Zander, a hairbrush and a tour of his room

Apologies if you've already seen this on Facebook. But I am very excited to share this video of Zander on the move!

So its been a little while...

So here's Zander. He's nearly 1 now and I'm just getting around to updating the blog. Sorry, people. Why didn't anyone tell me that being a parent and working full time was a lot of work?!

You may notice that our son looks nothing like me. Sigh. Except for his light brown eyes, he is essentially a clone of his father. Which is good, because I think he's pretty attractive. :)


Well, some updates. About two weeks ago I had my back turned for a split second and when I turned around again Zander was racing across the room after our cat, Eliot. Running, mind you, not walking or crawling. After months of having mama, papa or Gima holding his hand, apparently Z was ready to try this two-legged forward motion thing on his own.

Since then he has only gotten better. He does what my sister calls a "Frankenstein Walk", with his arms straight up in the air while he toddles around the apartment with one of us chasing him to make sure he doesn't blind or otherwise injure himself.

Some kids seem to be pretty timid, but our little man likes nothing more than being hung upside down, tossed around in the air and "dropped" (though I promise that he is safely held by a parent at all times). I've actually started calling him Danger Mouse because really, the kid isn't scared of anything.

A few weeks ago he was standing in his room, holding his papa's hand and he raised his arm in my direction and said, "Mama!" First word and all, so that was exciting. A week later he did the same thing for his dad. And then this week he looked in Eliot's direction and said "Ehhyaa." So with the exception of Gima, the main personalities in his life are now accounted for. Gima keeps trying, though.

As for Zander's parents, Bas' company is growing and thriving, and while he's still on the road with some regularity he is also home quite a lot -- which makes everyone happy.

I am also very busy at work, though we have a few weeks of quiet time after several intense months of utter insanity. In a few days the ter Laares are taking advantage of the lull, though, and heading to a resort about an hour away for a week of well-deserved R&R.

After that, of course, we have some serious celebrating to do: Gramma Carol comes to town to celebrate her grandson's first birthday! Bas' mom is here with some regularity (in fact, she was just here a week ago, and a good time was had by all), but this will be my mom's first trip outside of America. Everyone is very excited and we have some fun surprises in store for her.
Sorry for the unbelievably long delay between posts. Will try to update again soon!