Big news

It has been a very long time since my last post! Time flies!

We thoroughly enjoyed the summer. We went blueberry and raspberry picking at a local farm and I made raspberry jam. I froze a lot of the blueberries for use in muffins and smoothies! We are very lucky to have quite a few wild blackberry bushes on the edge of our property. Each year we seem to get a little more off of them. One of Kiefer's favorite activities when we'd get home from work was to see if there were any ripe berries he could eat.

One summer day, Roel called me when Kiefer and I were driving home from work/daycare. He said he had a surprise for Kiefer. The whole way home Kiefer kept saying, "Prize!" I asked him what he thought his surprise was. He thought about it for a while and finally said, "Bulldozer." Nope. Not a bulldozer! He was thrilled when we got home to find a car and wagon Roel's colleague's children had outgrown. He would get in the car, shut the car door and say, "Push!

Our raised bed garden yielded a lot of tomatoes, despite the blight. Kiefer really liked to help pick the tomatoes, zucchini, peppers and beans. He would hop in the wagon and we'd pull him over to the garden. Then he would help load up the veggies into the wagon. Our little "baby bear" pumpkins did OK even though the plants eventually died due to an invasion of squash bugs. We picked 5 pumpkins when they were green and they all ripened very nicely. When we ripped out the plants, we found two little snakes. They resided in the garden the rest of the summer and occasionally surprised me while I was picking veggies! Even though it is winter now, I do think about what I'd like to do with the garden next year!

During the summer, Kiefer's favorite song was, "Twinkle twinkle little star." He would also say, "It's raining, it's pouring, the old man is snoring," which he definitely learned from daycare. He is very good at putting together puzzles. He would dump them out of the box and say, "Pieces!"

One day, Kiefer was reading a book we had just bought in the car on the way home. Roel commented, "I guess he doesn't get motion sickness." About 5 minutes later Kiefer was throwing up. After he did, he said, "Poop." I said, "No, Kiefer. You barfed." He then said, "Barf." When we got home, we found that he had a poopy diaper, too!" Parenthood is so glamorous!

Grandma and Grandpa came to visit at the end of August. Kiefer enjoyed riding the see-saw with Grandma and eating ice cream with Grandpa. When we were on our way to the Creamee for the ice cream, we passed by a cemetery, Kiefer pointed and said, "Lots of rocks!"

Some more summer/fall Kiefer-isms: When asked to say "please," Kiefer would say it followed by, "All right! All right, Mama!" He apparently learned this from a 3 year old at daycare.

I tease like to tease Kiefer about how tasty his toes look and how I'd like to eat them. He thinks it is funny. One morning, when he was watching a cartoon about rabbits, and he said, "Those bunnies look tasty! Mmmm!"

In September, we headed to the Netherlands for Tante Paula & Oom Frank's wedding. It was also the first time we got to meet cousin Nolan. Kiefer thoroughly enjoyed riding in the seat on the back of the bike. He fell asleep a couple of times when he went out for a ride with Opa!

Kiefer was the ring bearer at the wedding and we were worried that he wouldn't want to hand over the rings when it was time. So we arranged for Oom Frank to give Kiefer a marshmallow in exchange for the rings. We practiced beforehand and it looked like things were going to be OK. When it was time, Kiefer went right up, handed the rings over and didn't even wait for the marshmallows. It was funny!

The wedding took place at an estate in Rotterdam, which Kiefer thought was a castle. At one point, they opened up the turret and let the kids go to the top. Kiefer had to go, too. When he got to the top he waved and yelled to the wedding guests below, "I'm the king in the castle!"

Kiefer was really great on the plane, but about halfway through the flight over the Atlantic, he would say, "All done! Get out of plane!" I knew exactly how he felt!

When we got back from the Netherlands, Kiefer started to watch a show called "The Wonder Pets." He sings the theme song all the time!

In late September we went to the "Big E" fair in Springfield. Kiefer absolutely loved the cotton candy and the rides. He was a little too small for some of the rides even though he really wanted to go on them. We're sure he will have a blast next year when he's that much taller and able to go on most of the kid rides.

