Hopes and Dreams, Boys and Toys

You would wonder how I get to this title, but hopefully, once the story is told the title will be logical. Today, Boeta got his first Duplo starter set.In my day Lego blocks was a dream and well not nearly as advanced as it is today. Our son is not 1.5 years old yet, but I have rarely stayed with target ages and usually buy things for an older age, feels like better investment. The choice was made on the boat starter as we were looking for something new in the bath as well, but it will find its way to play area soon enough as new additions are added.

So first job was to unpack the new "toy", which is done with great interest.

He quickly figured out the sound of a rolling Lego on tiles is different, so some throwing ensued, after initial attempts to build failed without help. He did realize they stick together, but will only with time develop the skills to actually build them.

Daddy is obviously excited over the new move, as it brings a second chance for me to actually also play with Lego's, we are boys, never too old! Another person came to mind, the moment I saw the Duplo box. The "real" first boy in the extended family and the only other male of their generation in our family, my sister's boy, his nephew.

He is approximately 23 years older than Boeta, and developed to be a wonderful, exceptional young man, qualified engineer with strong family bonds, especially with his sisters (2 of them), parents and grandparents. As an uncle, I find that not only am I proud of him and what my sister achieved with her children, I am also hoping that one day, my son will have those same values.

A dream of ours would be that they, nephews, would keep contact, even if there is a big difference, because I would not mind him being a "hero" to our son, a reference point. You see, we are no spring chickens, and by the time our son reaches his 20's, well we may not be there anymore, or pretty slow, to put it softly. Off course our aim is to be there until he is at least 30, but life has its own plans, we can just try our best to stay with it.

Below the two nephews meet for the first time. The pictures were taken by my brother-in-law.

Finally, how do I then come to the title from Duplo? Easy, Boeta's nephew collects the advanced Lego models, it is a passion of his. I cannot wait to get to a little more advanced stuff with my son, too, looks like fun and given the fact that mom has a very much engineering type mind, and his obsession with figuring out how things work at this age, he may just love the Lego's in his future, nevermind what he decides to become or does as a person one day.

Helping hand...

Today was a stay indoors day. A cold front is rumbling through with strong winds, rain and bringing some cold winter temperatures. We therefore spent the day playing inside, then we lit a fire and dad put some steaks on, while mom made butternut and other vegetables in the oven, roasted butternut being our little man's favorite vegetable.

Afterwards we took a nap and then started cleaning up, while mom prepared some waffles. We decided that Boeta could share in the treat, why not, and cut his into blocks, gave it to him with a spoon and stood back.

As you can see the spoon got dumped for a more favorite tool, hands.

So after all the fun, mom placed the butternut in ice cubicles to be frozen for later use. Our little man is now allowed in most of the house, except the kitchen without supervision, but he was eager to give a helping hand with the opening and closing of stuff (fridge, doors). As you can also unfortunately see, I am 2/3's finished with the kitchen I am building and also the reason for his not being allowed in the kitchen. I was busy with the initial stages when Boeta announced his arrival and had 4 days, from birth to coming home, to get it up and running. I did it, but since then I am doing bits and pieces.

After the cleaning and sorting, playing hide and seek, he decided to attack the cushions on the couch, a favorite, and roll around with them. Then a bit of throwing balls all over the living room, just to give dad something to do when he is asleep.

We are not going to have settled weather until Wednesday, so we are going to have to explore every angle of the living room in the next few days. At least we had fun as a family.

Creating space for a growing boy.

We started the week (Saturday) with frustration and tiredness. This started to reduce by Monday and on Tuesday, things picked up again and we looked forward to Friday, when mom comes home. The week has been the opposite to the weather, sunny and warm from Saturday to Wednesday, cloudy, raining and winter cold again to Friday, a week of lost and found, losing bottles, finding them, losing my mind and finding it again. It has also been a week of creating space for my growing son.

I used our nanny panels to block off some areas, but his play space doubled. It means we do not have enough blocks and some tile space is now open, but it must happen at some stage and after a month of walking, he seems to protect himself better, still a keen eye will be necessary.

