On my iPhone

Here are some things we have been up to lately via my iPhone.

Elliot decided to pose for senior pictures

This is Sophie the giraffe.  She spends most of her days being shoved in Elliot's mouth and chomped on.  I think some teeth are coming!

After battling Elliot to love the bassinet on the stroller, we switched to the big kid seat. He loves it!

We met some friends at a pancake place in the woods near Amsterdam.  They have an area to feed and pet deer.

 Elliot's thoughts on carrots. Thankfully he liked them better then second day!

Holiday Season

The Dutch Holiday season kicked off this past weekend when Sinterklaas came into town. You might remember we went to the festivities last year, but this year was a bit more fun with Elliot. Fun fact, the day after the Sinterklaas parade last year was when we found out we were expecting E!  Such a change in a year! We met up with our friends Sam and Dan before the parade, just like last year and we all got our spot along the canal.  It wasn't that cold out but we knew that we would be outside for awhile so we made sure to bundle E up. We had intentions of only doing the canal parade this year, but the parade with Sinterklaas on his horse ended up blocking our route home, so we saw that as well! Here are some of our pictures from the day. 

A common look for me, Starbucks in one hand and Elliot in the Ergo carrier :)

E got a good nap in on mama before the parade

Woke up just in time

Elliot got quick a lot of attention from the people on the canal boats.  Quite a few people yelled out, "Leuk Beertje!" which is cute little bear in Dutch. 

Smiles for the people going by

Papa and Elliot

The boys, Brent, Elliot and Dan

Elliot with the ladies

The big guy, Sinterklaas is here!

Notice this year there are far less picture of the parade and way more of a certain baby :) 

This parade made Brent and I even more excited for the holidays this year. These events are definitely more fun now that we are parents and know that as Elliot grows so will his excitement.

Elliot 4 Months

So I know I say this every month but seriously, 4 months already!!!

The past month little man has gotten so strong! He loves to be standing!

He can be fussy and crabby and as soon as he is standing, happy as can be! It makes him look so much older whenever he is standing, didn't he listen when I told him he was supposed to stay little?

He still loves being swaddled when he sleeps.   He really needs it at night to settle down and it is instantly soothing for him.  Once he is calmed down he wiggles his 2 fingers out to the top so he can suck on them.  I joke with Brent that he will go to college being swaddled, the kid loves it!  I got this picture the other day when we came upstairs for nap time and I laid him on the bed to move something out of the crib and I turned around to get him and this is what i found

If only getting him to sleep was always this easy.

His zebra "lovey" has really become his best friend(after me of course :)).  I love that he has something that he finds as a source of comfort

 Both of his comforts, his zebra and his fingers

He is wearing 3 month or 3-6 month clothes right now. He will be moving up to 6 month pajamas any day now, his 3 month ones are getting pretty short in the length!

Busting out :)

Elliot is really getting to a fun age. He giggles, smiles and talks all the time. It makes up for that extra wake up he has been doing lately :) 

Last MN post and flight back

Our trip to Minnesota was really such a good time.  I was so impressed with how Elliot did.  This little boy is used to spending all day with just his mom(until Brent gets home of course) and he did fantastic seeing multiple at a time.  He was almost always in big groups and being passed around and he did wonderful.  This is great since we both have big families and he needs to get used to lots of people!  He also did fantastic with both dogs.  We've been sad that Elliot hasn't had the dogs around from the beginning and worried about how he would react to them but he loved them.  He never once cried or was scared of them.

Hanging with Sammy before flying back

On flight back to the Netherlands was great! Elliot had a blowout which required a pajama change 15 minutes into the flight and thankfully that was our only issue.  After that he fell asleep and stayed asleep for the majority of the flight.  I was actually able to watch a couple of movies!

At the airport selfie 

 In the bassinet on the plane, he was only in it for a little over an hour of the flight but it was really nice have available.  Oh, and I had the entire bulkhead row to myself this flight- it was great!  I am hoping our next set of flights goes as well as both of these did.  Thankfully Brent will be with us next time.  Thanks everyone who made time to see Elliot and I while we were home.  I know we didn't get to see everyone but we have another trip in 6 weeks :) 

Have a good Monday!