The Tulips are Blooming in Holland…

…Michigan!

Okay, actually, all the tulips are dead.

But we still went to Holland… Michigan.

Tennyson liked the drive a lot because he got to play with my iTouch… at least for the first couple of minutes before he fell asleep. Ah, the beauty of traveling during naptime.

We met my mom and dad at Nelis’ Dutch Village in Holland and walked around all the shops (or rather, shoppes) and attractions they had. We also paused briefly for some photo ops (what you should take away from that is to be prepared for a big photo bomb… there are lots of them).

Photo Op #1: Fishmongers

 

Photo Op #2: Royal Family Crest

Photo Op #3: Water Wheel

Photo Op #4: Delivered by a stork

Photo Op #5: The typical “stick your head in the hole and say cheese!”

or maybe it’s “stick your arm through the hole and laugh".

Photo Op #6: Giant Wooden Shoes

Speaking of wooden shoes, we got one quick snap of Tennyson wearing some before he flung them off to go play. They look pretty darling with his dinosaur socks… but they were too clunky to crawl around in.

The village also had some really awesome high chairs.

   

Awesome, no? The little hole in the bottom by his feet was a mystery to us until we saw one a little later on in an exhibit that had coals there to heat the baby toes. I can’t imagine living somewhere so cold that my baby’s little toesies needed warming at mealtime.

The village also had an authentic street organ which actually scared Tennyson a bit.

I don’t blame him, though. I learned at a young age it is best to be scared of street organs because often they are a trap and the sides will fall down and you’ll end up child-napped by this guy:

At least that’s what Chitty Chitty Bang Bang taught me.

He was not so scared of the bunny. He was a big fan. And they were for sale for 20 dollars. We did not buy the bunny. I babysat a rabbit for a friend once over a weekend and it died. Probably best for the bunny that we don’t bring it home.

We also found out today that my mom is not a witch. We put her on the village scale and the very (and I mean very) unenthusiastic demonstration-man announced she was not a witch. He then called her fat, I’m pretty sure…. it went a little like this:

Demonstration-man: finished putting weight on the scale “How tall are you?”

Mom: “5 foot 2”

Demonstration-man: points over at the weights he just loaded up “What does that tell you?”

Little does he know she just finished a half-marathon.

Once we knew that my mom was not a witch and was too much of a woman for unenthusiastic demonstration-man’s liking, we went down the road to the Windmill.

We got to go on a guided tour of the inside (I say that like it’s something special, but it is really open to everyone and runs like every 20 minutes…)

When the tour took us out to the balcony, Mike took some really cool shots. I have to give him the credit because he was the one who ventured out to the outer rail to get up. I clung to the inside wall. I’m not a fan of heights.

My mom also found her “grandma name” while we were there.

Meet Oma:

Cool sweatshirt, huh? We actually took that picture because the pin in the upper right hand says world’s greatest Oma. But it just kind of looks like we were just so in love with her sweatshirt that we needed a picture of it.

And because there haven’t been quite enough pictures, here are some other of my favorite Tennyson shots of the day.

Adorable:

“What do you think you are doing here, Mr. Pole?”:

“You wanna piece o’ me?”:

We were those people

Yeah, we were those people who went to a game to cheer for the away team.

Because the Red Sox were here in Detroit…

And we found some seats that we just could not pass up…

So we got dressed up to show our team pride…

And watched the Red Sox win 6-3.

It was an awesome night.

 

And I’ll post the only picture with me in it with a short disclaimer. It was humid. Really humid (see that last picture??). Remember the episode of Friends where they all go to Barbados and Monica’s hair gets a little out of control?

Yeah, mine does the same thing.

Lansing River Trail

My parents are awesome. Thanks to them, I am the proud owner of a jogging stroller. I was so excited to get it because it meant that I could finally run again!! I’ve been wanting to run ever since I got back to Michigan because I used to love running here. I hated running in Provo because it was all campus and apartments, so I didn’t really do it.

The best part of the jogging stroller is that I have a cute baby to tote around. He takes the attention off of me entirely, so it really doesn’t matter awful or tired I look because Tennyson is always charming and always cute. Seriously. Look at him:

 

 

 

Anyway.

This is why I love the trails here. Don’t tell me that treadmill running is better than trails. It isn’t. This is gorgeous:

This is insanely boring:

No competition.

The great part about the Lansing River Trail is that it runs all throughout Lansing. We usually hop onto the trail about a mile from our house and take it to a loop around a lake. I love it. Plus, about two miles in, there is a nice park. So I can take a break from running and Tennyson can play.

Just today, we hopped on the trail downtown. We did a four mile walk and then spent some time hanging out outside the farmer’s market. It was gorgeous outside. The Lansing Lugnuts were warming up next door and we could hear their music, so Tennyson spent pretty much the entire time dancing.

I know, he looks like a goof in that last picture. It’s because he had just shoved about 20 goldfish into his mouth at once.

I love the warm weather. I just wish my skin would get a little color already. I’m sick of glowing when the sun hits me.

Baby Steps

Tennyson is finally taking some steps!

He’s been a great furniture cruiser for months and months and months now. He is also an excellent crawler. But we’ve been looking forward to this next stage in his life.

I know, I know, everyone says not to rush it and whatnot. But really, we are tired of carrying him everywhere we go. And we want him to be able to run around at the park.

About a week ago, Tennyson accidentally took a step. Then, over the weekend, he took two steps to my mom before he realized we had let go of his hands.

After playgroup yesterday, I think Tennyson realized he was going to have to walk on his own if he wanted to keep up. So today, he finally braved up and started taking some steps without the support of his walker, his furniture, or his parents.

I can’t believe that in one day he went from a couple steps to walking all the way across our living room.

He is in such a good mood today because he is just so darned proud of himself. As he should be. He’s getting to be a big boy.

A Different Alter Ego

Tennyson’s 20 week ultrasound inspired an alter ego for him that has stuck with him. It has even inspired this little gem of a shirt that you’ve all seen him grow into:

We love his Batman shirt. But, in reality, Tennyson has a very different alter ego.

Remember how I said he loved to smash his birthday cake?

It isn’t just birthday cake he smashes. It is all foods. Crackers are his specialty. He’ll smash them to crumbs and then drop all those crumbs on our floor. We love it…

To show you what we are talking about, we captured a video on his birthday of him smashing his Chipotle.

He’s done this ever since he was young. He used to do it when he was angry. Now he does it when he’s eating. Sometimes he’ll even do it on demand to get a laugh.

Needless to say, we found the need for a new shirt.