Discovering Play-Doh!

Our budding artist has also started to show interest in Play-Doh. Thanks to Uncle Peter and Auntie Jenny and some friends, Daniel now has loads of it and it keeps him entertained for a long time - he just loves it. He's happy to play quietly on his high-chair and it gives me a chance to get other things done around the house. I'm just loving this age more and more!

A Budding Artist

One of Daniel's little friends gave him some "bath crayons" for his birthday. I wasn't sure if Daniel would be that interested in them, since up until now, he only draws a few lines here and there on his white/black board and/or paper and he is "all done." But what a surprise: once Daniel got hold of those crayons, he just drew, and drew and drew! Check out the photos of his first bathroom wall art!

A Grateful Heart

Something very sweet about Daniel that I want to remember, is that we are starting to see evidence of him having a grateful heart. He says "tank-you" many times during the day without us asking him to. Even for small things (like when he gets a cup of water), he quickly says "tank-you". And he often uses "tank-you" many times in the same sentence. For example, this past Saturday morning Papai decided to make pancakes and when Daniel entered the kitchen and saw them he said:

"Wow, tank-you Papai, tank-you!" And he thanked Jonny many times after that.

It's just so sweet to see and to get a glimpse into his little heart... I pray it will stay, for a grateful heart is a special blessing from God.

An Unexpected Blessing

Hi Loved Ones! Wonder why I'm not blogging as much?

About a month ago, close friends of ours asked me if we wanted to buy their second-hand piano for a small amount. I asked Jonny and he immediately said yes, saying it would be wonderful for Daniel to see me playing and that it would be an incentive for him to want to play an instrument too.

What a blessing this piano has been! It's unexpected for three reasons: 1) We were not even thinking about getting a piano, 2) Jonny has also started to play and 3) we're all loving it!

I played piano until about age 13, "forced" by my mother. In the past, I didn't appreciate it much, but today, I do! Picking it up again after all these years has been quite easy, since I still remember how to read piano music and have been teaching Jonny. So maezinha, thank you for making me learn as a child, I'm enjoying the benefits now! :-)

Jonny too has a background in piano... Grandpa Boon recently told me he and his brother were expelled from his piano class at a very young age for not taking it seriously!

Daniel loves to sit at the piano and "make music" - a lot of banging for now, but it's OK. :-) He calls it "ano!"

We've been able to easily find free piano music online and at the library, and the cool thing is that we can actually choose what we want to play, instead of what our teachers used to choose for us... We're learning to play worship music as well as different children's songs, so it's been so much fun for all of us.

Thank you Lord for this unexpected blessing; it has given us so much joy!

Blog Books: So Exciting!

When I started blogging in 2007, I had heard that I would be able to print my blog posts as a book and this was an extra incentive to start. But only recently did I actually investigate this and discovered that not only can I publish books, but it's so easy to do and it comes out great! Here is the link I used.

I have already printed out two books of the blogs I wrote in 2007 and 2008 and plan to do the same for 2009 soon. What a great record, all the hard work has been worth it! Here are some photos to show current bloggers what the books look like but also, for those of you reading who may be considering starting a blog, there is never a better time to start than right now! :-)

Our two first blog books for 2007 and 2008

It comes with a Table of Contents with the titles of the blog posts!

The photos print out great and it's all done automatically, so easy!



And even the COMMENTS get printed!

So please, keep commenting on our blog so we can have a record of your comments in our future blog books! Thank you!

Easter Sunday!

We had a very blessed Easter Sunday. Church was very moving as we learned about the importance of Jesus' resurrection and then witnessed 4 young adults being baptized. Thank you Jesus for all that you have done for us!

We were then supposed to pick up Nena and take her out for lunch, but when we got to her home, she had prepared a surprise feast for us! We felt so blessed; we had missed her food so much! (Nena is now 2/3 done with her chemotherapy and this past weekend, she felt well enough to cook for the first time in months! She is doing great, praise God.) And Daniel did great at Nena's house and got to sit at the table like a big boy!

Later in the afternoon, Daniel participated in his first egg hunt with his dear little friends Devesh and Enya. I was amazed that he understood exactly what he was supposed to do and managed to find quite a few eggs all on his own! Later, we all watched the kids open their eggs and enjoy the sweets (and some funny little toys). Daniel really enjoyed his first ever "Reese's cup" - some things just don't need much of an incentive to be eaten! :-) The kids then later were a bit hyperactive (results of the candy?) and enjoyed running around! We are so thankful for these neighbors who have become special friends to us all!

Photos of the surprise Easter lunch at Nena's:

Here are some highlights of the egg hunt we had for the kids (for more photos, see the slide show below):

The kids running around after all the sugar!

Cherry Blossoms!

Today we decided to be adventures and took the Metro into DC to see the famous Cherry Blossoms! (It was Daniel's first time on the Metro!) Several people warned us that it would be crazy with so many people and yes, they were right! :-) The most challenging part was getting in and out of the stations, but I think we all coped well. We went with our friends Evy and Bianca and Daniel's little friends Marcus and Jaiden. We also got to take some nice photos, though the weather in the early morning was overcast - it started getting sunny as we were leaving... Oh well, lots of new memories to cherish!

Here are some highlights of our trip - check out the slide show below for more! :-)

Our sweet friend Evy and her two sons: Marcus (age 2) and Jaiden (age 1)

Going with Papai to a less crowded area...

Yes, here I'm free to run!

It finally got warm and sunny...but we soon had to go home...

Gymnastics!

Hi Loved Ones! It's been a hectic time around here...so much is going on and it's been hard to find time to blog. But I'm back tonight and I wanted to update you on something really fun that I have started doing with Daniel: Gymnastics! A few weeks ago when Grandpa Boon was visiting, we went to a gymnastics hall not far from our home and we just fell in love with it! For only $5, I can take Daniel to enjoy a proper gymnastics facility for a whole hour. He loves all the different things he can do (each time we go they have different things set up) but his favorites are: running down a long trampoline and sliding into a a pool of foam cubes (I'm sure there is a proper name, I just don't know what it is! :-)). Wednesday is the best day for us to go, so I have rearranged my work schedule so that can take Daniel. He just loves it and it's so worth it! We've been there now 3 times and each time we go, Daniel gets more and more confident. It's such great exercise for him too (and for me, keeping up with him!) and we usually get a great nap out of it! :-)

Check out some photos and video I took of him last week. At the end of the video, you will see how courageous he is!

Spring Is Here!

Spring is finally here! After such a cold, snowy and long winter, the birds are singing, the leaves are starting to come back, some flowers are popping up, and we are enjoying being outdoors again! It feels in some ways like life is coming back; how happy we are to be able to be outside again. Daniel is enjoying it the most: going for walks, learning to ride his tricycle, drawing on the sidewalk and stairs with chalk (he can now identify the different colors!), enjoying the park (he is so independeint at the park now, climbing and going down the slides all on his own), spending lots time with his neighborhood friends, playing on the deck... it's all just so much fun.

Here are some photos of Daniel enjoying the beginning of Spring:

CAR!

For more photos, please click on the slide show below. We also recently spent a fun day with my cousins Josani and Manuela and their daughters. Daniel got to meet Lili, Manuela's 4 year old, for the first time and fell in love with her baby doll - he's going to be an affectionate father one day, just like his Pa. :-)