Whale Tales: Jump outta water

Rick will tell you that "Whales & Dolphins Jump". "They Jump outta water like this" - flinging up an arm in the air very high. You may think that he is maybe not yet able to distinguish between dolphins and whales - well there you would be wrong as he does. Whales, Dolphins, Sharks - he flawlessly keeps them apart and even is able to tell you certain sub-species. The reason Rick thinks whales & dolphins display and equal amount of acrobatics - is that thanks to Hawaii - in his experience such is the case!

We undertook a whale watching trip on every Island

First up was Oahu where we had the 2nd or 3rd trip of the season, on a rather large boat with breakfast buffet. Our expectations where limited but as many other attractions were closed due to the holidays we were just happy to get out.

The whales were intend on proving us wrong and we had a whole lot of breaching going on in a time span of under 2 hrs.

 Pretty spectacular and a nice view onto the Island. We think the whales got confused and thought we were the boat with the Obama's on it so we got the "Presidential Show"

 and again, and again....

Rick & I said: 'we like'

 The next trip on the Big' Island was on a much smaller boat also used for snorkling trips and appeared somewhat more mass tourism style with offers of booze served onboard & free snacks. Considering the price this was the cheapest option, the snacks were pretty ok and the wine they served was definitely nice. Especially since it was scorching hot that day and out on the water was at least some relief.

 We got a nice little cluster of 3 whales - clearly still more exhausted from the trip from Alaska then the previous ones. Nevertheless very relaxing....

 and Rick was ok exploring the boat instead of watching whales. This was also the trip that we found out that like Rick as a baby - Kaat sleeps better on bumpier rides. All in all a very relaxing nap time that day -:)

 On our last day in Hawai'i on Maui we wrapped up our trip with one last Whale tour......which ended up being a very good decision. Very soon we found a mom toting around her little one on her nose as you can see in the picture below.

Mom showed us her her "kaatje-whale" as Rick called it from all angles for a good 45 min and it was sooooo cute and so playing on my mommy hormones!

Then we got a few males vying for the attention of the same female and so we got an amazing spectacle of jumps all over the place.

And by the time that show was over we got a grand finale of some tale slapping to wrap it up. Although Kaat happily slept for the bumpy rides in and out of the harbor she was wide awake for the spectacle and made it clear she enjoyed it.

 

 So despite it being our last afternoon in paradise we were all happy!

and even the obligatory - rip off - family picture turned out nice for a change!

So yes - in Rick's reference frame Whales and Dolphins are into acrobatics - both - big time! 

Hey Richard -:)

Rick has service month at school and so they talk about the mailmen, teachers etc etc and also have the likes of a Dentist and a Sheriff visit school. Today was the highlight of the month with an actual fire truck visiting school for 30 min this afternoon. Considering the time constraints only the older classes got to see the fire truck so quite special and likely quite a crowd considering the number of kids at the school.

When I came to pick up Rick today I was told they stood with the whole class to the side of the truck and before his teachers had realized Rick had walked right up to one of the fireman standing near the truck cabin (one of the one not yet engaged in talking to the classes). Rick apparently told him politely: 'I want to go inside please' and so the man let him! Rick got a private viewing of the fire truck cabin and was the only kid who got to sit behind the wheel and play with the buttons etc. His teachers appeared to be still a bit flabbergasted about how he 'organized it all himself'.

At first I was just very proud off and happy for my little boy, a few hours on I am laughing even more....Rick was named after my super hero uncle Richard. Richard was (for a very long time!) more or less running the local fire brigade as a volunteer fireman (there are very very few paid positions in NL especially in the smaller towns). Somehow the fireman in Richard appears to be in Rick too - in some way shape or form. So just wanted to say - Hey Richard - hope you enjoyed watching that!

PS School made pics of Rick so will try to get those.....

Rodeo Parade 2012

Saturday Morning the Rodeo got kicked off to the larger public with the annual Rodeo Parade. The Rodeo Parade is bigger then the Holiday parade here and consists of lot of dance groups & drum bands, all the officials working on the rodeo and their partners, the mayor, some other congress men & women, the police, fire brigade & army, miss Texas and then finally what it is all about - horse riding clubs of all sorts and the trail riders who rode for the past week(s) all the traditional cattle trails that lead to the Houston Rodeo.

I think our kids love parades and enjoy watching them together

 then a double warm & steamy potty training incident happened right in front of us and so it was time for the kids to come of the ground!

Rick was fully engaged for the full 90 minutes

 and Kaat is also more patriotic then we realized

 particularly happy there was lots to see 

 Some of the riders were barely bigger then Rick so we do expect the question sometime soon as to when he can go and ride on a horse

 If Rick tells you he saw dancing horsies then such is not imaginary - he did

 if anyone else claims they saw Rick dance for most of the parade - they probably also really did

 Personally I really liked this trail riders car and thought that especially Neel & Kees would appreciate it. Some outhouse that is!

