Gerritisms at Age 4

Gerrit still says he doesn't like preschool and maybe never admit that he actually DOES like it which is fine by me. I know he is enjoying it because Nikki checked on him when she picked Ollie up today. Gerrit was too busy playing to stop and say hi to Nikki! So even though he still has his mopey moments, he is having fun. Matt, Ollie's dad dropped her off today for her first day of preschool and when Ollie started to get weepy, Gerrit came over to her and invited her to play with him. How sweet, the team beat kids looking out for each other at preschool!

Gerrit was singing some songs from preschool today (this is HIS version):

"So rise and shine and give God the girly, girly...."

While I had a short coughing attack during our Dairy Queen treat Gerrit says to me:

"do you have a frog in your mouth?"

(I guess Little Bear had one in his mouth this am - a kid show Gerrit watches before school)

Oh, and to top it off - Gerrit had homework tonight! He had to fill the letter lunch box with things that start with the letter C. How exciting to share with his class tomorrow all the things we found in the house that start with a C. I wanted to put pictures of my sisters in there b/c their names start with a C but I didn't think preschool kids would get it. I know I'll be laying in bed tonight thinking of more things we could put in it too! 

First Official Day of Preschool

Even though Gerrit has been going to Kids of Christ for 2 weeks now, he officially started preschool today. So we waited to take the ceremonial first day of school pictures until today. In hindsight we should've done them 2 weeks ago when the excitement of preschool was there. We now have a very unhappy 4.5 yr old who does not want to go to preschool. We can't quite figure out why after the first week things were great and then week 2 started and he cries and doesn't want to go anymore.
So this morning I was lucky to get him outside for a few quick pictures. He insisted on leaving the bandaid on his head (he fell on the rocks in Lake City yesterday) and insisted on keeping the pop tart in the photo (which is what he is holding in his hand).

Getting in a quick bite during the photo shoot:

Trying to 'smile'...oh how this is going to be fun to show him in 10 years!

I talked to him briefly tonight (I had open house at school) and even though he cried when Adam left, he said he had fun today with all the new kids. He made a new friend with an orange sweatshirt. I hope he remembers who this kid is because he may not wear his orange sweatshirt next time!

I asked Adam if he wanted the camera to get a picture of Gerrit with his teacher and he gave me the 'ya, right' look. I guess a crying kid who won't let go of his dad's leg would not be a great first day of school photo. Maybe we'll wait till the end of the year to get that picture!

Doin' A Little Catchin' Up!

When I downloaded the pictures tonight I didn't realize I had over 100 pictures! It had been awhile. Yikes. Well, I'm back and hopefully back on a regular basis again. Can't believe how time has flown by once I started back to school and getting everyone into a routine again.
I often wonder where our evenings go (which I'm not happy about).
Anyways, here are the last few pictures taken from football camp. Wednesday were pictures in his MSU jersey and that was not the best of days at camp. The 2nd, top right photo captures it all - standing there next to his buddy. To Gerrit's credit, he did have a new buddy the last 2 days due his getting injured in real practice on Tuesday so I'm sure he was a bit nervous but still! This kid normally bleeds football and to see him stand around just killed me! Anyways, Emmit didn't seem to mind tagging along and was more into it than Gerrit. Adam came the last day which helped motivate Gerrit to do a few more things and show Dad what he had been doing all week. Unfortunately, I had the zoom lens on when the group photo was taken so I only got 1/2 the group, but you can see Gerrit so that is what counts. I think in the end he enjoyed the camp and will do it again (hopefully he won't be so shy!).

We also had our last visit to the farm the week of football camp. At one point on Wednesday, Gerrit just wanted to go to the farm and skip football camp! He was a huge help this week - Luke and Gerrit picked the squash, he got all dressed up in protective gear to help Paul and then chickened out and took the stuff all off (top right), relaxed on the mower, helped wash the potatoes as well as wash me - I mean sprayed me a few more times than I cared to have been sprayed and finished the visit with a ride on Tug Boat. Deb hadn't had time to work on the saddle but said she'd get it ready for our next visit. We plan to go out there a little bit on the weekends (hopefully) this fall.

Tonight I got the itch to take a few pictures, maybe it was because Gerrit insisted on getting his football gear on to play his game outside. He coudn't find his Vikings jersey but needed one for 'practice' - which if I didn't hurry up and help put his cleats on, he'd be late for!

Emmit followed suit and grabbed a football as well. Not sure if he was trying to 't' it up on the rain gauge, but quickly realized he couldn't kick that high and took it off. 

Gerrit likes to throw the ball up in the air and catch it as if someone was throwing it to him, good way to play football by yourself, I guess! 

Emmit got bored with football and went back to his standby of scooting on the trike. He hasn't quite figured out how to pedal, but knows how to move around like he's Fred Flinstone. He has taken after his brother by wearing that silly space helmet, usually backwards as in the photos below. At one point, he was scooting towards the truck and realized he couldn't go any further before lifting his helmet to see what the problem was. After a while, I was kind enough to turn the helmet on properly - for his safety - but only after I got a few pictures!

Once he had enough cycling, Emmit decided to combine basketball and football tonight. Not real easy to shoot a football, but he did it, it was not fun to chase after the oblong shaped ball but he didn't seem to mind.

