Brave Little Man

Ya, this is my third post for today, I'm getting caught up I guess. Today Gerrit decides to be bold and walk upstairs like a brave little man. He usually crawls on his knees and uses his hands to help keep himself steady as he goes up the stairs. I did notice he's become interested in the railing lately which makes sense; he decided to be brave and tried walking up the stairs using the railing. He was a bit unsure of himself trying to get up to the next stair without using his hands on the step or letting go of the railing. He managed to use his right hand to brace himself on the wall as he took a step up.

After practicing a few times he became much more confident.

Needless to say, we spent a lot of time on the steps today! It made for great entertainment. He stood at the top of the stairs and wanted to go down like a brave little man but decided he wouldn't push his luck today and crawled down. Maybe tomorrow?

Move over Martha and Rebecca - here's Caryn!

With Adam on a ride with Gerrit, I felt motived to made a nice meal tonight. Not having a kid nag me to be held while I get dinner ready is a real treat! So, I started with a little left over pesto - homemade with fresh basil thanks to next door neighbor Nick's herb garden - and topped chicken with it (top right). Then, I went and picked fresh green beans from our garden and cooked them with sprigs of rosemary from Nick (top left). The salad was made up of cucumbers from Dahlen's garden, the tomatoes, green pepper, and red pepper from our garden (bottom right). A plate of cukes left over for Gerrit in the bottom left are from Dahlen's too.



I must say I was pretty impressed with myself and my homegrown dinner! It tasted yummy and hopefully we will have more meals with our homegrown ingredients.

For those of you who don't know who Martha and Rebecca are: its Martha Stewart and Rebecca Coles the gardener...

Someday...

Sunday Adam was getting ready for a quick ride and needed to do a bit of work on his bike. I needed to get food ready for our evening gathering so I helped Gerrit stay occupied. Gerrit loves to watch Adam work on his bike and hopes that he is planning a ride with him.

Maybe someday Adam will let Gerrit work on the bikes. Until then, he must watch from afar.

A Sad Night

We had a lovely summer evening. The guys rode to Northfield and the women/kids followed behind with the cars and their change of clothing. It was the perfect night to eat dinner on the patio amongst a great group of friends. All the guys rode and all the women/kids took up the rear. Everything went as expected - Gerrit fell asleep nicely in the car on the way home seeing it was way past his bed time by the time we got home! Now for the sad part...tonight we officially took the pacifier away. Gerrit only got it in bed and would look for it immediately once he was in his crib. He knew he only had it then too and liked sneaking under his crib to find ones he had thrown out during previous naps/night time (see past posts for pictures). Anyways, he was put to bed at 10:19 and now it is 10:49 and as I write this, I finally hear silence. I wanted to run up and give it to him but know better. We just have a few bad nights/naps ahead of us and then he'll forget he even had one! It is just EASIER for us to give it to him! Pathetic but true. I think I will literally throw them away tomorrow so we can't go back on our word and give in if it seems 'tough'! Seeing we said when he turned 1 we'd get rid of the pacifier and now he's almost 16 months, it is time. Plus, we want to take the brunt of it before he heads to daycare full time next week. As I end this post, I can say I made it through the first tough night...however, we shall see how the next few days go!

I just HAD to...

I must admit, I'm not a huge fan of boy's clothing. I think that is why the good Lord gave me a son - so I wouldn't go nuts buying him clothes! But when I do see something I like; if its reasonable, I'll get it (not that I have to buy much because he has some great hand me downs - thanks Max!). Anyways, I saw this t-shirt and couldn't resist....

Its not the greatest picture of Gerrit, but you can read his shirt. I think Gerrit would give any kid a run for his money in a hot dog eating contest!

Happy Anniversary

Today is our 10th anniversary...wow! Where has the time gone? It seems like yesterday we were just moving into the dorms at Calvin, having never met.

Adam came home early today and as had a "surprise" waiting. I should've know it wasn't for me because the first thing out of Adam's mouth was "where's Gerrit"? not "Happy Anniversary". I was taking care of laundry and Gerrit was sleeping when he came home. He asked me to stop what I was doing and come upstairs . Seeing it was our anniversary, I, like most women would think - flowers! ...but to my surprise, this is what I found in the middle of our living room:

On Adam's way to a meeting this morning, he saw this basketball hoop being set out in the front of a second hand children's store. He didn't have time to stop but thought if it was there on his way home from the meeting, he would stop. HE wanted it! I had to laugh because that is so out of character for him! (He admits this too!)

Here's Gerrit after his nap, enjoying his new surprise from Dad.

Didn't take long for him to figure out that he wanted to 'dunk'! Just kidding, he just liked grabbing the net - hopefully there is enough weight in the bottom of the base that he can't pull it over on himself!

Even though I didn't get flowers on my anniversary, I was given something much more - another reason to love my husband and laugh at him too. I look forward to many more year of Adam making me laugh!

love ya sweets!

New Kicks

I put Gerrit's new tennis shoes on him today to make sure they would fit this fall. It was pretty cute watching him try to walk with hard soled shoes! He definitely is not use to that and was quite hesitant when I first put them on him. Adam tried to get him to walk towards him and had to throw a ball in order to get Gerrit to move (go figure!). Gerrit ended up crawling to get the ball but then stood up. He eventually took a few more steps and got the hang of walking with hard soled shoes. We took them off to let him play in the house with bare feet (his usual look when inside) but he kept going to get his shoes and tried to put them on himself and couldn't so he just walked around carrying one shoe. He sure is growing up fast!