Thursday, March 26, 2009

Trekkar

Lisa went back to work yesterday so, today I had my first daddy-day with my two children, all by myself. It is not like I haven't spent time with them all by myself, but somehow this is different. And I have to tell you it was a wonderful day! Tobias of course had to go to school so, I got to spend lots of time with Lorelei. Most of that time she was sleeping, but we also played and cuddled and everything else....

So, when school was out we went to pick up Tobias. When we got back to the house Lorelei was sleeping again and Tobias and I played. I picked this game and initially he said that it was to difficult for him. I asked him to explain what we need to do and told him I would help him. Well, it is a game in the English language and you have to take a picture card with a word on it and then spell the word with the letters. He picked wagon and he read: "wuh - aeh - guh - on, wagon". Then he said: "Papa, we have this thing in school, it is a 'trekkar' (literally: "pull-cart"), but we have to do it in Dutch because we're together." So I said OK and he started saying "t - rrr - aeh - kh - ah - rrr, trekkar. Ok, so first I need a t". And that way he went on, with some, but not a whole lot of help from me and spelled the word "trekkar"! He even realized there are two k's in there... And all that without the pointer of the word on the card because of course the card says "wagon", the English word...

We went on to do two more words in Dutch. I was quite amazed and quite proud of my little boy!


For news on Tobias' sister Lorelei visit: Lorelei Michelle
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Spring is Hither!

Yes!!! You gotta love the springtime. We went to the beach for the first time this season last Saturday. All of us went together. Lisa spent some time feeding Lorelei in a restaurant while Tobias and I played soccer on the beach. It was not very warm, but the sun was out together with quite a few but not too many people. We had lunch in the restaurant and then we all walked (and kicked a ball) along the waterline for a while.

I love that time when not everybody goes to the beach yet (or anymore, when it is fall), but it is nice enough to be out there. Easy parking, not too many people and loads of fun! Also this time and of course I had to bring my camera along. I took some nice pictures including this one. We built a mountain and Tobias is applying the finishing touch: some seashells. As you can see it is a very delicate process :-).

(By the way, this weekend was nice but this week has been rather crappy...)


For news on Tobias' sister Lorelei visit: Lorelei Michelle
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Thursday, March 12, 2009

Having fun with Second Cousins...

Given the current circumstances, Lisa and I estimate the likelyhood of Tobias having cousins rather small..... (no pressure or pun intended....). The question is whether that has to be an issue. Well, judging from all the fun Tobias had last saturday on our Family Reunion, the answer to that is quite simply: NO!

My mom is one of 7, with quite a bit of offspring with quite a bit of offspring. So, Tobias has quite a few second cousins and he proved last saturday that you can have lots of fun with second cousins too! Especially with Jurgen (who was born on January 18th 2004. Yes, that is exactly one year before Tobias!). They played, inside and outside, pretty much all day. Understandable, because they are so close in age, but fun nonetheless. They played soccer, dinosaurs, and, as you can see here, car carrier.

Maybe we should have family reunions more often....? :-)


For news on Tobias' sister Lorelei visit: Lorelei Michelle
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