Kiefer loved loved loved Halloween! He really likes ghosts and spooky things, so he very much liked to hear ghost stories and see houses decorated for Halloween. We helped him prepare for trick-or-treating by having him knock on one of our doors after dinner time and say, "Trick-or-treat!" with his pumpkin bucket. Roel would give him a little piece of candy. He was so excited when the big day arrived. Dressed as a fireman, he wanted to keep going from house to house to house. It was so cute to hear him say, "Trick-or-treat!" and then "Thank you! Happy Halloween!" The following day Kiefer wanted to go trick-or-treating again.

A few weeks later we had to switch gears from Halloween to Sinterklass. We watched the arrival of Sinterklaas in the Netherlands using our laptop. Kiefer really did watch it and talked a lot about Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet. He would run to the window and ask where they were. He learned to sing "Sinterklaas kapoentje" and was thrilled to find a little gift in his shoe. Together with some other Dutch folks in Western Massachusetts, we celebrated Sinterklaas with a party.

It is very confusing for Kiefer to differentiate between Sinterklaas and Santa Claus. He will sometimes say, "Where is Santa Claus and Zwarte Piet?" We got "The Polar Express" on DVD for him and he loves it. He calls it, "Train Movie." I think we watched it about 6 times in 1 weekend. Kiefer helped me decorate the Christmas tree this year. He handed me the ornaments and I put them on the tree.

The big news is that Kiefer's going to be a big brother in early July 2010! We're very excited. I don't think he really understands that there is a baby in Mama's belly. I've had pretty bad morning sickness and when he hears me puking, he says, "Mama sick? See doctor?" When I showed him the first ultrasound photo of the baby at 9 weeks, I asked him what was in the photo and he said, "That's a rock!" A few weeks later with the 12 week ultrasound photo, he did say, "That's the baby in Mama's belly!"

Wishing everyone happy holidays and a healthy new year!

Luv,
April, Roel, Kiefer & baby

Summer fun

We had a very wet spring/early summer. It rained almost every day. It has since become warm and sunny, however it isn't hot and humid like it usually is this time of year. All the early precipitation makes me nervous that my tomato harvest will not be good; tomatoes love lots of sunshine and warmth. I don't want my plants developing nasty diseases because of too-wet foliage. So far there only a few plants have some yellow bottom leaves. I'm hoping it is not a disease and just normal aging. We have lots of beautiful green tomatoes... they just need to ripen. We've had a few cherry tomatoes ripen already and even though Kiefer wants to eat them, he immediately spits them out once he gets a taste. I'm not sure if he thinks because they're red, the tomatoes are going to be sweet like strawberries.

The zucchini, yellow summer squash and snow peas apparently thrive in wet conditions. I cannot believe that I have been harvesting zucchini and summer squash for over a month now. I started to ask myself, "What am I going to do with all this squash" earlier than I anticipated. We've also been enjoying carrots and cucumbers. Unfortunately, our watermelon plant didn't make it. I think it developed root rot... no surprise given the wet weather. Kiefer used to visit the little watermelons every day and say, "Baby watermelon! Cute!" He was sad when we noticed they were gone and asked me where the baby watermelons were. The pumpkin doesn't look too healthy now either. We have 4-5 good sized pumpkins on the plant and should the plant die, we'll try to get them to ripen by keeping them dry and in the sun.

Kiefer enjoys spending some time in the garden. A few weeks ago, we harvested peas... lots and lots of peas. Kiefer helped by eating lots of peas. He also helped me prepare the ground after I had taken out the earliest peas that were completely harvested. We dug in some bone meal and organic slow release fertilizer and planted a second batch of beans. It is nice to have a little helper. Our first planting of green beans were ready earlier this week. We've enjoyed them with dinner a couple nights this week and I even blanched and froze some to enjoy later.

