James' new trick

He can't get out of it
He can't do anything once he gets into it
But he can do it
Whatever it is

Sunshiney Day

The weather has been beautiful this week. While it is not exactly the Southeastern US, the chill is out of the air and the sun has been shining. We took advantage of it today on an afternoon walk with the pups.

High Chair

Uncle Bill spotted this gem at the second hand baby store. Its a high chair that transforms into a little table and chair for James to do his "drawrings' on later.

Uncle Bill

My brother Bill had the chance to come to Enschede for a visit last weekend as he extended a business trip he had near Stuttgart. We are always amazed by the presence and convenience of an automobile these days but the satellite navigation system in Bill's BMW rental really impressed, even though it first brought him flawlessly to our old address. I'm used to winging it around the winding streets of small local towns and getting inevitably lost, but the cool, collected, feminine British GPS voice led us accurately through cobblestone lanes and I had to be satisfied with my adjustable heated seat. We took a few walks around town and did some errands in the car (James had a ball test driving the UFO play saucer) and most of the weekend focused around little James Dalton of course, as well as some pretty competitive sjoele tournaments. There are few sports my brother does not excel at almost immediately, but I thought I would have the edge with sjoelen. Not so. For the record, we each won a ten round game as Katharine graciously bowed out of the second tournament with her unusually high individual score. We kept it pretty clean but there was still plenty of room for trash talk and sarcastic encouragement.

Housework

We have been really busy lately with the house projects. Since we are both working at home more often this spring, making the office into a seperate room has been the real priority. I rented a full-size table saw for a week with ambitious plans to get everything for the office and stair balustrade done before my brother Bill visited for the weekend. Ambition is good, but the double sided bookcase/wall for the office ate up the whole week and the balustrade will have to wait for this week. After returning to the rental place twice, once for a missing bolt (holding the blade in place is important) and then for a blade with sharp teeth, I got busy filling the back garden with sawdust. We are happy with the result, as it gives storage for both rooms and finally covers up the upstairs toilet plumbing along the wall. Both dogs loved the temporary throne it created as well. The kitchen tile job finally got worked out as well; after weeks of nervous procrastination I actually look forward to re-doing the downstairs bath later in the spring. All this progress was tempered with a new setback however- we now have a block somewhere in the drain between the kitchen and the sewer line that creates a lovely aroma when you let the wash water drain too quickly. Time for some new vocabulary words.

Babies in the 'Hood

Last week I heard James crying in the night, but making a different sound than usual. I blearily walked into his room to feed him, only to find him sleeping soundly. It was a few seconds before my sleepy brain could process the information: the baby is asleep-- and the baby is crying. No. Actually our baby is sleeping and the neighbor's baby is crying. I backtracked out of the room without waking up our baby and went back to bed myself.

Mr Smile

James has become very aware of the camera lately. No wonder, as we seem to be pointing it in his face pretty much nonstop. Now when you bring it out he turns on the wattage!

new kid on the block

We had a family adventure out yesterday to visit our newest neighbor, Lina Maxime at the hospital. We packed James up in the new fietskar and he seemed to enjoy it. I am sure it was warmer than our usual setup. It was a crisp, cold day with a lot of sunshine to take the edge off. Ronald, Maaike, and Lina are doing GREAT. We cannot wait until she is next door, so we can see her all the time. Here are a few photos.

Jump around

Of course we wouldn't leave you another day without new baby photos. We know our target audience. While Cor, Marian and I were sjoelen, and Mike was photographing, James was having fun in his jumping seat while Keska enjoyed her (supervised) proximity to James. When not manning the camera, Mike obtained the highest average score over ten games, while Marian got the single highest score for one game. Hooray!

Sunday Sjoelen

We had a great time sjoelen with Cor and Marian. Here are some action shots. They are just about to head off for a nice trip to Barcelona. Goede Reis!

You can't handle the tooth

Well, the tooth is definitely making its presence known. James has been inexplicably fussy lately, which we blame on the tooth. It is not making him miserable, but he is a little off.
This week we bought a second hand fietskar a kind of trailer for a bike that you can put your kids in. Our friend Alina and her family were finished with it-- with boys ages 3 and 5 she says they are too heavy to pull around. Take a look at that and tell me it is not super cool. It is so big it will fit James and a friend.
In local news-- the snow is again falling on Enschede. After many days of off and on snow we are having a snowfall that seems to be sticking. We will see if it keeps us inside for the week! Our good friends Cor and Marian are coming over today, so we will have to bring out the sjoele board in honor of the snow [sjoele is kind of like table top shuffleboard, but much more fun].
Yesterday, cold weather kept us in, and in a fit of boredom we experimented with putting James' socks on Keska to quiet the tip-tip-tapping noise she makes on our floors as she endlessly patrols the house. I would describe it as moderately sucessful. She loves attention no matter the form it takes, and they did quiet the tapping, until she took them off.

Milestones

Well, we are 2 weeks from 7 months and James finally really cut that first tooth this week. He is not thrilled when people try to pry his mouth open to see it - he's developed an adequate defence of sticking his tongue out and flailing arms that definitely prevents photo documentation. Trust us.
He has been moving around like a little dynamo as well and I witnessed this afternoon what I have to term the 'first crawl'. Up to now hes rolled, scooted, or wormed his way towards goals but today he made clearly defined synchronized locomotion to get across the bed to the book I was reading: Larousse Gastronomique Maybe a future gourmand?