This morning I visited New Life Church in West Linn to gather ideas and get insight into how they do their sports camp for kids. Our church hopes to do a similar outreach next Summer.
Before we left, Dutch grabbed a basketball and did his first dunk ever, without any instruction or an example to follow. He dealt with the rim checks pretty well. Persevere my little boy! Here’s his second and third dunks …
Yesterday we three ventured out for our first ‘08 hike in the woods. The single track trails were closed due to winter erosion but the old logging roads provided a good and wide path for us to let Dutch loose on the trails. We set out to go about 4 miles round trip, but that was cut short by an impatient little 16-month-old. In Kari’s words :
We did do our hike, although it is now confirmed that Dutch does NOT like hiking. That is, he loves hiking, as long as he’s the one hiking. He doesn’t like being stuffed into a backpack. So, our hike was significantly truncated because about 1/2 through we had to let him hike on his own. That meant going as fast as his little 16-month-old legs could carry him. It went something like this: step step step (stop to pick up a stick and wave it around) step step step (stop to pick up a bug, mom grabs it before it goes in the mouth) step step step-TRIP, BOOM, WAHHHHHHH!!!!! (tears, hugs, scraped hands…sniffs, whining to be put down) step step step (veers over toward cliff, daddy scoops him up and plops him in middle of trail). Anyway, you get the picture. But it was fun nonetheless. We just need to plan to hike one mile in three hours.
Here’s a little video of the Dutcher hiking away…
And hiking with Mommy…
In a Theology course we are working through personal doctrinal statements; one of the first was on Jesus Christ. The inherent problem with black letters on white paper is they do not convey the infinite beauty and worth of the One being depicted. (That is my weakness, not Christ’s.)
Oh that I could state the supremacy of Jesus Christ with precision and passion in which John Piper does:
From “Sex and the Supremacy of Christ, Part 2”
2004 Desiring God National Conference
It snowed yesterday morning (and this morning too) but only a little bit; yep, it’s a week into Spring, and we live in a part of Oregon that rare sees snow. In one day we truly saw all four seasons.
Even still Dutch enjoyed his slide during the break in the weather…
He also enjoyed roaming around the grass with his Daddy… can you tell there’s something in my hand he wants?
Dutch now has a little red Tonka truck sort of like the one his dad had as a kid. He’s enjoying it to the fullest!
Guess who’s excited for the Daytona 500 today?
Notice what’s left of his car … he so content to play with a little flat car with four wheels but no body. What a creative little boy!
The snow is almost gone here (okay, it’s all gone, except for four really small patches — see right), and we had the rare Oregon winter day occurrence of blue sky and no rain. (Yippee!) While I (Jeff) was upstairs much of the day working on some seminary homework, there were breaks here and there to enjoy our precious son Dutch, and later to go for a (short) run with my beautiful wife.
Dutch has become quite the walker you know, and loves to strut his stuff. With a clear day, Dutch took his walking show on the road…
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For those interested, the following video was from two weeks ago (1/27) when we had the majority of our snowfall (at least 6″ on the ground), a big event for this part of Oregon.
Dutch loved the snow in the past few days. While there are still traces outside today, he was content to work on his motor skills walking and talking and learning new tricks.
The other day we backpacked around the yard and driveway, trudging through the snow…
Dutch’s newest skill is to walk, then sit down and then get back up on his feet without help or using any object for leverage. This morning was the first time I’d seen him do it, and then tonight he let us watch him do it over and over…
Perhaps we should call him a walker who can crawl, rather than a crawler who can walk. While he can really move on all fours, walking is quickly becoming his favorite mode of transportation these days…
Dutch walked for the first time for us tonight! He kept walking and walking and walking…
What a growing little boy!
Dutch loves to vacuum, providing his own motor sounds…
He also found the 80’s demo on the old Casio keyboard. Rockin’ out…
The trike Nana gave him is a source of great fun — he figured out how to make the bell ring…
Kari's latest Patterson Family Margin