At the end of June, we took advantage of a break in the rain to pick strawberries at Upinngil Farm in Gill, MA. Kiefer was very excited to be on the farm and see the cows and tractors. He was pretty good while we were picking the strawberries, too! He did help pick and put some in the basket, but he mostly picked and ate. He's a smart little boy! About halfway through filling our basket, Kiefer decided he had had enough. So Roel pushed him around on his tricycle for a while while I picked and then I pushed Kiefer around on his tricycle while Roel picked. In the end, we ended up with 14 pounds of "aardbaaien," which is Dutch for strawberries. That's what Kiefer calls them. That afternoon I made strawberry freezer jam, strawberry ice cream and prepared lots of whole strawberries for freezing. I felt that I earned a strawberry margarita after all that hard work! That night (and for many subsequent nights), I prepared strawberries with angelfood cake and whipped cream. Delicious. Next weekend, we're going to go blueberry picking!

During the summer, Kiefer's Friday playgroup has been meeting at parks or lakes rather than people's houses. This past week we went to Ruggles Pond at Wendell State Forest. He and his friends enjoyed the water and I even caught a big tadpole and minnow for the kids to check out up close. A couple of weeks ago we went to the nearby Greenfield Energy Park. Kiefer had great fun playing on the big wooden train there. About an hour after we arrived, a group of 10 children from a local preschool arrived for a little playtime. Kiefer immediately went over to the slightly older kids and was very pleased. He always gravitates to older kids. He thinks he is one!

Instead of going to the weekly playgroup a few weeks ago, we went to visit one of my UMass friends and her two sons, Liam (2 years, 4 months) and Emmett (6 months). Kiefer and Liam got along very well. Liam has a little motorized quad, which was given to him as a gift. He's a little scared of it, and Karen, Liam's mom got it out so Kiefer could show Liam how it works and that it is not scary. Well, Kiefer was in heaven. He rode all over the house. I thought I would have to pry him off it, but he did eventually get off to have some lunch. It was a good time and we plan on getting together with them more often. Karen came to our house last weekend to take Kiefer's 2 year photos. She did such a great job with his 1 year photos, I can't wait to see the 2 year photos.

Holly (Kiefer's daycare provider) took a week off around the 4th of July, so I took off and had lots of fun with Kiefer. We went to Lake Wyola with his friends from playgroup and we went to the Eric Carle Museum. He had great fun doing an art project there and exporing the amazing children's book collection in the library. Kiefer carefully perused the shelves and selected two books about fire fighters and fire trucks. I was surprised he did that since there were a lot of books and they were shelved alphabetically by the authors' last name.

We've been visiting a lot of lakes lately. Last weekend, we went to Hartland Lake in Vermont where we met up with Cindy, Steve and Catherine. Kiefer enjoyed playing in the sand with Catherine and after a busy day of swimming and playing, we got some ice cream. It took about 20 minutes to get from the beach to the ice cream parlor, and both Catherine and Kiefer fell asleep. But if there is one thing you can wake those two up for, it is ice cream!

As much as we would like Kiefer to potty train this summer, we don't think he's quite ready. He really doesn't care if his diaper is wet and Kiefer wears cloth diapers, which can get very wet! He sometimes lets us know before he's going to poop, but most of the time, he either tells us after the fact or doesn't tell us at all. In fact, we know he's pooped because of the awful odor, but when we ask him, "Did you poop?" he'll deny that he did by vigorously shaking his head and saying "No!" Last weekend he marched into the bathroom, closed the door and sat on his little potty. When we stuck our heads in to see what he was up to, he was sitting on his potty and said, "Out!" He was in there about 10 minutes and then we heard the toilet flush. Kiefer had indeed pooped, but since he wouldn't let us take his shorts or diaper off, we still had to clean him up. Oh well.

On Friday evening, we went to the Green River Festival here in Greenfield. It is a music and hot air balloon festival. Friends of ours had extra tickets for Friday night and I was excited because a singer/songwriter I really like (Kris Delmhorst) was on the schedule for Friday. It was raining a little when we first got there, but we had our umbrellas and still had fun. We found friends from playgroup there with their son, Nate. Kiefer and Nate had a great time playing and although Kiefer thought the music was too loud at first (he put his hands over his ears), he was dancing and all smiles when Kris Delmhorst was playing. We left well before it ended, but it was past Kiefer's bedtime!