iPodding

I have an iPod Touch. I recently updated it to the latest version of the software. This includes the possibility to download and install all sorts of applications and.... GAMES!!!

I don't know if I made a mistake by introducing this possibility to Tobias, but I do know that Tobias loves it! So much that it takes some effort to make him stop playing... Anyway, we have a bowling game, a baseball game, a golf game (the iPod has a motion sensor) and, a racing game which Tobias is playing in this picture. The motion sensor makes the iPod act as a steering wheel for the car.

Oh well, for now it is nice to see him play. It makes for a good part of the bedtime routine, which may include playing downstairs (a physical game), playing some Bert & Ernie skits on YouTube (iPod) or a few minutes of iPodding (playing a game on the iPod) :-)

Words of Wisdom...

Today was another daddy day. It was quite interesting actually... Last friday when I was taking Tobias to the daycare there was another boy coming in with his mother. This kid had asked his mommy if he could play with Tobias someday. Well, of course that was fine with me. Last night she called and today we went over there and they played together. They were really nice together and we'll probably do that again.

Other than that, Tobias was a little sick, he has kind of a cold. This morning he was OK, but as I am writing this he is laying down on the couch watching his favorite movie: "Over the Hedge". He loves that movie, although it makes him somewhat violent because there is this racoon in there who tries to get food out of a vending machine by beating it with a golf club.... He now knows that people sometimes do naughty things in movies and that he should not do that himself :-). Anyway, it is a cute movie....

Ok, now about the title of this post: Words of Wisdom. Tobias' language is quite well developed for his age and sometimes he amazes me with the words he utters and the things he says. This morning for example, as I was dressing him he said: "Papa, wait, I have to think for a little bit.". So, I was like, ok, you think for a little bit. He was quiet for a while and then said: "Papa, nadenken is je mond dicht houden." (which translates into: "Papa, thinking is keeping your mouth shut."). So true and well, who knows, maybe we'll see these words of wisdom on some "quote of the day" page sometime in the future..... :-)

My Own Baby

Tobias is really into the baby in mommy's tummy... He touches it, hugs it, kisses it, but most of all he talks about it. For instance, during our vacation this summer (we told him about the baby just before we left) Tobias said he had a cat in his tummy (Jip. It is a cat because he knows that boys can't have babies.... he was so disappointed by that piece of information....) and that it was pushing his tummy out. He would say things like: "Look mama, the cat is moving." or "The cat's coming out!". Needless to say we rolled over laughing quite some times. Also when he talked or asked questions about the baby. For instance I would say: "Hello baby, I am your papa." and Tobias would say: "No papa, you are MY papa...". Or he would ask: "Mama, is the baby wearing shoes?". Soooooo cute.

As you can see, the baby is keeping him and his little brain quite busy...! So, Lisa decided to by him his own baby, a baby doll. This is a boy and it is "only called baby-doll" as Tobias says. It came with some clothes, payamas, a pacifier, a bottle, a bowl and spoon and a..... potty! Tobias is really cute with it (although sometimes he is somewhat rough....). As you can see in this picture Tobias is feeding his baby :-). I wonder what he will be like when the real baby is here...

Biking Practice

As I wrote a while back Tobias got a new bike. He has not been biking as much as I hoped though... That is because shortly after he got it he had two "traumatic" experiences.

One time he came back to our garage, where the road is sloping slightly. Because of that he went a little to fast to control himself, he bumped into the garage and fell over. Another time one of his training wheels came loose and he fell over because of that... After those experience there were a few weeks where he did not want to bike at all. In fact he reverted back to his tricycle for some time...

After some convincing I got him to bike again. I told him we were going to work in the sand and put his tools under the binders (a shovel and a rake...). That worked and we went for a little ride. I had to put a hand on his shoulder though...

That went on for a little while and I had to come up with another trick to make him bike without a hand on his shoulder. I sat down a little way down the road and would make a "whoosh" sound as he biked by. Tobias would say "Look papa, I am going really fast!". Once he got used to that he would bike by himself.

