Americanization...

Whenever we visit the US we Americanize ourselves and our kids for a little while (well, for now, mainly Tobias I guess, but I am sure we will Lorelei too, sometime in the future...). It is very nice to get a chance to do that every once in a while, and even nicer to be able to give our children the opportunity to experience some of Lisa's culture and up-bringing. 

This time American Football was on the menu.... pretty much every day :-). I bought Tobias a "PeeWee" sized ball and we played. I was his primary teacher, but hey, what do I know. So, I showed him how to throw, not that I am any good at that myself.... Fortunately we had a secondary teacher too; Granddaddy. After some instructions from a seasoned veteran at the game Tobias is able to toss that thing quite well... (We all were quite amazed by how well he picks up such stuff). I taught him how to kick, which was good because most Americans have no idea how to kick a ball (of any kind...), even the pros ;-). Here you can see him in action. I also taught him some of the terminology like "Touch down!", "Field goal!" and such. So, the football practice looked somewhat like this: Tobias tosses the ball to me, I toss it back, Tobias catches, runs around the yard and falls on the ground somewhere near a tree shouting "Touch down!". Then I set up the ball for a field goal, Tobias kicks it, then runs after it shouting "Field goal!" (times 20...). So, loads of fun! Another term I taught him about was "Fumble", which apparently was very amusing to him, because after that he kept fumbling any ball tossed at him...

Another part of Tobias' interest during this trip were fire hydrants, as they were over a year ago when we went for Christmas. Then we only saw red ones, but this time they came in all sorts of colors (apparently something to do with the water pressure...). Anyway, this one is "no-color with a green helmet" :-). As you can see in this picture a real professor is explaining how the fire hydrant works! That was exciting. The other kids in this picture are Tobias' second cousins Tripp and Brandt who were staying at their grandparents place because of the swine-flu (their school was closed that day...).

The next scheduled Americanization opportunity is Christmas. I am pretty sure I am going to have to get a baseball and glove then. I am already looking forward to it! Another item on our next schedule is attending a sports game.

For news on Tobias' sister Lorelei visit: Lorelei Michelle