As our Sun Baby enters his fifteenth month on Planet Earth, he discovers that he needs just one hand to walk around. Indeed, he is making such rapid progress that it cannot be long until he tries to walk all by himself.

When Lior spends a night at Opa Ben and Oma Alie's, mom stays to give her son a bath. It gives the two of them an opportunity to have some one-on-one time, whcih they both very much enjoy (row below).

Opa Ben and Oma Alie go to Ikea for breakfast with their grandchildren. The young man gets to sit in his own car seat (row below, left) and enjoy a delicious croissant (row below, middle). While his sister hangs out in the play corner, our young man gets to enjoy a nap (row below, right).

Once back from Ikea, Lior is more interested in entertaining Opa Ben and Oma Alie than taking a nap in his bed (row below). He is quite the charmer, as you can see!

Lior loves to hang out in his back yard, playing in the sand box (row below, left and right) and going down the slide (row below, middle). The latter is clearly his favorite. He goes down all by himself, under the watchful eye of his mom, of course.

Esther-Mirjam's colleague Ferdy perpares a delicious dinner for the Sent clan (left). Lior much prefers the ice cream he gets to enjoy afterwards (right).

Every Thursday morning, Lior goes swimming (row above, right). When Oma Alie comes along (row above, left), Opa Ben takes pictures. Mom loves cuddling with her son (row above, middle), while Lior loves to play in the pool (left). Afterwards, he goes home in the bicycle trailer (right).

Lior is quickly following Luna's example when it comes to walking on the water mat.Yet, Luna seems too busy making sure she does not fall to watch her little brother follow in her footsteps.
Click here to watch the clip.

Here is further evidence of how much our young man enjoys going down the slide. Indeed, he is turning into a very active young man who is continuing to enjoy life very much.
Click here to watch the clip.

Under the watchful eye of Ome Willem, Oma Naatje's oldest brother (row below, middle), and his youngest sister, Lior plays in the swing (row below, left and right). Indeed, Luna is turning into a second mom for Lior, making sure he gets enough to drink and to eat. And she loves to entertain her brother with her singing and dancing. He returns her efforts with lots of laughs.

When Lior spends a weekend with Aafke, a visit to the Nijntje statue is obligatory (row below).

Mom leaves a cell phone with her son so he can call her should something be the matter (middle right). Yet, knowing that he is in the loving care of Aafke, all is well (far right).

Lior quickly feels at home in Aafke's room in Utrecht (far left). He feels comfortable enough to entertain her by making funny faces (middle left).

Aafke's friend Teuni comes over to admire her friend's youngest brother (row below, right). She also gets treated to Lior's funny faces (row below, left). Our young man does not mind sitting in between two lovely ladies (row below, middle).

Aafke's friend Karin also comes over to spend time with little Lior (middle right). She tries to convince him that rosé is much more interesting than fruit juice, but Lior knows better than that (far right)!

Aafke's cat Billy is not sure what to think of the little human being who pays him a visit (far left). When Lior is taking his afternoon nap, Billy cannot take his eyes off the young man (middle left).

Papa also comes over to Aafke's to spend time with two of his children (row below, middle). The weather is so nice that Lior gets to play in the kiddy pool in the park (row below, left and right).

Papa and Lior also hang out on the grass in the park (far left). What Lior enjoys most during the visit, however, is the big ice cream cone that Aafke buys for him (middle left). Mom does not really enjoy the chocolate-covered t-shirt!

Our young man does not look so young anymore when he is pictured sitting in the grass (right). Indeed, he seems to be making a developmental jump aided by the fact that hardly anything scares him.

11 PM. Pitter patter. "Mamaaa." Luna thinks that it is morning and wants to climb into mom's bed so she can watch a little television. However, Esther-Mirjam is downstairs updating the websites of the kids. "Okay, you can sleep in mama's bed and I will join you soon." 12:30 AM. Mom finally gets into bed. 2 AM. "Whoaaa." Lior is awake. Mom decides to take him into her bed as well. Lior lies quietly on her tummy for a while. 2:30 AM. "Mamaaa." Lior is pulling Luna's hair. 2.45 AM. Mom makes an extra bottle for Lior. Suddenly all his worries disappear (row below). 3 AM. Lior goes back into his own bed. 7.30 AM. Trrring. The alarm clock goes off much too early.

Wow, look at all these cute animals at the petting zoo (row below, left). Gheez, these little pigs are trying to climb into my stroller (row below, middle). Boy, I am glad that they are gone (row below, right).

Lior and his sister are big fans of the Dutch soccer team. They dress in orange for the team's matches in the European Championships. However, they are less interested in posing in these outfits for their mom (row above, left, and right).

The Welpie cap looks so cool on Lior, but our young man is not too thrilled with wearing it (row below).

For Father's Day, Lior and his sister visit Opa Tano (row below, left), Opa Ben (row below, middle), and Papa (row below, right). They are very lucky to have these men in their lives!

Now that Lior is getting bigger and more mobile, he loves to play with Luna, either pushing her car (left) or having his car pushed by her (right). It was their initiative to play with the car, making mom realize how lucky they are to have each other.

Lior's hands are becoming more and more expressive (row below). He uses them to wave bye-bye, point, inform mom which food he (dis)likes, applaud his sister when she eats her dinner, play peek-a-boo, hold his drinks and food, pick his nose, pull his sister's hair, punch his mom's cheek.... Ah, such progress!

