Growing, growing...

Finally some time for a little update! Yannick is now 2 weeks and 4 days old and he is growing and growing! It is wonderful to see how he literally unfolds and becomes more aware of the world every day. He loves to nurse and makes it very clear when he is ready for more milk. It seems that he doesn't wait until his tummy is empty, but that he decides he wants more whenever it's not completely full. At his 10 day check up he already weighed 9 lbs (almost 4100 g).

Today Yannick went on his first "real" outing. He has already been on some walks around the neighbourhood, to the grocery store and the daycare to drop off his big brother, but today we took him to the Turkish Festival. Yannick was perfectly content in the sling and even though we were a bit worried about his ears, the loud music didn't seem to bother him. Kai had a blast: he went on a bouncy castle for the first time in his life. It took him a little while to get used to it, but when he did he just loved it and would not come off. Kai also loved the Turkish music. He couldn't wait to join the dancing people, but when we took him to the dance floor he was too shy to really dance and also declined the singer's invitation to come up on stage. We are now wondering if Yannick will become a little dancer just like his big brother.

Unfortunately we didn't bring our camera to the festival, but here are some pictures of the last week or so:

Daddy and his boys:


"Don't disturb me when I'm eating!"


Showing off the cute shorties our friend Michi made for him:



The big brother wears a sling too!

NEW PICTURES!!!

We are still pretty busy and don't have much computer time, but click HERE to see some more pics of Yannick's first week.

He's here!

Our sweet Yannick was born at home on July 8th, 2008 at 10:48 pm with the support of our wonderful midwives Diane and Fabienne. He weighed in at 8lbs 10 oz (3900 g) and is 54 cm long. Everyone is doing well and Kai loves his little brother. We are taking it easy right now and are trying to settle into our new routine as a family of four. More pictures and updates will follow soon!

In labour


And there he was!


Being weighed.


Some cuddle time with daddy.


Kai loves his little brother.

Biceps...

Now that Kai has learned what biceps are he likes to point them out. When asked if Mommy has biceps too his answer was: "No, Daddy has biceps".

Toddler Bed Adventures

Since the past week Kai has been sleeping in a toddler bed. Technically it's still his crib, but we have taken one side off and installed a guard rail and Kai loves to talk about his "new bed". To our suprise he stayed in his bed the whole first week. When he woke up he would call for us, saying that he was awake, but he would be sitting quietly in his bed.

However, this has changed! After finding him playing in his room once when we were sure that he was still asleep, quite a funny thing happened today.

I had put Kai down for his nap and since he was very tired and I did not hear a sound from his room, I assumed he was asleep. When putting him to bed I had turned the monitor on in his room, because I would be on the phone and wanted to be able to see if he was awake. Temporarily the monitor was on the floor (usually it is in a place where Kai can't reach it that easily). Downstairs I turned the monitor on too, but it didn't seem to work. This suprised me, but I assumed that I must have been forgetful and didn't turn it on after all.

When I went to his room to wake him because we had to go somewhere, this is what I found:

An empty bed, a sleeping Kai on the floor:






The monitor disconnected from the socket.



The child safety plug, put back in the socket. (Mind you, this was lying on a shelf when I left his room.)



The naughty little boy awake again.

Oma's visit, Halloween, Fall etc.

It has been a while since we have had the chance to post on Kai's blog. The past few months have been very busy and a lot has happened. First and foremost: Kai has grown so much!!! We know we write it all the time, but it never ceases to amaze us how quickly he changes. He is talking more and more each day. Still mostly in Dutch, but English is clearly his second language and we do still hear some French at times. We can actually have small conversations with Kai now. Sometimes they are fairly intelligent but other times it goes something like this:

- "Kai, are you done eating?"
- "NO!!!!"
- "Okay, would you like some more bread?"
- "NO!!!!"
- "What would you like then?"
- "NO!!!"

Yep, Kai has entered this famous fase of toddlerhood.....

His gross motor skills are developing very fast as well. He loves to dance, jump, climb and run and most days it seems like he doesn't do anything else. He is always on the move and prefers to move around together with us. If there is music, he likes to dance with us. If he climbs onto something he wants to jump and be caught by us. If he climbs around on our bed in the morning we have to make him a tent with the duvet. Oh, and as it turns out, we double quite well as a "horsey!!!!!" too.

Another thing that has happened this fall was Kai's oma Monika visit to us. Kai loves his oma very much and still misses her a lot. Every times he sees an airplane, he tells us oma is in it and when the phone rings he wants it to be oma. During oma's visit it happened to be Halloween and Kai went trick or treating, dressed up as a little gnome. We only planned to go to a few houses in our street, but Kai didn't want to stop. He loved collecting the candy and to say "eng, eng!!" (scary, scary) whenever he saw someone dressed up. The days after he played with his candy a lot, until it had all magically disappeared.....

