Elliott's new tricks

Just a quick update. Elliott has learned two new tricks:

1) Eating with a fork (works best if we put the food on for him, though).

2) Taking off his diaper (we learned about this new talent the hard way with a full diaper!).

Also, his front two teeth on top are coming in very quickly now. For a while, only one of them was poking through, and Megan was calling him "snaggletooth". What a mean mama!

First mini-trip

Today we took our first mini-trip to s'Hertogenbosch (commonly called Den Bosch), which is about a half hour from Eindhoven by train. Den Bosch is a bit more of what an American would expect from a European town...cobblestone streets and older architecture. It is a fortified city on a series of canals. Because of a lack of space inside the walls of the town, buildings are actually built over the canals. See the photo album for pictures. We had lunch at a canal-side restaurant though we ate inside because we didn't want to have to perform any rescues of Elliott from the water! Then we took a boat tour of the canals. We probably would have learned a lot more, but the tour was in Dutch which limited our understanding somewhat. The last part of the tour was a bit stressful, too, as Elliott decided to freak out...I think he was tired. In any case, we learned a valuable lesson: don't put ourselves in a situation from which we can't quickly escape!

After the boat tour (Elliott was asleep in the backpack), we toured the cathedral in town. The construction of it began in 1380 and was finished in 1529...it is currently undergoing restoration, the third in the last eighty years. One of the most impressive things that I noticed were the chandeliers of candles that they still use to light the building. There were also engravings (I'm not sure if they were tombs) on the floor; many of which were worn almost completely smooth.

On the way out of town, we stopped and picked up a "Bosch bol"--an eclaire-type pastry filled with cream and covered in chocolate. Very tasty. We topped off our day with a bike ride (back in Eindhoven) to Nederwetten, a nearby town. I love how easy it is to ride a bike here! With lights and trails and flatness, bike-riding is great! Well, I've got to go...some really bad, non-professional ice-dancing (not sure if it's a reality show or what--got to get on that Dutch class) is on and I've got to get back to it.

Happy First Birthday, Elliott!

Today we celebrated Elliott's first birthday. When Elliott woke up he found our apartment decorated with colorful streamers, and his first birthday present was waiting for him in the living room: a new trike! After testing out his trike and having some breakfast, we went to the market and picked up a birthday cake.

We opened his presents in the evening. Before dinner, he got a toy car, and a Bumba doll. Who is Bumba? Bumba is a clown that speaks a nonsense language and is the star of the "Bumba", which airs weekdays from 8.55 to 9.00. Bumba's best friend is Bumbalu. Watching Bumba is a daily ritual, which involves Elliott stopping everything he is doing and staring at the tv for five minutes, without moving.

After dinner we sang happy birthday and had cake. As promised, we let Elliott eat his cake by himself. This involved smearing cake all over his face. By the time he was done, the floor was filthy and his face was shiny from butter cream grease. We gave him a bath, and he opened the rest of his presents: a card from great grandma Ledbetter, a toy frog (from G&G Andres), a mini soccer ball (from G&G Andres), a set of blocks that stick together (from G&G Andres), a toothbrush set (from us), a set of giant legos (from us), and a Bumba book (from us). He loved them all. He especially likes his new soccer ball. He kicked and carried it around the house for about 30 minutes. He also likes his new toothbrush, which is especially useful since Elliott has four new teeth starting to poke through on top.

After a busy day, Elliott went to bed easily. We're sure he'll be up early tomorrow, ready to play with all his new toys! (For more pictures, click on the "Photo Album" link on the left).

Weekend update and stupid baby tricks

This weekend we really got around town on our bikes! On Saturday, we biked to Ikea (which isn't actually in Eindhoven but in an adjacent town...see how easy it is to get around!) to return a duvet cover. It was a good thing to bike there because it really limited our purchases: only things that could fit in our saddle bags were allowed! On the way home, we did discover one problem with the child seat: it's not good for him to sleep in. He didn't look to comfortable with his head hanging to his chest. When we got close to our house, a tourist (because we're natives now) stopped us and asked to take Elliott's picture on the bike! More confirmation that he's the cutest baby around!

We rode to a local park on Sunday for a festival, which wasn't exactly what we thought it was going to be. It was more like an organic farm, but there was a nearby minigolf course (called midgetgolf here) where we played a few holes. It was the three of us and another Japanese family from Cameron's lab. It was a really neat area with trampolines and a huge sandbox for kids. In the park there is also an indoor swimming pool and a skating rink...we'll probably take our speed skating lessons there.

Less than a week until Elliott turns a year old. It's so hard to believe that he is that old already! He's changing so quickly so to keep you updated we have posted a new video.

A busy week for the LeAndreses

For all of you bummed that you might have to stay in a hotel because we only have one bedroom apartment, you will be happy to know that we will be moving into a two-bedroom apartment at the beginning of November! There aren't enough exclamation marks to express how excited we are about this development.

That was probably the most exciting develpment of the week for us, because Elliott is a light sleeper, and so in order to avoid listening to Elliott scream like a banchee until he falls back to sleep we have to tip-toe into bed at night and try to refain from rustling the sheets. But no more!

On the topic of Elliott, it's only nine days until his one-year birthday. Sometimes it's hard to believe that it's already been a year, but then we look at how much he's grown...it's amazing. We don't have any plans yet for his birthday (our friends, Brett Helms and the Katayama family, are all out of town that weekend), but we'll probably get him a cake and we'll certainly have a lot of presents for him. I anticipate a trip to the park, where we'll let him get as dirty as he wants (Megan doesn't know about this plan yet). If he's lucky, it might even rain and he'll get to play in the mud!

In other news, I started work on Monday. I'm working at the Technical University of Eindhoven in the chemistry and chemical engineering department. My supervisors are Profs. Meijer (sounds like Meyer) and Schenning. In my first week, I've been getting oriented within the department (meeting with personnel, getting my keys, etc.) and doing a lot of background reading for my research. The reading is necessary because I'll be working in a field new to me, so I'm not so familiar with it yet. If things go my way, I should be able to start doing experiments next week. I'll keep you posted.

Elliott: he's a walkin' fool now

Elliott took his first couple of steps on July 23, but didn't improved much over the next month. However, since we've been in Eindhoven, Elliott has become a very good walker. We recorded the following video a few days after we arrived in the Netherlands, when he was still a little shaky; he's even better now.