February through May

So much has happened since my last post. Time goes too fast and Arthur grows up waaaayyyy too fast and his personality has changed so much since a year ago. He used to be a quiet baby and very lazy - Now he is a very busy young man and about a day after his 3rd birthday he decided he is too big for afternoon naps and we moved from a 3 hour nap to zero which makes a huge impact on mommy's life. But I love to see him different too and standing up for himself ( sometimes too much).

We went to New York for valentines weekend and enjoyed walking around in the city. We took the train down to the city and Arthur loved it. He also took a good nap during the train ride. It was very busy and definetely the city that never sleeps - we stayed in a hotel close to time square and was able to get around very easily. We did a busride through the city and took the ferry out to go see the Statue of Liberty. Food was great. On our last day we went to the wax museum. The were some good wax statues but I think there is better wax museums than the one in NY. It did make us miss our days in Switserland where everybody walks or public transport wherever they need to be.

We came back with a huge blessing and are happy to say that we will be adding another member to our family end of October.

We went away for a few days to Cape Cod in April and had a blast. Definetely one of our favorite vacations. Beautiful and great food. Arthur enjoyed the beach and sand very much and was very sad to go away. There is a few quant towns that is very nice to walk around in. We were there in the off season and there was still so much to do. The room we stayed in was just a short walk to the beach and it was good to see the sun rise over the ocean in the morning. We will definetely be going again.

We celebrated Arthur s birthday the 29th of April and he was spoiled to no end. We were sorry that Deon's dad and Antoinette were not able to make the trip to Albany from South Africa because of the volcano erupting over Europe.

Friends of ours spend the evening with us and we had wonderful weather, barbeque and good company. Arthur loved singing Happy Birthday to himself. It was a dinosaur themed(what else?) Party. ( Dinosaurs is about to take over this household) We dont ask Arthur what he likes anymore. Everytime I go to the store even for groceries Arthur will ask with a sparkle in his eyes " Go shop for dinosaurs?" - No Arthur not today.

We are all doing really well and hope all of you are all doing well too. We pray for everyone of our friends and family all the time and thank God that you are in our life.

We are looking forward having Lilian and Ernest coming to visit in July and my Parents will hopefully come in August and September. We are very happy to have warm weather here and excited to explore the area more over the summer. Arthur will be starting preschool in the fall and he sure is ready for it.

Arthurs 3 rd birthday party

Spike the dinosau r is part of our family now and does lots of fun things. Arthur was too scared to turn him on at first but works the remote as a pro now.

Ouma Lombard sent him some spiderman jammies and he likes to wear the hat and play spiderman.

Cape Cod

whale whatching was amazing. We saw 2 different types of whales very close by.

the view from our room

our little guy was in his element on the beach

father and son with their fishing poles

wax museum NYC

easter egg hunting.

I had to take a picture of the above. I found him like this in my snow boots.

Our new life in Delmar

Art's Art

( this is for my family who is not here to see all his art)

He loves standing in front of his board and drawing. It all began with these face a couple of weeks ago and he likes to draw trains , robots, his version of spiderman, and the sun.)

his version of a diesel engine out of the thomas the tankengine movie even with the pincher in the front.

His version of his favorite bumblebee robot(transformers)

Our new life:

It has been forever but I am settling back in the recliner and having some time to do some blogging. We are slowly but surely settling in. It has been hard with winter getting out. Life is very much different here than from Iowa. Very much suburbia. Not worse just very different and something I am getting used to. A lot to do especially with the little guy and also a lot of shows and lots of restaurants to try out. Arthur had a really hard time settling in and I had no idea it would be such a hard transition for him ( yet we didn't have a choice it was one of those things that we just had to do.) I am struggling because we haven't found a church family yet. In Clear Lake it made the difference for me from being new to being accepted and settling in , making friends. To be honest it took us about 4 months to find a church in Clear Lake too. The only problem is this city is so big it is a sea of possibilities for schools, doctors, churches etc.

