tea?

I gave Dylan his new teaset this morning and he immediately set about making tea. Without any help from me, it went as follows:

Watah, watah,

mix, mix,tea, mmm,aaaaagh! Mama tea?

He then took a teacup with him for his morning nap. He does this fairly often with his favourite thing of the moment. He fell asleep with Taatie in one hand (squashed underneath him) and the teacup in the other.

up, up, dowwwwwn

Dylan is obsessed with up & down. If he sees stairs, he just has to climb them. This includes stepping down from the curb onto the road or from the rug onto the floor (!?) He also loves to drive his cars 'up, up, dowwwn'. Up and down anything: ladders, legs, books, the bathtub, slides... you name it, he's been up and down it.
Up,up,dowwwwn.

Maasfeest...a few weeks ago

Wendy took these photo's of Dylan and 'Nenon' (Manon) and i totally forgot about them. I really love them so I figured publishing them late is better than not at all.

Everybody needs good neighbours

watah

Bathtime is always fun. Dylan loves playing with 'wata', filling his watering can up and emptying it over and over and over again. It's pretty funny because although only one hand holds the can, both arms tip and pour.

peanu' butta

Dylan has bread and peanut butter for breakfast with a cup of milk. When we get downstairs in the morning he heads for the fridge and says 'ope, ope' and then shows me where the milk is. Then it's time for 'eten' (food). While I make his sandwich he runs around saying 'peanu' butta, peanu' butta' in between gulping down his milk. By the time his sandwich is ready the milk is long gone. Then he spends the whole time he's eating trying to convince me to turn the tv on. He is so unbelievably cute that he usually gets his own way. He sits pointing at the tv, smiling at me and nodding his head, saying 'lala, dora, lala, dora'. This morning he was just in time for the teletubbies. Where are the teletubbies, where are the teletubbies?

rain, rain go away...

So, Saturday was another rainy day in Rotters. Luckily Ron and Marianne decided to pop by and turned a lazy afternoon into one filled with good company, good wine and good pizza!

a dry patch

It's the middle of summer in Rotterdam, and what a summer it's been so far... it's been rainy and overcast for the last 2 weeks!

These photos of Dylan enjoying a brief dry spell were taken by Opa.

wheeeeee!

On Saturday we headed off to join the neighbours for an afternoon of fun at Plaswijkpark, which is playground heaven for children.

Dylan isn't a big fan of the swings, but slides are another story! For a while, I manned the top of the slide, Jeroen the bottom and Marko the camera while Simone ran around after Liza's cousins. Dylan and Liza had all the fun!

up, up...

wheeee!

first liza,then Dylan,

hurry up Liza! wheeee!Time-out.
Drinks break. Dylan has finally learnt how to drink through a straw, note the concentration.

For the record...

Firstly, a very big hug and lots of kisses for Dylan's granny! Happy birthday and lots of love, XXX!

Dylan's been a very busy boy the last couple of weeks:

His incisors came through, so he now has a mouth full of teeth (16!)

He can walk backwards and on tiptoes.

He can run, this is always preceded by shouting 'ready, sty, go'.

He can lie down on his back from sitting.

He understands the concept of up and down.

He has also added a whole lot to his vocab, my favourites being oepths(oeps), tuck(truck), (ba)nana, nano(mango), shoe and tea,

He can point out, name and make the sounds for a very long list of animals (which I will spare you!).

He can also point out most of his body parts when asked. Here he is after his bath, sitting in his favourite spot upstairs:

where's your nose?

your eyes?

your tummy?

your elbow?

your fingers?

your toes?

Ok, ok, no more!

Mah! (Pam)

Pam came to visit which we loved. For some reason, only know to himself, Dylan calls Pam 'Mah'. He was quite taken with her and dragged/followed her around all over the place. Her painted toenails scared the hell out of him for a few days though, very funny watching him take a different route around the table just to avoid her toes...
Here are a few photos of us on the Strand aan de Maas: a (manmade) beach in Rotterdam.