Napping in a tent.

It was such a treat to have warmer weather last week that one afternoon I decided that Elijah and I should enjoy the great outdoors during his nap time. This could have just been an excuse for me to lay in the sun while my child napped without feeling any guilt for being lazy, but I prefer to think of it as exposing Elijah to new experiences. Yeah, that's it . . .

Anyway, I brought out the tent and tunnel that I found on clearance at Target for $10 (regularly $60, go me) and made Elijah a pretty sweet little napping spot outside. He had a beautiful view of the pond, and umbrella in case it got too hot, a blanket and pillow on the floor of the tent, and a bevy of books to help him unwind and get in the napping mood.

Beautiful sunny blue skies!
A perfect day to be outside.

Grandpa checks out Eli's new digs.

Of course, for the first 10 minutes Elijah was mostly obsessed with crawling through the tunnel and tent, but eventually he quieted down and we read some stories. Then he decided he wanted to fall asleep in the tunnel and not the tent. I went with the flow on that, but after a few minutes he decided "tunnel too hot" and came back to the more shaded tent to snooze. Once he was zonked I made myself comfy outside of the tent in the sun with my swimsuit on, a good book, and a beverage. I don't know why I didn't set up this napping in the tent idea earlier in the summer. What a pleasant afternoon!

Those legs belong to a boy who's
not going to be napping anytime soon.

Mom's happy I'm finally reading books and not jumping around.

Success! He's finally asleep!

Beautiful day, beautiful garden.

Last week the weather was beautiful and I was so excited to get the opportunity to go to the Frederick Meijer Gardens with my cousin Catherine (technically my cousin Cory's wife, but I'm claiming her as my own). :) Catherine was one of the four cousins pregnant at the same time about three years ago, and so she has a son, Joshua, who is just three weeks older than Elijah. We had a gorgeous day, and the boys played together very well. With the only exception being when Eli pushed Joshua off the picnic table while Joshua was climbing up. Eli thought Joshua was heading for his food. So other than my son being a bully, they played well! Catherine and I played together well too, and she never tried to get my food so I didn't have to push her. :)

I hadn't been to the gardens for over 10 years, and my how it has changed. It has expanded drastically and I just loved the walking paths and sculptures. We spent most of our time in the children's garden area, and that was so great just in itself. I'm definitely going to be getting a membership to the gardens!

There was so much to explore, but first the boys climbed a big giant hill next to a big giant horse sculpture ( I didn't take a picture of the horse for some reason), and then realized that their mommies were at the bottom while they were at the top. Hmm. So up the hill Catherine and I went as well. At the children's garden Elijah and Joshua chased each other in a maze, banged drums, rang bells, explored a tree house, had a tea party, dug up dinosaur bones in a giant sand area, played in a beaver's den, and splashed with boats in a big winding river. Whew! What a lot to do! To top it off we all had lunch together as well. Catherine and I were busy running after them most of the time, but we had a chance to chat and have fun too (not that we didn't find tree houses, dinosaur bones, and winding rivers excitement enough).

I think the highlight of the time for me was watching the boys play in the maze together and run around. They would run around corners and surprise each other and then both just laugh and laugh, then run away and surprise each other again. And when we had tea together the boys would politely fill each other's cups, pretend to drink, and didn't bicker at all. What a pair of delightful boys! I'm hoping we get to see more of Joshua and Catherine this fall and winter!

I didn't get out my camera very often, so if you want to check out some more pictures, you can see Catherine's blog as well. She has some great ones there!

So many questions . . .

Elijah is definitely beginning to exhibit the curiousness of a 2 year old and, coupled with his ever-expanding verbal skills, he's become quite the little questioner.

