Swimming Lessons

Tobias has always been kind of a fish. But swimming for real is a whole different matter. He has been taking lessons for quite a while now. They are always on mondays right after school. That’s when Lisa’s “on duty”. I have been once or twice after work, but never took my camera. During the vacation they were on a different schedule. I got to take him one wednesday. This time I did take my camera and took some nice pictures and movie clips. Here is one of them. Right after the vacation he was bumped up one group, to the group right before you can get your diploma.

I hope that he will get that sometime really soon. Not that I worry about him not being able to stay afloat or anything, but well, I guess it feels even safer when he stays afloat with his diploma or something like that…

First Day of Group 3

I have said this many times and I am sure I am gonna say it many times to come….: I can’t believe how fast my little boy is growing. Although he is still a little boy in many many ways, he is also becoming a big boy in many many ways… He is no longer a “kleuter”, he is now a schoolboy… in Group 3…

He is so enthusiastic about it, and that is such a joy to see. He comes home every day telling us about the new word he can read or the new letter he can write. Today the word was “lip”. I often try to remember how that went with me, but it is hard to remember that and compare it to your own kid. Even my parents have a hard time remembering, or at least comparing. All I can say is that it is FAST! We already had some books that he would read, very slowly, but the speed is picking up and the help required is decreasing rapidly. Soon, I am sure, he will read a bed-time story to me rather than the other way around.

Another very interesting thing is all the stuff he wants to do on top of that. All of a sudden he can tie his shoe-laces… all it took was showing him once, helping him twice, and now he can do it. Of course we went out and got him laced, rather than Velcro shoes…

Another thing it telling time. He has had a watch, but the battery was dead. Well, we went out to have it replaced, but it still didn’t work. He was much upset at that, so we got him a new watch. He is wearing it proudly and trying hard to tell time. He was already able to tell whole hours, but now he is able to tell half hours as well, and sometimes quarters.

Finally, every summer, right after the vacation, there is a summer party at school. Everyone is invited, the adults get to drink beer and the kids get to play games and eat, among other things, pancakes. We made some pancakes (which I had to buy back for a euro a pop at the party ) and while I was doing that Tobias said: “Papa, if I want a pancake I am just going to ask for it, because I am not shy anymore because I am in Group 3 now.”. I was quite stunned and not quite convinced, but it was true. Before he had to have one of us accompany him to games or in getting food or drinks. Not this time… He did that all by himself.

Proud? Yes!

Sad? Well, a little I guess, but in a happy kind of way (does that make any sense?).

Proud…

I believe Tobias is quite proud of many things. He loves his bike and biking and I think he is quite proud at how well he does. He likes arts and crafts and I am sure he is quite proud of most of his work. He is proud when he makes money, for example by mowing the lawn. And rightfully so. I am proud of my boy to. One of those futile things he is proud of is the fact that he can blow up balloons by himself.

He has been able to do that for a while, but today as I was taking some pictures, he was playing with a balloon that he had gotten at Floor’s birthday party earlier today and while we were doing that he asked: “Papa, can you take a picture of me blowing up this balloon?”. So, I did .

Just one of those things; you don’t even think about it, but apparently it is a big deal somehow…

Golf

Well, we did have a little bit of decent weather… We used it to play golf. I am not exactly sure why, but I believe it was Valentine who came up with the idea. Tobias had already played a couple of times in the Netherlands with my dad, so he was definitely up for it… We ended up going twice, once with just Tobias and Valentine, the second time with all of us. Lorelei was not quite there yet (an neither was Tristan for that matter, but hey, how can you deny him a try…), but Valentine and Tobias got quite some shots in…

Working…

We went to La Celle Saint Cloud (near Paris) a little over a week ago. We left on friday afternoon (like we usually do) and came back on monday night (like we usually do). Usually we go for Easter, but this time it was Pentecost.

Anyway, the weather was not great so quite some time was spent indoors, playing but also working, like here. I am not sure what they are working on, but it looks like both Tobias and Valentine are very much into it, doesn’t it?

Photographer

Tobias and Lorelei had their pictures taken a while back. I like to decide for myself when, where and how I have them printed so I ordered the digital versions. That took a while because of some payment issues, but they arrived today. For one thing I can put them on my blogs now . Check Lorelei’s blog too, I will put her on there as well…

The Beach

We have been having some nice weather in the past couple of weeks. Last Wednesday I took advantage of that and took the kids to the beach! That was a good decision because we all had a great time. Tobias wanted to build a fort so that’s what we did and here they are sitting in it . We topped off the afternoon with a family dinner because Lisa came to the beach too, right out of work, and some ice-cream. How can an afternoon on a daddy-day be more perfect than that?