Summer 2010

In June and July....wow it was very warm....I enjoyed ALL three swimming pools in our garden from the small pink fish from our holidays in Greece last year...to my pirate ship (here playing with Florian) and our luxurious lie-back swimming pool. I love to play although I am not ready to jump into big deep swimming pools without some type of float to help. Anyway enjoy these warm summery pictures.

I went to England to stay with Grandma and Ti'pah for a week when mamã went to America. Mamã and papá went on the motorbike and watched the World Cup Final in centre of Brussels - Spain vs Germany - Spain won....:-)

Last day in the second Maternelle and time to say goodbye to my teacher Geraldine who has been my teacher for my first 2 years. Here I am in the classroom and you can see some of our activities behind my head. Summer will now begin....and I am off to meet Grandma and Ti'pah with mamã and papá in Calais on Saturday. I had two days of 'stage' and then we drove to Calais. We took Grandma and Ti'pah out for lunch by the fort of Calais...I saw fresh mussels and other fish coming out of the boat and being sold. We had a yummy lunch with very decorative plates. Then I was ready to go and excited to go on the big boat with Grandma and Ti'pah to England for 10 days. I got a new green car on the boat. Mamã went to USA and had to run across New York airport to get home on a different flight to spend the weekend with Papá.
I saw Lauren at Grandma and Ti'pah's house and had loads of fun playing different games and going to new swings/slides at the park near the house. Grandma took me back to Brussels by the train...she was very kind. I was so excited to see my mamã when we arrived :-).

My castle bed

I have a new special bed and it is my castle...I am very happy with my new home - I sleep on top and I play underneath. I peer through the 'walls' for my bedtime stories and I can close my fortress walls to keep other people out :-)

I am also learning to write letters and words. I copy but I can already count and write 0-9 without any help (taught by my grandma). Here I am writing "dog, cat, leaf, water" with my mamã while papá is on an aeroplane to Dammam...

Cousin Rodrigo

My cousin Rodrigo came to visit - his first visit outside Portugal. I loved to kiss him and I got him to make 'gurgling noises' to Tia and Tio's great satisfaction. We had loads of fun with lots of warm weather. We went to Walibi where I had my photo taken with every single animal, as well as went on the roller coaster, Tutankahmum and Spongebob 4-D and the ferris wheel and the aeroplane and and....We also went to a mediaeval festival and I wore my knight clothes, we went on a train as well as visited the beach. Rodrigo and I played in the garden and on the bouncy castle. Lots of kisses to you, Rodrigo.

Yes I am enjoying one of my favourite things - ice cream and the big slide. It is the school fete and there are loads of games including fishing the ducks and bouncy castles of all different sizes, a disco and food but I am more interested in the coca cola (well they had no ice tea so I had to have coca cola).

Building

I love to build towns with blocks and cars. I also love to watch Charlie and Lola...while my mamã and papá were in India for Uncle Josh's wedding, Grandma and Ti'pah came to look after me....there was a lot of works in the house as we got a new kitchen and painted ceilings...
Below is mamã and papá at a place called "Taj Mahal" - suppose to be a romantic place...I am not sure what that is....something to do with the kisses I give the girls or girl at school although she is NOT my girlfriend.

I am now Knight Hardman Rodrigues of the Maltese Knights. I have my shield and dagger and have taken weaponary lessons at the Castle of Eftenberg. I am very friendly until you make me annoyed...or I am tired or I want chocolate or I want chocolate croissant, then I am deadly. I have loads of energy and can dance lightly on my toes around and around you to make you dizzy. I can walk miles and miles shouting as a knight in battle.... 

Brussels and easter egg hunting

Here I am again on my scooter - this time with vovó in one of my favourite parks (Tervuren) - I feed the ducks bread, I play football, I ride my bicycle and I ride my scooter. Look at my new gloves from Tia and Tio.
Also I had a party....I wrote the invitations myself (pictures and the names) and Mamã wrote the date and address. We did easter egg hunting and ate loads of cakes and crisps - I made the cakes with Mamã :-)

Brussels and Weekend Holiday

I have a trotinette (Scotter) and I am very happy - having used Tiago (Gabel and Ze-Miguel's) scooter at Christmas...I have been asking for one...Mamã and Papá say this is my easter present. Yeeepeeee. I am very fast but also lazy....after a few minutes on it I want to give it to someone to carry it...well you can guess who...Papá  is teaching me to "fly" with both my feet on it.
We went on a holiday - I packed my own small suitcase of cars, toys, books and doudo...I looked for the taxi to take us to the airport but we went by car....we went to a beautiful farm house with a swimming pool and a sauna (why do people like saunas, it was very boring). We had a big dinner and I had burger and chips in a basket and afterwards an ice cream - yummmmy. The next day we visited the "SeaLife" in Blankenberge and I got a very special badge after we watched the seals. We had lunch at the seaside and then I went cycling along the sand dunes path which was loads and loads of fun :-)

Carnival

Look at me - I am wearing my carnival shirt and a mask I made at school. Mamã and papá call me a 'harlequin' :-) I wanted to wear it every day. I wore it also out on Sunday when we all went out - grandma and ti'pah came too. We went to a music museum - this was loads of fun. I had earphones and when I ran from one place to another infront of different instruments I heard different music. I was playing the drums and dancing in front of different windows :-)

I also love my pirate ship and castles. Here I am lying behind them - I have lots of pirate men, I have cat, mice, food, barrels, treasure, flags, beds, bell, lantern....

Brussels

Snow again but this time sledging...it was not fun until I went head first down the slope - then it was fun....yeeepeeeeeeee. We also went on a snow motorbike - wow, that was so exciting. After we had hot chocolate in a cafe' in Malmedy - yummy.

We celebrated "3 wise kings' - I got to eat lots of great food - here I am sitting at the head of the table.

And now I can swim on my back fully clothed... mamã and papá were very proud of me...I played with the ball and floats in the swimming pool after taking all my very wet clothes off.

New Year

Happy New Year to you all...we went to Porto by aeroplane to see my NEW cousin Rodrigo. I like to stroke his face and give him kisses. I am going to boss him around when he gets older :-)

Look, I am already a natural cousin - taking care of him as he sleeps, drinks milk, sleeps and drinks milk.

We had loads of parties every day - all the relatives and friends came to visit. I already started to work too to make some money to buy my own car.

I also did cooking and made aletria with vovó...I like to stick my tongue out when I concentrate on anything.

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...