In Nederland heeft Pa heeft net iets op Youtube gezet - nog van het bezoek van “de oma’s” hier in Hong Kong.

Domino spelen met matthijs…

This is pride - Matthijs built the biggest ever tower with his Lego…

Last Sunday Matthijs turned two years. Time flies and it’s hard to believe that the tiny baby we brough back home two years ago is now running around and getting more and more chatty.

We had an early start on Sunday as Matthijs woke up around 6am!!! So we spend the morning opening all his presents and eating his birthday cake.

Matthijs had a great day and is very happy with all his presents - especially the building set from opa and oma, and the toaster from Yanieke/Robbin. The Lego fire truck so far is his favorite (except he already managed to throw the sirene from the window into the neighbour’s balcony…).

It was beatiful weather on Saturday and so we took a trip to Pui Oh beach, on Lantau Island.

It’s only a good couple of hours hiking from Discovery Bay and really the beach is one of the best in Hong Kong.

We spend the whole day sitting in “Ohlala restaurant” and the kids had fun playing in the beach and in the waves.

With this kind of a beach near by there’s no reason at all to travel to Thailand!

It’s been a while, so here are some!

He’s very happy here coz we’re on our way to the swimming pool.

Running through a grass field is cool - it would be more fun with a ball though…

Just chilling with dad on the couch and playing with the camera.

An afternoon at the beach with mum - matthijs and the ocean are like magnets.

When you’re a year and a half, all you need is an empty box to keep you busy for an afternoon.

Eating can be very tiring.

And a picture with my friends in Cebu; Barbara and Alicia

Yesterday was a dog’s day; it’s been raining almost continuously.
As a result, the weekend has been one without much outdoor activity. We’ve only been outside to travel to the nearest restaurant to have lunch.
We hooked up with some of Matthijs’ friends and as you will see from picture below the gang of three enjoyed themselves in Zaks restaurant.

It’s totally cool what kind of remote controlled (RC) toys you can buy now for a couple of dollars. It’ll fly, drive, hover etc.

When I was a boy I remember remote controlled toys were out of reach for most kids, as it was “expensive stuff”.

So one of the joys of having a son I thought was to be able to buy all kinds of remote controlled toys for him, and then play with them myself.

Well I will have to rethink this a little, or be a little more patient as Matthijs has been able to kill two RC toys already, both within 36 hours after we bought them…

First was a remote controlled little helicopter, which created a lot of excitement, but unfortunately also tight gripping kiddie hands, and as such the helicopter’s life was shortlived… At the end it just flapped its wings while moving about the room completely out of control (which Matthijs enjoyed even more than when it was new).

The other toy was a remote control car. I figured as it was a metal one that looked quite sturdy it would live a little longer in the house. Wrong - when I came home the next day after purchase Matthijs had demolished both the remote controller unit and the car was “played to pieces”.

Okay - back to pushcars for a while, we’ll try this again in a year (or two?).

Our little 19 months old toy basher:

Here are some latest pictures. Some from Singapore, some from Discovery Bay.

I particularly like the one on which he’s lying on his king-size bed in a 5 star hotel in Singapore.

Matthijs was in a crazy mood this evening - playing with my shades.

He looks like Ray Charles…

Folks - have a very good new year.

Ours started with a beautiful day - clear blue skies and a pleasant 25 degrees. We’ve spent it lazing around in Discovery Bay while getting over the mild hangover of the eve night’s champagne.

Matthijs was feeling ill but in the video you can see he’s happy to be outside the house for a while and enjoy the sun.

He’s now starting to say more and more words, and for instance every time he sees an airplane, he’ll point at it and yell “a ba”. Which indeed is the right baby language word for airplane I believe.