It all started a few weeks ago with Eli understanding the concept of asking "where" someone or something went. One day he was home during nap time with Grandpa while I went shopping, and when I came home Grandpa and Grandma told me that he kept pacing around after he woke, going from the front door to the back door, and asking, "Where Momma go? Oh man. Where Momma go?" Since then he's begun to ask me every morning (without fail), "Where Daddy go? Where Grandma go? Where Grandpa go?" Usually though the subject of the question is Lexi and Tori ("Where Lexi Tori go?), even if they haven't even been at our house within the last day or two. And last Saturday we were eating breakfast at our still-for-sale-house and he started asking, "Where Uncle Jeff go?" He hadn't seen Uncle Jeff for a week, but he desperately needed to know where Uncle Jeff was. :)

Now Eli's firmly grasped the concept of "what" as well. It's cute to see him stop and have to look at everything he doesn't recognize. Then he asks, "What's that, Mommy?" or "What's this, Mommy?" Though occasionally it can get a little repetitive to have to answer a ton of questions, the majority of the time it's super-adorable since he has the cutest little inflection when he asks his questions.

He's also learned that "what" is a response. Last week I was trying to get him to pick up a game he had all over the floor before he got another one out, and he was ignoring my efforts to get him involved in the clean up. I said, "Elijah," with a more authoritative tone, and without even looking up he replied, "What?!," with an exasperated little voice. My mind fast forwarded about 11 years or so and I could just imagine that same exact expression and tone of voice coming out of my teen aged Elijah. Mom was standing in the kitchen and both she and I could barely contain our laughter. I didn't respond right away so Elijah looked at me and said, "What, Mommy? What?"

Though I'm loving seeing Eli learn and be curious about the world around him, I must say that I'm glad he hasn't picked up any of the other question statements. What and where are enough for now without having to deal with any who, when, or why questions!

Eli loves the Michigan Marching Band!

A few weeks ago, while at our house back in Canton, I decided on a whim to grab one of my old Michigan Marching Band yearbook VHS videos. I had picked up the videos from the years that I was in the band (1995, 1996, and 1997) several years earlier, but had never been able to watch them; they were very garbled when played in our VCR (even after playing with the tracking control).

When I got back to Mom and Dad K.’s house in Grand Rapids, to my surprise, the video worked perfectly! Also somewhat to my surprise – Eli loved it! He sat and watched most of the hour-plus-long video as I watched it with him and explained what the different instruments were, and the different shapes that the band was making with their formations. We even caught a couple of glimpses of Daddy marching!

Eli is really into the band now, which he shows us in various ways:

• He’ll bring me the one of the videos and say “Watch marching band movie, Daddy!” He also knows how to put the VHS tape into the VCR – perhaps a rarity among year 2007 2-year-olds? And I’ve found that for all of their faults as compared to DVDs – need to rewind, can’t easily skip around to different points of the tape – VHS tapes have the definite perk of being much more durable than DVDs, and unlike DVDs, I don’t need to worry about Eli handling the tapes. No need to worry about putting scratches on the hard plastic VHS tape!
  

Visual aid for 20 years from now when Eli has no idea what a VHS tape was:

• Eli will take two of the metal lids from his kitchen set and bang them together and say “cymbals”!
  
  
• Eli is starting to be able to pick out the sound of some instruments from music. On a couple of occasions, he’s heard some music on the radio or from one of his movies that has classical instrumentation, and he’ll say “trumpets!”
  
• Eli is getting into the Michigan spirit, too. We’ve caught him a couple of times walking around the house, saying “Hail, Hail!” and pumping his little fist in the air. When we’re watching a football game and I say “Touchdown!”, Eli will respond and say, rapid-fire, “Michigan Marching Band Touchdown!” And he definitely knows the sound of The Victors – I was outside in the front yard with my trumpet the other day demonstrating how to play it for my nephew Noah, and Missy told me later that Eli was inside saying “marching band! Marching band!”

Maybe Eli might be in the Michigan Marching Band himself someday? I don’t know what the future holds for him… but I would certainly be extremely proud if he was!

Spur-of-the-moment picnic!

Last week my brother Jeff mentioned that we should have a picnic together at the park sometime, so on short notice we decided to brave the weather forecast and have a picnic last Thursday night.

We went to a local park about 5 minutes from my parents, and virtually had the place to ourselves. It did end up raining for just a few minutes, which added to the excitement as we dashed from the playground to the pavilion (Noah said we needed to "find shelter!"). Just a few minutes after finding cover the rain stopped and the sun shone down again, just like I predicted. After that I got to hear the girls say over and over, "Aunt Missy was right! It stopped raining!" Ah, music to my ears. :)

Eli and Daddy - the Crocodile Riders!

