Jurgen's page

10 Things Since 2005

Jurgen's grown and changed a lot in the last year or so. I guess we were too busy to update his blog. Here's the highlights:

10. Totally toilet-trained. Since that's where we left off, we just want to make sure to say we've fully checked this one off the list of developmental milestones. We knew we would!

9. Letter recognition and more! These days, Jurgen pretty much knows all of his letters. He might not know lowercase l when it stands alone, but otherwise, he's got it all down. He's reading, too! He likes to read picture books by himself, but he's even getting into reading early reader chapter books. What will he read next?

8. Language learning. Awhile back, Jurgen asked us if he could learn another language. He knows that mama and papa study things about how people learn languages, and he told us that if he learned another language, we'd be studying him, too! Well, he took Spanish for a summer and he decided after that summer that he "knows" Spanish! He wanted to learn Chinese instead. Turns out he's pretty good at Chinese! Next year, he'll be going to a school where he can continue to learn Chinese.

7. A little dental work. This summer, Jurgen had some dental work done. He needed to get a tooth pulled, and they put in a little spacer so that there's room for when the new tooth eventually comes in. Because of his dental work, he can't eat any chewy foods or candy. No gum, raisins, fruit chews, etc. He doesn't seem to mind, and if you offer him food he can't eat, he'll remind you. What an honest kid!

6. Serious fascination with dinosaurs, penguins, meerkats, and frogs. Jurgen's been really interested in the meerkat exhibit at the Minnesota Zoo. Then, we found him a picture of a meerkat at IKEA, and I'm not sure how it all began, but half the time, when he's at school, he plays meerkats with his friend Madeleine. The other big fascination was dinosaurs, but it seems like that's slowed down a bit lately. He's still interested, but he's not going around, sharing dino facts with us every second.

5. Movie night in Jurgen's room. Every now and then, Jurgen asks for movie night. This is when he piles up a bunch of blankets and pillows on his floor, turns off the lights, and turns on Come Home Snoopy, a lesser known Peanuts video we bought at Half-Priced Books for $4. He loves this video! Mama and Papa have a hard time staying awake through movie night sometimes.

4. One more year of preschool. Since Jurgen's a late summer birthday, we decided to have him go to kindergarten next year. This way, he gets one more year of playing before starting his job of learning lots of stuff. Plus, he gets to hang out with Madeleine and Nick, whose parents decided the same thing. These three are the older kids in the preschool class, and it's fun to watch them play together.

3. Glasses. Recently, Jurgen got glasses. It turns out that he's far-sighted and his left eye may have gotten a little lazy over the years. Jurgen seems to be doing well with his new glasses, and he likes knowing that people think he looks adorable--like a little professor--in them. Check out his album for some recent pictures of him in his new specs.

2. Saturday boys' day out. In the last year or so, Jurgen and papa have been having many boys day out adventures with friends Tom and Derek. They go to the Science Museum, the Bakken museum (of electricity), playing in the park, to the library, pretty much whatever they feel like doing. They don't go out every Saturday, but nearly so. Mama's invited once in awhile, but mostly, it's just Jurgen and Papa, spending some good times together.

1. Hugs, kisses, and lots of lovin'! So much, so that when we tell Jurgen we love him, he responds, "I know that! I know you love me!" Shouldn't every kid have that much assurance of their parents' love?
In spite of his "frustration" with how much we tell him we love him, Jurgen also makes sure we know the love goes both ways. Recently, he held up a book entitled, "I love you so much," showed it to Papa, and said, "Never doubt it, Papa. Never doubt it." It doesn't get much more precious than that.

Wearing the Big Boy Undies

Now that Jurgen's past his 4th birthday, we've decided to step up the potty training efforts.  Naturally, some kids are well-past potty training at this point, but we've been careful so far to not press him, especially given his medical condition.  Lately he has been wearing pull-ups and going in the toilet off and on, so we figured he was ready.

We made a little chart for him to put stickers on every time he pees and poops.  After he's gotten to the end of the line of stickers, he gets a prize, to be determined when he gets there.  The first week, it took him most of the week to get to the prize, which turned out to be a $5 shopping spree at Target.  Since then, he's already cashed in a second prize and is well on his way to a third prize.

