Catching up - Isn't he cute?

Here are some pictures from september-oktober 2010.

Dancer

or

Football player ?

Proud Mama Ploy!

Ahh, it's good to sleep with a full milky belly !

????

Exploring the jungle....

There are so many more cute pictures but I can only show a few here.

To be continued, of course!

Catching up - Thijs op Reis

The last 2 months - oktober and november - have been incredibly busy for us all.

At the same time Thijs is growing and becoming more and more a little boy who knows where he is and what he is.....

In Oktober we went to the Netherlands to celebrate the 75th birthday of Mams van Gelder!

That was a great surprise for her. She (and most of the family) did not see Thijs "live'' and because the travel to far places is becoming more difficult, it was a good idea to bring Thijs to Nederland!

Of course it took a lot of preparation with passports, airlines, winter clothes (not existing in Thailand) and more. But the flight to Amsterdam was no problem at all for "Thijs op reis" (Travelling Thijs).

Thijs was very easy going in the plane during the 11 hour flight. We even got complements of other travelers who had never seen such an sweet baby.

That makes us really proud parents!

The arrival in Schiphol was incredible! Thijs was completely awake and enjoying his new surroundings.

When we came in the arrival hall we were greeted by Paps, Mams en Barbara and Thijs was all smiles and we all enjoyed every second. Mams was in tears of joy of course!

Then we all went to Ridderkerk to start our Dutch holiday!

Vaccination - ouch!

Little Thijs is growing fast and becomes heavy now. We went this weekend to the hospital for the 2-month check-up and he weighs now 5,7 kg and is 57 cm long.

That is a very good result, he is on the heavy and tall side of the scale.

Before he goes into the big world we have to make sure he has enough resistance agains bugs and illnesses, so he got his second series of vaccination. (the first was shortly after the delivery).

In short: he didn't like it at all! At first the doctor seemed nice and he smiled, but when the doctor injected him 3 times in his upper legs, Thijs went red and cried a lot.

Only Mama-milk could console him!

Grand daddy comes to hold his grand son

Ploy's father has become a monk this year and lives at a temple in Ayuthaya.

We have been there earlier with the family, to receive his blessings and to make merit.

But until now he had not seen his own grandson in real life, although he has access to internet and has seen the pictures online.

On 12 september he came, together with other family, to our house and had his first grand son in his hands.

Aunt Benja and Khun Mae brought a big cake for the occasion, that we ate for another week...

Father Udomsinka seemed very happy and impressed with Thijs and we all received his blessing after he had his meal in the morning.

Shortly after that our friends Marcel and Nancy and their son came to our house and we all had a good time and meal.

Ploy cooked "aroy" green curry and sweet and sauer vegetables with fish and pesto.

It was a very nice sunday!

Thijs at the office

As mama Ploy wants to continue working after 4 months of pregnancy leave, she has to extend her work contract at the office.

So we all went there, showing Thijs to all the people that were so nice to us and gave us presents and support during the pregnancy!

Everybody loves Thijs and he was also very happy to be pampered by the Red Cross staff.

Ploy has now her work extension until the end of this year and because it is a short period she is allowed to bring Thijs to her work.

We did look at a creche/kindergarten near her workplace and although that looks good it is also very pricy.

If she can bring Thijs to her own work for November and December, it will be much more relaxed.

Thanks you, American Red Cross!

Cuddly cuddly...

Thijs is so adorable, we love to hold him as much as possible, and so does he!

Shopping with Master Thijs

Shopping with Master Thijs is a new experience.

Thanks to the very generous colleagues of Ploy we have very good car seats (2!) and Rob has bought a baby stroller in Malaysia.

That means that half of the car is full of Thijs's stuff and we can just fit 4 people extra....

Besides that we have to prepare the needed diapers, clean wipe's and towels, blankets etc.

For breastfeeding Ploy has bought a "HooterHider" (the real brandname, really) which she demonstrates here:

After the feeding I get to burp Thijs on my shoulder.

In this case we are in a coffee shop at the bookstore.

Her we are buying the books how to raise babies and children as that is still unknown territory to us!

Thijs gets his identity

Thijs is the result of our love and marriage, 2 people from very different countries and background.

That means that we have to give him the right papers and identity for his future.

Being born in Thailand from a Thai citizen, he is automatically of Thai nationality and he already has his personal ID number.

The hospital did the first work, as they have to submit the birth details to the Thai office.

Then Ploy's mother went with the papers from the hospital to the Amphur, the "Gemeentehuis" van Rangsit because Ploy is still registered there.

Thijs will get his ID card when he is 15 years old.

After that we went last week to the Dutch embassy to submit the application for the Dutch passport. For that we had to make passport pictures and that was not an easy task. At first I tried it myself, but the background was not right and we could not get a good picture with Thijs sitting up straight and looking into the camera.

So we decided to go to an official photoshop and there we got the pictures from above.

Still not perfect but good enough. They had to "Photoshop" my thumb away behind one of his ears.

Tomorrow we will go the the Thai Consulate, to apply for his Thai passport. We have to make new "approved" pictures there and again, that will not be easy. Thijsje can hardly keep his heavy head straight.

At the end of this week he will have double nationality! He can travel all over the world!

Happy at home!

We arrived on saturday 24 July in our house, with the "whole" family.

The hospital has been really helpful and nice, but going back home is always the best!

Here I am burping Thijs after breast feeding, notice how I am still uncertain how to hold him, his nose is buried in my shirt and he can hardly breath.

Luckily for him I improved my technique so he does not bump his nose against my shoulder anymore and burps freely...

For the first 2 weeks we will have the help of Aunt Ja and Khun Mae.

They are so happy with the little man and with them around Ploy can focus on breast feeding and her recovery of the operation.

2 very proud women !

Here we have a large part of the family together in our our house. With Thijs in the center, of course!