Porkchop Challenge

Let the cyclocross season begin! Today we headed to St. Cloud for the first race of the season. We took our friends' 2 boys as they were going to the Viking game and the boys needed something to do. The oldest, Paul can race as a junior and Luke does the kids' race. It was nice having extra help with Gerrit too. The boys totally love going to the races and racing themselves. Here is the cheering section during Adam's race:


Adam going over a barrier. (He's the tall one in middle with a white helmet, dark skinsuit.) He placed middle of the pack and did well for the first one of the season.

At the end of Adam's race:

Wonder Woman

I thought I'd share a story about an amazing student of mine.

I was administering the 60 second sit up test to my 5th graders yesterday and when I went around to record the scores, I had one girl tell me she did 95! Ha!! Needless to say, she'll be redoing this test next week.

Errands

Tonight Gerrit and I hung out while Adam had meetings in the cities all day and a date with a favorite bike ride following the meetings. I had an exchange to make in Roch. so Gerrit and I headed down there after work.

First stop: JoAnn's. Patterns were on sale and I think I'm going to attempt to make his costume for Halloween (with the help of Omah - dutch for grandma). While looking through the pattern books, Gerrit was in the cart and grabbed a flier that was on the table. He spent most of the time looking at the flier as if it were a book! I was able to get what I needed with little issues from him! Omah would be proud - it was a Burda flier! He even looked at it while in the car going to our next stop.

Dinner: Famous Dave's. I had a hankerin for beef brisket and a corn muffin. I ordered the platter and chose sides that I thought Gerrit would like. I read somewhere that if the kids menu looks full of fried foods, to order something for yourself and share. Seeing he's not even 1 1/2 and doesn't really need a 'full' kids menu with drink and dessert, I decided to share my meal with him. He loved the brisket - who doesn't? And the 'drunken' apples were a hit too. He wasn't too keen on the garlic mashed spuds - a spawn of mine not like garlic mashed spuds? Anyways, the reason I write all this is because he did so well! Of course eating but sitting thru dinner with only me to entertain him. If you know the restaurant, you know the blue grass, upbeat southern music playing throughout....well Gerrit would take breaks from eating and bob to the music while sitting in the high chair. I couldn't help but laugh. And at times, he was watching sports center - football preview. Now that IS a spawn of mine! :)

Next stop: Old Navy for an exchange. I found the correct size shirt and was doing the exchange at the register and put Gerrit in the cart after I spent 5 min. chasing him through the store. (I felt bad he had been buckled in everywhere we went tonight, I thought I'd let him walk and be free seeing this stop was a quick one.) I tried just setting him in the basket part of the cart seeing it was just to keep him in one spot while I tended to business - well he tried to climb out! So, in the front he went. Well, he reached over and pulled a credit card application off the counter and began playing with it like it was a book. I finished the exchange and went to put the application back (he hadn't crumpled it or eaten it - it was in good shape) but he wouldn't let me! So, we took that in car too.

Next stop: Target - well it was suppose to be but I didn't feel like it so we headed home.

Once we were at home we learned that Adam was going to be later than he thought which meant Gerrit had to go with me on my run. It was getting dark so I quickly changed and off we went. I had a pretty good run - fairly fast considering I was pushing about 30+ lbs with me and I hadn't had much of a break all day (except driving in the car). After a little cat nap in the stroller, he was ready to play ball with Dad who rolled in shortly after we did.

A busy day but fun and productive - my kind of a day!

Tubby Time

Following a busy night at the park, a stop by the porch where Bryan gave us an ice cream sandwich, and a handful of chips thanks to dentist Dave, it was time for a tubby. (Adam met us at the porch after his bike ride - he flatted 6 miles out! I didn't have my phone so he slowly made his way home. Oops. We were having too much fun to stop what we were doing and find him on some country road!)

I had the camera with me from the park so I thought I would try and get a few pics of Gerrit's hair when its wet. It is getting so long but I just don't feel like dealing with getting it cut and seeing how he will respond. Actually, the real reason is he'll look like a big boy when it does get cut and I don't want to admit he's a big boy! (If you zoom in you can see what a messy face he had.)

Too Nice of a Night

As much as I wanted to sit on my butt and knit, it was too nice of a night to stay inside. Gerrit was very upset to see Dad leave for a bike ride without him (he went on one last night when I was in book club). So mom called Luke and Anne and asked them to meet us at the park. We got there a bit before Anne and Luke so I took some pictures. Gerrit is much more daring than he was last time we went to the park. He is willing to go anywhere! He even tried 'walking' down the slide! Luckily, he didn't try to slide down the fire pole!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

The rest of the week looks great too - guess the knitting will have to wait.

Crusties

For some reason Gerrit had a ton of energy when he was playing on the couch. He would try and jump, but fell between the cushions, fall back on the pillows and just laugh. When he finally calmed down he looked like this:


That is not lint that is on his face, its crusties, aka boogers! And we thought his cold was getting better...

The Apple Doesn't Fall Far from the Tree

Saturday Gerrit didn't take a very long nap in his crib. So Adam put him on his chest hoping that as they watch football he'd fall asleep. Well, I guess it worked - for both of them! They slept at least 1.5 hrs together on the couch.

Who's mouth do you think is open wider?