As our Moon Child enters her twentyfifth month on Planet Earth, the celebrations just continue. Having barely recovered from her birthday parties, Luna helps Oma Naatje decorate the Christmas tree (row below). And upon seeing the tree again the next day, Luna recounts how she decorated the tree with Oma Naatje and mama. She loves her rapidly improving speaking skills and exercises them as often as she can!

Luna gets to make a trip to Amsterdam to visit the famous Artis zoo there (left). That is, the purpose of the trip is to hang out with Margaret and Joel (right), and the zoo seems like a good place for doing so. Margaret is a colleague of Luna's mom, from the University of British Columbia in Canada. Thanks to her daily dosage of the Dumbo DVD, Luna now recognizes the elephants, monkeys, zebras, lions, bears, etc. She is also learning to imitate the sounds the various animals make. Her monkey one is especially hilarious, for she also employs her arms in the process. It is high time to take another video of our cheeky monkey. Her mom will keep this in mind!

When Luna visits the Youth Health Bureau, she weighs in at 11.5 kilograms (25.35 US pounds) and measures 85.5 centimeters (33.66 inches). She is supposed to be able to stack three blocks, but playfully creates a pile of no fewer than seven. Luna is praised for especially her mobility.

                

Luna's holiday celebrations start at the day care center, Heyendael. Luna wears her Santa hat too briefly for her mom to take a picture of it with Luna smiling into the camera (top left). The children and staff have have made beautiful cards for each other that are handed out during holiday party (middle left). Lots of parents come over to enjoy a delicious snack buffet (bottom left). If you look carefully, you will notice Luna hiding behind one of the parents. Luna and Filippo admire Baby Jesus while singing Christmas songs (top right). They are joined by Josefien and Boaz (middle right). And this gang of four is further strengthened by Isis and Casper (bottom right). Luna's favorite song is "Jingle Bells."

One of the advantages of living in the Netherlands is that Luna gets to celebrate no fewer than two Christmas Days. During the first, she enjoys a delicious meal with Opa Tano and Oma Naatje in papa's home (below left). During the second, she hangs out with Ome Arno, Tante Daphne, and Ome Bob at Opa Tano and Oma Naatje's house (below right). Daphne's children, Nouchka and Sebastiaan, are also there, but busy playing games and chatting on the computer. Ome Arno and Luna take a picture of mama taking a picture (below middle). Luna is quite intrigued by this.

Luna loves it when the neighbor girl Victoria comes over to play (left). She is especially excited about getting to ride on Victoria's back. After one of their play dates, Luna ends up with a bruised eye (right). Actually, the bruise was probably caused by Luna bumping into her mom's piano. Since this is her very first bruise, it has to be captured by Esther-Mirjam's camera, of course! Fortunately, it does not seem to bother our young lady one bit. In fact, she kind of seems to like the look!
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On December 31, Luna visits the circus for the first time in her young life. Unfortunately, Esther-Mirjam does not get around to taking any pictures of how much Luna enjoys the show. Luna knows all about the circus because of watching Dumbo, night after night after.... Also, there are no pictures to post of Luna's New Year's Eve celebration, because she slept through it all, including the loud fireworks right outside her bedroom window. Papa and mama later realized they could have chosen a better spot for lighting the fireworks! So much for responsible parenting, eh?!

Luna is starting to learn about potty training (left and right). She seems especially eager to give it a try after mama has announced that it is high time for our young lady to go to bed! Nothing has actually landed in the potty yet, but Luna is having lots of fun with it nonetheless.

Luna is very good at entertaining herself and especially loves doing puzzles. She got this one for her birthday from her former neighbor from the Van Beethovenstraat in Nijmegen, Anneke (below left). After having added another piece to the puzzle, she gives herself a little applause (below middle). And she looks rather pleased with herself after having completed the entire puzzle (below right). And rightly so, of course!

Esther-Mirjam has a little confession to make, which is that it took lots of tricks to take the picture of Luna wearing the Santa hat on the Christmas card. And what does Luna do now? She puts on the Santa hat all by herself and says "Mama take a picture?!" Unfortunately, it is too late for the card. Fortunately, it is not too late for the website.

On one of the first non-rainy days in a long time, Luna visits the zoo in Kleve, with Opa Tano, Oma Naatje, and mama (below middle). She especially loves the goats in the petting zoo, and shows no fear of any animal, despite once getting knocked down by two fighting goats (below left). Having learned to walk through the puddles with her boots, Luna does the same wearing her regular shoes, and the result is a pair of very dirty pants (below right). Uh oh!

Luna continues to love having a bath (row above; left and right). While doing so, she entertains herself with her ducks and with her book "Mimi's Toes." The only thing Luna is not crazy about is getting shampoo in her eyes. Mama should be more careful!

Hip, Hip, Hurray!
Fifty years old!

Wait a minute. Did Luna just jump from two years to fifty? No, of course not. Papa turned fifty! The banner reads: "Old? You got to be kidding! 50 is half of 100!" And the whole thing rhymes in Dutch, of course. The banner was made by Hans's children, who also generously treated him to many presents. Luna does not quite understand the concept of presents for others yet, and bought Hans a "Winnie the Pooh" DVD. Uh oh!

Hip, Hip, Hurray!
Twenty-five months old!

Esther-Mirjam continues to count her blessings at least once a month, during the celebration of Luna's Month Day. And this despite the fact that our young lady has reached her "terrible twos," as witnessed by her favorite word: "no"! Mom's challenge is to set the proper boundaries for her little darling. She has entered into a whole new parenting phase, indeed. And soon two parenting phases shall have to be combined. Uh oh!