Grandma heads down the slide with the kids.

Eli, Lexi, and Tori, doing "gymnastics"

It was still pretty windy though, so the concrete in the pavilion ended up being painted a nice red color from the kool-aid that went flying in a sudden gust. And the kids were more interested in eating cheese popcorn than actual dinner. Grandma opened the bag and it was a feeding frenzy, reminding me of those shark documentaries you see.

Watch out, there's popcorn in the water!

Eli discovered his bib made a good pouch for holding his popcorn.

The girls and Eli on the "climbing wall" of the pavilion.

The battery on the camera ran out so I didn't get that many pictures of us playing, but Mom did snap a pic of most of us up on the big tractor tires. Bravo to Jeff for managing to scramble up in dress shoes (he came straight from work to join us). After being away from Grand Rapids for so long it is such a special treat to be able to enjoy fun family time on the spur-of-the-moment (and a weeknight none the less)!

Everyone on top of the tires start screaming!

We made it to the top of Mt. Tire-verest!

Brr. Summer's gone.

It's been a bit brisk this week (even my Mom said it was cold and closed the windows of the house, which is a miracle) and I think the glorious lazy days of summer are behind us. So I don't think I can hold out hope for more warm days of summer to enjoy an afternoon in the pool. Living with my parents this summer came with an added perk for us - my Mom's friend, Sue (also the mother of my friend Karen), lives less than 5 minutes away and has a beautiful in ground pool which she welcomes friends, family, and, thankfully, friend's grandkids, to so they can enjoy it as well. We spent many afternoons at the pool this summer, so I thought I'd share some pics and some memories.

I have to say that I am so proud of my nephew, Noah, and nieces, Tori and Lexi. At the beginning of the year Noah was just getting comfortable with swimming, certainly was not about to jump in the pool from the side or the diving board, and insisted on his life jacket even in the shallow end where he could touch the bottom. Lexi and Tori were also getting used to swimming and were unsure about jumping into the pool. After just a few weeks they were all little fishes, swimming back and forth the pool confidently. And by the end of the summer they all were jumping into the pool from the diving board!

One of the last times in the pool Noah was swimming in the shallow end without his life jacket when he decided to go jump off the board. He forgot that he didn't have his life jacket on and jumped right in - and though surprised (!!) he swam right to the edge and did great! After that he even swam across the deep end without his jacket several times and jumped in a few more times as well. I'm so proud of him!! He was scared of even jumping in or swimming in the deep end with his jacket at the beginning of the summer, and overcame those fears. What a great lesson for us all!

At the beginning of the summer Eli wasn't liking the pool either, crying when put in his floatie and screaming, "no no no," but by the end he was jumping to Grandma in the pool and liked splashing around and playing ball. Most of his time was still spent exploring around the pool and eating pretzels though. Usually he was asking for pretzels before we even managed to get our flip flops off! The last time we were at the pool he went on the diving board and wanted to jump in, but didn't. I'm guessing that next year he'll be jumping in with gusto (and still eating pretzels too)!

I even managed to remember how to dive off the diving board, something I haven't done for probably 12 years. I forgot how much I love it! I'm a fish at heart too (just ask my Mom, Sue, or Karen about how difficult it is to get me out of the water!), and just loved spending time at the pool this summer. I'm ready for next summer already . . . and maybe I'll keep my swimsuit handy just in case we get an unexpected treat of warm weather in the next few weeks. :)

Sailing weekends!

Over the Labor Day weekend we had the privilege of going sailing on Jon’s Mom’s sailboat again (one of Missy’s absolute favorite things!). We also went earlier in the summer, but it was close to camping time and I never blogged about it. I thought it was about time to change that, especially since we always have such a good time on the boat, and since Elijah seems to have inherited the sea-faring genes of the Viking ancestors from Grandma Amanda, and the Dutch ancestors from my side of the family. The boat is a little less baby-proof than last year since Eli’s gotten bigger and more mobile, so Eli had to wear his “boat coat” more often and we had to watch him more closely. He quickly learned how to go up and down the steps to go below pretty much by himself, and still had fun exploring all the nooks and crannies of the boat (his favorite crannies were the ones with the flashlights, and the one with the domino game). Jon bonked his head pretty good going up the steps on Sunday, which goes to show that the sailboat isn’t adult-proof sometimes as well. : ) Here are some of our favorite memories from sailing this year:

