My Digital World

Most of the people know that I like kids very much. In The Netherlands, I have taken care of many kids. A few years ago, my mom took care of a kid who was just a few months old. Here starts the story of this little kid.

This little baby was 2-3months old. Before she came to our home, my mom had asked me about babysitting. The baby was expected to stay at our home 24h/6days since their parents had to work and they supposed to take their baby back to their home when they had a day-off. After some talks, we decided to take care of the kid.

乐乐 was the first kid that we took care of. She is a girl and she is a very brave girl. Her name characterizes how she is: she is always very happy and like to laugh. Many, many and many people like her very much. Because her laughs bring happiness other people, including me. When we took her out to walk around or to gave the ducks some food, people used to ask if they were allowed to take pics of her.

The picture below was taken when 乐乐 was 8-9 months old. Her hair has been cut a few months ago. That was why she didn't have that much hair on this picture.


She used to have her dinner at this chair. This chair had been used for more than 10 years already. The first one who used this chair was my brother.


She learned walking at this thing.


乐乐 is a very smart, shy and lovely girl. When she could talk, she started to learn to count and memorizing the whole alphabet. She is also able to distinguish the color difference. But when she made a mistake, you could clearly see at her face that she was shy: she didn't talk and gave a shy-smile.
乐乐 is a very brave baby. She doesn't cry much and she doesn't ask much attention. Every time when she lies in my arms, she starts to sleep. That is a very typical thing of kids who are in my hands. I don't know why I can make them sleepy. Maybe I am a very boring person, like the boring lectures that make me sleep.

Although 乐乐 is very cute, her parents didn't take a look at their own kid in the first 1,5 years. We thought in the first month that her parents already forsaked her since they didn't come along at their spare time. They only came along at the day when they needed to pay my mom for babysitting. Therefore 乐乐 spended her first New Year with us. Below, a pciture was taken at the New Year's eve. My aunt held 乐乐 at her arms.


I personally think that you should take care of your own kids once they are born since they need their careness of their parents very much although they don't know how to express their willings. It is also a start of building a good relationship. Because 乐乐's parents didn't take care of their own daugther very much, 乐乐 had a very weird feelings for them. She thought that her parents were strangers and she used to want to keep a distance from them. Once she became older and older, she also turned to more and more adorable. Their parents wanted her back. They visited their own baby regularly. Starting from once a month, they "upgrade" it to twice a month and finally every week. Time flies by. 乐乐 is already two years+ old.

乐乐 usually likes to play with my cousin "yingying". 乐乐 usually asks me to bring to my cousin's house to search for yingying to play with.


Sometimes my cousin has nice girly-things to share with 乐乐,


I can see that 乐乐 grows up very fast. At the beginning, I always hold her in my arms when I go to shopping or going to market to buy things for my mom. When she could walk, I held her hand. But at the beginning, it was very tiring to hold her hands. First, she was too small for me. Therefore I had to bend myself down to let her hold my hands. Second, it was not a holding hand principle, but it was "she used her hand to hold one of my fingers because my hand was too big for her!" I have short fingers and they are pretty thick, like 10 sausages (in Dutch they called this kind of hand 'worstvingers'). I have been asked whether 乐乐 is my daughther. I wished I could say yes!

Days and days passed by. Finally 乐乐's parents took her back to their own home. 乐乐 had had a very tough time since she never had had a family feeling. Their parents said that she never forgot us and always mention to go to our place. Because 乐乐 was so sad, their parents let her to stay at out home for a few days. We could see her smiles and happiness back. However in the end she had to leave us. The pics below were taken before she left us:

Her last smile!


She changed her clothes into sleeping-mode.


Drinking milk before she sleep.


A wave to me, which means a goodbye sign for me.


She cried a lot when she saw her parents because she knew that they would bring her to her own home. It was very sad to see her leaving. But I think 乐乐 suffered the most pain of all of us.

From that moment on, their parents don't let 乐乐 contacts us for years. Now 乐乐 is 4,5 year old. She goes to school and she can speak Dutch. This Monday, her mom gave us a call suddenly. She said that she and 乐乐 will go to Groningen and she asked us if we liked to see 乐乐. I have planned to go to Delft at Monday to meet Mark since he had a day off and he will go to Delft. But because I haven't seen 乐乐 for ages and because I saw Mark a month ago, I went to meet her.

When we saw 乐乐, it seems that she already forgot us mostly. I can read in her eyes that she is thinking of where she has seen us before. Fortunately, she knows that my mom has taken care of her. After talking to her mom and 乐乐, we ask her mom to let 乐乐 stay at our place for a few days since she has 1 week holiday. Her mom agrees and 乐乐 also likes to stay at our house. So my mom brings 乐乐 to our home while I go to Delft. When I come back to home at Friday, I am told that 乐乐 has to go back to her parents today (Saturday). It is a great pity that I cannot company her very much. But I have to be satisfy that she can stay for a couple of days. I spend the time left that we were being together. I teach her how to play games on the computer and I let her listening to music.

The little girl on the left is Jennifer. She is another girl who my mom takes care of. 乐乐 is on the right. 乐乐 doesn't like being captured on the photo. Maybe she is very shy. Anyway I can clearly see that she is grown up.


Here I have another picture of them.


乐乐 likes playing music.


She is playing with me.


Today, I brought her home. On the way to her home, she fell asleep. I put her in my arms and when we arrived at the place where she lives (Stadskanaal), I make her awake because I do not know the way to her home and I wonder if she knows. Indeed she knows the way. But she was very tired because she just took a nap. She hugs me and sleeps on my schoulder while she tells me how I can go to her house. Arriving at her home, I can fee that 乐乐 has the home-feeling. At one side I am glad that she finally settles down at her own place where she should belong to. But at the other side, "our line" is clearly marked and me and our distance becomes more and more bigger which makes me less happy. The feeling is weird....