Christmas

It's a very, very white Christmas...I've been playing many times in the snow in our garden, at school and we left for grandma and ti'pah's house on Monday 21st December and we loads of snow...we had to wait 4 hours to take the train in the tunnel and we sat in a lot of traffic...we stopped for dinner in Slough and we arrived after 15 hours - then I played for another hour before going to sleep :-)

Happy Christmas to everyone. I had apple champagne. Father Christmas came down the chimney - I told grandma and ti'pah to turn of the fire to make it not hot for him - I also put a carrot and cake for him to eat and they had gone in the morning. I had loads of presents that I put in my bedroom ready to take home. Each day I took more and more presents to play with but made sure they all went home.

We saw lots of friends and family - Auntie Vicky, Uncle Keith, Lauren and Melanie, Sally, John, Andrew, Melinda, David, Chloe, Sophie and Auntie Cherith

My 4th Birthday

It is my 4th Birthday - I made my own hat cutting out the crown and orange circles and sticking them onto the hat and also writing 4. I love pirates so I had birthday pirate cards, pirate chocolate cake, pirate puzzle but also loads of very nice presents that filled the house - even a Bob the Builder kit. Thank you everyone.

Skills

I have started writing my name all on my own and I know when I am asked what is my name I say
TIAGO NICHOLAS HARDMAN RODRIGUES.
I love my mamã and papá very much - I give loads of hugs and kisses and I say "I love you" "Eu gosto ti".

I love to draw - I draw houses, people, trees with apples, birds, churches, doors, clouds, sun...roads, rows and rows of houses. I am very happy to draw for hours.

The Romans are here!

The Romans are here....can you find me with my matching orange top and my own sword...ready for the fighting...
Look at the sunny weather too for September in Belgium - +25 deg C while my mamã is in the US for 3 weeks (where is the US - they show me a map and say I am here, vovô and vovó are over there, grandma/t'pah are there...??). Anyway back to the real business...what is everyone else (besides the two soldiers next to me) looking at ...they are all looking to the right and beyond...look below at the battle field...We are in Namur with vovô and vovó and papá.

Swimming lessons

This month I started with swimming lessons....Here I am with a float on my belly and kicking on my back, next lesson I had nothing and swam 2 secs without my head going under water. It's a warm small pool with 2 teachers that are trying to get me to put my eyes in the water, which I do NOT like even with my goggles...where is my towel to wipe my eyes?!




Since I love cars, I am much into motor sports too; here I am giving it a try at karting with vovô and vovó watching in the background...

Growing grapes & Walibi

Growing grapes

Can you see me amongst the grapes - our first year to get grapes even in this belgium weather...quick let's take them very sweet purple grapes before the birds eat any more.
Here you can see how tall I am - I am 1.08 m tall (top 10% of belgium charts) and heavy heavy 19.8 kg (although I have not changed weight in 5 months now...) I have to watch my mamã's back.
I am now dressing myself in the morning and undressing myself in the evening alone. I am very good at washing my own teeth and I still love to hear stories at night - one of my favourites is hearing all the stories about making flour, cutting trees, stories of the pigs and the policeman.


I had loads of fun at a place called "walibi" - lots of rides 'ups and downs' and 'arounds', plus Sponge-Bob show where the chair moved and I got wet. I laughed and laughed on the rides below. Wow, there were so many things for me to do...and I had hot dog for lunch and I went on cars and I went on trains and I worked in a mine...and there were no queues...

Summer in Greece

Sunny smiles....

 Now I am really loving to swim in the sea...here the water in Greece is warm but also I am now a big boy - I have my armbands on and out I go...kick, paddle, laughing until I get water in my eyes and then I run out of the sea and dry my eyes with the towel

Piggy in the middle, yes I did catch the ball a few times as Auntie Vicky and cousin Lauren threw the bouncy water ball around me.

Here we are having more giggles and laughter...look at my tan...enjoy it while it lasts, says mamã - I am not sure what she means and what the fuss is about - I just want to play in the sea, eat, run around and eat more...

Here we are posing with Uncle Tasos - I hope I look as young as him at his age :-) We had loads of fun with Auntie Tania and Uncle Tasos.

Beautiful Christening of Efigenia, I saw all the Big Family, with Yiayia, Auntie Litza, Fenia, Athena, Dora, Nasos, Rita, Auntie Litza another one...