The blue bin is used to add and remove toys for the day, also to teach him to put them away. He also loves playing with the earth ball. It is used to kick (dribble), throw and I try to show where mom is, when she is away.

Then the 80 + year chair gets to be pushed around again by another baby. He loves this, squeaking, as the old chair works its magic again.

Above, his favorite bottle, loaded with milk and tea, usually! So glad we did not lose it. He also loves sitting on his haunches, while inspecting and doing things.

What a week we had, we got new space to play in, learned all kinds of new lessons. For now, we are focused on MOM, she is coming home tonight. A mother's touch is definitely needed now and then, even for an active little boy and his dad.

There is a bottle in the story.

What a difference 36 hours make.

On Monday I totally focused on my recovery, sleeping whenever he slept, and spending time on fairly low impact activities, to give the back a chance to recover a little as well. I also went to bed fairly early, not worrying about anything and had a goodish night.

This morning, I awoke a new person, felt 10 times better. Played and read some stories to Boeta, then got all the normal stuff sorted and by 8 am he was asleep again. My plan was to try to finish the closing off of the deck, repairing the gate and adding netting on sides to assure him not falling through and hurting himself.

We went to the shop, when he woke, something he enjoys and found amongst other things fresh hot bread that just came out of oven. I am not going to let slip such a chance, and it was still warm when we got home. I helped myself, nothing like this I figure, but gave him a piece as well and he enjoyed it so much, came back for more, hmm-ing as he ate it.

I got going again on the gate, watching him playing inside through the glass, or was he watching me? In any case got it done and when finished, I let him have the space for a test run.

I think it is fairly obvious that it was a hit.

After his afternoon nap, we played some more, then took a walk down to the beach, had dinner and fun bath. In the process of playing, something caught my eye, his bottle, the favorite one I thought we lost on the walk, Sunday. I have no memory of that bottle in the stroller at home, or playpen, never mind how it ended up under the couch! None!

I was more than a little happy at the find. Showed it to him, he also got excited and we hugged! He is now sleeping! What a difference 36 hours make, from mental loss to feeling calm and at peace with myself, finding the bottle just enhanced it, cherry on the cake!

Great Weather Today

Weather tend to rotate between wet, windy and cold in the winter. Today was an exception, milder and windless. Good for a walk. First the morning (5.15am) ritual of deciding what toys to play with - a difficult task.



At about 9.30 am we took our walk. On the way we met a neighbor who had the same ideas, and boeta and the girl had an impromptu play date.

[caption id="attachment_162" align="aligncenter" width="474"] Similar in age (10 and 11 months), some baby fun.[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_163" align="aligncenter" width="474"] Watching the dog together, boeta shoeless already.[/caption]

A little later we were off again. He has had very little interaction with the beach, first too young and then weather or time issues. We do walk early morning 7 am, but not a good time to play.

Today, however, we walked determined to do one thing, get dirty or sandy.

[caption id="attachment_164" align="aligncenter" width="474"] There you go, now have fun![/caption]

I put him down and stood back! Time to have fun and explore, son!

[caption id="attachment_165" align="aligncenter" width="474"] Off he went.[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_166" align="aligncenter" width="474"] Climbing down the "mountain"[/caption]

He did some exploring on the higher level, and then decided to get lower to the water level.

[caption id="attachment_167" align="aligncenter" width="474"] Bigger rocks here to test.[/caption]

Then he saw a fish in the rock pool and decided to investigate this.

[caption id="attachment_169" align="aligncenter" width="474"] Fish in the pool.[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_170" align="aligncenter" width="474"] Slapping water is fun!![/caption]

He realized this is water, like his bath and what do we do, we slap it, fun, lots of fun! Boeta had so much fun that by the time dad decided "the kid" is getting too wet, it was not a happy chappy anymore! "We will be back son", I said, and with that I walked home, fairly briskly, to change what was a sandy, wet boy and although a little sad at the time, he slept like, well like a baby after lunch. If you wondered, I also felt good and full of plans for the rest of the day!