What?!?

Go Texan Day - Explained

For a Change, Texans in Houston Dress the Part
By MANNY FERNANDEZ
Published: February 24, 2012

HOUSTON — A funny thing happened here on Friday. Texas came to town. Cowboys and cowgirls were everywhere — on the sidewalks and in the playgrounds, in the downtown skyscrapers and the restaurants — and they were not even tourists. They actually lived here.

For decades, this city has celebrated, as it did on Friday, a tradition called Go Texan Day, the one day of the year on which people in Houston dress the way people outside Houston think people in Houston dress. On the Friday before the annual Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo gets under way, tens of thousands of Houstonians head to their schools and offices in newly purchased cowboy hats, cowboy boots and jeans. They dress, in other words, as if they're from Texas, which they are, though it is easy to forget that simple fact in the state's biggest city.
Houston is as cosmopolitan and traffic-snarled as Los Angeles and as diverse as Queens, with parts as wealthy as the Upper East Side. It is the fourth-largest city in the country, with a world-class symphony orchestra and opera. Its voters in 2009 made Houston the largest city in the United States to elect an openly gay mayor, Annise D. Parker, a Democrat who has since been re-elected. You can go days without seeing anyone in a cowboy hat, but not a minute without seeing a BMW or a Starbucks. As Don B. Graham, a former president of the Texas Institute of Letters and a longtime observer of Texas culture, put it in a recent essay, "Here's a rule of thumb: Any time you read a novel set in Houston and there are tumbleweeds tumbling through the city, you know you're in faux Texasville."

The dress-up tradition, which began in the 1950s as a way to promote the rodeo, has become a kind of unofficial holiday. Mayor Parker wore jeans, a fringed jacket, a cowboy hat and boots, as did others on her staff. On the Rice University campus, someone put a big blue cowboy hat atop the bronze statue of the founder, William Marsh Rice. The city's public schools, as well as private Catholic, Jewish and Greek Orthodox schools, were populated with belt-buckled students wearing vests, denim skirts and sheriff's badges.

"It's kind of like an extra Halloween," said Rory Stebner, 47, who like others his age remembered celebrating Go Texan Day when he was a child. "I grew up in Houston, but my parents came from the country, so I've worn boots and jeans my entire life. Go Texan Day just meant I got to wear my regular clothes to school, instead of school clothes."

The day is popular in the schools, but even more popular in the city's Western wear shops.
On the eve of Go Texan Day on Thursday night, a line of cars jammed the street leading to Cavender's Boot City near Reliant Park, the stadium complex hosting the livestock show and rodeo, which starts on Tuesday and last year had a general attendance of 2.26 million. Managers at Cavender's reinforced their staff with temporary employees, stayed open past the usual 9 p.m. closing time and hired off-duty police officers to maintain order in the parking lot. At 9:07 p.m., about 35 last-minute shoppers stood in the cashier line holding cowboy hats and red bandannas, while dozens of others swarmed around them.

"This is our largest business day of the year," said Mike Cavender, 54, whose father opened the first Cavender's in 1965 and who is a vice president of the company. "Bigger than Christmas."

On Friday afternoon, the place was still packed. A man in a bow tie browsed among the leather belts while talking on his cellphone, as Mr. Stebner, a hat-shaper at Cavender's, worked a steam machine. Nearby, Frank Adu, 41, a car salesman in a pinstripe suit who is originally from Ghana in West Africa, looked for cowboy boots.

"Today is Go Texan Day," Mr. Adu said. "This morning I dressed up my three kids with their boots and everything and sent them to school."
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/25/us/for-rodeo-houstons-texans-dress-the-part.html?_r=2

So when Eelco said Rick looked the best or most Authentic on the school playground that is actually possible and yes I know of several parents who stood in the queue at the shops the night before and I also had Go Texan Day at work were the bulk of my thousands of colleagues happily queued up for BBQ fare and wore their Bandana after w pride.

Eelco's present

I had some issues with Eelco's 40th Birthday present but it arrived (a couple of weeks ago) and it is proudly on display - Finally!

Go Texan Day

The Friday the Rodeo kicks off in Houston is always go Texan day. Rick had missed a few due to trips elsewhere but this time we were around on the day that almost appears to be invented for our little Rancher Rick.

 Kaat also was ready but preferred hats on other people's heads.

 "I'm a lone-lonesome cowboy...and a long long way from home..." 

 All day Rick wore his head with pride and refused to take it off. When he went with Dad to the park this afternoon to see all the Trail riders and their horses (riding the Historic cattle trails - and there are many - in preparation of the Livestock show) he fit right in...

