At the Market

With the weather turning volatile and cold, the beach vacation wasn't completely about the beach. In fact, the entire crew made their way to Middleburg to see the city, and found themselves in the middle of the weekly market. As can be seen below, Lautje picked this moment to practice walking (with the helpful use of his kinderwagen), much to the chagrin of the many people trying to walk quickly through the crowded market square.
After a strenuous afternoon pushing his kinderwagen through the excitement of the market, Lautje joined his cousin Wim in taking a nap in their respective kinderwagens.

More Fun at the Beach

At first, Lautje was quite hesitant to play in the sand. For whatever reason, he simply refused to move from the blanket (which rather endeared him to his Daddy, who also was quite content to stay off of the sand). In the photo below, the intrepid duo does their best to enjoy the beach while staying clean...
However, eventually, Lautje began playing with and in the sand. But only after the Mommy tricked him. From then on, Lautje was content to get dirty and cause as much trouble on the beach as possible (although, try as he might, he just couldn't match his older cousin Fina, who was much more at home on the sand). Below, a photo of the entire gang hanging out at the beach.

The Zeeland Vacation

As some of you might be aware, Lautje recently enjoyed his first beach vacation (and thus the reason for the lack of blog updates - and to answer a few questions: Yes, they do have internet access in Holland, but no, the Daddy does not consider updating the blog to be part of his vacation duties...). In any event, Lautje got to visit the beach for the first time. And he wasn't immediately fond of the sand. Part of this may have to do with his Daddy, who can be seen in the photo to the left pointing out the dry non-sandy land to Lautje, and explaining how it (as opposed to the beach) does not get inside your shoes and make everything dirty when you get back to the hotel...
Of course, the Mommy also spent some quality time with Lautje on the beach, and managed to convince him that sand is not so bad, and could actually be entertaining (which is all well and good so long as the Daddy doesn't have to clean it out of Lautje's diapers later in the day...). However, the photo to the left is simply the Mommy schmoozing on her boy, because that is what Mommies do (more evidence can be seen behind them, where the Aunt Sarie is schmoozing on her boy...).