USA or bust!

February marked Luke's first trip to the US. He did remarkably well on the plane, much to the relief of mom, who traveled solo with Luke on the way there. Mom's only gripe was with the drunk man that sat across the aisle from us and kept shoving clips of "Futorama" on his PDA in Luke's face. Mom had to growl and show her teeth to make him stop. Here's a picture of us before boarding the plane. Notice Luke's special plane outfit (thanks Nonna!). By the way, that's not the plane that we took across the atlantic!



Our first stop was DC where we saw many of our closest friends and watched the patriots lose in the superbowl. We then drove to NY to visit grandad and An Ping. We walked around the big apple, where Alex and I stressed about the hordes of people, cacophonous sirens, and car&truck exhausts that were obviously aimed at upsetting Luke. But Luke was unphased by it all and slept like an angel most of the time. More important than seeing the big apple was seeing grandad and An Ping. Luke got along marvelously with them both, and hopes to see them soon again!

Mirror mirror on the wall...

Mirror mirror on the wall, who's the fairest of them all? My friend Kris gave Luke a great present: a mirror to look at. He loves it, especially when mom is inside the mirror. But who is that other person next to mom?

Bathtime rituals

Is there anything more fun than giving a small baby a bath? I don't think so! It's as easy as 1-2-3 (and 4).

Step 1: Undress baby and give baby a cuddle inside your robe


Step 2: Wash baby thoroughly. Make sure to spill enough water on the floor so that the bathroom floor gets cleaned as well.


Step 3: Quickly dry baby. Get extra bonus points if you can take the baby out of its bath without crying.


Step 4: Dress baby in favorite PJs, and give to dad for a team snooze.

2 Months Old!

January 16th was Luke's 2 month birthday. Everyone with kids knows that the occasion is marked by a cocktail of vaccinations at the doctor's office! Luke did as well as expected (wailing at the top of his lungs), as did mom (who's planning to slash the doctor's tires). At this last doctor's visit, Luke weighed in at 5kg 200g (11lb 3oz) and 59cm (23in). Everyone says that once the baby is over 5kg that they start sleeping through the night. I'll let you know what happens in the next few days...
In the meantime, here are a few more recent pictures:

How does a neck that small hold up such a big head?


Oh, this is how. I'll just rest it on my chest:


Sometimes I also like to hold up my head by my ears:

Playtime!

How does an 8-week baby play, you ask? Well, it mostly consists of looking around at brightly shaped toys, flailing your arms and legs, reaching out to rattles and mirrors, cooing at mommy and daddy, and making funny faces. All of this in a 10-minute period, and then falling asleep, exhausted at the effort expended!

Eating Out With Friends

Last week we went out to an indian restaurant with our friends who also just had babies. It was their first outing to a restaurant (we'd gone out to a restaurant a few other times before). You should've seen the restaurant manager's face when he saw three couples, all holding babies, walking into his restaurant! :-) But he took it in stride and all went well! Best of all, Luke wasn't bothered one bit by the spicy curry that his mom ate! Such a good boy...

On the left are our swedish friends Anette and Anders, and on the right are our english/scottish friends Angela (her husband james is taking the picture).


The three babies together, Catriona, Hugo, and Luke:

Three Kings Day

On Sunday January 6, the last day of the christmas season, the children of Belgium celebrated three king's day. They dress up as the three kings of Jerusalem, go from house to house singing carols, and in return get some pocket change. Afterwards, everyone eats the "galette des rois" (king's cake), in which is hidden a miniature doll of jesus. Whoever gets the doll in their slice (and loses a tooth in the process) becomes king for the day. Luke is still a little young for the caroling or cake eating, but that didn't stop us from celebrating anyhow. Even though this picture show Luke as the king, it was my mom that became queen of the day!