May 2004
- Duvan had a busy couple of weeks of fighting off some annoying medical issues! He experienced his first little bit of high fever. His temperature never really topped 100 deg F, but he felt really warm to the touch, and just seemed out of it for about 3 hours. That was on Saturday, April 17th. By evening he seemed fine, but had a little rash early the next week, which cleared up after 2 days or so, the doctor diagnosed this as "baby measles".
- Well we're very happy to announce Duvan's first tooth! Lower right tooth made its way through the gum on April 25th. It's struggle to work its way through that gum left Duvan extremely undone for most part of 2 weeks. He needed to be in our arms almost constantly, and we could not figure it out! Finally one evening Duvan was biting into Jan's thumb, and there it was, the slightest of pricks like a tiny thorn hidden within his mouth (Marésa could tell a couple of days before this by just looking at his gums, but Jan had to feel it to believe it ;)). The second tooth (lower left) made it's appearance only a couple of days later, following right after the first.
- Crawling is approaching rapidly now, and we're expecting him to start doing it properly any day now! He started sailing on his stomach on April 26th. Although quite effective at propelling his body, it didn't help much at this point that it was in fact backwards. :) All the right motions are there though! He got the direction right about a week later! By May 8th, (despite Mom & Dad's overly ambitious predictions), Duvan made some serious progress on figuring out the motions, with his left leg definitely appearing to be the stronger. We read somewhere that it requires 14 independent skills to master crawling. We now realize he has about 3 of those down. He's getting quite comfortable lepecrawling around the house, and really enjoys the mobility, allowing him to satisfy that thirst called curiosity which drives him to and from all he lays his eyes upon!
- Duvan had his first visit with a daycare provider. Marésa started working part-time, which meant Duvan got to hang out with some other kids as well. His first day went really well, though he would not allow the care-giver to put him down for a second! He was still coming out of a somewhat brutal teething spell, and needed a lot of reassuring hugs.
- Clapping hands! Duvan gave 3 well orchestrated (and planned) claps on May 5th.
- Duvan's 2nd scheduled visit to daycare got upgraded to a day with grandmom and great-grandmom. He thought this to be a quite splendid arrangement, and thoroughly enjoyed their company. Their visit also marked the end of 3 weeks of having a hard time sitting by himself. Having worked hard to push out the first two teeth, Duvan finally mustered up enough courage (with gentle encouragement from grandparents) to play on his own again. This has brought quite a relief to Mom's back, which started to feel the strain from having him in her arms most of the day.
- "Give to Mommy". On May 7th, a most satisfying new development in Duvan occured. He started handing objects to Marésa when she asks for it. It is so amazingly cute, and so much tender thought goes into it that you almost want to do it constantly. Duvan has started to put objects on random places, one thing on top of another, etc. Marésa asked Duvan for something, held out her hand, and he gave it super long thought, then gently put it into her hand. She would hand it back to him, and he would repeat it again and again. It is so special, the way human interaction grows between us.
- First major puzzle solved. Duvan figured out how to open his wipie box. Now, this may seem fairly trivial, but the wipie box has a "dual" lid, the big lid and a smaller one that open to dispense the wipies. He started using his pointing finger to gently lift open the smaller lid. We would turn the box around so he has to find the other side of the lid, and he promptly went there to open it. In our minds, this is the first major puzzle solved by Duvan (the tortoise shell of last time's entry ranks close to this one). He seems to think so as well, because the simple act of opening and closing that lid has kept him busy for probably a cumulated 2 or 3 hours over the last 4 days. :)
- We praise God for the amazing amount of development occuring in Duvan. He's bursting with new abilities every day, almost as if he had kept so much down for a couple of weeks together with those 2 bottom teeth. Two of the most challenging weeks also brought on two of the most rewarding! What a blessing!
Duvan's number one fascination at the moment are things that are inside a box or container. Particularly, the fact that he can actually remove them from inside this container. You can tell why he wanted to open that wipie box! He's so fascinated by things that are hidden in square objects.
First the peak to see what's inside...
Then to send in that hand so it can be retrieved...
Finally, victory! It's as if everything that he removes from the box becomes a brand new toy, there's pure exhiliration in the fact that he removed it himself!
All this playing can get you tired, and when sleep comes, Duvan normally defends the land of the Awoken like the brave heart of William Wallace would fight for Scotland. But sleep always seems to kick dust into his eyes, and he eventually has to give up a brave battle.
Duvan is becoming Mr. Curious all over again. Actually, every day we're amazed at how busy he is getting, not seeming to be satisfied until he's explored everything around him! This look is the look of determination. That mouth says "I'll ignore your requests not to druel on the camera as I inspect and study every corner of it!"
Duvan sure is a handsome little guy, he's really starting to get the hang of these photo shoots, too.
This picture ranks among our favorite on this website.
Comments
Wow, what a handsome little guy. I can't believe how grown-up he looks already. The pictures are great! Thanks for keeping us all updated!
I miss you,
Andrea
Posted by: Andrea | June 8, 2004 07:20 AM
- 2004.05.09 Duvan's legs are starting to figure out the motions of crawling. You can tell that he really wants to get on his knees, but somewhere along the line the process breaks down, and he reverts to sliding again! :) His left leg really seems to be getting the hang of it before the right one.