In the meantime, he's had a few setbacks.  Today, he was pretty insistent about wearing his big boy undies to preschool, in spite of the fact that he hadn't had his bm yet today.  Well, let's just say that he was wearing different shorts when Chris picked him up.  I'm sure that's pretty common, but Jurgen was pretty upset about having a couple of accidents at school today.  He also had an accident at home tonight because he was having so much fun playing, he forgot to listen to his signals.  Now we're setting the timer for 15 minute intervals and he has to try to pee, no matter what.

I think this stage of parenting is one of the hardest.  It's a tricky dance between being structured, but not stifling and being encouraging, but not over-bearing.  I'm sure that there are other tough stages up ahead, but this one's a challenge because it requires us to be "on" all the time.  Jurgen's up to it--and so are we!

How do you solve conflicts?

Yesterday, Jurgen was pretty excited when he got to school, and he almost went outside (it was nap time, so since he wasn't napping, he got to go right outside) without saying goodbye.  He turned and ran over to me to say goodbye.  As he neared me, he tripped and fell.

He approached me and showed me his knee; I gave it a little kiss.  He looked at me reproachfully and said, "Mama!  We don't solve conflicts with kisses!"

My First Written Word

Recently, my mama and papa bought me a chalkboard easel.  Papa likes to write things on it, like what day it is and what we're going to do that day.  One day, not so long ago, we wrote these letters on the easel:  Z O O.  Guess where we went?!  The Minnesota Zoo!  We went with a new friend of mine, Ethan, whose mama works with my papa. We got to see my favorites, the meerkats!  We also got my favorite ice cream, Dippin' Dots.  Well, I had so much fun at the zoo, that the next day, I wanted to see that great word--Z O O--on my chalkboard again.  I grabbed the chalk, and asked my mama, "Would you write Z O O for me?"  She told me that she was busy doing something and I could either wait a few minutes or try it myself.  So, I did.  First I wrote a little z.  Then, next to it, an o.  Then--this was so much fun--a big O.  It looked like this:

z o O

I was so proud of my word, I went write up to my mama and said, "Have you ever seen a big O like this?" I put my hands into a big O above my head!  My mama and papa were pretty proud too.  They left my word up there until I finally decided to erase it myself.  I might be only 3, but c'mon, it was just a word.  And besides, I miss papa writing the day on my easel.

A Morning with my Mama

Recently, I got to go to campus with mama while she ran some errands.  Before we left the house, she waited for her important paper--she called it her "special topics paper"--to print.  It took a really long time!  She told me it took so long because it was 56 pages!  That's a lot of pages!  Well, we went to campus, and first we made photocopies of her special paper.  Then, we went to different buildings to deliver them.  She said we were bringing them to people on her committee, whatever that is.  We looked for letters on the signs in front of buildings to see where we were going.  First we saw a big W for Wulling Hall, where Professor Paige is.  I know him, but I didn't get to see him that day.  Then, we looked for a big P for Peik Hall, where Professor Plihal is.  I have never met her, but mama says she's nice.  Then, I looked for a big B, and I saw it at Burton Hall.  That's where Professor Lawrenz is.  I didn't get to meet Professor Lawrenz that day, but a few days later, mama had me on campus again and I got to meet her.  I showed her a Star Wars toy I got in a kid's meal, and a special container of kool-aid I brought to school just to show her.  She seemed impressed by my kool-aid, but mostly she and mama talked.  They talked about mama's paper, I think--the same one she dropped off a few days before.  Mama told me that her special paper was really important (I guess that's why they call it special), and she was glad she could share the experience of turning it in with me.

A Saguaro is a bug's house!

Awhile back, I got this t-shirt for Jurgen because it reminded me of his Arizona Auntie.  At first, he wasn't too sure about the shirt, but as the days have worn on, he's seen it in his dresser enough to be inspired.  He's also been inspired by bugs a lot lately, and so when I told him that bugs live on the cactus on his shirt, he though that was a pretty cool reason to wear it.  He's been wearing it a lot lately, and it's definitely one of his favorite shirts.  He can't wait until it's clean again, of course.  So, the other day, I snapped this photo of him.  I told him, we're going to take a picture of the saguaro for Auntie Pam, and he puffed out his chest all proud.

