Alex in the park
Reply
Category Archives: Enjoy
Diving, walking and playing soccer
Things are going very well with Alex. He is already trying out a couple of sports, and that with only one year.
Alex diving in the local swimming pool.
Alex starting walking and playing soccer at the same time.
Soccer is not something Alex got from his father. From his mother is also very unlikely. There is really just one possibility. Alex got the gene to play soccer from his Dutch grandfather and -mother!
1 year
The last year has really been fantastic. It all started exactly one year ago when suddenly I had to hurry and take a plane to Madrid. Alex was being delivered a few weeks early. When I arrived in the hospital I was the first person that could get close to Alex and touch his just a bit. That night we spend together skin-on-skin. Alex was sleeping and I had a body full of adrenaline and a mind filled with emotion.
The first few days were though. We needed to get used to each other. Getting used to our stay in a hospital and getting used to huge numbers of visitors each with their own recommendations. For Ana it was even worst because she needed to recover from her c section and a few months later her gall bladder needed to be removed. Luckily afterwards things went a lot better.
Alex was so small. I can hardy imagine it right now. He was so very small. In one year he grew a tremendous amount. Both physically and emotionally.
Then
Weight: 2.5 kilo
Eyes: Dark blue
Teeth: 0
Now
Weight: 10 kilo
Eyes: Clear blue with some green shades
Teeth: 6
The year passed like a freight train and Alex developed incredibly fast and this is something we love to celebrate. Alex is crawling through our house at very high speeds. He laughs, plays with us, he stands up, eats a lot of things and is still growing very fast. We are curious to see what happens with Alex the next year but undoubtedly it will be a very educational year for both Alex and ourselves.
Swimming (2)
Things are going very well with Alex and his swimming lessons. He looks like he is enjoying his time in the water and he doesn’t cry anymore, not even if he is suddenly submerges.
11 month checkup
Alex got another shot. He also had to go through a general checkup. He had grown a lot and he now had the following statistics:
- Weight: 9.130
- Height: 73 cm
- Head: 45,7 cm
From now on we can and should add tuna, sardines and avocados and egg to his diet. We also have to give him more chunky food so he can use his teeth a little. Just after his shot he cried a little, but he soon forgot about his trauma. Right after the checkup we went swimming, and it was the first time Alex was enjoying himself in the (pretty cold) water.
Learning how to swim
On our island the ocean is an important part of everyday life. Almost everyday we can relax on the beach and there is a wide variety of water related sports. Swimming, sailing, surfing, snorkeling, diving, etc. It is important to have confidence near or in the water and for this reason were going to go to a nearby pool with Alex to take some ‘swimming’ lessons.
Alex is probably to young to learn how to swim, but at least he´ll be able to get used to the water. This week we already threw little Alex with his little swimsuit and little cap, right into the deep pool. What a scare!
Ikea meal
Today we have a nice Swedish dish on the menu:
- Köttbullar with sylt lington
- Potatisstärkelse with a nice gräddsas sauce
Thanks to (our neighbor) the local IKEA we are going Swedish today. It sure looks tasty.
1.500 Euro destroyed
15.000 colored coins. This was the eventual number of the orange colored lucky dime. A dime that really wasn’t very lucky if you look at the recent results of the Dutch football team.
During this sale of colored coins the Dutch Royal Mint invalidated/destroyed coins with a total value of 1.500 Euros. These 1.500 Euros they colored, packaged and sold for (1.500 x 4.95 = ) 75.250 Euros. A nice profit.
Now we wait. We wait to see that the next release by the Dutch Royal Mint will be. Will they continue with coloring parts of the coins they release or will they finally realize that colored coins are still a gray area in regard to the law and when considering coin collectors.
Standing
When we were in Holland we had another highlight. Alex remained standing with just a little bit of help. An impressive feat for a little boy of just 10 months.
Why does this photo remind me so much of the little prince?
Diablo 3
A long time ago I was a very frequent player of computer games. Diablo was one of the games I liked playing and recently a new version of this game was released. A game I just had to try for myself.
A free version is available which you can use to try the game. The free version allowed you to play a small part of the actual game, but you can only get access to the free version if you know someone who has bought the game, and who is willing to give you one of his special try-out keys. I was lucky because I knew just such a person.
Now for the game. The first thing I noticed is that it resembles the previous version a lot. Really a LOT. Did this really take 8 year to create? My PC did not match the minimum specs but still the game ran surprisingly well. Killing monsters went smooth and easy and I did not run into problems. The old feelings I remember having while playing this game resurfaced.
I managed to perfectly kill lots of monsters, but that the game was without problems is not really accurate. The new version of Diablo requires you to be online while playing and you need to be logged into your battle.net account. Not really a problem, except that it fails quite a lot of times. Sometimes you loose your connection in the middle of the game, and all you can do is exit the game and restart it. After the last update I am unable to play at all. To bad.
The last issue I have with this game is the price. In the local shops you can buy the boxed version for a little over 40 euros. The digital version is easier to get, without leaving home at the Blizzard site. This digital version is without box and without CD but for some strange reason it is priced at almost 60 euros. A ridiculous difference.
My conclusion: It is a nice game, but for now I´ll stick to the demo version even though I finished this small part of the game already a few times.