- 2004.05.10 Duvan's 3rd tooth made its appearance today! Duvan also had a visit to the doctor because of a productive cough, and got his first dose of antibiotics. This is a first that we really hoped would come only months later... We did not realize how much sugar they put into baby medicine! The antibiotic syrup literally tastes sweeter than maple syrup, and one side effect (not mentioned on the pamphlet) is a decided turn in Duvan's food preferences! Fruits are in, veggies are out, thank you. We probably also have to say officially then:
- 2004.05.10 Duvan's first sugar. Tons of it, in his medicine.
- 2004.05.11 Seeing Duvan developing the skill of crawling is very interesting. He instinctively knows what his goal is, it's to be crawling on all fours. He now stands in the crawling position for a while, ponders life a little, then falls flat on his tummy and happily slides to where he wants to go. :)
- 2004.05.12 The crawling position stance developed a little further today! Duvan will stand in the crawling position, then slowly rocks forward and backwards, forward and backwards, then falls flat on his tummy and happily sails to where he wants to go. :)
- 2004.05.13 Tooth number 4 is out! 4 Teeth in a spand of a couple of weeks, unbelievable!
- 2004.05.13 Sometimes we are completely astonished by something that Duvan accomplishes. Today, out of the blue, Duvan went from his tummy to a sitting position. Every so careful, but quite skillfully he pushed himself up on his butt and beamed with a sense of accomplishment!
- 2004.05.13 Duvan has a favorite new word: "Ma-ma-ma-ma-ma" (This word, unlike others in modern language, has a variable amount of syllables, depending on the context). It's beautiful to hear Mama coming from his mouth.
- 2004.05.14 Duvan is starting to communicate with words. He plays little word games with his mother, echoing a 1-syllable word like "Ba" (his favorite), or "Ta". They have quite a rythm going, and go back and forth super fast! Marésa: "Ta", Duvan: "Ta!", Marésa: "Ta", Duvan: "Ta!" etc. He actually will also now do it with everyone, of course to the delight of especially his uncle Cobus. Duvan will be playing on the other side of the room, and Cobus will go "Duvan, Ba!", and Duvan answers like it's the most natural thing to do, sometimes dropping everything he's doing to look at Cobus, other times continuing with what he was doing while echoing. :) It is so amazingly cute.
- 2004.05.14 For a while we've played a game in the bath of putting things on our head, then on Duvan's head. Now he wants to put everything in site on his head to see your reaction. :)
- 2004.05.24 Duvan has learnt to clap hands when we say "Duvan, clap hands!". I wish we could effectively describe how amazingly rewarding it is to see him do that. Sometimes we will sing a little Afrikaans song that goes "Handjies Klap, Koekies Bak", and Duvan will clap his hands when he hears the part that says it. He also will sometimes clap hands when we tell people of his new skill and he hears the words. :)
- 2004.05.24 There are times when Duvan will do something when we go, "Does he really know what he's doing?". This is one of those things, he kept taking the phone to his ear today as if he's talking on it. We couldn't really tell whether he actually wanted to pretend like he is talking, but it was so cute to see him do it!
- 2004.05.25 Eight months old!
- 2004.05.25 Duvan will splash in the bath when we say "Duvan, make splashes!". It's so cute, because he gets very confused about the water that gets on his face and in his eyes when he splashes, but it seems to give him more resolve to let that water fly! He'll get quie serious as he splashes harder and harder. He never wipes his eyes with his hands, but rather pulls the funniest looong faces as he tries to blink the water out of his eyes.
- 2005.05.27 Duvan has started to make all kinds of funny faces at us. He loves it to see us laugh at him, so will look us straight in the eyes, and then all of a sudden pull a funny face, like making a really flat kind of open-mouth smile, or stretching his eyes and mouth open wide. I know, we've said it before, but it's so cute. Duvan is definitely a fun kid, he loves to laugh and smile and loves to share moments with you.
On Mother's Day, Duvan got to wear his favorite sweater that Grandma Martie knitted for him. He also got to hang out a lot with all of his favorite people, grandma's and grandpa's, as the family gathered at the Boshoffs. There was good reason for the gathering too, because Mom & Dad got to share the news of Duvan's brother/sister that will arrive in December!
Mornings are always treated special by Duvan, he greets it with such an enthusiasm for life that it rubs off you and brings a smile to your face every so often. Duvan's curiosity for the camera has not subsided, this object that he so rarely can touch and explore.
We thought we'd again share some expressions as Duvan is chatting away at Mom & Dad, taking up the spoon every now and then to emphasize an important point...
Playing out in the sun is serious fun!
Duvan kept putting the pieces of this stacker on top of his head, before he became particularly interested in the little knobs attached to this piece. That is the look of pure concentration. :)
The focus of his attention...
These eyes are full of love and life.
There, the first evidence on film of Duvan's first teeth. :) The smile that steals our hearts over and over again.
Moments later Duvan decided to take a nap, which he conveniently did right where we played that morning.
Later in the morning Duvan was quite upset about being dressed, and wanted to be held afterwards, but since Mom & Dad had to get ready as well, Duvan had to be content with sitting by himself on the bed. He was crying one moment, and was cute the next when we handed him a clothes hanger to play with. He looked adorable holding the hanger in his hand, the tear running down his left cheek the only evidence of the high drama of a moment ago.
Dimple-faced curiosity.
Duvan looks adorable in his snow-white fleece PJ's, another of Grandma Martie's creations.
Here Duvan is testing the motions of crawling. He gets into position for take-off, will bluff with a couple of mock attempts at movement (see milestones above), but still prefers sliding as his primary mode of transport.
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