Day 2

Gerrit waited patiently for his turn to bat:

He does a great job batting and is doing much better getting his hands lined up properly (he usually is cross handed but is getting use to switching them correctly. Thanks to a year of teaching elementary, I know the cue words to help him a long: 'favorite hand on top' works every time!)

If you ask Gerrit what his favorite part of tball is, he'll tell you wearing the helmet! (and base running)

Swimming lessons....he did the opening activity (bottom left) and then immediately went to putting his head down (top left). I had to laugh because I think the instructor thought he was scared of the water, when actually he knew it was cold and was acting sheepish. Eventually he hopped in and helped pick up the toys (far right). Next thing I knew he was sitting next to the bucket of toys watching and when the kids did a little jingle and had to put their face in the water, well Gerrit is no dummy - he could put his face in the water without the rest of his body getting cold (top right). He joined in the kicking part because that too didn't require getting the whole body wet and near the end, he reluctantly  stood with the rest of the kids (bottom middle). His favorite part today was jumping into the big pool - not because it was a big pool, but because that pool is heated!

The Big E

 

So what does Emmit do while Gerrit plays tball?

He enjoys watching, playing golf, holding his big brother's equipment and of course, talking on the phone while haveing a little refreshment.

{I made his "big E" shirt as well as the hat this spring, I've got my mom's sewing bug right now and the knitting needles are getting lonely!}

First Day of Summer

Gerrit started off our first offical day of summer with a bang: tball and swim lessons back to back! We drove to a neighboring town for tball and then back to Z-town for swim lessons.
He started off the day telling me he wasn't going to tball, he was just going to watch. I had a feeling he was going to be like this, but we went anyways and he did great!

I took just a few pictures and here he is at the base running station:

Everyone was to stand on home plate, he ran real fast, skipped touching 2nd base, and after I yelled for him to touch the base, he did so at 3rd. At the end he was glad he went and can't wait for tomorrow.

Swim lessons were cold. Of course the weather is cooler this week, just in time for swim lessons (outside in a freezing cold kiddy pool). So he made it till the last activity and then he had enough - he was cold. He told me at bed time that he would give swim lessons 1 more try, but if it was cold, he was done. (I didn't have the heart to tell him he has 2 weeks of it!)

After lunch I ran to Roch for an oil change and Luke stayed with the boys. When I got home, they were all playing outside. Gerrit snuck in and opened a new package of goggles (one I was going to return because I found his goggles) and took them outside. He had this crazy idea that he could use them like the goggles he wore when he went to the farm a few weeks ago. Emmit seemed to stay busy playing with Luke's phone and an old Lego truck the neighbors gave us and didn't feel a need to wear goggles (unlike Luke and Gerrit). When Luke asked to water the flowers, I knew that was the end of dry clothes...and it was. Gerrit pulled the hose from Nick's house and filled up his dump truck beyond capacity. Emmit was curious and he too started playing in the water.

Summer here we come!

An End of an Era

Gerrit officially is finished with daycare as he has known it. He helped me make Julie this  pot of flowers as a thank you for taking care of him. Gerrit was not sad to say good bye, he's been looking forward to this day. We'll see what he thinks this fall when he is not with Emmit every day.

My big boy will start preschool this fall and stay for the rest of the day. It will be good for him to be with kids his own age and size all day! I'm pretty excited too - we've already been busy working on his preschool blanket/pillow and I've scoped out the backpacks. (Can you tell I love back to school stuff!)

Bring on Summer!

Gerrit got a much needed hair cut today.
I was hoping Gerrit would let her use the clippers but no such luck. So, this is as short as she could go which works for summer. He has such thick hair (thanks to both mom and dad for this gene) that I thought if he had it short, it might last longer and be cooler this summer. So despite the silly colic, we went for it.

And it reminds me of his 1st hair cut:

(this isn't the best picture and I think if you saw him in person, it would make more sense, but I think the short hair makes him look younger...)

Mt. Everest

Emmit is a bit more daring than Gerrit was at this age. 

He loves to climb on top of the sand box and usually when he makes it to the top, he loses his balance and falls off.

Happy Memorial Day!

We had a busy Memorial day doing yard work, laundry, installing the rain barrel, swimming in the pool (which we learned has a hole in it - it did make it 3 summers which is pretty good, but still, I love that pool and am sad to see a hole in it), and a bbq at Rockne's. 

I managed to make Gerrit a shirt that he is wearing in the picture above. It is his hand print that looks like a flag. {Normally, I'm not that patriotic, but I thought the idea was cute and figured he can wear it for forth of July too.}

You may ask where Emmit's shirt is??? 

Well, when I had just finished painting his hand he decided to make fist and mush all the colors together so we decided he was too little for this project!