Daniel At 16 Months - Climbing Everything!

Boy wonder is now 16 months old! He really is a little boy now, the baby days have truly passed... He understands so much now, follows instructions (like get your shoes, go upstairs, put X in the trash) and he uses his "words" more to communicate - especially, "ma-ma" (for mamae), "pa-pa" (for papai), "bo-bo" (for vovô - grandpa in Portuguese), "ba-ba" (for ball or baby), "au-au" (for doggy) and "na-na" (for trucks and other means of transportation which he's just obsessed about!). He often calls out "ma-ma?" (as a question) when he wakes up or if I'm not in the room which is the most wonderful sound to me! :-) He points at everything and wants us to tell him the word for whatever it is. When reading word books, he now points to several objects on the page and if we ask him to show us something, he gets most of them right!

Daniel can now "run" too - he still loses his balance from time to time but he is quite fast! What has been really special is that he likes to run to us from a distance, with a big smile on his face to be hugged and held. He has become more affectionate recently (i.e. actively seeking cuddles, for example) and is learning to kiss back too! He also continues to love the phone and pretends to have conversations - it's amazing how he imitates us. He often says "oi" ("hi" in Portuguese) and pauses, as if listening, and then makes a few sounds that only he can decipher! :-)

He had his 15 months check-up last week and he weighs just over 27 pounds (80th percentile) and is 33 and 1/2 inches long (90th percentile) - so he continues to be a big boy, wearing 2T clothes already! He had two shots on his arms for the first time and he didn't cry for the first one and just whimpered a little with the second and also had no fever afterwards, which was a relief to us all. (My dad was at the check-up too and he really enjoyed the whole process - photo below!)

Since about the middle of 15 months, he's been climbing chairs/sofas (and pretty much anything that he's able to) and now he is very good at it! It's a bit scary since he can climb up well but cannot climb down so we've got to keep an extra eye on him and we are trying to teach him that chairs are for sitting and not standing! But the concept of danger is very foreign to him! :-)

We were able to take a cute series of photos of Daniel in his pyjamas climbing one of our chairs on a recent morning (with a very full, after a whole night, droopy diaper :-))!

Vovô Daddy Is Here!

The photo above says it all: Daniel is so happy his Vovô is here - and so are we! My dad is visiting from Brazil and from the moment Daniel saw him, it was love at first sight. Daniel calls him "bobo" and asks for him when he hears him downstairs in the basement. It's such a joy to see them together! My dad is just wonderful with children, always has been. He loves to carry Daniel and hasn't once complained that he is too heavy - which we do all the time! :-) My dad, at age 73, is just so fit, thank God! I told him today that we expect him to be at Daniel's wedding so he better keep up the good health! :-)

The day after he arrived, we went for a walk to the park and I took some great shots of the two of them having fun together:

We are so thankful that you are here Daddy and that we have another 2 weeks to enjoy you! I'm also thrilled that you are able to enjoy your grandson at this precious age - he'll be 16 months on Friday!

Back From Vacation!

We are back from our week-long vacation in Williamsburg, VA. We had a wonderful time there and would love to go back one day. The small historical towns, the river beach, the resort we stayed in, was just perfect for our family. The weather was wonderful the whole time and Daniel really enjoyed it too. We felt so blessed having this time together; it was hard for Jonny to go back to work today... We have many special memories of this "first-ever" family vacation. Thank you Vozinha for giving us this week away using your timeshare!

Coming back home was also very special, especially for Daniel. He was just so excited arriving home, being in his room again, playing with his toys, it was the cutest thing ever to watch! Because he hadn't climbed any stairs for a week, Daniel squealed excitedly when he got to climb the stairs to his room and then later climbed the stairs over and over again!

Since we got back, we have been busy getting ready for my dad's arrival from Brazil. He arrived yesterday and now we are just enjoying him so much! Daniel loves his Vovo and my dad is just wonderful with him! I will write a blog about my dad's visit soon.

Here is the slideshow of our photos from our vacation:

We Are On Vacation!

We're going away on vacation today and so there will be no more blog updates for at least a week. I look forward to sharing about our time away when we get back! This is a special vacation for us: it's the first "only us" vacation since Daniel was born, it's Father's day on Sunday and then my birthday on Monday! It will be nice to not think of work and just enjoy being together. And soon after we return, my dad will be visiting us from Brazil! Special times ahead, praise God. More when we get back! :-)

Linnan's Photos - Part 4

Here are the final photos taken by Linnan - the second part of our outdoor "photo shoot" this past Saturday. Enjoy the highlights below followed by the slideshow for more. Wonderful memories, precious moments... Can't thank you enough Linnan!

Linnan's Photos - Part 3

So here is the first half of the outdoor photos that Linnan took of our family this past Saturday. We all had so much fun! We just walked around our neighborhood and Linnan kept snapping, directing us to certain scenic spots, etc. It was like we were all official models participating in an important photo shoot - lots of fun! Thanks again Linnan, we've never had anything like this done before and these photos are now one of the best taken of our family ever!

Here are the highlights - check out the slideshow for more!

P.S. If you would like to have any of the photos in a larger size for printing, please let us know since some may need to be larger.

Linnan's Photos - Part 2

As you know, our family is just crazy about photographing and videoing everything. So to have a friend who is even more passionate about photography and who enjoys spending most of his vacation practicing his passion on more than willing subjects (us!), was the best treat ever!!! In these next blogs, I will be sharing the other photos that Linnan took of us during his visit. Tonight, I'm focusing on the photos he took of Daniel taking his bath this past weekend. It's been so long since we last took bath photos so to have these taken was very special.

Linnan, thank you so much for visiting us. It was really wonderful having you and thank you for dedicating so much of your time taking photos of our family. Be sure that they are so appreciated by us and by many of our loved ones following this blog. I have already received a request from Grandpa Boon (Jonny's father) to send him the family photo that I put on the blog (top right had corner). (I will be publishing that and many more soon Boon, there are lots of great photos still to come! :-)) So thank you Linnan, on behalf of us all!!!

As before, here are some of our favorites of Daniel during bath time followed by the slideshow.