our boy has tricks

is there anybody in there?

we had our first doctor appointment this week and our first ultrasound. there is a part of me that just doesn't quite believe i am pregnant until i see that tiny heart beating. it really is there! here is just one of the pictures the picture-happy nurse practitioner took for us.

well worth the wait?

a year later

gerrit has two little girlfriends, molly and alexis. molly is six days older than gerrit and gerrit is nineteen days older than alexis. they all have been friends since day one.
here they were a year ago....

and here are the big one year olds

baby vdb

sparky made his grand entrance yesterday (sans fireworks, as anticipated). he lacks a formal name yet, so i will continue to fondly call him 'sparky'. mom and baby (and dad too) are doing well and are supposed to come home tomorrow. we visited them this evening and in honor of his birth i have experimented with a little movie making. check it out.


Publish Post

watch him grow

are we insane

if we weren't insane before, we might be now. last night we had four boys ranging in age from two years to four months spend the night with us as shelly, charles, ian and sally spent the night in san francisco. we had fun with them, but there were definitely some moments of insanity. why is crying contagious? there is a very good reason God made us so there is nine months between our babies. i don't know how people do it with twins, triplets, and beyond. we are now breathing a sigh of relief as we maintain our one.

all ready for bed. although it appears as if we sedated them, no medications were used to create this photo (just several photos)

yippee, our moms are back!

a new view

i think the best part of having a one year old is finally being able to turn around the carseat. it is amazing how one little move can make such a big difference for all of us. this is a picture of gerrit's first trip out in the big boy seat. we took a special trip to the nursery to get plants for our new vegetable garden. he thought it was quite funny when we just turned around to look at him.

big monkey birthday bash

our little monkey turned one! to celebrate we had a monkey party with all gerrit's friends complete with monkey mask invitations, monkey cakes, monkey cupcakes, pipe cleaner monkeys, and a monkey pinata. and in true johnston fashion (including our wedding and gerrit's baptism) the day turned out to be hot. so with a few phone calls we turned the party into a pool party with a couple pools and a slip 'n slide.

the kids had fun in the water, playing in gerrit's new sandbox, breaking the pinata, and feeding the geese. and gerrit had a great time watching them all! you can find a slide show of some of the party highlights below or check out rest of the photos at our website.

gerrit's birthday present

hugh has been working hard on gerrit's big birthday present for a couple weeks, but had the new sandbox ready for all the kids to enjoy for gerrit's first birthday party. the sandbox is complete with a storable lid, benches, and a toy box. we thought it might be too big until there about 15 kids in there comfortably play at once during the birthday party. watch the sandbox's progression below.

the monkey is walking

wait a second! have we told you gerrit is walking? its true! it has probably been almost three weeks now since the crawl was left in the dust. i am not sure how it all clicked, but it is definitely now the preferred means of transportation for the monkey and getting better everyday.

gerrit's bag of tricks

life with gerrit is getting funner every day. he seems to be at the perfect age...he thrives on hearing cheers of "good boy," so we are using that to our advantage and teaching him some new "tricks"...sooo big, he signs please and thank you, dances when he hears music, and he even immitates us whenever we sneeze. here is a video of a few of his tricks.

baby no name faber

we are so excited baby faber has finally made HIS appearance! he was a couple weeks early, but it seems like cassie had been having contractions for months now and must have seemed even longer for cassie. he was born on april 17 weighing in at 7lb 11oz. and 21". mom and baby are doing well after a little time heating up under the heat lamps and cassie is excited to be able to take this baby home with her today. the hardest part seems to be deciding on his name. last night they had finally settled on carson for the first name (a name big brother ethan selected long ago) and it was their goal to have a middle name picked out by the time they left the hospital today...we will keep you posted. he looks like a faber--check out his picture and the rest of the photos are at our website.

