- 2004.06.03
Crawling! Duvan figured out the 14 things you need to know to crawl. So now he does it! - 2004.06.04
Duvan today showed a surprising capacity to comprehend us. We taught him to point to the light in the room. We'd go, "Duvan, where's the light? Where's the light, Duvan?", then take his arm and point to the light while we go, "There's the light!". Then we'd ask him again, and he pointed it out! That was amazing to us in of itself. He surprised us though by later pointing to the light when we again asked him the same question, only this time we were in a different room! It's these precious little moments, that are simple strands woven together to form this wonderful experience. - 2004.06.07
"Where? There!" included Mommy and Daddy today. Whoa, it is so cool! - 2004.06.17
Duvan started eating Pro-vita's this month. (Provita's are crunchy wheat biscuits that are very popular in South Africa). It's so cute to watch him feed himself! Maresa taught him to pick up the biscuit pieces and eat it by example, eating a couple of his pieces herself. She then told him to try it, and Duvan promptly picked up a piece of biscuit and placed it in Marésa's mouth. It was so adorable. He quickly got the hang of it though and loves to chew on the crunchy biscuits. - 2004.06.18
It's such a treat to watch Duvan pull himself up against everything higher than himself. He is particularly careful in going back to sitting again, slowly extending a hand to the floor while holding on with the other hand, until he touches the floor, then he lets go of the top hand and gently plomps down. - 2004.06.19
Duvan gets very excited about airplanes. Since Ouma Martie lives close to the airport, a lot of passengers jets pass over on their final approach. Whenever he hears the noise, he shrieks and tries to look out the window, searching for the plane. Once he finds it, he intently watches it until it goes out of sight, at which point he will start yelling excitedly, almost looking like he's calling it back! - 2004.06.23
Today Duvan crawled all the way up the stairs to the top floor of our apartment. This absolutely astonished us! He is so excited while he does it too, seeing each next step and letting out high pitched "Ooh's" and "Ah's" :). - 2004.06.30
First stomach bug. :( Duvan had a pretty bad tummy bug the last 6 days, but looks like he's getting out of it again. He could not hold down any formula or other protein-rich foods, as you may imagine, he lost a lot of weight in the last week, basically only eating small quantities of cereal and drinking electrolytes. Poor baby. Duvan gave Jan 'n super dad moment, when he got sick in the store, throwing up while sitting on Jan's neck. You can imagine where gravity took Duvan's somewhat digested lunch, straight over Dad's hair and face. Now, you may not notice, but your reaction to reading this depends a lot on whether or not you have kids of your own, because it's a lot better when you do! This happened while we were walking down the isle in a store, with a man approaching from the other end. The guy had just looked up at Duvan with a look of "Aaah, cute baby!", when the incident occured. The look on this guy's face was unforgettable though, he did not say a word, but spun around and almost ran in the other direction! - 2004.06.04
We recall one particular evening when we arrived for a weekend visit to Oupa Japie and Ouma Martie, we had just gotten out of the car and were walking into the kitchen with Duvan in our arms, when Oupa Japie came into the kitchen as well. His entire face lit up when he saw Duvan, and he displayed more enthusiasm than I ever imagined could come forth from my Dad. I recall the joy that sprang up in me as well as Dad snatched Duvan out of my arms and held him with such love and excitement. He loved Duvan with a pure and open heart.
Duvan could not visit Oupa Japie in the hospital until he had been there for 3 weeks, having been transferred to a regular ward. On Sunday, the day before Dad passed away, we visited in the afternoon. As we walked into the room, Dad's eyes flooded with that same excitement, only this time it was imprisoned in a frail and broken body. It was such a testimony of his love for Duvan and for all of us.
Duvan started doing this "shy" draw of the shoulder and arm over the last month or so whenever someone showers him with attention. It is very cute because it always is accompanied by the cutest little smile (not really caught on this shot). This body language probably has somewhat of an opposite effect that what Duvan intends with it, because it almost invariably means that the attention increases!
Bathtime is still a lot of fun, and usually means bonding time for Dad & Duvan. Duvan is normally very excited and wants to show you all his toys and put them in your hands to see what you can do with it. Interestingly, he does that with a lot of things. The other day Grandma was sitting with him paging through a book, and when she lingered on a page too long, he took her hand and placed it at the page so she could turn over.
There, the first official shot of all four teeth!
Our little babyface.
Those teeth were made for eating my food! Duvan's diet now includes almost all fruit and veggies. He loves broccoli and spinach, sweet potato, butternut squash and basically any vegetable that we present to him. He's also tried papaya, peach, avocado and kiwi, but his favorite fruit are banana and pear.
Duvan eats really well, and is always ready for more food. Visiting hours to the hospital always coincided with Duvan's brunch and late lunch, and since he could not visit with Oupa Japie, Mom always fed him in the waiting room of the hospital. People were always complimented Duvan on his good eating habits, and were always curious as to the colourful contents of his plate. :)
Grandma's sunny back porch is such a fun place to hang out during the winter!
Naps have come and gone, and is nowhere near the rigid schedule that we'd like it to be. Duvan basically sleeps when he's tired 2 times a day, the first nap around 9-10 in the morning, the second anytime from 12:30 to 2pm, and the last 3ish if he did not have one earlier the afternoon. Duvan was born with a biological clock with a period of 40 minutes, he wakes up without failure after 40 minutes, no matter how tired he is. Sometimes he will surprise us and sleep an hour or an hour and a half (his record is 2:10), other times he'll only go 15 minutes. But the average is solidly 40 minutes. :)
Ever so curious about that camera, Duvan never ceases trying to grab a hold of it.
Chillin' on the floor, Dad's body makes for some terrain to hone those crawling skills.
There is only one thing that surpasses the camera at demanding Duvan's immediate attention. It's the laptop. He loves to press buttons and will go crazy to get his hands on the keyboard.
Whenever we change diapers, we grab the nearest object to keep Duvan's hands busy, so he does not roll around in search of stimulation. This morning it was the thermometer. He figured out how the cover slides over the thermometer and kept him busy for a solid 15 minutes. Duvan loves to put things together to appear to belong together. Sock goes to foot, lid goes on whatever it came from, if something came from a pocket, it has to go back there (only briefly though, it's much more interesting in one's hands) etc.
The little guy is growing so big! I'm just going to believe that he will remember my voice from all the preaching he heard while in the womb!
Posted by: Chris Rue | July 21, 2004 06:03 PM
Duvan is growing so fast. He looks all boy now and is very handsome. His accomplishments are great and I can see how much you are enjoying the gift of parenting! God bless all of you.
Posted by: Barbara | August 3, 2004 10:09 PM
