Cleaning the Toilet. "That's so cute!"

So Alexander found his way to the toilet while I wasn't watching last week, and I discovered him with the toilet brush in hand, cleaning the toilet. He can't walk on his own yet, he can barely stand, and here he was at the toilet's edge, cleaning away (at 11 months!). I called Peter, our Dutch foster-Opa over to see, and we both had a good laugh.

Alex is constantly surprising us with his boldness and risk-taking. A few days later he crawled across our large stone driveway to the garden area (while Tobi and I were busy searching the huge barn for our occasionally elusive toddler). We both expected the stones to be an insurmountable obstacle for someone incapable of walking... that'll teach us!

A huge development is his sleeping through the night, which he's been doing for just over a week now. Best of all, he's in his own bed (which we never could have done with Lukas). It's fascinating how different children have different needs, and he just doesn't sleep well beside Mama. Although I was a bit sad at first, just one sound night's sleep and I was quickly over it.

























As for Lukas, just this morning he decided he wanted to get himself dressed for school without any help. He opened his closet, chose his clothes, unbuttoned his pajamas top, pulled down the bottoms, and put on his yellow Piet-Pirat shirt and jeans, before pulling on his leather velcro sandals. He was so proud, as was I. To put it in his words, "Awww, that's so cute!" (Which is the new saying he uses whenever he sees something he thinks we'll like.) He can also use the toilet without any help whatsoever, not counting the times when I have to try to catch him before he dashes out of the bathroom with a dirty bottom.

The boys are already playing together, which of course means that they've already begun fighting. :) They're brothers. Why wouldn't they? I just didn't expect it to start before Alexander could walk or talk.

Since my last blog entry, Lukas carried the ring down the aisle at Tobi's brother's wedding. During the actual ceremony he passed out in Papa's arms. So sweet. In times like those he's still our little baby.

On the other hand, when he hurts himself he's a big grown-up tough guy. Last week he stumbled while running, smacking his eyebrow on a bench at the Antwerp Zoo. It swelled up immediately and, while he was certainly in pain, all he was worried about was whether or not we were going to miss seeing the kangaroos. In the meantime, I was wondering was pondering the age-old parenting question: Does this merit the attention of a doctor (since it was so close to the eye and temple)? As it turns out, he was fine, and proudly showed his "Owa" off to the kids and teachers at school the following day. Such a boy.

Well, let me wrap this entry up, so I can spend some time sorting out the blog, and getting it up to par. I have lots of grand ideas, but too little time to create! I'll try to be better about posting to this blog, though... if for no other reason than to keep track of the big milestones of our two incredible