Upon entering his eighteenth month on Planet Earth, our sun baby shows off his ability to eat his food with a fork (row below, left and right). Lior is a great eater. There is nothing that he does not eat. However, the mess his leaves upon finishing his dinner testifies to the fact that he has not yet mastered the skill of eating with a fork completely (row below, middle).

As you may have noticed in the pictures above, our poor baby has a black eye (left). It is a result of the tumble he took while visiting Aafke in Utrecht for her birthday (see previous month). A few days later, he also manages to get a bloody nose. Unfortunately, mom was too busy helping her young son to take a picture of it. All in all, Lior takes the tumbles in stride. What a trooper!

Would you believe that little Lior begs to be put in his playpen? As you can see, he loves hanging out in it (right). Here he finds himself surrounded by his toys and safe from his sister, who is usually very nice to Lior but sometimes pretty rough with him.

Lior does not quite get it when it comes to blowing bubbles (left). He dips the applicator in the bubble fluid, but subsequently holds it away from his face while he blows. At the same time, he is able to say "bellenblaas"! Feeding his rabbit, Pleun, is also a challenge (right). Lior gets a fist full of rabbit food, but then drops it outside of Pleun's cage.

When the weather turns colder, Lior needs new house shoes, and Opa Ben and Oma Alie go looking for a pair with their grandson (row below, right). They find adorable Cars slippers (row below, middle,) and Lior proudly parades in them around the house (row below, left).

When mom takes a closer look at Lior's bubble fluid, she notices that it was produced by "Bimbo." (In Dutch, bimbo translated into something like "dom blondje."). And on Lior's house shoes, mom reads the text: "Revolting Racing Team." (In Dutch, revolting translates into "weerzinwekkend.") Is Esther-Mirjam turning into an irresponsible mom?

One of the joys of having an older sister is that you get to play with her blocks (row below). Who cares that these are princess blocks? They stack just as well as other ones. Fortunately, mom is not making Lior wear his sister's princess house shoes!

Lior loves hanging out at the daycare center, Heyendael (row below, middle). This may be because he enjoys hanging out on the laps of Burcu (row below, left) and Colette (row below, right). He also likes to play with the other children, of course!

After having seen his sister go round and round in the merry-go-round, Lior figures that he is old enough to follow her example. Fortunately, Opa Ben is there to make sure our young man does not fall (row below, left) and his sister also comes over to help (row below, right). The two are enjoying each other's company more and more (row below, middle). Luna is usually very sweet to Lior and whenever she is not, Lior informs his mom lound and clear!

When he accompanies Luna to gym for toddlers, Lior figures that there is no point in sitting back and enjoying the show. Instead, he gives it a try himself, climbing over (row above, left) and on top of (row above, right) the exercise equipment. And when he turns out to be a little too small for one of the exercises, he gets a little help from one of the teachers, Marie José (row above, middle). He also entertains himself with the balls (top left) and the clubs (bottom left). Might a career in rhythmic gymnastics be in store for him? Lior helps the bigger kids with the giant tent (top right) and is much too enthralled to sit underneath it with the other ones (bottom right).

After a fun-filled day, Lior struggles to stay awake during dinner (row below, left and middle). Yet, he still has a cheeky smile to share (row below, right).

Inspired by gym for toddlers, Esther-Mirjam takes Lior to Chimpie Champ, an indoor playground (row above, middle). Lior especially enjoys the cars (row above, left) and bikes (row above, right). He practices his dance moves in the disco (left) and takes a break in the ball pool (right).

When there is an outdoor party in his street, Lior participates in the kids' games. Mom had not signed him up, thinking he would be too small, but with a little help from his sister (far left), he figures out where the rings need to go (middle left).

And after his sister has shown him how the inflatable bounder works (middle right), mom has a hard time getting Lior to get off it again (far right). Indeed, our young man shows no fear and generally knows very well how to entertain himself!

As you may have noticed, it was high time for Lior to get his very first haircut. Our young man does not like it one bit (row above, left), but eventually settles down (row above, right). The fact that he gets distracted by a Kabouter Plop video helps a lot (left and right). The contrast between his hair and that of his sister is striking (row above, middle).

When Esther-Mirjam and Luna go outside to feed Pleun, the rabbit, Lior accidently locks them out of the house (middle right). Unfortunately, he does not know how to unlock the door again, so mom ends up having to break into the house. Opa Ben makes sure that this cannot happen again (far right).

Of course, our young man roots for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish (left). These are the sports teams of the University of Notre Dame, where his mom taught for ten years. The record of the football team is 3-1 and this upcoming weekend they play against the football team of the university at which his mom obtained her Ph.D., the Stanford Cardinal. If only she could fly over for just one weekend.

When Lior visits the Youth Health Bureau (right), he weighs in at 11.1 kilo (roughly 24.5 US lbs) and measures 75.5 centimeters (roughly 29.74 US inches). His height is a little below average, but still well within the normal range, and his weight is exactly average for his height. Lior shows that he is able to throw a ball without falling down and to stack two blocks on top of each other, though he much prefers to knock over blocks! He also has a vocabulary of more than the expected three words, including the Dutch words: mama, papa, ja, nee, bad, op, uit, bellenblaas, Ella (Luna), Ior (Lior), Ake (Aafke), da da (dag dag), hi, boem, boek, vis, buik, voet. Mom is working on his English vocabulary. Lior also seems to understand much more all of a sudden and will throw things in the trash can when asked to do so (and also when not asked to do so!). Overall, he is praised for his easy-going demeanor.

Hip, Hip, Hurray!
One-and-a-Half Years Old!

Time flies when you are having fun, and our Sun Child is certainly having lots of fun (left and right). With him, the Sent clan is having fun considering itself very fortunate to have him as a member.