More Alexanderisms

"Oh, Lisa dear, you're so wonderful 'cause I was really wanting to make this." -when I asked him to help me stir the pear sauce I was making.

Camping: "I'm going with those other siblings."

"The sparks go up from the fire and go up to the stars and make them bigger."

And here's a conversation he had with Therese while on a walk:

"Look at all the acorns," Alexander said.

"Those are pinecones," said Therese.

"I know, but acorns eat pinecones."

Highlights from Camping

Here are a few highlights from our sibling camping trip this weekend. We camped at Suttle lake, near Sisters, OR. And almost all of the Gerlits-and-extended siblings were there...Me, Kev and Jo, along with our spouses and their siblings (Michiel and Maarten, visiting from the Netherlands; Therese, Ken, Tony, and Gabe; Eric, Jude w/friend Rachael, and Rachael and Sheldon)...and kids, of course (ours + Gwyn, Karis, and my cousin's daughter, Lauren). We had a great time!

Kev and Therese got their boat in the water for the first time. The kids spent a lot of time riding bikes and scooters (and eating lots of treats). Annabel got to experience staring at the fire and getting really grubby.

Annabel working on her standing:

Alexander working on his braking:

In the boat:

Girl on the Go

This little girl can not sit still. She really wants to be on the go, but she can't quite get herself into crawling position. She's always got one leg tucked up underneath. Lately, she's been pulling herself up to standing, looking so proud once she gets herself there. That little tongue comes out and she grins and grins. Then she doesn't know what to do. She'll let go with both hands and flop forward or wobble until she plops down.

Here she is with her oom Maarten:


And here we are at the Oregon Coast Aquarium:

Children's Museum

Today we went up to Portland and spent the day at the Children's Museum. What an amazing place! We were there for hours and probably could have spent days there. The water works room alone had the whole family occupied for a good hour. Michiel and I were playing with this water-channeling thing and suddenly realized Alexander wasn't with us. He turned out to be just across the room, but we'd both been so engrossed in what we were building that we hadn't noticed him leave.

Swimming Boy

Tomorrow will be Alexander's last swim lesson for the summer. He's come such a long way! He started out refusing to get his face wet, and now he'll dunk under easily, will float on his stomach with his face in the water, and can float on his back for a few seconds without help. Today they put life jackets on the kids and let them float around and jump in the deep end.

That's my kid with his face in the water:

Even though he often tells me in the morning that he doesn't want to dunk all the way under, he's all smiles in the pool. We'll make a swimmer out of him yet!

Two Pictures

Here's our little sitting-up girl! The tongue action is pretty typical too.

Sitting up

That's sitting up, not spitting up, though she does some of each. Today I think we can officially say that Annabel sits up on her own. I left her sitting up on a blanket in the backyard, and she didn't tip over! She happily sat for at least 4 or 5 minutes before slowly leaning to the left and falling forward on her face. But she totally had her balance before that!

Chillin' on a Saturday morning:



And we actually found Alexander sleeping like this one night: