4 months old

I am Rick, I am 4 months old and I like sitting in my seat on the kitchen work top and watch papa cook or watch my milk bottles being prepared in the morning for school. I also like to look at what is happening around me and I like my rattle but somehow I have not managed to fit it in my mouth yet!

As papa & mama are often too lazy to give me a bath, in the mornings they take me into the shower with them instead - meaning I need to wait wrapped in my towel after the shower till one of them has kind off dried off such that they can see to me. As you can tell I don't mind!

Mom put up all the cards we received for my birth (>80) and she dreamed up the rule that they did not have to come down till the day we had not received a new card for 3 days. She finaly took down the cards on Saturday. And of course on Monday.....we received another card & package (from Dubai). Mom did not put them back up but she says she does miss that 'that phase of it all' is over already!

Attempted Break In

Relax Relax - This one has a happy ending! We where in bed and around midnight the alarm went off. Our alarm is activted by any of our outside doors and/or a few of the windows with direct street access. So I got up to switch off the alarm and Eelco went to check on the garage door (normal entry door from the garden - not the big swooping car door) which had triggered the alarm. Apparantly we had not locked the garage door and it was pretty windy outside so assumed it had blown open. Locked the door & went back to sleep.

Then this morning as I left for work I was wondering why Eelco's mountainbike was parked next to the back door - in the little ally passing along the side of the house. It was still early in the day but then we started to realise.....not the wind, but someone trying to steal Eelco's bike had set of the alarm!

Good news is whomever made an attempt to steel the bike was carefull enough when he took it off the wall hooks, my beamer was parked right underneath and unscaved...pfew. We also appear to not be missing anything else nor was there any attempt to break into the main house (the garage is seperate from the house), or did we hear a car concluding the suspect must have arrived on foot and it all has the signs more of some petty theft then organised burglary.

We have learned our lesson and will be more consistent with using the alarm at night and during the day and lock our doors better. After all Houston is a big city!

The 1st school picture

now we are curious what the photographer did to little Rick...what a smile!!!

Ahoy!

Rick preparing for a harbor tour in Galveston by downing his bottle 'little lamb style', suitably wrapped in dads beer can cooler

Doesn't he look like he's got it in his blood already? It was a bit cold & windy by Texas standards

So then we did also a tourist trip to the battleship Texas. Too many steps & ladders for a stroller so Captain Rick presented in his Baby Bjorn. (Apologies for the quality of the pictures. They where made with the video camera, as someone took the regular camera, but not the battery...mmm)

It was definitely clear who was overseeing the ship -;)

Actually - he never closed his eyes or blinked once in the 90 min we where there!

Rick & his girlfriend

Papa & Sietke (Mees' mom) are looking happier then the happy couple....haha

Rick & his new hobbies

aaaahhhh - isn't he cute?!?!

Rick's new hobby No 1. Shoulder Lounging here with support from Oma Joke

Actually, mommy is pretty good as well for shoulder lounging!

Baking apple pie with Opa Sjoerd for Oma Joke's Birthday

and today we think Rick entered another growth spurt as he even managed to 'pass out' in his favorite toy / baby gym apparatus. He also slept already most of the day at 'school'.

And then some footage of Rick & hobby no 2....make sure you have your sound switched on -;)

$5,000 Reward

Yesterday the HFD (Houston Fire Department) held a press conference about our neighborhood arsonist. The latest fire was Friday night. Still no results on capturing the Arsonist and hence they have now put out a $ 5,000 reward for any tips leading to his/her arrest....I feel like part f a true crime story here!

Never a dull momemt

So they still have not caught the Arsonist and we had another fire last week. At the same time there is a man driving around the neighborhood in a van steeling all the new appliances from recently build & completed homes (not yet occupied) in clear daylight. Then if that is not enough we had bank robbery yesterday at Yale and 19th street. That is again not too far from where we live as we are at 8th street and 5 streets away from Yale so maybe 1500m from our house? http://www.click2houston.com/news/21220420/detail.html

I cannot get too excited about it all as the arsonist & thieve both are targetting material things and houses nobody lives in. We only use the bank in our office buildings which you cannot get into without passing general Shell security....and because of the mailing list I know pretty much what every weirdo and or known petty thief in the neighborhood looks like and what their tactics are. i.e there is a guy going round the houses to ask for contributions for his son going to some kind of special needs sports event. From the list I know what the guy looks like (with some hilarious descriptions), what variations he has to his story, that the event he refers to does not exist and that he is harmless but probably too emberrased to beg.

Fortunately there is more people who remain pretty calm about it all. On the mailinglist from the Local Neighborhood Kids Club one of the moms was quite happy. Her boy loves helicopters so much that the real deal every other day over their house makes the kid VERY happy...she wrote something about it being some relief for one of his books with Helicopter pictures in it which he apparantly literally has 'loved to bits'

Oh well. Never a dull moment.

Smiles & Leg exercises

We bought and set up a cross trainer for us to get fit at home rather then spend time away from Rick in the gym. So to let him join in the fun we got Rick his own gym equipment. He is actually not old/big enough for it yet but enjoyed it nevertheless. Rick found out very quick that his seat was rotating and that by kicking with his feet he could turn. Also the bottom is somewhat rounded making the whole thing wobble a bit when he tries out his legs. Rick was laughing a lot as his newly discovered tricks as you can tell.