I had my first day of high school today and it seemed to go OK. I think I fooled the 9th grade enough into thinking I knew what I was doing which is all that matters. I don't have the anxiety of teaching elementary which is the best feeling in the world! My dear friend Sue is helping me out and getting me familiar with the high school and the program so I have little to worry about!

Gerrit too has started 'preschool'. I put it in quotes because technically school hasn't started for him (not till the 12th). We call it preschool because it is different than where Emmit goes (he's still at Julie's). We are all adjusting to a new program and expectations. Gerrit enjoys helping to make his lunch each night after dinner (assuming I remember!). Dad does drop off and I do pick up. Gerrit is pretty easy to get up in the mornings because he enjoys going to school and doesn't want to be late. I'm excited for next week when it officially starts. Stay tuned for more stories about school.

A long post, and I'm ready for bed. Got my new Holiday Knits magazine I picked up today after school as a treat to myself and am dying to crack it open! Till next time....

We're Still Here

My hard drive crashed last Thursday so I was w/o my computer over the weekend. I survived, but am thankful to have a full screen to look at rather than my ipod! Anyways, I started back to school and we are all adjusting to the new schedule. I will be back with pictures and what we've been up to this weekend. I have one more day to get my act together for school and then I can breathe. Being at the high school is a bit of an adjustment so the blog is on the back burner, but not forgotten!

Monkey See, Monkey Do

I think we got our moneys worth out of camp - 2 for 1! Emmit really got into the activities and wanted to try everything Gerrit did. At one point I needed to move Emmit out of the way so Gerrit could do the drill.

 

I don't know how Emmit ended up with 2 big footballs. He just have found them on the ground as we were wondering around.

On our way to the sled, Emmit found a helmet and had to try it on. It was very heavy for him and he looked pretty funny trying to keep from falling over while picking up a football. One parent called him a bobble head which wasn't far from the truth!

The sled: Gerrit did not know what to think of this thing. He didn't do it quite right - something to work on tomorrow! Emmit sure thought it was neat even if he was not strong enough to move it.

The last drill was a series of hits against a pad and then get through the dummies to score a touch down. This was a huge hit and once Gerrit tried it, he liked it.

 

Emmit is at Julie's tomorrow and we will head to the farm following camp. Maybe Gerrit can get one on one attention with out Emmit!

Football Camp Day 1

Adam is out of town tonight so I thought I'd throw a few pictures on the blog from football camp today. Gerrit was a bit shy at first, only wanting to play catch but I convinced him to try tackling the the 'dummy' which he soon loved doing! 

Emmit seemed more interested in camp at times than Gerrit. he was throwing to anyone who would 'catch' or at least retrieve and throw back to him. He even pushed the 'dummy' and tried to kick the ball when Gerrit was practicing kicking. I think tomorrow will go better (and the camera will be empty so I can take more pictures too!)

Emmit's Big Day at the Farm

We didn't have daycare Wednesday so Emmit came with us to the farm. Luckily both Luke and Paul were there to help keep an eye on him. The first thing they did was fill up the little red neck swimming pools for Emmit. The hose water was pretty cold so we wanted to give it some time to warm up. Emmit loved the little pools. He even went in the 'big' one with Gerrit (which had warmer water).

I could hardly keep him dry when he was near the 'pools'. Before he had a chance to get his clothes wet and more importantly, his diaper saturated, I stripped him down. This was near the end of our afternoon, so I skipped the swim suit and let him skinny dip.

We did get some work done. Luke kept Emmit happy by giving him rides on the tractor and Gerrit took some time off from playing to help harvest onions. In the mean time, Emmit helped Deb fill the buckets with water - he actually helped keep the hose in the bucket! Paul assisted Emmit in using the squeegie to clean off the tables and then showed him a thing or 2 about fishing. Emmit found the fishing pole that Gerrit played with last week - the one with the Christmas ornament on the end! He fished using the bucket and didn't seem to mind that he didn't catch anything!

Of course there was some time for biking. We took Emmit's trike along so he wouldn't feel left out. Paul helped him on Gerrit's bike so he could 'ride like the big boys' (even with a little help). After lunch the big boys had a bike race. Gerrit won, but he had an advantage - his bike fit! I love watching the 3 of them come up with something they can all do together. Gerrit loves those boys! And the picture with the goggles...no idea where he came up with that!

The boys also took the dogs down to the river to run off some energy. Gerrit went along while Deb and I did some harvesting. I asked Deb how wet she thought Gerrit would be when he came back and here was our answer:

Gerrit came riding back to the farm wearing just his underwear! Paul thought it was best he save his shorts and t-shirt from getting too wet so they took his clothes off. Little did I know that his underwear would be full of sand! Luckily I had an extra outfit along. 

The highlight for Gerrit was waiting to ride Tug Boat again. He was patient all day so just before we left, he took a quick ride and even let Emmit ride with him! Emmit didn't seem to mind; he wasn't sure what to think but he didn't protest either. Emmit seems more of an animal lover than Gerrit so it didn't surprise me to see a smile on Emmit's face. 

We have one more week before I head back to work so one more day at the farm. Sad to think our time is coming to an end because we have so much fun. I love how Gerrit asks me what we are going to pick today and if he can help. Hopefully we can help harvest a little bit on the weekends once school starts.

I told Deb she needs to keep farming long enough for my kids to spend their summers helping her! I think Emmit will come with us next summer.