Mr. Willem

My adorable second son, Willem - You're not putting that thing in my mouth- van Belle is such a joy to feed. Whereas some children like to daintily self-feed, Willem likes to destroy whatever it is that is in front of him. He will mush the banana, pound the bread, squash the peas, drop the cheese, and fling his cup across the room. When you do try to get food into his mouth, on most occasions it's a combination of skillful distraction and steely determination. He will use his karate chop action to swat at the spoon and spew food everywhere. Thank goodness we are transitioning to more and more "people food" and less "mush." That really helps lessen the collateral damage I take in the experience. And right about now, I am loving the fact that we have dogs to help with the clean up.

It's as if Willem has this game in his head- Ah... the food game. Here she comes with the spoon. And... I'll open my mouth to make her THINK I'm really interested... and here it comes... the misdirect and whamo... yeah... three points for flinging food onto mommy's shirt. Two bonus points if the damage is heavy enough to warrant a shirt change.

Whereas Gerrit would fuss any time he had food on him. (Come to think of it, he still does fuss.) A tiny grain of cooked rice, a smear of peanut butter, or a string on his banana was and is all it takes to set Gerrit off. Willem, though he doesn't like to self-feed very often, LOVES to immerse himself in the joy that is texture. When he's done mashing, squishing, grinding, banging, and flinging, and using his food as hair gel, he's a huge mess. Combine that with his usual gutteral utterances - a lot of grunts and groans as he's doing all of this- and he resembles something out of The Exorcist. Still, gotta love my little demon. I'll just save the stories to embarrass him with future girlfriends. :)

Rock Star Willem

Staying Warm while visiting Rothenberg

"Awww... my brother is cute when he's
sleeping. Now let's wake him up!"