The best part was the bubbles and making new friends

all those chocolates and sweets

Let's be lazy....m,nm,nmnm

let's have a cuddle and squash a fly

mount athos boat trip - I read on the boat and I looked at the big monastries

,m,m,m.,m.,m,.m

August in Porto

Look at me, I am on an elephant in Goa, India...no I am not...I am in Coimbra, Portugal in the "Small Houses Museum" - Portugal was soooooo big a few years ago in places like Macau, Angola...- I learnt a lot about art and how small the people were - I could not even stand up in some of their houses.

but they had big bananas to eat...

mHere I am with one closed eye...why...I got stung by a mosquito. Mamã and papá took me to the chemist to get some medicine but they sent me to the hospital where only one parent could go with me but I was fine and went back to the chemist to get some medicine...Here I am visiting Tozé and Cristina and Katerina (Bea was away so I could play with all her toys).  I am learning to count so there is 1,2,3,4,5 people in the photo.

See how small the houses are...Mamã is in the window above me...

Long weekend in Sauerland

Germany Sauerland

We visited Attendorn and Atta-hoehle caves - we walked down a deep slope and then there were pretty wet rocks everywhere - small and large ones and we walked up and down and listened to a person talking in german. I was not afraid although it was very dark sometimes.

We took a long time to reach this castle...mamã and papá kept talking to each other about "not another diversion" - not sure what that means - so I looked outside the window and I slept also (I am a good person in the car). When we arrived at "Altena" it was raining very hard and we climbed up a steep hill so I asked papá to carry me most of the way.
Then I enjoyed it inside the castle - there was a special "scouts room" with many beds inside.

Here I am as a 'dashing' knight in armour...ready for my sword? The 'hood' was soooo heavy, that I nearly fell over just wearing it.

Back to the old days and I am being eaten by a Dinosaur....fear not, my mamã and papá will save me.
After being saved, we had a lovely dinner outside on the terrace in a "biergarten" in this town called Arnsberg.

The next day, we visited the lakes near Hirschberg before driving to Soest for lunch where there were many bicycles (and a lot of rain). We had a big lunch and visited churches before mamã bought a helmet for her bicycle (grey colour, mine is a green helmet).
After lunch we went to a railway museum in Bochum - so many types of trains with some weird double decker high speed one. Again it rained and rained so I had a chance to play some games especially for children.

Then it was another long drive (comfortable in papá's new BMW 104 sports car) via Essen (church with gold Madonna and child) to Köln where there is a very, very large church. We had dinner - a type of pizza - by the river and I loved running off to play and just be naughty - I am always full of energy :-). Here I am with mamã in Köln next to a smaller church.  Aufwiedersehen.

Summer is here!

Yes, the Pirate ship is here again...yeepeeee....splash, squirt, scream, laugh, throw balls....Anabel and Diego are my Pirate mates...

Yes, I can be a serious artist...paints and paper and off we gooooooo...

Here is my latest new toy - my very own climbing frame, swing and slide. Yes, I am very pleased. What a lot of work papá and Ti'pah did with help from grandma and mamã.

Doux doux

My favourite companion! So cosy.....

My class!

1e maternelle at La Fermette - 1st and 2nd maternelle - I am 1st maternelle - my teacher is Géraldine on the left - she had a baby so Anne on the right was also my teacher. My best friends are Sorin and Basile - 2nd row from bottom 4th and 3rd from the right and Diego from next door top row 4rd from left.

Wedding

Papá's cousin's wedding in Portugal (Vila Verde) - this was one of the best bits where I was throwing flowers over George and Regina, again and again.

me, tia and papá...don't we all look very smart and pretty.

look at my balancing act - yes a plate on a stick with one leg in the air and hopping....

olá, olá, don't I look a big school boy with "my" tie on...do i look like I drank a bit too much at the wedding party - just water, juice but I am exhausted from running around, dancing, playing on the bouncy castle...as usual I am ready to stay up for the party...as soon as I got in the car, maximum 10 seconds and I was fast asleep....

São João in Porto

This year I saw São João (St. John) festivities in Porto for the first time (Jun 24 every year). Oh, how much fun I had!
Look at those fireworks that mamã and papá went to see on the River.

The best things for me were the plastic hammers where I could hit everyone and the hot air balloons which flew off into the sky.




Manjericos - speical plants with a very strong smellllll

watch out for me as I have "TWO" hammers....yeepeeeeeee.

ready steady goooooooo, off the balloon goes. Sardines are the speciality for the evening...too fishy for me...