The other day, when we got to daycare, he told Jill, the center director, "A saguaro is a bug's house!"  She asked him what kinds of bugs live in a saguaro,and he told her--fleas!  He also told her that birds live in the saguaro AND there's spikey things all over the saguaro!  I think Jurgen would love to visit his Arizona Auntie sometime to see a saguaro up close.

Jurgen getting ready to take on the day

I really like this picture of Jurgen.  He's standing on our front porch getting ready to go in the car to little kid school.  It's been really sunny here lately, although we've just gotten over a cold snap, and Jurgen has been enjoying how his big hat protects him from the sun.

Bouncing back

Jurgen may have started Easter  with the flu.  But just like most other three year olds.  Thankfully the illness did not last.  He was back to his old self by 5pm.

Again, the download may take a few minutes but it is still worth it.Download 100_0124.MOV

Easter Egg hunt

Download 100_0118.MOV   Because Jurgen had the flu and so did Aunti Jan , this years egg hunt was a solo one.  But Mona kept Jurgen company. 

Maybe in hope to get something?

PS:  The download may take a few minutes but worth it.

Easter 2005

Jurgen spent Easter in North Dakota.  He had fun with his cousins making bunny cakes.  Even thought he had the flu on Easter Sunday he still enjoyed his egg hunt.  Boy did the bunny spoil him.   

He says it is because the bunny "Loves him"

They Call Him Mr. Riddles!

Jurgen has really gotten into telling jokes lately.  Here's some of his favorites:

Q:  What did the baby corn say to the mama corn?

A:  Where's pop corn?

Q:  What can't Garfield eat for dinner?

A (according to Jurgen):  Garbanzo beans!!

A (according to his joke book): Breakfast and lunch!

Taught to Jurgen by our good friend Joe:

Q: What did the rug say to the floor?

A:  I've got you covered!

And, check out Jurgen telling his most favorite joke of all (these days):

Download how_do_you_know_if_the_cook_is_funny.MOV

Jurgen keeps us laughing!  His grama Lola thinks that Jurgen might be angling to take over Jay Leno's job--you never know?!

New Haircut

Here's Jurgen with his latest haircut, and a very lovely smile if we do say so ourselves!

Jurgen and his Lady

Download 100_0017.MOV

This is our first attempt at putting a little video on Jurgen's Page.  We'll see how it works--it may be the case that the video is too big of a file for anyone to easily download.  But, we should be able to do some videos now and then.

In this video, Jurgen's having a fun time playing with his "lady," a Japanese beetle that has somehow managed to survive the winter by snuggling up in our house.  Jurgen really likes ladybugs--in fact, he was a ladybug for Halloween this year.  He likes to call them his ladies, and if you get the chance to watch his little video here, you'll see that he really does love his lady, too.

I am Snow: Reading Readiness

Jurgen's Arizona Auntie (a kindergarten teacher with a reading speciality) gave Jurgen a book called I am Snow. I told Chris, “apparently the other reading teacher in the family thinks Jurgen is moving into the early reader phase—she sent him an early reader book.”  Well, we’ve been reading that book together. It’s so obviously an early reader book, with the repetition and clear context clues on the page.  So, I always use my finger when I read it, and really emphasize the “bounce, bounce, bounce” of the hail and how the picture shows the hail bouncing, etc.  He’s really picking up on all that stuff and mimicking what I do.

Tonight, Jurgen had a little “take a break” because he was being squirrely when I was getting him into his pjs. When I came back into the room, he was reading that book to himself to calm down.  He looked up and said, “I was really sad when you left the room, mama.  I felt really sad when you did that.”  So, we talked about our feelings for a few minutes and then we turned to the book.  When we got to the part about how each snowflake is different I mentioned that each person is different too.  He decided each snowflake was someone from his class, and he pointed to them and said, “That one’s Ravi and that’s Annalene.”  There were two he didn’t name, so I pointed to one and said, “who’s that?”  He said, “Oh, that’s some guy we don’t know.”  I pointed to the other, and he said, “Yeah, we don’t know that guy either.”  Okay.  As we continued on, he decided the snowboarders were cousin Jon and cousin Josh, but not cousin Jenny.  He thought that Jenny was a girl making the snowperson in one picture, but he later changed his mind and decided she was the girl sliding down the hill on the tire. It was really cute that he was making connections to people with the book.  The only trouble was, he felt like the ending—“when it gets warm, snow melts” was a little unimpressive. He definitely wanted more.  The best part, though, was that we had a nice gentle snow tonight, and it was a perfect evening to be reading a book about snow.

