Sports Center?

Adam and I have switched rolls this year - he is in charge of getting Gerrit off to daycare in the morning and I pick him up after work. It seems to be working pretty well - I'm enjoying getting ready by MYSELF and not being bothered by a 2 yr old as I had been in the past. (I can actually shower by myself too!) Adam usually uses the bathroom in the basement while I use the bathroom upstairs. The nice thing about the basement is the TV is also located there. So, Gerrit has gotten into the habit of watching Sports Center with Adam in the mornings...

this am, when Gerrit went downstairs, he went right to the couch, sat down and said: "Sports Center?". So now Adam can get ready while Gerrit gets caught up on the sports scores/highlights from the previous day! I guess I should've bought the t-shirt that said "I watch Sports Center with daddy" instead of the mommy one!

We just returned from the ZM football game. Another great night to watch football. Gerrit loved it, especially because we sat on the grass in the end zone area so he was free to roam - I mean run and 'play football' himself!

Here He Is...

I finally got some help in scanning the ultrasound pictures...

A full view - from the side - head is on the left

Definately a boy!

Legs - maybe he'll have his mother's long legs instead of his dad's long torso...

Obsessions...

As promised, I have a few pictures from the last week - they are all Gerrit's latest obsessions:



Top Row: riding 'cyclocross' (lifting his bike and riding on the grass), wearing dad's arm warmers on his bike ride to Dahlen's, reading dad's latest cyclocross mag. while dad sleeps, trying out dad's work boots
Middle Row: lacing dad's work boots, all the kids at the farm this weekend
Bottom row: reading a cycling mag. on the porch, riding down his favorite hill at the farm, ready for a kick off (note the hand in the air -Luke taught him that), wearing dad's gear - helmet, arm warmers, and gloves - he put on all by himself

We had a busy and fun last weekend of summer:
Friday - went to the football game. Gerrit stayed focused and in his seat longer at the football game than in church! He loved seeing the action in person and it was a beautiful night for a football game - too bad we lost in double OT (we left at 4th quarter -bed time)
Saturday - met our friends, Statema's for breakfast and playground fun in Red Wing, took naps and visited with Dahlen's so Gerrit could play with Luke and Paul (he was going thru withdraw not seeing the boys during the week)
Sunday - Church and breakfast with the gang at Dahlen's (Bridget's was closed), tomato harvesting and chillin' at the farm, swimming and BBQ in Lake City
Monday - did some work around the house and hung out at home seeing it was a busy weekend! (I made a zucchini pie and fooled everyone into thinking it was apple!)

Baby Jack and Then-some...

We are half way through our first week back to school/daycare and I can tell getting up earlier and no afternoon naps are catching up - with ME! Gerrit is adjusting to the earlier mornings and we are trying to figure out how to handle a somewhat cranky toddler while getting ready for work! It's an adjustment for all of us.

A side note on potty training: Gerrit seems to be going at daycare! Julie will put him on the potty and he goes! He still isn't to the point of telling her when he has to go, but at least he's staying familiar with the concept and hopefully it will click sooner than later. The nice thing is she doesn't go through as many diapers now either! Guess we should continue reinforcing the idea at home now too! My hope is to only have 1 kid in diapers...we shall see!

When I figure out how to scan photos, I will post a few pictures of the ultrasound...its chaos at school so its low on my to-do list - I will do it, just might not be till next week some time.

We are trying to get Gerrit familiar with the idea of a baby brother, rather than just 'baby'. He knows where the baby is and every time we talk about his baby brother, he says "baby Jack" - why Jack? He met baby Jack this summer at Sandy Pines - my good friend Amy had a baby in April and his name is Jack so Gerrit thinks all babies are 'baby Jack'.

No, we will not be naming this next one Jack - its a one syllable name and we need 2. We are in the process of generating a list of potential names and can tell it will be an on-going discussion the next few months. With naming Gerrit, we had it chosen well before we even decided to have kids! So now it's hard to come up with a name that we feel as strongly about as we did with Gerrit! It'll come (hopefully).

Gerrit continues to amaze us with his love for cycling. He will cry when he sees Adam leave for a ride and he does not get to go with. The way he says 'cyclocross' is so cute too; he tries to mimic the concept of cyclocross by lifting his bike up the front step and ride through the grass. As Adam was putting him to bed tonight, Gerrit was whispering: "bike ride, baby brother" - good thing the Burley is a 2 seater as Gerrit will have to share the ride next year!

And I'm too lazy to get the camera and download some pictures that were taken this week too. Sorry, again it'll happen soon. It always seems like the camera and I are not near each other when I update the blog. I got to work on that one.

I felt the urge to pull out all the newborn clothing etc we had from Gerrit, cousin Max, and our friends Soren/Anders...I lost count of the number of newborn sleepers we have ready to go! I quit after getting through the 3-6 months size and have more bins to go through these next few weeks. Just want to take inventory of what we have and what we need to stock up on before Jan. Even though Gerrit and the baby will be off a bit on sizing, cousin Max was born in Dec, so some of his clothes that Gerrit didn't wear will be used this time around. (I'm still bummed I don't get to inherit cousin Ella/Mia's clothes.) Anyways, getting excited and its starting to seem real that we will be having a little one around here sooner than later!