 Rick attracted quite some friendly cowboy-to-cowboy nods and appreciation and one offered to show him the ropes - literally. When he found out Rick was only 2.5 he was even more impressed but suggested he would wait a few more years -;)

 The horses were still hot-steamy and sweaty from the ride but Rick loved every second near them.

The boy is definately a Texan - he greeted everyone with a 'Howdy Partner' - has hat hair and he knows with not a 2nd doubt the difference between a Donkey & a Horse. That and the fact that he loves country music and dances like a cowboy......

HAOLE or MOKE?

Both words above are Hawaiian slang - you tell me which one Rick is....(one means non-Hawaiian caucasian, the other means big big tough local guy -;)

Either way the BRA was PLANNY (plenty) ONO (good/great) in Hawaii and very SHUUTS (ok / relaxed with it all)

Kaat's 1 year check-up

After some procrastination from my side we finally made it to the pediatrician yesterday for Kaat’s  1-year check-up. Rick had told Kaat he wanted to remain O’Marijke’s #1. Hence Kaat had duly displayed Diva behavior when alone with Oma all day and hence we had our hopes up she would be model perfect in the doctors’ office as should be expected for any public behavior of a Diva.

And so she was – after accepting all the usual ‘ah darling’, ‘what a cutie’, ‘what a lovely smile’ and ‘oh so precious’ from every person we passed and all staff in the Dr’s office we settled in the room to wait for the check-up.

As soon as everyone was out of sight – apart from us – Kaat decided to try pulling her diaper off, succeeded and tried to proceed rolling around the office naked. Only seconds after we had her back into a more modest mode again the Dr came in and we were on for the ‘Kaat is perfect show’ in which she not only acts in but also directs completely unassisted.

Kaat is tall (95^th percentile) at 79.5 cm (right on track for a Dutch baby), lean at 9.8 kg (50^th percentile) and has a good head on her shoulders at 47 cm (90^th percentile). Our girl now has almost 11 of her 16 teeth of which 7 have appeared since Christmas . Considering that and the fact that I only realized her gum was bleeding as 2 molars are coming through big time some of the Diva behavior may actually be totally ok. I also suspect that once the teething takes another pause Kaat may not stay so lean for very long. It would be very weird to have anyone in our house who is not in love with eating. After 3 jabs Kaat duly produced some giant tears for 30 seconds and then was over with that too.

So we took our perfect little girl home with some new found (or maybe more additional – as there is plenty already) admiration for our little Diva. Maybe I should start calling it girlpower?!

Rough Housing

If there is one thing in life that makes Kaat VERY VERY happy, then it is rough housing with big brother Rick. To our amazement there is much less need to be worried about Kaat then Rick in such situations as our little girl is pretty rough herself and seldom in tears in such situations - though it can look pretty bad at times. The giggles resulting from something like this are the best - frequent, loud, wholeheartedly and from both sides.  

Pretend Play

Today Rick took 'Pretend Play' to a whole new level. He was having dinner with us and his eyes kept turning red and his face ash white at the same time. When I asked him if he was trying to produce something he confirmed so I asked him if he either wanted to get off his chair and stand up to help things along or, maybe even use the potty. Immediately Rick confirmed he was ready for the potty to my amazement. (If nobody would check, Rick would still happily spend many hours with a #2 in his diaper and not be bothered by it.) So on the potty he went.

  For a while Rick appeared to be very concentrated and made a lot of facial expressions that fit our expectations - and we respectfully refrained from photographing. He announced he was producing a pipi...stopped talking for a while....and then proclaimed he was done. Marijke and I of course both very excited.

Except that he got of the potty and it became apparent that.....nothing had happened! Rick then wanted to continue the pretend play by bringing the potty to the big pot to empty and wash it out and telling us that it was dirty etc etc. Except that we were a combination of somewhat giggly and deflated and did not really play along at that stage...What an actor!

OmaRijke

(O)Marijke is in Houston which is great normally but even better for me now with Eelco away. Considering OmaRijke's addiction to being outdoors the weather in Houston is not really cooperating with big thunderstorms and inches of down pore. Nevertheless we are having lots of fun. So far Rick and OmaRijke only got soaked 1x on the bicycle and OmaRijke is entertained by but not yet impressed with Kaatje's drama skills.

 As you can see Oma was banned to the the truck bed by her Texan grandkids and duly complied. In the meantime I noted there could be very little doubt about whether these two are related...

 Indoors entertainment at home is fine too

 as Oma is instructed to drive the gang to all sorts of imaginary destinations

 the few indoor kid friendly attractions in town also offer some fun

ps in the race as to who goes to bed last or latest it is 2:1 for Oma vs Rick...but only just -;)