There is a lot to write about the past few months, but we will leave it at this and just add some (well, a lot) of pictures.









A little gnome looking for candy.


The little gnome at daycare.


On our way to Mont-Tremblant.


A stop in Montebello.


Mont-Tremblant




At a waterfall in Mont-Tremblant.




The Biodome in Montreal, Kai loved the fish.


Very tired on our way home.


Some more fun with grandma before she left.

Toddlerhood

Over the past few months Kai has really entered toddlerhood and we have come to understand that this is a whole new world that is a lot of fun, but also full of new challenges. Kai is learning new words every day and since a week or so he has started to combine some of them. For example, he now says "Ernie nou?" (Where Ernie?, "Papa toe" ("To daddy" when he wants to go to daddy) and "Mama boek" if I have to read him a book. Speaking of reading books, Kai has now decided that the proper way to read a book is while sitting under a blanket on the sofa, so even if he wants to read a book by himself he sits down on the sofa and covers himself with a blanket. He loves books and reads his books several times a day. Another thing he has discovered is colouring. He carries his crayons around with him everywhere and (unfortunately) has already combined his two hobbies by making his books a bit more colorful. His play also seems to be evolving as he now likes to put his stuffed animals and Bert&Ernie doll to bed, while telling us to be quiet(shhht) and just like Kai, the dolls usually have to be nursed before the go to sleep. Here are some pictures of Kai with his book on the sofa:







Kai also loves to go outside. On a regular day, by 9 am he will decide that it's really time to go out, grab his shoes and walk to the door. Here are some pictures of walks we have taken with the little guy: Gatineau Park (Pink Lake trail)







In our street:





We have recently also made some video clips of Kai:

Click here to see Kai in Gatineau Park and click here to see Kai at Mooney's Bay

There Will Be No More Discussions.......

First Professional Haircut

Even though we already had to start cutting his hair when he was 6 months old, Kai didn't have his first professional haircut until this morning. His hair was getting pretty long, and cutting it was getting more difficult each time: Kai just doesn't like to sit still. Hoping to prevent a crying fit and a half-done haircut we went to the only haircutter in our area that is specialized in cutting children's hair: Coiffure Magique in Gatineau.

For the haircut Kai was allowed to sit in a little red car, while watching a special children's video about animals (he loves animals). To my big surpsise, he didn't even peep when the hairdresser started to cut his hair: He was truly fascinated by the car and the tv and didn't want to leave when he was done. Actually, the only time he cried was when he had to get out of the car so that we could go home. Here are some pictures:

Combing his hair:



Watching tv (with his blank tv-stare)



"Don't stand in front of the tv please..."



"Look at me!"



All done!



Kai even received a certificate:

Independence

Kai's seems to become more independent every day. He understands most things we say and is usually happy to help do something when we ask. He also has a mind of his own and loves to organize his toys (and our things too), or push them around in his toy-stroller. When he wants something he will try to get or do it himself first and only if this doesn't work out he will ask for our help. Well, ask..........sometimes he will get a little temper tantrum as is quite normal for his age, but those are usually solved quickly.

In the past week Kai has started daycare.So far he has been there for one morning and two full days and it is going really well. We did expect that he would like it eventually, but we never would have thought that he would LOVE it from the start. Granted, he still doesn't like it when I leave and will cling to me and cry, but according to his teachers that only lasts a minute or two and at pick-up time he is always happy and relaxed. He does seem to be a bit worried that I will leave again, but he wants to show me all the toys and isn't too eager to leave the daycare center. We can't blame him: there are a lot of nice toys, lots of kids his age and his teachers are very sweet. It is amazing how much he has already learned in this first week. Appearantly he has said his first French word (bouche), and spending so much time alone in an English-speaking environment doesn't seem to be a problem for him. To improve communication his teachers do have a list of the Dutch words Kai uses a lot, but when they use those words he stops what he is doing and looks very surprised. We'll see if he will start using more English at home now. For now it's still just "hi" and "bye bye". Another very cute thing that he has learned at daycare is to blow a kiss. Today while saying goodbye to his teachers he was smiling, waving and blowing kisses non-stop!

When it comes to food Kai is becoming more and more independent too. He will ask for certain foods, or food in general, when he is hungry or just feels like snack. And when he asks for it we have to move quickly, or he will very loudly let us know that he wants it NOW!! He prefers to use his own spoon and fork when he eats and we let him do this whenever possible. Things can get messy, but hey, what can you do?

Here are some pictures of Kai eating his paste with tomato-sauce (his favourite!)