2 Months!

Zoe turned two months old a couple days ago. She continues to be such an easy-going, quiet, and calm baby. Other than letting us know when she wet, hungry, or tired, she still barely makes any noise at all.

Although Zoe is an extremely quiet baby, she is quickly learning how to make herself heard. She has upped her crying game over the last month. She has also developed her little own attitude in a way. When she is hungry, she will start crying. But if I don't get to her in a reasonable amount of time (according to her), she goes from crying to short little "eh, eh" grunt/yelling noises. To me, it sounds like she is saying "hey, hey" while she's thinking "get over here and feed me!!" She likes to eat every three to four hours throughout the day.  

Since my last update, Zoe has started smiling and interacting with us. It's so much fun to go get her in the morning or from a nap and see a big smile on her face. She loves when we talk and sing to her and she also likes being around us and part of the action. 

With her big smiles, we can now see that she will have at least one cute dimple like her brothers and also beautiful bright blue eyes like her brothers. Her hair has grown a teeny tiny bit over the last month, but I think she is destined to be a little baldy like her brothers were for most of their first years. 

She also has the cutest little eyelashes now!

Zoe has grown a lot, is much stronger, and now has chubby little cheeks and a round belly. She is doing great lifting and holding her head up and is starting to try to roll herself from side to side. She is also quite wiggly. It's not uncommon for us to go get her in the morning to find that she has wiggled her diaper partially off. She now weighs 10.6 lbs, (4.820kg, 41 %) and is 21.9 inches (55.5kg, 33.7%) long. I know I've mentioned this before, but I'm not used to having an average size baby as both the boys were in the 90th + percentile for both height and weight not long after they were born. 

There is a free service here in Belgium for preventive care and vaccinations called Kind and Gezin. Although it is not what I'm used to for these types of services, it's nice that its provided for free. Zoe has been there several times for check-ups and started her vaccinations a week ago.

She can sleep pretty much anywhere and through anything, but Zoe does love to be swaddled tightly. A couple weeks ago, she dropped her 3:00 am feeding and now sleeps through the night. I usually feed her in the evening between 7:30 and 8:00, then she goes to bed and usually sleeps until 6:30 or 7:00.

Zoe is much more expressive these days. Along with smiling, she makes lots of other fun faces. She has definitely perfected the furrowed brow, quivering lip and frown. 

Zoe's favorite place to be is still in our arms. She loves to snuggle and cuddle and I am more than happy to oblige! 

The boys continue to enjoy Zoe as well. They still love to give her hugs and kisses and often argue about who gets to hold her or who she will sit by at dinner (in her bassinet). They like to try to calm her down if she's upset and are the kings of the bink (or dummy as I've heard it called here). Zoe loves her soothie bink and the boys rush to give it to here whenever she makes a peep.

  

They did this on their own!

I have been looking back through pictures of the boys when they were little and have been reminded of a couple things. First, time goes so fast! I got a little teary-eyes looking at pictures of the boys as babies. They are getting so big and seem even bigger now that Zoe is here. Also, they look nothing alike!

Cameron, top left, Harrison, bottom left, Zoe, right

One other thing that we did this past month was get Zoe a passport. It was very interesting trying to get an infant to take a proper passport photo with all the crazy regulations...look at the camera, keep your eyes open, head straight to the camera, nothing else in the picture (we obviously had to hold her head up), no expression whatsoever! We ended up getting an acceptable picture and we now have a passport for this little lady!

Below are some more pictures from the last month.

Trying to get a picture with Zoe...not so easy! 

First pair of jeans

Chubby cheeks and little lashes, nose and mouth

2 Months and a Weekend Trip to Brugge

Wow! I cannot believe it's been almost two months since we left South Carolina to start this journey! I have a lot to catch up on to fill everyone in about these last 2 months, but for the moment, I wanted to share about our first little trip since we've been here.

This past weekend we took a family trip to Brugge. Brugge is about 40 minutes north west of Gent, so it was a nice quick trip. Brugge used to be one of the wealthiest cities in Europe because of it's access to the North Sea for exports. However, the canals running through the city silted (became filled or blocked with silt) and that affected their ability to export. Subsequently, the city lost it's appeal and the wealth moved out. Due to the many restorations and historical building and monuments that still remain, it is now a huge tourist destination. Despite the unseasonably cold weather, we had a nice time.

This will be a bit of a photo post...

We started out by having a picnic in a park near the city center.

Picture with a cocoa bean

After some fun at the park, we went to a chocolate museum called Choco-Story. It was interesting to see the background of chocolate, but it was even better taste testing the fresh chocolate that we watched them make!

Watching how chocolate is made.

Once we were done at the museum, we went to check into our hotel (Flanders Hotel) to try to get a little nap before supper. It was not easy as we were all in one little room, but we successfully took little cat naps before dinner.











We ate at a restaurant called Nieuw Museum. I was very excited to eat some great Belgian food!! The menu was a little scary to me as they had mostly meat that I have never eaten before, but we had a great meal complete with yummy dessert.

Cooking the meat right in front of us.

On Saturday morning, we ate breakfast at the hotel and the boys swam for a while before we checked out.








Once we left the hotel, we went to the city center to take a boat ride through the canals to see the city. Cameron loved the boat and was amazed by the trip. It was very interesting to hear more of the history of the city.

After the boat ride and a quick lunch, we walked
around the city a little bit.









We went to Dumon Chocolaterie to get some yummy, fresh made chocolates to bring home.









We also made sure to get some waffles smothered in chocolate and whipped cream before we left. No picture of the waffles because they were gone before I even thought to take a picture! :)

Cameron took this picture of us...he did a pretty good job! :)

They call Brugge the "Venice of the North." Having been to both places, I can't say I agree, but Brugge is beautiful and I'm sure we will visit again.


This was our first real trip since we have been here. It was nice to spend time together and explore as a family. We look forward to many more trips in the months to come!