Fall Break

Tobias had a fall break two weeks ago. We did not have a week’s trip planned like last year, but we did go out. The first weekend Tobias and Lorelei went to Opa and Oma. The four of them had a good time! Lisa and I took the opportunity to go out with the two of us. We did not go far, but had a good time too. We stayed at a hotel in Amersfoort, a city we had not visited. We did some shopping, some dining (and wining), but most of all, some relaxing.

The second weekend we went to visit our Friends in La Celle Saint Cloud (near Paris). We drove down on Friday, and came back on Sunday. We had a very nice time, and so did Tobias and Lorelei. Valentine and Tristan do not speak Dutch or English and we anticipated kind of a hard time playing together, but it was just fine. Apparently language is not that important yet if you want to play together. And Tobias picked up some French, because here they are watching Toy Story 3, in French!

We all went out together to the Aquarium in Paris (near Trocadero). The weather was horrible, the Aquarium smaller then we expected, but it was nice nonetheless (probably because it was inside and it was pouring down rain… ). After that Lisa and Julie spent some time shopping. The next morning Nadim and I spent some time mountain biking.

We headed back home on Sunday afternoon, after a very nice weekend with very nice friends. I hope we can visit again sometime soon (a lot sooner than this time because it had been a year and a half!).

Halloween

We had quite the Halloween experience this year. It started kind of early with aunt Shelli sending us candy, costumes and Halloween decorations. Some of this stuff has already been used during the weeks leading up to Halloween, but this past weekend was a real Halloween weekend.

On Saturday Lisa and Tobias carved the pumpkin, and what a great job they did! Tobias picked the design, and helped Lisa with the carving and getting all the yucky stuff out . I got to enjoy (and photograph) the result.

Lisa had a Halloween party from work on Saturday night. So, she had to make her costume as well on Saturday. Tobias and I read some scary stories .

On Sunday we had a Halloween kids party at a friend’s house. We were in charge of desert and Lisa and Tobias made pumpkin pie (yum!). Tobias and Lorelei got to wear their costumes and looked great! There were lots of candy, food and games at the party, and lots of carved pumpkins (but we had the biggest one ). At dusk we went outside for a walk and we saw some real bats fly over our heads! Scary!!!

We had a nice Halloween this year!

“Winning” Stuff

Like I said on Lorelei’s blog, the carnival was more Tobias’ thing than Lorelei’s. Last year I had taken him to the carnival and we went in a pretty serious ride, the Octopus. It is one of those rides where the cars go round and round on an arm, but individually as well and they go up and down too. Well, that started out slow but went faster and faster. He wanted to go on the ride so bad, so, we did, but when it was going faster and faster he wanted to get off the ride so bad… probably even worse than he wanted to get on .

So, this year he was kind of traumatized for rides. Basically he went in the merry-go-round and the bumper cars (with Opa).  The theme this year was winning stuff (junk, that is). They had all these things where you are guaranteed to win something. Basically you buy some piece of crap toy but before you get it your kid gets to catch ducks (see picture), catch balls, pull ropes or something like that. Great fun for him, but not only are the toys junk quality wise, for boys they were primarily weapons. So, we got stuck with like four guns, a light saber, a bowie knife, handcuffs etc. I have to say, Tobias is quite careful with his toys, and some of these toys still work, but as a friend of mine put it: “You pay a lot of money in a short amount of time and you come home with toys that are usually broken within two hours…”, and that pretty much sums it up from a parent’s perspective .

But I have to admit that the joy Tobias had (and still has with these toys) far outweighs the costs…

Kaboutervoetbal

Tobias has reached that age where we should consider organized sports… Well, through one of the soccer clubs in Gouda he has the opportunity to try out soccer. We subscribed him for kaboutervoetbal (literally: gnome soccer), a 10 week program to get to know soccer in an organized setting. Last Saturday was his first time (the third in the series, he could not get in at first but apparently someone did not like it that much and a spot opened up). He did quite well, technically speaking, but more importantly, he enjoyed it thoroughly. I think he was even somewhat proud of himself!

I tried to document some of it and this was my best shot, the one I like most anyway. First they did some simple exercises like driving the ball around cones, kicking and stopping he ball and such. They ended the morning with an actual game. As you can see Tobias was on the Portugal team and they were playing the Netherlands team.

Even though I had to get up early on a Saturday morning (for our measures anyway, it starts at 9), I did enjoy watching my boy having fun!

That same day he also wanted to play (field) hockey with me. We went to a field close to our house and played for a while. I said: “Tobias, what do you like better, soccer or hockey?”. He had to think some and answered: “I like both, I want to do both.”. I said: “Well, Tobias, usually hockey and soccer are at the same time so you have to chose.”. He said: “But papa, I am already a soccer member…” . I guess we’ll try hockey sometime too… and tennis (because that’s what daddy likes ).

Big Boy Legos

At Christmas Nonny had bought Tobias some real Lego’s. Of course we already had quite a bit of the baby stuff, Duplo, but non of the real stuff yet. As I have probably written before, Tobias does not seem to be much of a builder (much to my Engineer’s dismay…), but he has enjoyed playing with the Duplo.

Well, he still likes it, but is starting to realize it is time for the big boy thing. Last weekend he wanted a “light sabre”. As you know I am a pacifist and hence not in favor of such Toys, so, I suggested to get some Star Wars Lego’s that I had seen in the toy store before. He liked that idea, so, we went out to get some.

It turned out it was a bit too advanced, meaning it was advertised to be for 7-14 years… We did see pirate lego’s and knight lego’s for 5-12. He liked the knight stuff, so we got a tower with a big sling shot and some knights.

As you can see it takes him quite some concentration (and time ) to put it together, but he likes the thing and we have been playing with it quite a few times.

Who knows, maybe he will develop some building skills after all .

Building a Hut

Last week I switched my daddy day from Wednesday to Friday. Thursday morning when I took him to school he started talking about a hut. I wasn’t sure where that came from, but I told him we could do that sometime. That night, when I put him to bed he started talking about it again. He told me he would like to build a but “soooooo much”!

The next day, after I picked him up from school, we had to get a gift for a friend. While we were out shopping he saw some candy and said: “Papa, let’s buy that, so we have something to eat in the hut.”. That sealed the deal. We went home, I put Lorelei to bed, got some blankets out and we built a hut under the table. We spent most of the afternoon in there playing games, watching Dinosaur Train, and eating candy.

I was kind of cramped which I noticed the next day by means of a sore shoulder, but it was great fun… Today is my daddy day and this morning he told me he wanted to build a hut again… Let’s see what happens .

Electric Guitar = Cool

Tobias recently got new clothes. Among these clothes were two “cool” shirts. One is the one he is wearing in this picture. It has a pirate ship on it. The other is one with an electric guitar on it. He calls that one his Bob Dylan shirt .

Well, an electric guitar on a shirt is cool, but a real one is even cooler. One of the reasons an electric guitar is cool is because of a Jerry Lee Lewis rendition of Led Zeppelin’s Rock and Roll. It starts out with Jimmy Page on the electric guitar en Tobias loves it. When I put on music he tells me to put on his favorite song, meaning that particular song…

So, the other day I showed him my electric guitars and used my Metal Zone effect, giving it the Jimmy Page like sound. He loved it and wanted to try for himself…

I guess a guitar is also something you have to grow into, size-wise .