Game On!

Granddaddy took Tobias (and me) to his first live sports game! We went to two events, a Houston Rockets basketball game and the Texas Bowl, a football game. The basketball game was quite the challenge because it was at night. We were worried that Tobias would fall asleep, but he did not. As a matter of fact he got quite into the game waving his foam finger everytime the Houston Rockets scored and pointing it down everytime the opponent (New Orleans Hornets) scored. I think he had a great time actually. As you can see he also has a Houston Rockets T-shirt....



The football game was in the afternoon and we had great seats, quite close to the field (thirds row) as you can see in the picture. The game of football apparently is not a clear as the game of basketball. Despite the better time of day it was harder to keep Tobias interested throughout the game. He did enjoy the experience, but we spent more time walking around (and to and from the restrooms...) than we did at the basketball game. Of course the football game is much longer too, which may have made a difference, and of course there is more time where there is no play going on...

Anyway, he got his first taste of a live sports event and I am quite convinced he enjoyed it a lot, as did I!


For news on Tobias' sister Lorelei visit: Lorelei Michelle

Gifts Gifts Gifts

Christmas is an exciting time, especially for kids. In anticipation of Christmas the main questions Tobias had were:
1. Will I get everything that is on the list?
2. Will I get the most presents of us all?

In regards to question 1, Sinterklaas had disappointed him somewhat because he did not get a toy camera or a toy gun and those were on his list. Well, of course Sinterklaas and Santa are in close contact when it comes to synchronizing lists... So, that questions was sufficiently answered...

In regards to question 2 Tobias determined that him and me would get the most presents. Well, he was, quite obviously, wrong. Even though he insisted, even after the gifts were handed out that both him and me had the largest pile of presents, it wasn't even close to the actual situation. Tobias got soooooo many gifts, which, I guess, was to be expected. Pretty much everything in this picture is his. He did end up getting a toy camera, he did not get a toy gun... but that was OK, because Santa does not like guns.



It is funny how children can react. He was so excited about all his gifts, yet he was still disappointed that he did not get a robot that can vacuum the house for us.... (I have no idea where that came from, although apparently one of his friends has some kind of robot that can move around on it's own without touching anything...).

It was a busy day for Tobias because he also helped Lorelei unwrap her gifts...


For news on Tobias' sister Lorelei visit: Lorelei Michelle

Winter Wonderland...

The snow is too early this year, in the Netherlands anyway and too early meaning: too early for having a white Christmas :-). But, of course not too early to have some fun. In fact, would it have been a few days later we would be missing it altogether... Anyway, Tobias was quite excited (actually, extremely excited) when he looked out the window this morning and saw everything covered with a blanket of snow... Of course he had seen snow before, but it does not happen that often over here. We had some serious snow and ice last year and that was great fun, but this morning we had some fun too.

He was somewhat disappointed that I would not let him bike too school. Instead we walked and he liked that because that enabled him to toss some snowballs here and there... On a wall, on a tree, on the ice, in the water.... loads of fun. And then of course on the shoolyard at other children :-). Everybody was excited, even the parents who gladly joined the snowball fun! I only had my phone on me to capture the moment, hence the bad picture quality, but it is better than nothing, right?

I hope there will be still some snow to play with when he comes home from school today...

Update (2010.01.14): There was. As a matter of fact, there was enough to build a snowman...! And we did. Before I post anything about Tobias' Christmas vacation I am going to post a picture of Tobias and our snowman, made and taken after school that very afternoon!





For news on Tobias' sister Lorelei visit: Lorelei Michelle

Biker Boy

Tobias is quite the biker these days. In my perception there are two main reasons for this:
1. His friends are better and faster at biking than he is...
2. He really likes biking and is actually quite proud of himself

Last week on my daddy day I picked him up from school (where he biked himself) he told me: "Papa, I want to go on a really long biking trip with you.". Well, I wasn't so sure about that since the weather was not all that great and of course we would have to take Lorelei with us, but I took our chances and went anyway. How can I deny my boy an opportunity to go biking really far :-).

