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Our second daughter, Kamila, was born in La Paz on
October 12th 1999 in clinica CEMES. It happened so fast that we didn't get a chance to photograph her as completely newborn. Her father was in the process of changing into clinical clothes when it happened. She weighed 3450 g and measured 50 cm. Here she is a few hours later, when her big sister came to visit her. |
| Here she is two days later. Her babysitters like to wrap her up tightly, so that she cannot move. It means that she sleeps almost all the time, in sharp contrast to Natasha, whose sleeping requirements as a baby were exceptionally small. |
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Two months old she has become more interested in
the world and less interested in sleeping. Here she is with our favorite babysitter, Dionicia, in the garden. It is almost Christmas so the plum tree in our front yard has been decorated. |
| Here is Kamila 3 months old with the whole family for Sunday brunch at a café in La Paz. |
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When Kamila turned 4 months old, her grand parents from Denmark came to see her for the first time. She made a very good impression, being incredibly cute and putting on a big smile every time they adressed her right from the beginning. |
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We also held her naming ceremony while the grand parents were visiting. Here she is in the family dress used for the ceremony (A simple ceremony consisting of getting the dress on her, taking a photo, and drinking a glass of Champagne). Our good friends, Claudia and Miguel Urquiola were designated to be her God parents. |
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By 4 months Kamila started to be a real play mate
for Natasha. Here she is on the back of Natasha's tricycle. |
| Here Kamila is 6 months old and she still loves to sleep or sit wrapped up in blankets on the back of our cook, Juana. It is oh so nice and warm and comfortable and secure to be carried around like that and never be left alone for a second. But it is hard work for Juana, because Kamila is rapidly approaching 9 kilos. |
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When Kamila was 8 months old, she went
on vacation to the Carribean island Isla Margarita together with her family (and her
favourite babysitter, Dionicia). Kamila loved to be in the swimmingpool, opposed to Natasha, who fell in by mistake and got scared. Natasha spend the whole week playing with the showers and sprinklers instead. |
| Natasha, who hates to have her own hair
washed, loves to wash Kamila's hair, and Kamila accepts the treatment without complaints. Now we are really beginning to fell the benefits of having two children rather than an only-child. |
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Kamila learned to walk well in advance of her 1 year Birthday. That surprised me. I thought she would be a little later developed since she spent her first two months sleeping and wrapped so tightly that she couldn't move a finger. But appearently that didn't cause any developmental delays. |
| Even though they fight a lot, Kamila
and Natasha clearly love each other. Natasha is amazingly patient with her little sister,
even though Kamila can be quite annoying. She always wants do do what Natasha is doing,
and she is so strongwilled that she usually gets what she wants. Natasha is using the computer a lot for learning all the pre-school skills, but Kamila often interferes by insisting on playing with the little ball inside the mouse or changing CDs all the time. |
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| Osvaldo decided to do a Ph.D. in
Economics, and since this is not possible in Bolivia he had to leave his family for a
while to attend courses aboad. He chose the least family-damaging option, which was a
Latin American Ph.D.-program requiring 3 months of courses in Santiago de Chile, a
Christmas break in Bolivia, 3 months of courses in Mexico City, a break in Bolivia in
April, and finally 3 months of courses in Buenos Aires. The thesis is to be written in La
Paz. In order to keep the absent father up-to-date with his rapidly growing kids in Bolivia, we bought an electronic camera. This resulted in a lot of nice pictures. |
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Especially Kamila misses her father a lot and cannot quite understand why he is gone. Fortunately Natasha and Kamila have each other, and although they do fight once in a while, they generally appreciate each others company and have a lot of fun together. |
| When Osvaldo left, Natasha and Kamila
got their own room, which quickly turned into the most important activity center in the
house. The room is very colorful and warm, decorated with all the nice things they make in
school.
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| The highpoint of the year in Bolivia is
Carnaval in February. Besides the traditional dances taking place mainly in Oruro
(recently declared a Cultural Patrimony of the World) it involves the Alasitas in La
Paz and challa all over the highlands. Here Natasha and Kamila are helping making challa in the house. |
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Kamila is here 3 years old growing more
beautiful by the day. She loves to dress up for ballet, but it still remains to be seen whether she is going to continue her ballet classes. Natasha lasted a month and then she decided that ballet was definitely not for her.
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| With her extremely
flexible body, Kamila has natural talents for ballet.
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But shortly after her first ballet exam, she got bored with ballet and dropped out. |
| Like the rest of the
family, Kamila really enjoys hiking and climbing in the mountains. Here
she is with Osvaldo and Raphaela in the forests around Coroico. She
is 4 years old.
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For Kamila's 5th Birthday, we made pool party in the garden for a few friends. The day started with rain, thunder, lightening, and hail (all of which is unusual for October in La Paz), so I was worried, but by 9 am the sun was shining from a clear, blue sky, and the kids had a great day in the garden. |
| Kamila is dressed up as princess for her annual theater performance at the French school. |
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Our family is divided with respect to soccer. Osvaldo and Raphaela supports Bolivar (light blue and white) while Lykke, Natasha, and Kamila are Strongistas (black and yellow). Here we are to a classic game at the Stadion in La Paz with the two team playing against each other (May 2005).
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| Kamila in her favorite element: in the pool in Rio Selva Resort with a couple of newfound friends. |
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Here is Kamila on her 6th Birthday together with the family.
The party with friends was held a few weeks later together with Natasha. Here she is biting the cake.
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| At age 6 Kamila was very
fond of sports and dedicated every afternoon to horseback riding, karate, or
gymnastics together with her best friend Alejandra Siles.
To the right is Kamila in one of her first riding classes at the Military School in La Paz, together with Ale.
And here she is recieving her Yellow belt in Shotokan karate after successfully completing the exam.
Kamila and Ale were almost inseperable that year. They made a roller skating show together (including Raphaela) for the Talent Night at the French school and won First Place in the category of 3-8 year olds.
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| For her 7th Birthday
Kamila got the hamster that she had wished for. Natasha also got one, but it
diseappeared the day after, and we never found it again.
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When Kamila was 7 years old, the whole family went to New Zealand to join her grand father, AC, on the sailboat Roselina for a month. For more pictures from that incredible vacation, click here.
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Since my mother got very sick in 2007 and were not allowed to travel, we decided to spend the Christmas vacation with her in Denmark. When we arrived, there was a Christmas Gift Calendar prepared for all the kids in the family. This was a very effective way of overcoming jet lag, as the kids woke up early every morning to open their presents. As usual, we lost a suitcase on the way, so the girls were wearing their grandfather's t-shirts for the first days.During this vacation we also joined the family on a skiing vacation to Hemsedal in Norway. Kamila, fearless as usual, could outrun almost everybody else already on
her second day on skis. |
