Hide and Seek

Alex has had a fondness for hiding for quite a while, although it is not as easy as simply putting your hands over his eyes. He is on to that one. However, he does still greatly enjoy having a blanket or a towel over his head and then having it pulled off by mommy or daddy while saying peekaboo, or kiekeboe in Dutch.

A very cute hiding moment happened some time ago at daycare. Alex, like the rest of the kids, loves the outdoor playtime. When the teacher announces it is time to play outside, they keenly pick up on her cue and everyone storms to the door for some outdoor fun. After a while, when the teacher says it is time to go back inside, the kids are suddenly far less skilled at understanding the teacher, and all continue to hang around outside as long as they can. One time, Alex thought he could outsmart the teacher, and hid behind a bush. It must have been a cute sight: this sturdy baby trying to hide behind a small bush with no leaves!

About two weeks ago Alex discovered a surprising new hide-and-seek game. He opened up one of the kitchen cabinets and tried to climb in. The cereal boxes and bottles of water in that cabinet turned out only to be a small problem. One by one Alex removed them, and then climbed into the cabinet and closed the door behind him. Mom and dad appropriately asked `Where is Alex? Where is Alex?' and then Alex would reveal himself with a proud smile, or he would wait until either Rob or Cindy opened the door. Every now and then the door opened too wide for him to close it. His solution to that was to point at the door and say mo, which is derived from more, but Alex has turned this word in a multi-purpose word that means something like gimme gimme.

Ba .... ll

Alex is getting better and better at talking. He understands both mommy's English and daddy's Dutch very well, and he usually listens to what we say. Instruction like "Ga maar op de stoel zitten, dan krijg je yoghurt" are prompty followed by Alex climbing onto the chair and expectingly looking at daddy to feed him yoghurt. "Nee, Alex, je mag niet op de stoel staan, ga zitten" is, somewhat less promptly, followed by Alex sitting down rather than standing on the chair.

Alex has quite a bit to say. We guess he knows about twenty words by now. Whether he chooses a Dutch or an English word depends on the letter the word starts with. His favorite consonants continue to be the b and the d, but Alex is branching out to other letters as well. Here are some of the words he uses: bo (tree/boom), ba (ball/bal), bye, da (bye/dag), do (dog), du (duck), de (door/deur), hi, ko (clock/klok), mama, mo (more/meer), no, papa, ta (table/tafel). Alex is also beginning to complete words. Every now and then he will say ball in stead of ba, but for most words he still prefers the easier monosyllabic equivalent.

In addition to Alex's understandable words, he also likes to tell us entire stories in his own babytalk. He especially likes to do that when he is looking at a book, or when he is using his phone.

Alex Goes Egg Hunting

Just like last year, Dan and Kathy hosted a early Easter family get-together. Alex was a little shy seeing so many people together, and he spend a good deal of time looking around and observing the other people.

After all that people-watching, it was time to kick back with mom, grammie, and great-grandma Meg.

Next it was time for something completely different. His cousin Hunter had hidden some eggs, and Alex happily started looking for them and collecting them in his basket. He started with the easy ones in the grass, but then he strolled off, looking for challenges, and with the support from Rob and Cindy he found quite a few eggs, even in very baby-difficult places!

Changes to this Website in the Past Month

Mar 15 Major update, with new homepage, new pictures, a new closeup, and new length, weight and head circumference.
Apr 16 Major update, with a new homepage, new pictures, and new artwork.

Next major update: Jun 3, 2003.

Do you think you may have missed something? Check our list of previous homepages. If you want to be informed when this website has been updated, send an email to webmaster@robandcindy.net.