Anyway, before we left we first had to grab some cookies, because, as Tobias explained, we have to rest somewhere and then I have to eat a cookie so I can have more power in my legs. Well, who could argue with that? :-) (and also, that is exactly what he did with his Opa two weeks earlier :-)). I took a route where I would still be able to make it a short ride in case it started raining. Well, it did not start raining until we were almost back home. And, we took quite a ride as you can see (when you click on the link). We went for about 8 km (5 mi). The benches in this picture (our only stop) are at the turning point in the trip. On the way back he started complaining about being tired, but he did the whole way by himself.

I did have some scares (as did he, because of my reaction I think) because at one point we had to cross a very busy intersection. There are lights, also for the bikers, but it still takes him quite some time to cross the road. Anyway, just as we came to the other side, a moped approached from the right distracting (and startling) Tobias who made a slight leftward move and as a consequense missed the bike path and ended up on the wrong side of a lane separater (the size of a curb) among the cars! My goodness that scared me, but I could not just drop my bike and grab him because (as you can see) Lorelei was on my bike. So, I got him to stop, went close to him and dragged him, bike and all, over the curb. Other than that the trip went fine :-).


For news on Tobias' sister Lorelei visit: Lorelei Michelle

Pirate Tobias

Sinterklaas was good to Tobias this year. He got the most gifts by far! He got a marble run, a book, handpuppets, sweets, but the main reason he got the most gifts is because he got a pirate outfit with all the accessories (wrapped separately :-)).

I am kind of a pacifist, so, I have quite a serious problem with weapons of any kind and hence, I do not like my kids to have toy weapons. Well, I have come to realize that weaponry is really hard to avoid, and if you try too hard all other toys become weapons, like a tinkertoy shooter or a water gun or a stick sword etc.

What I do like is the fact that Tobias does a lot of pretend playing. He pretends to be all sorts of stuff ranging from a police man to a bad guy to a hamster to even a mammoth just this morning :-). Sometimes he doesn't need anything to get really into this pretend play, he'll just pretend he has a gun, a car, a bike, or whatever it is that he needs. So, we thought it would be nice to get him some dress-up clothes. Lately he is into a lot of stuff involving weaponry, including police, pirates and knights. As you can see the dress-up kit for Tobias included a pirate hat, an eye patch and a pirate shirt (you can see the white collar in this picture). It also included a compass, a treasure map, two money bags with gold and silver in it, and....... a sword. Well, actually a dagger and a sword. A dagger made of wood and a sword made of plastic. All of these items, but mainly the clothes and the sword, have already gotten quite some playtime this past week :-).

Tobias got even more dress-up clothes this year, because at school they had a "pietenochtend" where everybody got to dress-up like "zwarte piet" (Sinterklaas' helper) or Sinterklaas. Lisa bought him a pieten-suit, but he preferred Sinterklaas. Since the pieten-suit was about two sizes too big Lisa decided to get him a fitting Sinterklaas outfit and he went to the "pietenochtend" as Sinterklaas. For some reason I only have a picture in his piet-outfit...

For news on Tobias' sister Lorelei visit: Lorelei Michelle

Milestone: Biking to School

As I wrote before, being able to bike is quite the milestone in the Netherlands. Well, Tobias reached that one a while back. Yet, he did nog bike to school on his own bike yet. He kept telling me he would start doing that when he is five... This picture is not Tobias on his way to school, but he did bike to school for the first time last Thursday. He didn't pick the best day to start, because is was pouring down with rain and by the time we got there he was soaking wet, but we made is nonetheless. Tobias was soooooo proud.

It took Tobias quite some serious training to reach this point. A week or two ago two friends came over to play. They suggested they'd ride their bikes. Tobias was not quite as well trained yet and he could not keep up. That night he practised until dinnertime. He was biking up and down the alleyway behind our house in the dark! He did that for almost two weeks and I guess by that time he figured he was ready for the real biking-world: Biking to school.

I have to admit I am quite proud too (but terrified at the same time....).


For news on Tobias' sister Lorelei visit: Lorelei Michelle

Pooped...

Gijs is one of Tobias' best friends at the moment. He lives a few houses down from us and he also is in the same school and class as Tobias. So, they see eachother on a daily basis. A lot of times they will play together after school, sometimes outside, but recently, being the fall and all, more inside than out. This picture was taken after a lot of playing outside and as you can see both boys are pretty pooped. They kind of just crashed on the couch and watched a movie (I think it was Cars this time).


For news on Tobias' sister Lorelei visit: Lorelei Michelle