The Final Day

Besides next weekend, summer vacation is over. I really enjoyed my summer and could use a few more weeks. Some years I'm ready to go back, but not this year. Going to the pool after nap time, hanging out with the boys and 'sleeping in' has been great! I'm not looking forward to getting up to an alarm tomorrow; I must admit, it has been over a year since I really had to get up to a clock. But, we will survive; Gerrit's bed time has been moved up and I think he will like a routine again. I will miss him during the day but look forward to the evenings and treasure the time I can watch him ride his bike and play golf (and tackle Adam in football) as those are the favorite activities when we go outside. I'm getting emotional now...stupid hormones!

Anyways, we had a fabulous day. Church, Bridget's, naps, and then off to the farm again. This time, the Dahlen family was there too so we got a ton done! Adam took his bike and snuck in a bike ride on roads he normally doesn't travel. Gerrit had his bike and couldn't get enough of it. The only time he was off it was when he fell into a hole (he has a few scrapes to prove this happened more than once) and to eat guac and chips that was made fresh! Luke was put in charge of Gerrit and I was able to help pick tomatoes for nearly 4 hours! It was so relaxing to be out in the cool temps, with the sun shining and the only things to listen to is our conversation and nature. Gerrit saw the horses again and had a blast! He pushed his bike up the hill where the house stood and then 'coasted' down, usually singing or watching Luker on the little purple girls' bike. It was fun to take a break and watch them. Before we left we took a walk to the river and put our feet in it - cold! Gerrit even dipped his feet in and said it was cold.

We were able to walk away with some more veggies too. I'm going to try and make zucchini bread for the first time and try to fix the beets for Adam on the grill. (No, I did not eat any last time as the smell reminded me of childhood and I couldn't stomach the thought of eating one - now that I'm an adult and have the choice to eat it or not).

Once we were home, I quickly showered and cleaned up Gerrit. I headed to the movies with the girls - saw 'The Proposal' (cute and worth seeing). Adam put Gerrit down and did some work.

We are going to try and head out to the farm next weekend too as there are a ton of tomatoes that will need to be picked again! Michael, Deb's hubby thought we picked over 200 lbs of tomatoes today - give Anne and I a job and we do it well! Although after the farm, we will head to Lake City for the last pool party of the season too.

Tomorrow afternoon we will find out the fate of our family...if it will be symmetrical or I will forever be outnumbered...

Dinner

Tonight's conversation at dinner:

Dad: Gerrit, would you like more ham?

Gerrit: Pam? Dave?

This is Pam and Dave! We couldn't help but laugh, no matter how much we emphasized the 'h', he didn't get it!

The Farm

I posted pictures of the farm visit from today in the post below this one but I'll tell about the trip here...

Deb from the bike shop has a farm not far from Z-town and has a lot of veggies that need harvesting...so I thought I'd take the boys out to the farm and help her out. Well, Paul didn't feel well so he stayed home so it was Luker, Gerrit and I. Gerrit was excited about the farm all day. I told him that after nap time we were going to the farm to see the horses...that made nap time come a bit quicker than usual! :) Anyways, we saw 4 of the 5 horses (one was on the other side of the stream) and Gerrit did not want to get too close to them but liked seeing them. Then we got to work - we helped with beans and I learned how to pick potatoes. Gerrit helped bring the weeds to the brush pile with Luke in the wagon and then they rode bikes. It was great, they could ride all over the place and not get into trouble! Amber, the dog loved chasing them too. We stayed longer than I thought and had a blast. It came time to wash the veggies and Luke was in charge of the hose...lets just say Gerrit got a 'little' wet. He liked putting his hand in the stream and watching the splash it would make. Soon he was running right thru the stream and was soaked! We tried to wash the potatoes between Gerrit running in our way and managed to get most of the dirt off the potatoes and other veggies. Gerrit would laugh and lose his footing and fall over - onto the freshly mowed (long) grass! So not only was he wet, he was full of grass by the time we were done. I let him have his fun and when it was time to leave, stripped him naked, tried to hose him off again (for some reason he didn't want to be sprayed by the cold hose water any more!), and put him in the car in just a diaper. This was beneficial because he ate crackers and finished off my 7-up which was spilled down the front of him! Anyways, before we left, we took one more trip out to see the horses. By now, only 2 were left on this side of the stream but that was just fine. Gerrit actually touched one of them and was starting to warm up to them. Luke was kind enough to pick him up, sopping wet, to get close to the horses. I was fine, taking pictures from a distance! We hope to head back to the farm and help out some more before the harvest season is over. I truely enjoyed myself and felt so relaxed! I love that Deb did the planting and the tough part and I could help reap the benefits of a long summer of gardening for her.