Hannah is just becoming big enough for. It is over run with bigger kids, so she is not ready to handle everything.
Other pictures are from random days over the past week or so. One I was exhausted and trying to sneak a nap on the sofa (Matthijs was there with the kids) and Hannah, who is definitely joined to my hip these days, curled right up. Such a cutie! She had her two year check up this past week and seems to still be growing healthy and strong - yay. She really is a happy, active little girl who loves learning and is very curious about everything, which is great. At the doctor's appointment, before the doctor came out, she proceeded, on her own, to count to ten, name all the colors, etc. The doctor came out and said, well, I heard all that - sounds like she is doing great! I was proud :-) In the office she continued showing off. Funny girl - she is definitely not shy. By the end of the appintment, though, she was over it and didn't want to do what was asked anymore - lol. What can they expect, she just turned 2!
Bragging moment - for you friends tired of my bragging, please tune out - for the grandparents - here is the latest. :-) Hannah, in addition to knowing the entire alphabet (upper and lower case, visually), now knows the phonetic sound of about half the alphabet (and we just started like a month ago). She reviews them, frequently,. on her own accord when we read or she sees words somewhere. I am simply amazed at her ability to learn so quickly! I have only taught her the ABCs in English, so this is the one thing that she only knows in English. She counts to 10 perfectly almost every time and knows to 13 as well. Now we are working on 14-20. She really picks up things fast. Meanwhile, we are working on the question "what is [_] doing?" She has figured out the question now and we discuss what all the pictures are doing in her books or people outside while she swings or something. It is a fun way to help improve her vocabulary, and it seems to be working. With reading, once she knows the answer, I simply say repeat the right answer and expand (add another activity the drawing is doing). Its fun and she is already picking up on it. Matthijs has just started to do it in Dutch too, which seems to work well. She still loves pointing out the color of everything, especially cars, and also knows a couple of her shapes (circles and rectangles - still working on squares, ovals and diamonds). Finally, I have started to teach her the concept of something being "bigger" than something else, which is coming along. Just started 2 days ago, so its new. She loves building witrh her blocks and can make nice home looking constructions or pile all of them on top of eachother (see video and photo above) - pretty cool! She is also quite physically active - kicking, throwing and catching. I just tried to teach her catching on Friday evening and Saturday morning, she started catching. I cannot believe how fast kids learn things!
Christian is growing very quickly and just turned 4 months old this past Thursday. He is a doll - always happy. He is either sleeping or smiling while he plays. he laughs now too and loves attention. He is very strong and tries to get on his knees when on the belly. Still waiting on him to roll - curious when that will happen. Matthijs and I suspect that he is getting close to wanting some solids. I am waiting for as long as possible, but Hannah made it only until a few days before turning 5 months old before we were forced (literally) to introduce solids - which she readily ate. Meanwhile, Christian is already staring at our food, intensly. We shall see. I don't find this part of the process quite as fun....:-) He is a very attentive boy and loves looking at everything. He gets a cute concentrated look on his face as he aims and hits dangling items on his 3-D gym - lol. Its funny! He makes expressions which really remind me of my dad or my brother Tim :-))
Ok, thats the scoop. Matthijs and I are both doing fine. Nothing too new and exciting with us. We have started the green card process and are waiting for work to confirm NYC or not in September - otherwise, we are working on options to go back on our own accord. We shall see!! Meanwhile, the housing market is also awful here - so no takers on our house yet, sadly. Can't wait to see everyone for Christmas!!
