This was just one of those random things. We had just finished our dinner, it was a really nice evening, it was still school vacation, we had just gotten over our jetlag, so hey, let’s go into town and treat ourselves to some ice cream! So, that’s what we did.
I experience such occasions as priceless, just like this picture!
As I wrote before, today was my first daddy day where everything is back to normal. That makes last week my last daddy day of the vacation. Not only that, also it was a true daddy day because Lisa already had to work. I wanted to do something nice with my kids. Lorelei likes pretty much anything, and Tobias loves dinos, so, I took the to the Dino Forest in Amersfoort. It is actually a zoo with a section where they have life-size dinosaurs.
It was a great day and Tobias was sooooo excited. The dino section really isn’t all that big, but we spent over two hours there! Some dinosaurs are moving, others are just still, like this one. I don’t think Tobias would have put his head into a moving dinosaur… Even though he knows and realizes that dinosaurs are extinct, there was still somewhat of a scare, especially because there were loud roars in the forest too.
Lorelei did not have a care in the world and was just walking from one dino to another pointing and saying “this” and “these”. Tobias was really interested, especially in the ones that he did not know yet. Each dino had a bone (i.e. sign) explaining all about it. They were set up in chronological order starting in the devonian time period (and hence not really dinosaurs, just really big reptiles) all the way through to the cretaceous time period. It was actually quite funny, because everytime we saw a dino that he knew and I would start to read he would say: “Papa, you don’t have to read that one, I already know all that…”.
My little paleontologist…
Now, Josephine has two boys as well. They were great company for Tobias. At there house they have a huge playroom with lots of fun stuff like knights and dragons, lots of books and a Nintendo DS. Tobias was new to a lot of that stuff, but Carter and Mason are great friends. They shared all their toys, taught Tobias how to play with them and Carter even shared his bedroom, Tobias got to sleep on the top bunk!
At the beach house Katy had brought her Wii and everyone, including these three guys, played a lot of it. And again, everyone was taking turns (well, most of the time…).
Carter and Mason are almost as crazy about swimming as Tobias is, so, they swam a lot as well. They also did a lot of playing around the pool, with balls, rings, tubes and such. Mason is not so much into jumping in the water, but Carter is and also makes great cannonballs, so, there were a lot of cannonball contests.
So, both Lorelei and Tobias had quite the company during our vacation!
Tobias is very much into Dinosaurs. He has been for a while. We read books about dinosaurs, watch TV shows about dinosaurs (Dinosaur Train, which is really funny and educational…). So, what could be better than visiting the Houston Museum of Natural Science with Nonny and Aunt Shelli? Well, apart from swimming, not a whole lot. This was quite the memorable experience for Tobias seeing real dinosaur bones and even whole skeletons. And I believe that Nonny and Aunt Shelli enjoyed the trip just as much as he did…
I had to hear about it afterwards, because this was a trip without mama and papa, we went out to see a movie… My favorite anecdote about this trip came from Nonny. She explained that when they entered the museum there was this dinosaur skeleton right there. There was another boy, maybe 9 years old, with his mother and he exclaimed: “Mommy, mommy, look, there is T-Rex!”. Tobias matter-of-factly said to Nonny: “No nonny he is wrong, that is Allosaurus.” Sure enough, when they went to read the sign Tobais was right, it was Allosaurus…
It is unbelievable how much and how fast he can remember and recognize such things. He knows so many of the names, their features, when they lived (what time period that is) etc. And I keep being impressed with the ease with which he can pronounce the names…
Not only was this a great trip, but Nonny spoiled Tobias too with more books, a t-shirt and some miniature dinosaur skeletons.
Often I find it hard to find the picture that “captures it all”. Not this time, though. As I wrote on Lorelei’s blog we had a great vacation. Why? Well, because we saw lots of family and friends, which was great and all, but most of all because our kids had a great time!
Why Tobias had a great time? POOLS! He LOVES swimming and is not afraid at all. As I wrote before he is ready to swim without armbands, and he did without them this whole vacation. He just jumps in and then swims to the side, across the pool, or basically wherever he wants to go. It takes him a while because his technique is not great yet 
Swimming is not his favorite thing in the pool, though. His favorite thing is jumping in the pool. Like I said, this picture kind of captures it all. We visited a total of four pools during our vacation and our primary activity was sitting by, or hanging out in and around pools, watching Tobias make cannonballs and helping Lorelei stay afloat. So, what better image than this one with Tobias hanging in mid-air on his way to a huge cannonball-splash!?
