Last year, a very special package arrived in the mail. In between recovering from two broken wrists and a broken arm, my mother had been secretly making Hayden his very first quilt. I found out that every Wednesday she had been heading down to a quilting workshop, where she had been painstakingly cutting, blocking and piecing together this amazing creation. She chose a theme of Australian sea creatures, and the humpback whales, dolphins, and sea turtles swim together in a colourful and tranquil staggered brick pattern. With sashing strips of yellow and blue, and a backing of tiny stars, it’s currently great for tummy time and will have pride of place on his bed when he gets a bit older.

Google’s search app for the iPhone now lets one capture an image, turn it to text, and translate it on the fly. I took a few snaps around Brussels to see how well it fared in French and Dutch. Quite well in French, not so well in Dutch.

Google Street View has launched in Belgium, which means that one can now take a virtual walk through the streets of Brussels. Mostly taken during the summer of 2010, I think that these images capture the character of the city as well as a few candid moments.

Following on the success of the Rainforest Bouncer, I ordered the Rainforest Gym from amazon.de. At first, Hayden wasn’t terribly impressed, mostly beacause he had to lie flat on his back, not sitting up like in the bouncer. However, as he has developed, he seems to be enjoying this a lot more. Now that he can rock from side to side, he slowly wiggles his way around the mat, play with the various hanging toys. He likes to hit the rattle with his feet to make a noise, and hold the spinning paddle with two hands and slowly rotate it. He will often look quite serious when interacting with the hanging toys, almost as if he is conducting neurosurgery rather than shaking a toucan rattle. He also gets very chatty, singing along with the rainforest song. We try tummy time here and I hold the mirror up to his face, but he’s not very impressed and much happier on his back. He will entertain himself for up to an hour now, which would give me time to do other things, if I didn’t just love sitting beside him and watching him play.