I seem to have brought some structure into our home network with the help of a small Win2K3 SBS server. Most of the benefits are in the realm of systems administration but there are a few very good points for the users, such as backups of files, roaming profiles etc.

There is a bit of a problem with the backups though. I have a LVD-SCSI DLT tapedrive but my controler card have gone missing between the last house and this one. It’s probably a very good indication I need to organise my mostly quite outdated hardware but perhaps I should just get an external HDD and replicate the lot.

Safe to say my home network isn’t mission critical but my wife is my most important user.

Turns out the Wii Balance Board wasn’t measuring right because of our soft carpet. We’ve sorted out that problem and now my BMI isn’t good at all. I’m definitely overweight… But the workouts are still fun. Even Ilias is allowed to go on the Balance Board now, and he knows he MUST NOT JUMP on it!

Today we posted the birth announcements to Belgium, Netherlands, and Sweden, so keep an eye on those mailboxes!

Those of you who live in England and are too far away for us to drop them off by hand, hold on a little, we will post the English ones soon!

Thor is finally starting to smile when you entertain him and spends much more time looking at you when you talk. He’s ‘talking’ himself, cooing and gurgling. Very cute. We will try to catch his gorgeous smile on camera and post it. Watch this space!

… is what the sticker on Ilias said today when I picked him up from school. Isn’t that cool? Besides having stickers to reward the children for good behaviour, they’ve also got ones to alert parents to bumped heads.

As far as I could get Ilias to tell me, he tripped over chairs and hit his head on the door. And teacher put ice on it but he didn’t want that because it was too cold.

Thor got his 6 week check-up today and so did I.

Both of us have been approved.

Thor is now about 60 cm long, so we’re already three sizes on in his clothes. I must rearrange his wardrobe soon!

Yes, we are terribly late, but for those who are still waiting: we are stuffing envelopes with birth announcement cards this week and hope to send them out soon!

Sometimes when men get sick they get very very sick, sometimes they just feel like they are. Thor is suffering from a little baby cold with some pain in his throat and sneezing. It’s nothing serious and you wouldn’t notice from looking at him but he is clearly most displeased with the pain. Unfortunately, unlike a baby, parents can’t catch up on sleep during the day.

The other children are getting back into the usual groove after the turbulent few weeks of visitors and travel.

I got a Wii Fit and balance board for my birthday!

Tried it yesterday evening. It weighed me and tested my balance, and apparently my BMI is already perfect, but I still feel (and look) very stretched and flabby from childbirth. Anyway, it seems like great fun, and I might actually get fit from doing the exercises. If the children give me a chance to play it that is. Since you’re not allowed to throw or jump on the balance board, I’ve put it out of reach for only grown-ups to use at the moment.

Ilias watched yesterday and he absolutely loved the step aerobics class! I preferred the yoga-exercises and the balance games are fun, but hard to do. Probably need some practice.

Recently, Ilias was examining himself in the mirror. He said he was looking if his eyes were red. Upon further questioning, it emerged he had seen they were red on a photograph of himself!

When I was changing Thor’s nappy, Ilias spotted the poo in it. “The baby should go to the toilet!” he said. He is always being told quite forcefully to do poos in the toilet, so he really feels this rule needs enforcing in others. I explained: “The baby is too little to go to the toilet.” Whereupon he said: “We must get him a little toilet!”

Just a few days ago, we were in the airport dropping Lukas and Farfar off. Ilias saw a big sign that had several pictograms on it, including a car (Car Hire) and a little man and woman (Toilets). He put the two together in a wonderful piece of logical reasoning. “We need a car,” he said, “so we need some tiny people. Babies are tiny. Babies are tiny people. We need two babies to get a car!” I asked him: “You think we can trade two babies for a rental car!?” “Yes!” Unfortunately we only had one baby with us, so we couldn’t test his hypothesis, but fortunately we had come in our own car, so we got home without having to trade any babies at all.