Batman Sighting

In a small town nearby there was a sighting of Batman! We were a little scared as he was quite large but had the cutest face! Lucky for us, he was really nice and took care of the Joker so we were safe.

Actually, Gerrit and I went to a carnival at a nearby Christian camp with Anne and her two boys. The older boys were able to play carni games and play in blow up boucey things and Gerrit watched. He did get his face painted, had a tractor/wagon ride, and went down the blow up slide with the boys. One area had superheros you could take a photo with...So here is Batman.

New Trick

Gerrit may not be a master at walking yet or being able to wave good bye but he does have a few tricks. Today when I picked him up from daycare after my work at VBS, he gave Julie (his daycare provider) 'high 5'! So, now he will play patty cake (which he's done since Feb) and give you 5. The walking thing is coming along slowly. Each day he takes more steps but still finds crawling a faster means of transportation.

Need a chauffeur?

Gerrit loves to 'drive' his tractor backwards. He pushes the horn and starts the engine then hops on and faces backwards. Hopefully this isn't a hint of how he'll do behind a real car some day!

Look How Far I've Come

These pictures were taken about a year apart! Amazing what a year can do.

Livin' It Up Lake City Style

Summer has official begun now that we've made one of several (I'm assuming) trips to Lake City. John invited us to hang out by Lake Pepin (backwaters of the Mississippi) and swim in the pool. Of course, the guys rode there and the ladies/kids came via car with lunch. Gerrit enjoyed the water but more importantly - WATERMELON! He couldn't get enough of it. He had strawberries, bbq chicken, and at least 2 wedges of watermelon at lunch.


We are wondering if the following picture is a result of too much watermelon...


And when he had enough to eat, he headed to get something to drink...yes, its a beer bottle (it was empty).


The view from the pool is so beautiful. It is my favorite part of spending time in Lake City. I thought it would make a great backdrop for a picture of Gerrit. It didn't turn out quite like I thought, but you get the idea.


Pam thought it would make a great backdrop for a family photo too. After many attempts, here is one of the better ones.

Covered Bridge Parade

Adam made it home just in time for the parade. Adam is trying to keep Gerrit happy as we wait for the parade to start. Gerrit didn't want to sit on the chair, it is much more fun to stand on it (and everything else he shouldn't stand on!).

Waiting for the next band or float to come by. The sky is an interesting site! He did pretty good staying near us seeing the parade was almost 2 hrs long!

With such a long parade and lots of gaps between floats/bands etc., Gerrit seemed to find the sign on the ground more interesting. Amazing how a simple piece of garbage could keep him happy and entertained but a 50 person band isn't all that thrilling!


The happy kid at his first 'official' parade. We can't really count the Memorial Day parade - there wasn't any candy thrown in that one! (This parade take the cake on amount of candy thrown...next year Gerrit will be old enough to charm the parade people to throw candy his way I'm sure!

Pool Time

This is a little late - Gerrit and I went to the pool for the first time this summer (a week ago). I was a bit nervous b/c I knew the water was cold and didn't know if Gerrit would like it. He loved it!

He could touch and used his float as a 'walker' and moved around the pool quite easily. In the picture below he is drinking the water! As much as I would try, he seemed to get a gulp when ever he could!

There are more days ahead at the pool - yipee!

Poo on Who?

This is how our morning started: Gerrit ate breakfast quite well and following breakfast I usually change his diaper. So we proceed to go upstairs for the morning diaper change. I undo his diaper and noticed he has left his typical morning poo in the diaper too. Again, nothing new. I reached for the wipes and Gerrit decides to help take his diaper off - he grabs it and whips it towards him. You guessed it - poo all over the changing table, jammies, and his leg and arm! Luckily his room is next to the bathroom so I grabbed a clean arm and leg and put him in the tub. Nothing like a bath at 8:30 in the morning! And Adam technically hasn't left for Ohio yet!

Happy Father's Day!

Adam did what he wanted today - ride his bike (surprised?). He was suppose to take Gerrit on a ride but that didn't happen. Good thing Gerrit doesn't know any better yet and can't hold dad to his word! Soon enough. Adam rode with the guys south of town to a state park where one of the wives picked them up and brought them all back to our house. We had a BBQ and the guys watched golf only to find out 4 hrs later that a winner hasn't been decided yet! And the play off is during work - guess Gerrit and I will watch it.

Side note - I was making scotcharoo's today and using a spatula to clean out the pan and the handle broke. No big deal right? I continued using it and threw the broken part away and the stubby spatula in the dishwasher. It just reminded me of the broken spatulas my mom had and how we used them even if they had broken handles! Funny how things come around again. I didn't think twice to continue using it even though the handle was broken. Guess my mom taught me well. I did have to laugh as it brought back memories...

Here's hoping Gerrit is in a better mood tomorrow as he has been a bit 'off' these past few days! I don't want to deal with a cranky kid this weekend on my own!!

Where's the Ark?

This past week we had a lot of rain, like most of the midwest. Luckily, our basement stayed dry. When Gerrit and I went to the pool on Thurs. we saw this:





This area should look something like this (minus the flags - special for Memorial Day):

When I went running that night, the water had gone down quite a bit - thank goodness!!

Welcome!?!

I didn't think I would have a blog, but I find myself thinking how much I'd love to share a 'Gerrit' moment with family but don't think its worth calling anyone in particular. So...I hope to be able to update family (and friends) with tidbits of what's up and a few photos to go along the way! I know how hard it is to grow up w/o extended family and hope this is a way to include them in our daily lives. We'll see how often I can keep this up - especially when school starts up this fall.