• The first time Eli saw the wheel on the boat he sat down next to it, looked up and said, “Ooh, big big wheel.” Yep, that’s the truth Eli, it is a pretty big wheel!
• Eli kept calling the boat “Grandpa’s boat,” even when we said it was Grandma’s boat too. At one point we got in to a little debate with us saying it was Grandma’s boat, and Eli telling us no, it was Grandpa’s boat. The second time we went to the boat we got halfway across the bridge to Canada when Elijah started yelling “Grandma’s boat! Grandpa’s boat!” rather excitedly. Guess he remembered being there before, and also that the boat was both Grandma and Grandpa’s.
• Eli has a Thomas the Tank Engine book where Thomas crosses the big big bridge. The Blue Water Bridge in to Canada is the biggest bridge Eli has ever seen, so the first time we were on the boat and heading underneath it to get to Lake Huron, Elijah was EXTREMELY excited to see the “big big bridge!!” Everything after that was related to whether we were under the bridge, on the bridge, if Eli could see the bridge from where we were and, if not, then where was the big big bridge? On the second visit he still remembered the bridge, and it was the highlight of the trip. Being stuck on it waiting to get through customs wasn’t as big as a thrill for Mommy and Daddy as it was for Elijah though.
• After years of going to the boat and visiting the chip trucks (French fry trucks for us Americans) that set up shop in the park under the bridge, we finally discovered that there is a really cool playground for kids right there too! Guess you don’t realize things like that until they are actually pertinent to you, because I swear that playground was never there before. Anyway, the playground has swings and a big play structure shaped like a boat. Elijah was just crazy about the playground, especially sliding, playing with the sand, and chasing the multitude of sea gulls. He liked the chips too (doused in vinegar and salt, just like Mom and Dad like them!). : )
• Over the last 2 years Eli has learned that Grandpa Terry is a softy when it comes to cookie distribution (Grandpa always has Hob Nobs on hand, which Eli loves). I think that within 10 minutes of Eli seeing Grandpa Terry he was asking for a cookie! Often the sentence that comes out is, “Grandpa Terry! Cookie!” Elijah found a hiding place to hoard his extra cookies this year though – the small compartment in the floor in front of the refrigerator! It’s meant to contain water (run-off from the fridge or something like that), but Elijah ingeniously decided to stash his sweets there. When asked about it he said “my cookies hiding!” Hoarding sweets already? Now I know he’s related to my side of the family!
• Eli’s in a phase of sticking out his tongue and blowing raspberries to you (especially when requested to do something), and he decided that whenever Grandma Amanda would tell him that she loved him he would respond with a big raspberry. Nice manners, Eli, nice. Fortunately Grandma did get some big hugs and kisses to offset the raspberries.
• This last sailing trip we had beautiful weather and had the chance to anchor the boat in Lake Huron, on the Canadian side of the lake, and go swimming off the back of the boat! The water was cool (74 degrees), but you got used to it after a minute or two. Elijah was excited to go swimming in “the pool” as he called it, until a small wave crashed in to his legs while standing on the swim ladder. After that he wasn’t too sure, and decided to stay on the swim ladder and swim platform with Grandma. He was content to splash Mommy and Grandpa and just go up and down the ladder. At the end he wanted to get in with Mommy, but didn’t want me to be on the raft. I wasn’t sure enough to hold him and swim myself in 20 foot deep water, so Eli ended up only going in a little bit and never being away from the swim ladder. I was loving swimming in the big lake though, and diving off the back of the boat (it is so fun to be able to dive straight down into deep water!). I coerced Jon in to letting me take the camera in the water (a la our camping experience this year), and was able to snap some really sweet shots of the boat (and Jon, Mom, and Eli of course).

The boat is up for sale now, so it may have been one of our last weekends on it, so I’m glad that we had such a great time sailing this summer and were able to start introducing Eli to the joy of being on the water!