18 months!

How time flies! It's hard to remember how small Travis was 18 months ago. He is turning into a little person now instead of a baby and it's great watching him interact with, mimic, and follow Dylan around. He loves playing with his big brother. He also loves dancing, our laptop and iPad, his laptop,  the tv remote, reading, watching bumba, playing outside...and just generally being the centre of attention. He has started saying a few words (mama, papa, ball, out, MIJN) and can quite firmly shake his head and say 'NEE' when he doesn't want to do something. He understands a lot too in both English and Dutch and enjoys carrying out little tasks like fetching shoes or tidying up. These photos were taken over the last couple of months.

Kinderboerderij

The rabbits were his favourite

Out for a walk

Puzzle time. Note the concentration.

Getting some help from Dylan

Laughing with Oma

I love my brother!

bed time

Pakjes avond

Lots of excitement and lots of singing until we finally heard the doorbell. Downstairs as fast as we can to find 2 bags full of presents! No Pieten in sight though.

 Time to unpack and unwrap.

Wow!

Look, Travis, for you.

Taking time out from eating pepernoten to check out his new phone.

And then, just when we thought we were done, more bags of presents. This time we followed a trail of pepernoten and sweets up to Dylan's bedroom and found 2 more bags! How did they get there?

Time to play with the presents. Off to the hairdresser, Marko.

Relaxing after all the excitement.

winter has arrived

the jeep

tv time

Can't sit still for very long though, what else can we do with this thing? Jump on it,

drive it.

come and jump too Travis

rolypoly, watch me mama.

11 sleeps until 'Pakjes avond'

Shoes all ready for Zwarte Piet! Lots of loud singing, a carrot for the horse and a drawing for Sinterklaas.

Then we had a little discussion over what exactly Travis's shoe was doing there.

Not convinced...

Ok, if you put it that way...

A quick check to see if the Pieten are already out and about climbing on the roof across the road.

And then of course collecting up all the pepernoten and sweets and presents the next morning!

What's that? A key for the Zwarte Pieten house? We had better makes sure it gets back to them.

                          

Dylan was very pleased and very excited and shouted 'Thank you Sinterklaas' as loud as he could. He then said he really hoped that Father christmas would also bring him such a lovely present. I had to explain that Sinterklaas wasn't over yet... A few more weeks of waiting, putting your shoe out, singing in the hope of little surprises and then finally the big finale: Pakjes avond! Now we are counting down the sleeps.

Sinterklaas is back!

We joined thousands of others to welcome him to Rotterdam. Dylan enjoyed himself even more than last year. He wasn't scared of the Pieten any more and chased them all down for sweets and pepernoten!

Look what i got!Travis wasn't too sure what was going on but he loved all the people,the music and singing and dancing and especially the pepernoten. Travis was having so much fun I had to chase him through the crowds as he kept racing off to make new friends. We eventually put him in his pram to watch Sinterklaas getting off his steamboat. Note the dirty mouth, the pepernoten kept him happy!Where is Sinterklaas, can you see him?Hello Sinterklaas! He-llloooooo!More sweets, a big one this time!Amazingly enough it didn't rain. The dark clouds did clear the bridge though. The man himself.The last few pepernoten before we went home.