When Lior visits the Youth Health Bureau, he weighs in at 10.5 kilos (roughly 23.15 US pounds) and measures 77 centimeters (roughly 30.3 inches). His height is still a little below average, but still within the "green zone." He is nicely growing along the curve. His weight is exactly what it should be for his height. Our poor boy also receives immunizations, but does not cry at all. Such a trooper!

During the Summer Festival at Lior's day care center, Heyendael, our young man entertains himself by going up and down the slide, and up and down, and up and down (left).

Opa Tano holds Lior during the Summer Festival while his sister entertains herself on the merry-go-round (middle right). In the bicycle trailer on the way back home, Luna is not too thrilled that Lior no longer has his baby seat, for he now has easier access to her balloons (far right).

Luna, Lior, and Esther-Mirjam travel to Toronto, Canada because mom has a conference at York University and because she also has relatives in the area. At the airport, Luna and Lior still have to get used to sitting next to each other in the new dubble stroller (far left). By the time of the conference, they hold hands and exchange kisses (middle left).

During the looong flight to Toronto, Luna and Lior entertain each other by walking through the isles (below left), pushing the flight attendant call button (bottom middle), and balancing toys on each other's heads (below right). Esther-Mirjam is happy when they finally land in Toronto, but disappointed to find out that the stroller is not waiting for them at the gate, but in the luggage area. While carrying her big boy and holding hands with her big girl, Luna tells her that she has to go pee-pee, even though she had just gone in the plane. Esther-Mirjam tells Luna they will look for a washroom after having gone through the passport control. When Luna learns that there are no washrooms in the luggage area, she goes pee-pee in her pants and subsequently undresses herself in front of everybody. Meanwhile, Lior is crawling up and down luggage carts because the delivery of the baggage, including the stroller, is delayed. Pushing the stroller and pulling the suitcase, Esther-Mirjam makes her way to the car rental desk, where she is delayed further because there is no economy car available and the child seats require a special delivery. When she finally drives off in a luxurious car with her children in safely strapped into the car seats, the two back benchers fall asleep immediately. A warm welcome awaits the Sent clan in the house of David and Amanda in Kitchener.

Dave and Amanda have three children, Samuel (5), Carmen (4), and Elliott (1). Together with Luna and Lior, they just fit into the bathtub (left). Afterwards, David reads a bedtime story for the entire gang (right), which Lior does not seem to enjoy all that much. It must be the jet lag, eh?

David and Amanda's house is a children's play paradise, much to the delight of Lior (row below). The playroom is about the size of Esther-Mirjam's living room. It contains lots of toys, bord games, and dress up clothes, a television, a video recorder, a DVD player, and a comfy couch for the kids.

Luna loves dressing up in the princess clothes, including Cinderella's slippers (left). Each day she gets to be a different princess. And she loves to dance with princess Carmen (right) to the music of the K3 CD that she brought along as a present. "Kusjesdag" is the favorite of our two little princesses.

When Marg and Gary come over to hang out with the Sent clan (row below, left), they are put to work quickly. After all, a children's play paradise is even better with a little adult help! Gary pulls Luna and Lior in the wagon (row below, middle), while Marg pushes Lior on the swing (row below, right). Our young man has to stop laughing every now and then so he can take a breath. The swing is his favorite, hands down (as long as these hands are pushing)!

During a trip to Victoria Park in Kitchener, Lior enjoys the company of Elliott in the double stroller (middle right). Meanwhile, Luna has fun with Samuel in the splash fountain (far right).

When Samuel has finished his last day in Senior Kindergarten, the kids get to go out for ice cream (far left). Though wearing Snow White's dress, Luna must think that she is Sleeping Beauty, for she falls asleep on Samuel's shoulder wearing the dress (middle left).

David is the youngest of the Meijer children (middle right), while Nico is the oldest (far right). Tante Marijke is the sister of Esther-Mirjam's late grandmother Oma Truus. She is married to Ome Jan and their back yard is adjacent to that of David and Amanda, who now live in their old house.

When Luna and Lior tire of the children's play paradise at David and Amanda's, they can go over to "Oma and Opa's" very easily. Lior is grateful for the food he enjoys there (below left) and makes funny faces while sitting on Tante Marijke's lap (below middle). Ome Jan makes sure that Lior does not take a tumble down the stairs off their deck (below right).

And when Luna and Lior tire of "Oma and Opa's," they head over to David and Amanda's back yard, which is a little children's play ground. Lior climbs onto the teetet-totter all by himself (middle right) and also gets into the car without any help (far right).

All the play makes Luna and Lior very hungry. They get to enjoy a big bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken drumsticks with the whole family (far left). That is, Esther-Mirjam tries to feed Lior baby food at first, put Lior pushes her aside once he sets eyes on the chicken!

After dinner, Rob (middle right) and Maribeth (far right) return from their cottage to visit with the Sent gang. They are about to become grandparents themselves, because their eldest daughter, Naomi, is pregnant.

Hip, Hip, Hurray!
Fifteen Months Old!

Lior's fifteenth month day gets somewhat snowed under because of his visit to Canada. That is, he did get to enjoy Kentucky Fried Chicken. Not a bad month day meal, eh?