Having Fun with My Aunties and Cousins

Auntie Pam and Auntie Rae decided to come visit us again for another sisterfest!  This time, they brought my cousins Paul and Chase and their mama, Debbie with them.  We had a great time.  We went to the zoo:

Paul and I had fun pretending we were meerkats!

It was a really pretty fall day, so we all decided to take some pictures next to the pretty trees.

Aren't we a cute looking family?

Then, mama and I decided it would be fun to be really brave and take our picture next to the lion mama and her cubs.  I had fun riding on the back of the cub.

Aren't I cute?

Well, after awhile, we decided to go inside to see the dolphin show.  We always go to that when we go to the zoo because it's fun to watch the dolphins jump really high out of the water.  Everyone thought that it was one of the best things we did at the zoo.  It's one of my favorites because I get to get some Dippin' Dots ice cream afterwards.  Chase decided to get a sucker, and at first I was a little jealous because I didn't get one too.  But, he shared it with me!  Wasn't that nice of him?!

What a nice cousin!  I'd like to go to the Minnesota Zoo with him again sometime!

Just Like My Mama

For awhile when I was just back from my Portland adventure, Jurgen was feeling particularly close to me.  One way he decided he could be like his mama was to wear glasses, too.  He had some flamingo glasses from his Auntie Jan's 50th birthday party, and he took the flamingoes off so that they were a little more like regular glasses:

I don't think they help him see better, but we sure do think he's cute!

The State Fair

We took Jurgen to the state fair in August.  It's something we do every year before school starts, but this year, Jurgen was more game for the fair.  I think 3 is an age of awakening--he really understands a lot more around him.  So, we headed off to the fair, and although we had to wait a long time on the bus (due to Dick Cheney's arrival at the fair, too), we got there and set right out for the rides.  Jurgen had never done much riding at the fair before, but seemed to enjoy it this year:

He liked this ride a lot because they didn't have to go too fast.  It was pretty cute watching them go around.

But, his favorite ride was probably the long slide.  They had to wait in line a long time for that one, and then, of course, it was over in only a few seconds (it was a bit challenging trying to get this photo).

As soon as they got done with the slide, Jurgen scrambled to get back in line.  Alas!  He was disappointed that Papa wasn't about to do that again--too long of a wait, not to mention a little overpriced (but what ISN'T overpriced at the fair?).  Instead, we moved along to OUR favorite part of the fair (besides the butter sculpture of Pricess Kay of the Milky Way)--the Little Farm Hands Exhibit.  Here, Jurgen got to experience the whole farm cycle--planting corn, carrots, green peppers, etc., riding the tractor, feeding the chickens, milking the cows, etc.

He wasn't feeling to photogenic, I think because he was working so hard, so we didn't get very many pictures.  But, he did have a good time, especially picking apples off the trees.  After all of his hard work, he got to bring his goods to market, and sell them for (play) money that he got to spend at the store.  Naturally, Jurgen used his money to buy potato chips, which he scarfed down.  All that farm work makes a boy hungry!

After the farm hands work was over, we headed back to the concessions to find something on a stick.  The fair boasts over 200 items on a stick, and one of the most interesting is macaroni and cheese on a stick (although not surprisingly, it doesn't taste that great).  We passed by the pork chop on a stick, and the deep fried candy bar on a stick and went for the key lime pie on a stick.  Who knew it would be Jurgen's favorite thing from the fair? Mama thought she was going to share hers with him, but it turned out, he wanted one all for himself! 

See you again next year, Minnesota State Fair!

Jurgen up close and personal

Here's Jurgen a little too close to the camera. But, isn't he cute? And, yes, that IS a railroad hat on his head!

Playing at the picnic

Jurgen had a great time playing at our friend Joe's picnic. He sure is growing up!

The Cuteness Factor

There's no developmental milestone to report here, unless it's the mama really missing Jurgen right now. The papa's been good about sending photos lately, and in this one, he asked Jurgen to smile, but Jurgen puckered instead. I guess he knew the picture was going to be emailed to his mama, and he wanted to make sure to send some kisses.

The Cuteness Factor's at least a 10 here, don't you think?