Thought I would share this photo.

This shot was taken after Lady gave Emmett a bunch of kisses. I think Lady is finally excepting Emmett as part of the family. Besides the kisses, Emmett loves to hold on to Lady's leash and walk her about. As well, he loves to give her a good-night hug before he goes to bed, unfortunately Lady feels somewhat irritated from being disturbed from a nice snooze on the couch.

mken

I've been biking to work off and on for the past two weeks, it takes me about 7 min. to get to there, which I think is awesome! It's been nice not relying on a car for all my travel needs... and to think I'm going 'green' now, kinda, sort-off... whatever? There is about 4 or 5 other people at work who do the same, so I thought I would 'get on the bandwagon*'. Thanks to my lovely wife for buying such a nice bike and letting me use it.

Emmett loves to see, touch and wear the equipment that belongs to the bike. Here he is ready to ride in the future 'Tour De France 2030.'

mken

*Get on the bandwagon - to become involved in an activity which is successful so that you can get the advantages of it yourself.
Origin: 1881. The moment when the circus bandwagon, first mentioned in 1855, became a figurative expression for a burgeoning political movement.

Reading.

This seems to be one of Emmett's favorite things to to with mom and dad. More so, he likes to read to the same book, 3 to 5 times. His most favorite, 'Maisy's Fire Engine.' He loves to hear us say 'nee-nah, nee-nah!' (fire engine sound). As well as, 'Swoosh', 'Watch out' and finally 'bye-bye.'

As you can see by the photo, he's making good effort to read himself.

mken


If your child likes hearing sound effects, this book is a good read for the little one.
Maisy's Fire Engine (Hardcover), Lucy Cousins (Author)

It's a bird, no, no... it's a plane, no that's not it... its, its, Crazy Sunglasses Dude.

But really... he's pointing at a plane flying overhead. Kaylyn and I had not noticed how many times planes flew over until Emmett started to notice a few weeks back. Leave it to him - he'll tell you. He's had these sunglasses forever, now one lens has popped out. Doesn't seem to phase him though. As you can see from the images below.

He certainly has the expressions of a rock star down, sweet and coy, stone faced and serious and finally just a hanging out cool expression.

mken

We are finally seeing the 'fruits of our labor' or would it be the 'vegetables of our labor?'

The top image is climbing beans traveling up bamboo poles, I can't wait to see the beans. The two middle images is our cucumber plant with cucumber and tomato plants with a small tomato - I think we are going to need some warm and sunny days for them to really take off. The bottom image is our little herb garden in pots. I think we have Rosemary, Basil, Parsley, and Oregano.

I know it's not that impressive - but it's fun to see grow.

< click on image to enlarge

mken

Well, here it is...

It only took me about a month to complete. The process was lengthy.

1. First I had to grade about 15x15 feet for the swing to sit on something level or semi-level (I think I moved about 5 tons of dirt and clay, or at least that's the way I felt).

2. Even though the playset came in a box I still had to pre-drill and assemble it.

3. Once the shell was put together, Kaylyn and I did a 'dry fit' and found that the slide didn't work going down the hill.

4. We added landing with a stair for Emmett which fixed the slide problem.

5. I then made a sandbox under the climbing wall/slide section of the playset (this was not in the playset plans, but made by my powerful brain).

6. We then ended up buying some mulch from flower land (2 yards) Way much more then we need. At least it wasn't 15 yards, right mom & dad DeDoes?
ha ha.

7. Now Emmett and us are enjoying our finished project. Now we need to do is get some pictures of Emmett playing on the playset.

mken

Hey!

Like I said in my other blog post a day ago; Thankfully Emmett likes his baths.

He continues to love getting naked, turning on the water and getting into his big and yellow rubber duck to play with is water toys. He does hate one thing - his hair being washed, more specifically getting water over his head to get the soap out of his hair.

But as you can see from the picture - he loves the dry off in his towel.

mken

Whaaaaaat you might ask?

I had a couple of people ask me about what 'mken' was, some thought I misspelled my name. There... like... ummmmmm... Mike you missed the 'i' in your name. I know I'm not the best speller, but I did create it that way. It's an abbreviation for, Mike, Kaylyn, Emmett, Nykamp.

So there you go... (famous words from Gus Portokalos;
'My Big Greek Fat Wedding'

mken

It has been a while since I last wrote on this blog. It's been a busy winter and spring for me a Vox, thus the sporadic entries.

A lot has happened since my last entry, here's a short list,
• Emmett loved searching for eggs out side on Easter.
• If Emmett had it his way he would live outside.
• Emmett Loves to help us with the dishes.
• Emmett wants to climb everything that is taller then him.
• I (Miken) became an American citizen.
• Emmett gets sick of his toys after about 5 minutes.
• Grandpa and Grandma DeDoes visited us from Washington State.
• Emmett loves helping mom with baking.
• Emmett likes to rip open gifts that are not his.
• Emmett has a rock collection.
• Grandpa and Grandma Nykamp visited us from Canada.
• Emmett loves rain puddles.
• Emmett absolutely loves anything motorized.
• Emmett likes hugging and petting Lady.
• Emmett likes his pool on hot days.
• Emmett got baptized.
• Emmett loves to help dad with projects around the house.
• Emmett loves to show off what he is wearing every morning.
• Emmett loves to read what we are reading.
• Emmett likes to swing and slide on his new playset.
• Thankfully, Emmett still loves his baths.

I'll try my best to have regular blog entries in the future.

Hope you all are doing well, all the best!

mken