In the Forest

As we were driving to the petting zoo last saturday we passed a thick patch of trees alongside the road. Tobias said: "Look Papa, a forest, I love the forest!". I of course told him that it was in fact a thick patch of trees and not a forest, and then suggested we'd go to the forest someday. He yelled: "Yeah!!! Let's go tomorrow!". Since I was with the kids by myself this weekend (Lisa and Shelli are off to the octoberfest in Munich...) I thought: "Good idea Tobias" so, this past sunday we went to the forest.

In this picture Tobias is holding baby-bear, a bear he has been carrying around for the past two weeks or so. He talks to him, takes him to bed with him, shares his meals with him etc. So, baby-bear also had to accompany him to the forest. Tobias was our "pathfinder" meaning that he would find the arrows we had to follow. He did a good job at that. Also he had to find leaves, acorns, pine-cones, and, in this case, mushrooms. He was actually quite excited. This afternoon (it is not my daddy-day, but Lisa is still in Munich today and will be home tonight, so I took the day off) we are going to collage his collection onto a piece of paper... or at least that's what he said he wants to do before he left for school this morning. That would be nice :-).


For news on Tobias' sister Lorelei visit: Lorelei Michelle

Riding a Pony

Last saturday we had a party to attend. Friends of ours took us to a petting zoo where they have all sorts of farm animals. Tobias got to feed and pet goats and a cow. He got to see pigs and piglets and he got to share a piece of cake with a chicken. As a matter of fact, the chicken jumped on the table and ate out of his hand... That was a bit scary at first, but in the end quite interesting :-).

And.... Tobias got to ride a pony (that black thing in the bottom of this picture is the pony :-)). It was only a short ride, but a ride nonetheless and he enjoyed it thoroughly. As you can see in this picture he did have time for a smile! How cute!


For news on Tobias' sister Lorelei visit: Lorelei Michelle

School Picture

Tobias (and Lorelei, but I don't have access to a digital version of hers yet...) had his school picture taken last week. Here is the result.

I have two words: Picture Perfect!


For news on Tobias' sister Lorelei visit: Lorelei Michelle

Biking (continued...)

Of course you can always have someone else take a picture :-). In this case the most obvious alternative: Lisa. This was taken during the weekend so Lisa was around to take some pictures and as you can see he is really doing it. Me running after him at this time was not all that necessary anymore other than for his peace of mind... I did still need to be there for him to get started. He still needed a little push for that at the time this picture was taken.... but, he is past that now too (which makes biking a lot earier, not only for him, especially for me :-)).

As of last friday he does not need help anymore with starting. I layed the groundworks and Opa finished the job... Also he can now turn corners. On this particular ride he tried to turn a corner and ended up in a rose-bush :-). As you can see we got him a helmet. This is not something I grew up with, but is becoming more and more common in the Netherlands. As a matter of fact he had a friend over to play two weeks ago who was already biking by himself. This boy was wearing a helmet as well and of course Tobias wanted to try it on and then wanted one for himself. To be honest I think it is quite a good idea... Not in the least because he looks soooooooo cute in it!

For news on Tobias' sister Lorelei visit: Lorelei Michelle

(Almost) Back to School

Tobias is back in school now.... It started this week. Last week was still his vacation though, and I took the opportunity to take him and Lorelei out one more time. Obviously I used my daddy day to do so and we went to the Dolfinarium. This a kind of an amusement park set up around dolphins. They have other animals too, like seals, sealions, walrusses and such. The animals are trained and they perform shows. Especially the dolphins show was really nice. Tobias enjoyed all the animals, because he is kind of into them right now. He has a couple of books on science-like matters like insects, sea animals, the human body etc. It is so much fun to go through such topics with him because he remembers everything and he will ask lots of questions about it.

Anyway, we had a very nice day at the Dofinarium, which ended in the playground of the park where he found this digger.... Despite his interest in scientific matters he is still very much into Bob the Builder as well :-)


For news on Tobias' sister Lorelei visit: Lorelei Michelle

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