last blog of the year

it is busy here in the johnston household as we prepare for the annual padmos christmas vacation. we are off to st. lucia this year and gone are the days of no worries as we sip grant's rum punch and watch our brothers and sisters chase after their kids. now we are already worried about whether we have enough baby food and diapers and we haven't even left the house yet. it will be an adventure, to say the least.

as i was getting out our passports, i had a little chuckle as i looked at gerrit's picture and thought the rest of you might enjoy it too. hugh and i took gerrit to the post office to get his first passport when he was about 6 weeks old (going on 85 in the picture). if you look closely, you will notice it is actually a picture of hugh and gerrit as hugh is holding him up against the backdrop. the funniest part is that he will have this picture until he is 5.

we have had a busy weekend of basketball games, packing, dinner with friends, and a web cam christmas with the johnstons and sharps in colorado on saturday morning. we hope each of you has a very merry christmas and we will be back with more monkey tales in the new year.

technology these days

this past weekend we celebrated "christmas" with the padmos family with a gift exchange. our tradition is to draw names between the kids and grandkids and then open them when the den dulks arrive in california from michigan. we had a bit of a dilemma this year as the den dulks aren't making a trip out to california, but meeting us all in st. lucia. so we had to get a bit creative this year for our gift exchange--in comes the christmas web cam!

all those in california gathered around beppe and pake's computer while the den dulks gather around theirs in grand rapids and via the web cam we watched everyone open each others gifts. it was chaotic, but not necessarily the same chaos that occurs when six grandchildren (now seven with gerrit) open presents in beppe and pake's living room leaving behind ribbons, boxes, tissue, and opened toy boxes. check out the photo of arie opening his gift in california as ellie watches in michigan.

we even got great-grandma padmos talking on the web cam. if it boggles our heads, i sure would like to know what is going on in her mind. on the right is a picture of grandma padmos talking to ellie, abel, and peri.

gerrit enjoyed his first "christmas." of course, he probably enjoyed eating the tissue, chewing on the ribbons and climbing in the boxes a little more this year. he is looking forward to another web cam christmas this coming weekend as we exchange gifts with the sharps and oma and grandpa in colorado.

no stopping him

there seems to be no stopping gerrit now. he has mastered the crawl, is on the move, and seems to want to, and can, get into everything of mommy and daddy's. it is like babies are born with this inside knowledge of what is a toy and then a radar to find everything that isn't. he still gets excited when he spots something, like he did when he was "creeping," but now we just have a little less time to get between the object and the crawler.

check out a rather lengthy video of the crawler below.

six months (tomorrow)

we are one day away from having a 6 month old! of course, time is flying and we are having so much fun watching this little monkey grow.

as many know, we have been taking gerrit's picture every month in the same chair--a great idea from a friend. today was photo shoot day as we will be at pake and beppe's tomorrow (his actual six month birthday) for the thanksgiving weekend. some of the highlights from the photo shoot included the lovely and mostly constant drooling (the doctor said yesterday to expect teeth in the next few months...gee, thanks for narrowing that down for us) and the very exciting jump, head first, from the chair. mom was so skilled she caught the take off and was there to catch the little flying monkey too. see the take off photo on the right and click here for the rest of the watch me grow photos.

typically there doesn't seem to be a huge difference in these photos from one month to the next, but of course there is a huge difference from his first month to his sixth. in the first month we had to keep propping him up straight in that big chair and now we are having to hold him down to keep him in the chair! i have included a slide show with a picture from his first six months below.

monkey on the move

there is no stopping him now...gerrit is on the move. he is not quite crawling yet, but more of a creep as grandma vander wall would have called it. it definitely does the job and gets him to all those fun things of mom and dad's. he was playing in the office this morning as hugh and i were working on our computers and all the sudden he had this excited cry, his breath shortened and he was making a bee line for hugh's phone and charger cable. check out gerrit heading for some safe toys below.



typically the creep gets gerrit where he wants, but every once in a while gerrit needs a little help from us when he gets into a tight spot. check out gerrit's interesting maneuver in the picture. this is when the creep only took him backwards and he backed in under the bookcase, right between dad's shoes.

