Raai de Kraai

Tobias is adjusting really well to school these days. Initially he was shy, waiting to see what happened, staying close to the teacher, playing by himself, if at all. These days he is more into playing with children and participating in all sorts of stuff. His teacher told us that she even had to reprimand him for playing too wildly with the sand-table. Tobias' take on it was: "We were just playing pirates in the sand...". It sounds like he is making some friends judging by the fact that we hear a few names repeated significantly more often than others...

At home he is more outgoing as well. The other day I caught him calling out "Loek!". So, I checked to see what he was up to. Turns out he was looking into the neighbor's yard, saw their little boy (Loek, who is less than a year older) sitting inside, and wanted to play with him, hence the calling. He later told me that he just wanted to play tennis with Loek... Also he takes out his bike or tractor more often and goes into the alleyway behind our house and stays out there quite a while sometimes. Usually it turns out he met someone and is racing or playing ball or whatever else they do out there. Very nice to see...

Just like it is hard to imagine what it is like to have children until you have them, it is hard to imagine what it is like to have children in school until you have them... (or children going out into alleyways by themselves for that matter...). It was only 2 weeks after he started school that Lisa and I were sitting in the school gym watching the children, including Tobias, perform a dance-night. Then there was the parent-teacher meeting, the cleaning of the classroom, the sportsday and all that. We try to participate as much as we can, but it just isn't possible to participate in everything. Personally, I particularly had a knot in my stomach having to drop Tobias off at the track for sportsday last Wednesday...

It was, however, certainly possible to participate in a personal assignment, or in this case in entertaining an unexpected visitor: Raai de Kraai (Raai the Crow). He is a character they use in the reading method at school. Raai is a hand puppet and he experiences all sorts of stuff through stories. Well, the handpuppet spends a weekend a year in each child's home. The idea is that Raai's experiences are recorded by the child (read: parents) and gathered in Raai's sleep-over book. As you can see we took Raai to the beach. He had a great day as did we...! Tobias and Raai were quite inseperable at times... :-)


For news on Tobias' sister Lorelei visit: Lorelei Michelle

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

Paris By Scooter...

During our stay with our friends near Paris we went into Paris one afternoon. We had brought the stroller with a board attached that Tobias can stand on. The main purpose of this is that Tobias moves at the same speed we do and that he doesn't get too tired. Well, Valentine had a scooter for that same purpose. She can ride it pretty fast and doesn't get as tired as she would walking all that distance.

Tobias thought the scooter was quite interesting and wanted a go at it too. He got the hang of it quite easily and started "racing" (as he called it) down the streets of Paris... Nice huh?


For news on Tobias' sister Lorelei visit: Lorelei Michelle

Easter Egg Hunting

We went to La Celle Saint Cloud (near Paris) for easter. We have friends there that we went to visit. This trip to Paris is kind of an Easter tradition. This year the kids were big enough for a real easter egg hunt! In and around Paris there were some organized hunts and we had planned to go to an outside hunt. Well, it was raining so we changed plans and went to an indoor one instead. It was in the Hard Rock Cafe of all places! It was nice, but not as nice as was expected, especially by our friends....

Fortunately, later that day the sun came out. So, we had a second hunt in the back-yard of our friends' house. That was really nice and both Tobias and their girl Valentine found and shared quite some chocolate eggs. Needless to say they had way too much candy that day, but hey, it is only easter once a year. It was quite obvious they had great fun, and so did we!


For news on Tobias' sister Lorelei visit: Lorelei Michelle

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

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

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