Arthur is doing much better now and has been sleeping and taking naps in his own big boy bed for the past month which has made all the difference. It finally is home for him. Before he would just ask to go home yet we were sitting in our own living room . Clear lake was still home for him until about 6 weeks ago. I found a babysitter which makes life a little easier. She is home schooled and can even come babysit in the mornings if I just need to get out and Arthur loves her. I am hoping to get back to step aerobics too but Arthur didn't do so well at leaving him alone at daycare. Haven't tried it again in 6 weeks and will try to get him slowly used to that again. He did so good in Mason City at mops and ymca childcare that it was strange for me to see me child cry (scream for me) if I left him somewhere.

He is starting to talk up a storm and it is fun to see his whole personality emerge. He is quite the artist and I am amazed at the things like trains, the sun and people that he draw. He likes to cook with me and then loves to play with trucks, trains, dinosaurs and then his new thing is robots. Suddenly I don't have a baby anymore and I can see a little boy. It comes with a lot of problems too which I guess is part of being a mother and part of growing up for him. NO has become his favorite word. It is usually the first thing out of his mouth and then if he thinks the question over it might turn into an ok or yes. I just called his name the other day and he immediately responded with NO. We could only laugh. His new thing is he would laugh and then say " Oh its funny" or my favorite " mmmm--- I like it!"

We have started the brutal thing of potty training. Had no idea it will be so hard. Decided to give it a rest for a month and 2 and then try again. I still have 8 months before school starts and then hopefully he will be trained.

Work for Deon has been busy and he has been working late but spending some quality time with us over the weekends. We try to do a variety of things with Arthur and he is very happy if we are together as a family.

We were very fortunate that our very good friends Beth, Tim and Thomas could come and visit us in November and it made all the difference for Arthur to see his friend again. ( and me too) We did lots of things together and the boys had so much fun playing together.

We are looking forward to hopefully go visit Iowa in the spring. Nalini and Jude ( our friends who lost dear Roshni last February) are expecting a little boy and his due date is on Roshni's birthday. We are so excited for them and hope to go meet baby Joseph soon.

We are thankful for all our wonderful friends and family who we love very much. God has blessed us with an amazing life and strength and grace through our many times of transition. May you all feel blessed and have an amazing 2010

Love

the

van den Berg's

At the firetruck museum in Hudson





dinner with the Meyer's






our little halloween dragon ( unfortunately it rained a lot and Arthur just went to a few houses)

This is our favorite time in front of the fire doing art or read or just hanging out as a family.

At Lake George with his Davey crockett hat

Lake George ( so very pretty there and looking forward to spend some time there in the summer)

My first carved pumpkin

painting his room ( and everything else)

My most beautiful and healthiest birthday cake I received from my friend Beth.

Tim and the boys.

we went to a japanese restaurant and the boys loved watching all the koi fish.

It was fun seeing the japenese chef doing his thing on the habachi (sp?) table.

Me and Beth after shopping having a drink before the boys arrive.

walking around in Hudson.

Our down stairs bar. Deon loves it here and has done a lot of things himself even the painting :)

Having a glass of red wine in front of the fire.

making christmas cookie dough

Deon getting his daily exercise

Deon in front of a shop in Woodstock.

We took a short winter break and went to Hunter Mountain and did a lot of fun things like sledding, tubing and the boys went snowmobiling. We loved swimming in the outdoor heated pool surrounded by snow and watching people ski down the mountain.

We went to go see Disney on Ice in Albany. Arthur loved seeing Mickey and Donald.

One of his favorite Christmas gifts - his own bulldozer

Another favorite.

Their first snow man.

chocolate milkshake out of a big boy glass.

At the winter park at Lake George. We had fun going on all the rides. Arthur was a little scared of these giant cartoon characters and it was difficult to get him for a picture with them.

Arthur and pappa on the train.

Arthur and Roscoe taking a nap. ( they have been taking a nap together in the afternoon.)

We had so much fun at this pumpkin patch.

The moo moo choo choo

his favorite thing!

Friend of ours from Iowa moved to this area and this is all of us on our way to go explore Hudson. Arthur loves hanging out with the girls and it is such a blessing for me that they moved here. Janine and I were three weeks apart in due date when I had Arthur and we compared a lot of notes on pregnancy and raising an infant when they were babies which helped a lot since she already went through it before. They unfortunately moved away when Arthur was about 18 months and it great to reconnect with them yet again. Comparing notes on the terrible twos!!!!