Milestone: Biking!

Milestones like sitting, crawling, walking and such are quite a while behind us for Tobias, but, being half-dutch, there was still a pretty serious milestone for him to pass.... biking. Well, he passed it yesterday. He is pretty proud of himself and, as you can imagine, I am too. On top of that he is proud of me since I am his "biking-teacher" :-).

Anyway, it took a while. I bought him a bike last year and in retrospect I bought him one size too big. Honestly, I did so against my better judgement and aided by the advice of the salesperson, and, I admit, worried that my "investement" might be too small too soon. Well, the result was that initially he could not reach the ground and when a training wheel came loose he fell and was temporarily traumatized. He did not want to go biking at all for quite a while.

Last month we visited our friends in Paris and they had a little bike and a lot of grass, so we practiced a little and it actually worked quite well. Plus, it helped me convince Tobias that he really didn't need training wheels anymore, as long as I would hold his bike by the seat while he was riding. For the past few weeks he had weekly biking lessons on the weekend with me bing his teacher (and breaking my back in the process....). As with everything he is quite a fast learner and he took to most of the instructions I gave him. Vern, the little turtle shaped horn-like thing on his bike (named after a character from the movie "Over The Hedge") "helped" him go even faster (or so he claims... :-)).

Well, yesterday was the day he realized that he could keep going without stopping at every single lamppost and he actually rode his bike for an entire block! And even better, he wanted to do it again later (which meant that I did not have to bend over and hold his bike-seat anymore, but I had to run all the much faster and further to keep up with him....). I think we can officially say that in doing so he passed this, for Dutch measures quite important, milestone!

Oh, yeah, taking a picture while running after him ready to catch him in case he (almost) falls is kind of hard to to, hence the ommission of a picture. I will try to take one during one of the next lessons in which he will learn to start and to take turns...


For news on Tobias' sister Lorelei visit: Lorelei Michelle

(Rahther Large) Headphones...

I love how my children make me laugh in ways that are sometimes quite unexpected. Last sunday Lisa and I were just having a cup of coffee and talking and Tobias was sitting at the piano. He has been doing that somewhat more often recently, much to my delight :-). Suddenly it gets quiet and the he starts yelling really loud: "Hey Papa, Look!". I look and see this image :-). He had grabbed and connected the headphones and was playing piano like this. Obviously it was quite loud...

Another such episode occurred yesterday when Tobias was playing sports with Lisa. I wasn't there, so there are no pictures, but the anecdote made me laugh just the same. Playing sports is one of Tobias' favorite games outside these days. We play hockey, soccer, tennis, golf, american football, and baseball, which was the name of the game yesterday. These games get increasingly hazardous for us parents, and yesterday Lisa had a baseball hit her face. So, she says to Tobias: "I should wear a facemask!". So Tobias goes: "Yeah, I am going to wear a facemask..." and he runs inside and comes back with a Lion's mask that he got at the zoo quite a while ago..... Of course the mask has nothing to do with baseball at all, but he wore it just the same for the remainder of the "game".


For news on Tobias' sister Lorelei visit: Lorelei Michelle

Taking a Bath

Taking a bath has always been one of Tobias' favorite things to do. It still is, although there are nights where he'd rather skip one... We have actually had a brief period of time where we had to skip baths because of eczema type rashes. That was a while back though... The effects are still there in terms of the frequency of bathing. For a time we were at the historic low of about three times a week (doctor's orders...).

Currently we are up to at least every other night, sometimes more, still way down from every single night though! But we are getting there and of course, with Lorelei there too, bathing has become even more fun, especially now that she can sit up by herself. Tobias likes that too. He does not have to be that careful anymore and most of the "jokes" or "games" that he comes up with these days make Lorelei laugh. Aren't they cute together?


For news on Tobias' sister Lorelei visit: Lorelei Michelle

Helter Skelter

This past Sunday I had an appointment to go biking with one of my friends. He lives near a hilly forest so, it is possible to mountain bike there, which is what we did. Initially it was going to be just me, but we talked to them at another friend's wedding and they invited all of us over. My friend and I would go biking first and have a BBQ afterwards. Well, that's what we did.

Tobias played with their children pretty much the whole time! And they had so much fun. Here you see him on a skelter, which, I am afraid I am going to have to buy too someday in the not too far future.... (it was slightly big for him at this point, but it won't take long....). Later they played with water squirters which, of course, was loads of fun too, although it does tend to make one kind of wet :-).

Unfortunaly we ended the day with a sick Lorelei. She had a fever, which of course alarmed us. We went to the doctor and were told not to worry.... Eh, where had we heard that before....? Anyway, by tuesday it was gone and as I am writing this a very happy and healthy Lorelei is sitting on my lap :-)


For news on Tobias' sister Lorelei visit: Lorelei Michelle

Having Fun Together

Tobias enjoys looking at pictures of himself. He will ask me: "Papa, what did I look like when I was a baby?" or "Did I also do what Lorelei is doing when I was a baby?". Of course the answer is yes most of the times and given the amount of the pictures I took of Tobias as a baby, most of the times I can show him as well. And I do that and enjoy that. So does Tobias.

Last week my parents were on vacation which meant that we did not have daycare on friday. I took the day off and since friday is only a half day of school I got to spend quite some time with both my children! Well, Tobias asked if he could see some pictures of when he was a baby. We did, but while we were looking at the pictures Lorelei woke up. I got her out of bed and she joined the fun.

As you can see, not just me and Tobias, but also Lorelei enjoys looking at pictures :-). Oh yeah, and as you can see in this picture as well: Tobias is soooo much the big brother! He is sooooo sweet to Lorelei! Moments like these make my daddy-days (or in this case, the occasional day off) so unbelievably pricesless!


For news on Tobias' sister Lorelei visit: Lorelei Michelle

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