Gerrit's New Role

as of January 2010

You Know You Have a 2 Year Old When...

-one minute he is smiling, the next he's screaming
-he asks for milk, when you give him milk, he wants water
-his beverages are never served in the correct container (sippy cup vs. cup)
-you eat dinner one handed because he thinks your lap is better than his chair
-he doesn't like what's served so dad fixes him an egg and dinner is eaten in shifts
-he takes a drink of water and you don't even flinch when you realize you have a wet crotch and can feel the water soaking into your underwear
-you find yourself taking deep breaths often at the dinner table
-the dinner dishes don't get taken care of till after bedtime
-you've been hit by a spoon, golf club and hand in a short amount of time because he can't go outside
-back outside you play golf with wet underwear and don't even care
-find yourself as dirty as the kid and need a shower too
-you leave him alone in the bathroom to return and see him rinsing dad's toothbrush in the toilet

-he says 'wuv you' and blows you a kiss goodnight as if nothing happened 2 hours earlier.

Summer is Here!

Today we toasted to the official start to summer...at Lake Pepin. We headed over after nap time and Adam and Dave rode their bikes. We were all excited to go swimming until we learned that the new heater for the pool wouldn't be installed until tomorrow. Bummer...oh well, we still went into the cold water (not all of us). Gerrit and I hung out around the steps for most of the afternoon. It didn't take long for Gerrit to get use to the cold (or his body was just numb and couldn't feel it anymore). Chillin in the pool:

He found a pair of goggles that belonged to the older boys. He loved wearing them even though they barely stayed on. He didn't try them out in the water -just liked to look the part:

After a nice BBQ by the pool, we headed home. It was a great afternoon despite the cold water. We know we will be back again this summer and look forward to the warmer pool water too (especially the adults!).

We are headed to our community pool tomorrow after nap time - I know that pool isn't heated either but the kiddie pool is only 18" so it can't be as cold as today! (I hope?)

House of Bounce

Here are the pictures I promised. Gerrit poses with the birthday boy, is working is way through an obstacle course and going down his favorite slide.

Neglecting, I Know

I see that the last post I did was almost a week ago! Yikes, I'm out of school and have no excuse. I have thought many times of writing but didn't have the 'perfect' story to tell so I passed it up. Gerrit and I have been busy now that school is out - 2 days this week we played shuttle to the big boys and all their camps and practices, 2 days Gerrit played with his friends at Julie's while I wrote a paper and went to a meeting. Yesterday we had to ourselves which felt weird as it has been a long time since it was just us. We went for walk and ran into friends so we stopped and talked to them for a bit, played outside, took naps (yep, me included), and went to Luke's 9 yr old birthday party. Gerrit was invited so I went along to give Anne some company. I'll post pictures tomorrow hopefully. He loved playing with the big boys and watching them too. Today was yard work, nap (Gerrit only) and then he played at Dahlen's so Adam and I could grab a bit to eat and see a movie. When I picked him up, he was playing with water balloons with the boys. He loves those boys and copies so much of what they do; he didn't care when a balloon exploded near him or he was hit by the hose with water shooting out of it. He had gone on a bike ride and played in the garden too while we were gone. It will be a fun summer with the boys as they do such a great job entertaining and keeping an eye on Gerrit.

Other than that, the biggest things going on here would be Gerrit's vocabulary...he cracks me up with his words. Some of them are only understandable by mom and dad, others are clear as a bell. Here are some of my favorites:

WORD/TRANSLATION
mout/ milk
bank/ blanket
doe /away go away
dows /cows
days/Dave (and every adult is called "days")
oot /Luke
pouf /golf
sigh-sig/ motorcycle
bite /bike

It takes some work to figure out what he wants at times. He is adding more words and its getting easier to understand too (most of the time)! I will try and do a better job of writing more posts...time is just flying by - we only have 1 more weekend before we are in MI - woo woo!

A Start in the Right Direction

Today Gerrit wanted to 'go potty'. Usually I set him on his potty, fully clothed b/c I'm too lazy to undress him (unless it is diaper changing time). Well, I felt guilty so I stripped him down so he would get use to the idea of not having a diaper on when sitting on the potty. He immediately told me to 'doe away' (translation: go away). So I went into his room to do a few things and when I returned to the bathroom, he had officially gone potty! I don't think he missed as I didn't see anything near the potty. One issue I might have trouble with is keeping him from playing in it! He was splashing (with what little was in there) with his hand! Into the tub he went! We'll keep working on it slowly - my goal is to wait till after vacation to put forth a full effort. I'm pretty pleased with the progress so far!

First Time for Everything

Tonight Adam rode to Roch and meet us for dinner at Applebee's (teacher appreciation day). It was meant to be a cheap dinner....well, I forgot Adam's bag of CLOTHES! oops. We were with friends and Anne was impressed I had never forgotten his bag before. So I dropped the carload of people off and headed to Target next door. So Adam got a new pair of shorts and shirt tonight. They didn't have cheap flip flops in his size so I passed them up and he wore his cycling shoes into the restaurant. He was looking mighty dapper in his new duds! We had a great dinner with friends and it wasn't as cheap as it could've been - Adam ordered an expensive meal seeing mine was 99 cents.

On the way home we passed Bryan's house and Dave and Bryan were there drinking beer. Adam asked if he could stay so I dropped him off and headed home to get Gerrit to bed. The way Adam asked, it was like I was dropping a little kid off at his friends house. It was sweet and I think it is great they have the porch to hang out at.

Two more days of school (one w/ kids) and I'm officially on summer vacation! Yee Haw!