This month was dominated by two major events - learning to crawl :-), and having to say good-bye once more to vovó :-(. As for the crawling part, Daniel discovered pretty much from one day to the next that this is actually a pretty cool alternative to letting himself be walked around holding someone's hand. From the speed at which he picked it up, it looks like he had been ready for it for quite a while already, and just didn't get around to trying it since he was too busy practicing walking instead. - At the beginning, he still struggled a bit, because his clothes made him slide. But as soon as we took off his pants or let him use shorts, he was more or less proficient, except that his crawling still looks a bit funny, putting one knee down and the other one up.
Daniel's first crawling attempts on April 24th...
... and on April 27th.
This doesn't mean that he has given up on walking, of course. He's been getting very quick at walking around on our hands or even on one hand (he likes having the right hand free to proudly carry around in it a little bell or any other toy), he is pulling himself up on the furniture and walking alongside it. Of course, this means he's also giving us a scare almost daily when he once more overestimates his capabilities and takes a nasty fall - luckily he hasn't hurt himself too badly up to now. He's also had fun trying out some walking aids: Once he discovered that a chair at a closed coffee place can be very useful to support him while he is pushing it around (very noisily). And we let him try the baby walker once more, since now he's almost less mobile in the large and cumbersome walker than without, i.e., hopefully less accident-prone. However, he apparently figured out, too, that this is not as adventurous as the real thing, and stopped caring for it after the first curious attempts.
Besides crawling and walking, of course Daniel also had plenty of other opportunities of having fun with family and friends. Since the weather was getting nicer, we ventured outside more often, to play badminton and Frisbee, to walk around on the lawn in front of our apartment or watch the passing cars (Daniel keeps curiously turning his head after every single one of them). We went to visit Manuela and Mario again, enjoying playing games and cooking spaghetti together while Daniel was napping away in front of the kitchen table. And Daniel enjoyed the familiar places at home, the playpen, Papai's arms, the sofa, high chair, and bed...
With Daniel curiously exploring the apartment all day, of course he keeps discovering interesting toys everywhere. So for example, he keeps practicing the piano, chases after the shoe deodorant can, tries to figure out how an alarm clock works. Occasionally, he even gets fascinated by a "real" toy... ;-) But apparently nothing can even remotely beat the sudden splash of the shower gel bottle dropping into the bathtub!!!
A little less fun is still the question of eating. Daniel is slowly getting used to eating more solid food by now, but only very, very slowly, and he keeps being rather choosy. Whereas he actually seems to like heavily salted and spiced foods that are perfectly unsuited for kids his age, he accepts baby food only rather hesitantly. Also drinking is not easy - although he loves his bright green learning cup, he prefers to chew on its beak and play with it rather than actually drinking from it...
But as mentioned at the beginning, eventually it was once more time to say good-bye to vovó, since Jefferson's mother had to return to Brazil for not overstaying her visa. We tried to make the best of the sad occasion by traveling together to Amsterdam for the weekend and doing some sightseeing there. Another big adventure, for which he decided to rent a bigger car to be able to accommodate our huge loads of luggage. To have at least a full day for visiting the city, we left on Friday evening and spent two nights at the Ibis hotel near the airport from which Jefferson's mother was supposed to leave early on Sunday morning. Since this accommodation was rather small for 3 and a half ;-) people and didn't come with a children's bed, we had to be resourceful to make something resembling a bed for Daniel, and naturally, the overcrowded room looked slightly ;-) messy after a short time...
On Saturday, we had a nice and sunny day for our sightseeing tour in Amsterdam. After leaving our car at probably the most expensive parking garage of the city - near the main train station - we started our walk through shopping streets and the pedestrian zone, across the pretty water channels crossing the streets, past millions of parked bikes, and then we went looking for the red light district... ;-) Daniel was, as often on our walks to some completely unknown places, stunned, sitting motionless in his buggy and, occasionally, overfed with incomprehensible input, just falling asleep for a while. Only on a few occasions, when he actually could get out of the buggy and touch the world around with his own hands, he'd get curious and adventurous again. Of course, the day-long trip posed its own challenges, like finding a sufficiently private corner at a Subway's for breastfeeding, dressing Daniel in the trunk of the car, or changing his diapers in some quiet side street... - In the evening, we were completely tired and barely managed to go for a quick dinner, watch the rabbits hopping around the bushes in front of the hotel, and get to sleep on time for taking Jefferson's mother to the airport the next morning.
The drive back was mostly peaceful, but towards the end, Daniel did get rather impatient. The cell phone was a consolation for a while, but in the end, it was a relief when we finally arrived and he could get his bottle on the familiar sofa at home. Of course, home is not quite the same any more without vovó, but we are trying our best to make him feel as little of the loss as possible and still enjoy our small family...
Hey, we miss you guys! Thanks for letting us to catch up on the daily things...
ReplyDeleteClovis & Adri