Posts Tagged family

Hey all,

Our little family is doing great, we have now adapted to our new “situation” and enjoy every discovery Clara makes.

She started the vegetables at noon and the fruits at 4PM and seems to appreciate this. Sometimes you’ll find more food on her than in her stomach but I guess that discovering a new way of eating is easier if you can have fun and put the food everywhere: all over yourself (even between the toes…), all over mom, on the chair, on the ground, … wherever food can reach!!!

On the developmental level, Clara rolls over all the time, she’s like a rolling machine, she can reach one point just by rolling towards it. She tries to sit but is not there yet, just a question of days I suppose. She grabs everything and puts it in her mouth. She makes lots of noises and loves it when we answer her in the same way. We are extremely lucky that she does not cry too much. She’s a smiling baby. It’s hard to catch her crying even for the picture (but we try as you can see).

We have put in place a great ritual at night: I give her her bath and
her massage then Maya feeds her and read her a story. Then time for big kisses and good night, turn off the light. 5 minutes later she’s sleeping. Full nights are not yet there but it shouldn’t be too long now.

We would be glad to hear from you all, leaving close by or far away.

So, Clara is almost 4 and a half months old already. Time flies! These last weeks our little girl made many discoveries: she giggles and sometimes bursts out in laughter, she turns over on her tummy and scoots around. We can’t leave her on playmattress anymore without “supervision”: she rolls over and goes exploring the neighbourhood. Maya and I never tire of watching her. She smiles as much as ever, she grabs things, puts them in her mouth and dribbles abundantly, no need to water the plants anymore … When she’s in Maya’s arms she grabs her hair chirping with pleasure (and Maya screaming in pain!!!).

We spent 6 weeks in Provence and have thoroughly enjoyed the warm climate, olives and tapenades. We stayed with Clara’s grandparents who were all too pleased to spend time with their granddaughter, rivaling to have her in their arms or making her smile. Cute …
We went northward stopping in Auvergne before spending a couple of days exploring the Loire and its castles.

I’ll be starting a new job at FedEx on the first of September managing IT projects. I took a month parental leave in August to spend time with my cuties. We’re all very pleased not to be separated 3 days a week anymore when I had to be in Bonn.

Maya and I are really enjoying our time off. Today we’ll go to the ‘baby swimmers’ with Clara and she’ll also get her first taste of fruit. I really appreciate the time away from work. A child does put things into perspective a little.

All we need now is for Clara to sleep through the night!! Maya still gets up once a night to feed her - I would but she’s still breastfeeding - which is tireing, especially if Clara then decides it’s time to play and won’t go back to sleep. It will come (we hope soon).

Enclosed a couple of pictures of Clara and her parents.

So I’ve finally given in. I can’t resist her any longer. I’ve gone completely mush-brained.

For years I swore to myself: you will never do the baby talk thing, never be one of those that looses all perspective and just regresses into childhood as soon as they see a baby. Alas, I have to admit my weakness. Only 8 weeks into parenthood and I find myself comming home only wanting to play with my daughter and make all the sounds which I so despised only months, nay, weeks ago.

When I change her: Areu Areu flabel flabel …. When I play with her in the crib: Areu Areu blop plop …. When she’s in the baby-chair: Areu Areu Aaaa Oooo ….

You get the picture.

What would it take to have me back on the blog after an absence of a little over 9 months? In asking the question I think I already gave it away…

Maya and I are proud to introduce Clara, our beautiful daughter born early evening Friday, April 15th. She weighs a little over 3.1Kg and is 51cm tall. Both mother and daughter - and father - are doing fine.

Today we took a little family outing. We headed down to the woods in Halle, a small town on the outskirts of Brussels. The place is renown because once a year the woods are carpeted with blossoming jonquils. A beautiful, if not surreal sight.