Water Spayer

On that same daddy-day (see Lorelei's blog) Tobias was playing around making me, Lorelei and himself laugh with a flower sprayer. I like this picture, because you can see how much he was into it, and the timing was just right…. :-) He played with that thing for a long time…

Gardening…

 

Like I said in my previous post, Tobias likes to do jobs. Here he is gardening. This was actually quite impressive. He had never done that before, but I was busy doing something else and he wanted to help me. I wasn’t really doing something he could safely help me with so I thought I’d give him another job. I told him to trim bush, and that is exactly what he did, and quite neatly too… I did not have to do any additional work on it (except cleaning up a little bit of the mess…).

I was quite proud of my boy. (He is not exactly wearing his gardening outfit, but he had been a pirate before and hadn’t taken off his outfit yet….).

Building a Robot

Tobias is into lots of stuff. One of the things he is into at this moment is Robots. Thas is probably because he has a robot book, which we read to him from time to time. It is one of those kids science books that tells you all about something in a kids way. Very nice!

Anyway, in that book there are a few art projects, one of which it to build your own robot. As I was working on the patio, Tobias and Lisa were working on their own project: making a robot. I saw and heard Tobias about the steps, giving me reports about the current step and the steps already taken. I think it was a six step project :-). In this picture you can see the final step: putting on the head! He was sooooo proud of his handywork…

The robot is currently standing in our window (or rather, leaning against our window, for it would topple over without the support) for everyone to see.

I think he did a great job too. He is into doing jobs right now, and, making money with it. That is because he wanted to have something I did not want him to have: a Laser gun. It is one of those toy guns with foam darts that you can shoot across the room… Well, I told him that he could buy it himself if he’d make some money. I told him he could help me or Lisa do jobs in and around the house. So, he has been helping with the cleaning, cutting the grass, painting, renewing our patio, and, he made enough money to buy his very own laser gun! He is quite proud of himself, and needless to say, so am I (although I still do not like toy guns of any kind…). And the good thing is, he still has money left over in his piggy bank :-).

Actually, I should continue this anecdote because it is so funny… When he finally decided to get the gun Lisa and Tobias were going into town to buy it. Lisa had given Tobias a wallet to carry his money. He was all set to go and they left. Well, they were back within 5 minutes and I was like: “wow, that was quick Tobias!”. Tobias was obviously embarrased… turns out he had forgotten his wallet…

Easter in Vaals

We went away for the Easter weekend. We rented a little vacation home in Vaals with friends. Our friends have two children as well, a girl, Imogen, who is Tobias' age and a boy, Euan, Lorelei's age. So, that's a perfect match I guess. Here are Tobias and Imogen hunting for eggs in the Vaals, Limburg (south of the Netherlands) scenery.

We didn't have the nicest weather during our weekend, but that did not really matter because most of our time was spent either in the swimming pool, or in the indoor play-area. Tobias swam without armbands for the first time and actually swam... No laps or anything yet, but at least something like quarter laps, without sinking or going under. He even jumped of the started blocks at the deep end without a problem.... So, I guess he can swim now.... all he needs is some swimming technique and he will be pretty much ready for his swimming diploma :-).


For news on Tobias' sister Lorelei visit: Lorelei Michelle

Down the Slide

Like I said in previous posts, spring is here! That means playing outside, and also, going to the playground. Last year they renewed a playground just a few blocks from our house. It is really nice now and we went there a week ago (or so). Both Tobias and Lorelei had lots of fun, albeit, in completely different way, except this one: going down the slide. At first Lorelei was watching Tobias do that and then laughing at him. Then we kind of helped Lorelei slide down and then Tobias wanted to go down the slide together! That was so sweet of him and as you can see, it makes for a sweet picture too, right?


For news on Tobias' sister Lorelei visit: Lorelei Michelle

Biking.... Together

Tobias is a real biker now. He is pretty much a full blown traffic participant. This morning we rode our bikes to school together and he is doing sooooo well, ans he is sooooo proud :-) (So am I of course...). Since spring is here and more outside playing is done, there had also been some biking together. Lorelei has Tobias' old tricycle and Tobias on his own bike and off we go into the Poort (alley way) behind our house.

Fun for all, and worth a picture!


For news on Tobias' sister Lorelei visit: Lorelei Michelle

Olympic Speed Skater

Of course we just had the Olympics... Needless to say Tobias was quite interested, especially in speed skating (that's all we Dutchies do, although we did win gold in the snowboard downhill this time...). We watched some of the races and he was very intrigued by the whole start routine. It kind of goes like this:
- "Go to the start" -> Tobias goes to the edge of the rug
- "Ready" -> Tobias bends his knees and puts one hand on the floor
- "Pang" (which sounds more like "Click",with his (now broken) toy gun) -> Tobias starts sliding/running around the living room
- "Ding Ding Ding" -> Tobias does his last round
- "Yeah" -> Tobias won gold :-)
- And over and over and over...

This is Tobias in action. As you can see there is still room for improvement, but as you can also see, he is having loads of fun, and that's what really counts, right!?


For news on Tobias' sister Lorelei visit: Lorelei Michelle