first steps

gerrit has been on the move for a while now, but lately he is trying a new means to get from a to b. walking! when he first made his move, we would have to stand him up and do everything in our power to coerce him to take a step. with in a couple weeks, he is now pulling himself up on the coffee table, letting go for a few steps and then lunging for nearest sturdy object to catch his fall. walking is by no means his preferred means of travel yet, but we are getting there. check out a video of the drunken sailor.

playing catch up

ok, if peri can catch up with her blog with four kids and a part time job then certainly there is hope for the stay at home mother of one. i guess we have been busy or maybe just lazy as we recover from all our visitors and parties.

last month oma and grandpa came for a visit, where they got to have
a brief taste of spring before heading back to colorado. we did have a lot of rain that weekend, but enjoyed one dry day by visiting golden gate park. the blossoms were starting to pop as we visited the japanese tea garden, botatanical gardens, and you could just make out the tops of the tulips by the windmill. before the rains came on saturday oma and grandpa helped us in our own garden--thank you! oma and grandpa even played babysitter one night as hugh and i went to the ccc school auction. they were a big help and we were sad to say good bye.

our next big event was st. johnston's day, complete with corned beef, cabbage, and home brewed green beer--hugh's first time home brewing again (with joel faber) since our wedding brew. a little rain didn't stop the festivities--little can stand in the way of green jello shots and irish car bombs. and a big thank you to beppe and pake for giving up their own st. patrick's day festivities to watch gerrit with anneke and arie.

of course gerrit is keeping us busy. he is at a very fun age and has become a little parrot mimicking everything we do and performing all his tricks on command--clap, wave, nodding 'no' and the latest feat 'yes'. our big push right now is walking, but he seems quite content as crawling and cruising around the furniture gets him where ever he needs to go.

the balloon

last week tuesday we went out for our annual fat tuesday celebration at pete's brass rail with the rest of the gang. as soon as we got there the kids got beads and balloons, including gerrit and the balloon has been his favorite ever since it lost some air and came down to his level. so it might not be the most child friendly, but it is keeping our little sickie quite content. so we keep a close watch on him as he bites and even lays on it, just waiting for it to pop, scare him, and come in for the quick take away. so far, so good.

what have we been up to?

obviously we haven't been blogging, but we have been busy. we have been to the park, taking walks (or naps for some) to the library, visiting with friends, finding a new fascination with toilet water, and learning how to wave, make fish faces, and high fives. see the slide show below of all we have been up to.

not so small

a few of us have recently formed the 'big baby club' and the newest member is lincoln brooks weighing in and taking the lead at 10lb 2oz! not small, but quite cute and shelly is looking fabulous! i got to visit the latest addition to the brooks family in the hospital yesterday and gerrit can't wait to meet him and play with the rest of the gang on saturday. check out the photo of mommy and baby lincoln.

sun & fun, puke & poop

we survived our first padmos christmas vacation with a baby in tow. definitely different from past vacations, but it was fun watching gerrit eat sand, splashing in the pool, and playing with his cousins. in the midst of all the fun, we also had a little sickness. gerrit had his first bout with the flu and we had our first experience with puke. and in the midst of all of this he got his first two teeth.

our days mostly consisted of sitting by the pool or down at the beach. as predicted, gerrit went straight for the sand, but we found the pacifier limited the intake and spent more time in the pool. breakfast was at whichever room was up and had food for us, lunch and happy hour on beppe and pake's porch, and dinner was typically out (with beppe keeping the kids occupied with presents, crafts, or other activities).

we took a few day excursions. one was to the rain forest where hugh got to test out the capabilities of his new camera while a gondola took us through a wet rain forest. we also took a day trip to soufriere--the day included our first taste of johnny cakes (fried goodness), getting a back massage from a water fall, a drive-in volcano, lunch between the pitons, lots of rabid dogs and of course there was the memorable blow-out which took three people to change on the side of the road.

we had a great time with family, but we are also glad to be back to the old routine. i have included a slide show of a few of our pictures, but check out all the photos here. we hope everyone is enjoying the new year!