i wanna be a monkey

gerrit was begging to be a monkey for halloween this year, so a couple yards of fleece, one broken sewing machine, and a 'few' hours of labor, gerrit had his monkey costume. and what a cute little monkey he was.

he had a great time seeing all his friends dressed up at the pumpkin party at church and showing off his costume to beppe and pake who came for a visit on halloween.

getting caught up

ok, time to get caught up. there is so much to report, but we have been so busy that there seems to be no time to sit down to write about it. fortunately, life seems to have slowed down for a few seconds, so i will use this opportunity to get everyone caught up. i will start where i last left off, september.

september usually means back to school--typically that doesn't effect us, but this year that meant addie faber would join us two mornings a week as cassie takes on the job of athletic director at contra costa christian. i am not sure who loves it more, gerrit or addie. this will be good training for addie with the expected addition to their family coming next spring!

september also included gerrit's first plane ride with a trip to colorado. gerrit had a great time playing with grandpa and oma and getting to know cousins--lexi and evan better. highlights of the trip included a weekend in breckenridge, a ride up pike's peak on the cog railway, another train ride through the royal gorge, hikes, bike rides, and fun just relaxing with family.

one other first in september was camping. uncle joel and auntie reen were willing to venture out with us on our first camping trip with gerrit to calaveras big trees. some of the highlights included rain--and although it was expected, it always makes camping a bit more an adventure especially with a baby, a nice hike through the 'big trees', joreen's beloved baton twirling, mmm...carne asada, a successful 3 am car ride to get the newest camper to sleep, and chili--lots of chili.

with october comes pumpkins, so we were off to john and brooke bos' (along with brian and lisa van groningen) pumpkin patch. dutch hollow or 'd-low'--as it is so fondly referred to, is much more than pumpkins including animals, bounce house, hayrides, and much, much more. there was so much going on that gerrit was asleep on pake's shoulder by the end, but before that he enjoyed a visit with the goats, petting a bunny, and sitting on/licking a tractor with dad.

of course, during all of this gerrit is growing (and growing and growing) and learning all kinds of new things. first it was learning how to eat solid foods, if you call very watered down oatmeal cereal solid. i would now say we are up to 80% is making it to his mouth. then he finally remembered how to roll from his stomach to his back. he began rolling all over the place, you never know where you will find him next. then in mid-october he made the big push to his hands and knees--we never know what new feat the day will bring.

and lastly, we welcome a new addition to our 'extended family' with the birth of zane angelo gerbo born to ian and sally (one of 'the twins') on october 25, weighing in at 9lb 4 oz and 21 in (so we like our boys and we like them big!). i think we are all looking forward to the day all these boys can run out and play together.

the missing link

there always seem to be two questions or comments when people see gerrit. first, of course, is "he is ginormous!" logical--take two big people and you get one big baby. the second is "who does he look like?" at first everyone (except aunt sally) thought he looked like cousin arie, but now people have started to say he looks more like hugh. well, after our recent trip to colorado we have an answer. gerrit looks like his cousin evan...right down to the drool on their chins! well, i think gerrit's eyes still belong to tante peri or beppe.

check out the picture of the two cousins!

vacuuming monkeys

i was busy getting dinner ready the other night when i heard a wonderful noise--the vacuum, when i am no where near it! so i look around the corner and there is hugh vacuuming with an even better sight--gerrit happily helping dad in his bjorn.

i missed the shot of hugh's foot coming through the ceiling, so i made sure to capture this one. thanks monkeys!

rolling right along

so the biggest feat of the little monkey is his new mobility.

i was making dinner wednesday night and had gerrit on the kitchen floor in his gym. i put him down on his back, went back to making dinner, and when i turned back to look at gerrit he was on his stomach!

gerrit is not "tummy time's" biggest fan, so he had already mastered the art of rolling from his stomach to his back. now that he can roll from his back to his stomach he seems to have forgotten his old trick and gets stuck on his tummy. we are just waiting for him to put the two tricks together and he will be rolling right along.

so gone are the days of playing in the middle of mom and dad's bed and naps sprawled out on the couch...

check out a video of the roll below.

my monkeys

for the past three months I have been spending my days and nights 'chasing' my own little monkey (or monkeys if you count hugh too). there seems to be something new to report on gerrit each week and what better way to share all these great feats than to start a blog.