Now he is biking by himself and picking up speed and distance every day! So, he got off to a bumpy start, but now he is right on track, or so I think anyway. The most important part? He is loving it now!

Headphones

Of course I still enjoy it when Tobias grabs an instrument. He has been doing that quite a bit lately. At Oma and Opa's he has been playing the trumpet, the slide trombone and the accordion. At home he plays the flute, the harmonica, the tambourine, the guitar and the piano. In this picture he wanted to play with the headphones on.... the big ones :-). Cute huh?

Recently we had some funny language episodes. They had to do with expressions. Episode 1: We were in a furniture store to get Tobias new bedroom furniture. One of the items we were going to get him is a beanbag. So, we were looking around and found a nice one. It came in two varieties: blue mickeys and red mickeys. He wanted the red mickeys, we wanted the blue mickeys. So, I told Tobias "to sleep on it". I walked on to other items in the store. Tobias was quiet for a bit and then said "Mommy, I don't want to sleep on a beanbag, that's silly!" :-)

Episode 2: We were sitting at the dinner table. Tobias has not been eating very well lately. Some days he is fine, other days he doesn't want to eat. We try to encourage him of course, but one day Lisa said: "Tobias, you have to eat you're food. This time I am going to put my foot down!" upon which Tobias started to look under the table and said: "Mommy, where are you putting your foot down?" :-)

Episode 3: Tobias slept over at a friend's house (Marissa's) this weekend. He came home the next day and I asked if he slept well, and if Marissa's mom sang a song or read a book. She did read a book called "The Smelly Socks". He was talking to me in Dutch though and he tried to translate... He said: "Ja Papa, ze heeft de Ruikende Sokken gelezen.", which means she read The Smelling Socks :-)

I love his innocent literalness (I looked it up, it is a word...) and his cute literal translation efforts...!

Ameland

Before we took our vacation to Kos we had Lisa's parents over. They were here for two weeks and we took some interesting trips, one of which was to one of the Dutch islands: Ameland. The Dutch islands are biker's paradise. On some of them cars are not even allowed... On Ameland cars are allowed, but we did not take it. Instead we took a biking trip around the island. This picture is taken on that trip.

We went for about 15-20 miles. It was really nice weather and a really nice ride. I don't know if all the participants would agree to the same extent, but hey, this is my side of the story...

We were on the island for 3 days and nights. We had a good time, a nice hotel, good food and good fun playing Skip-Bo.

(We = Nonny, Granddaddy, Opa, Oma, Mama, Papa and Tobias).

Vacation: Kos, Greece

Well, after a while of absence I am back. Back from vacation, back to work and back to blogging. We went on a vacation to Kos. We went for a little under two weeks. It was a very nice vacation. We had already booked it in January, so we had quite some anticipation time...

The way we booked was quite new to me... I was planning on taking a trip by car to one of those vacation parks connected to a chain. Those usually have a pool an other necessary facilities for a child. Well, as I was checking that out on the internet I saw a commercial for Sunweb Vacations advertising sunny destinations. So, I checked out their website. They had a very good set of selection criteria:
- Destination (Greece, because we have always wanted to go there)
- Children's pool
- Playground
- Four stars and up
- All inclusive

So, there it was, three possibilities, all three on Kos. We took the one closest to the beach!

The weather on Kos is kind of boring to a Dutch guy... 30 degrees (Celcius), blue sky, blazing sun and a nice breeze every single day. This is boring because in the Netherlands you never know what to expect, but in no way unpleasant... I loved it! You can imagine we spent quite some time at the beach, but also in the pool as you can see here. Tobias loves to swim and the hardest part was getting him out of the pool. He was actually quite self-sufficient with those arm-bands on.

We did take some excursions and I took some bike rides on the island and I have to say, even though the island is one big tourist factory, it is a beautiful island! We had a great vacation.

(I kept a diary while we were there, but I think it is a bit too much to put it on here... :-))