Quiet helpless baby-Berend has morphed into Mr talks-a-lot who throws minor fits when he doesn't get to run across the parking lot. A waterfall metaphor would probably be appropriate to describe his constant chattering but somehow neither Jennifer nor Peter can come up with a good way of putting it. But we are sure you get the general idea: He talks - a lot. And he sings "spider, spider, wet, sun, spider, spider, again!" (OK, spider sounds more like biter with a soft t). It is great how easy it is to figure out what he wants (even if that means we have to tell him that he can't get it) and when he is cold or hungry or happy. Otherwise he is healthy and happy as any pre-2-year-old.

This summer Berend discovered dinosaurs at the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller, Alberta and he is quite fond of the funny bony creatures with big teeth. He even forgave us for taking him there and back within one day which meant several hours of driving.

As Joe visited us over the summer, of course we had to go to the Frank slide which is home to a very shy population of rodents, called pikas, which are said to collect and dry grass on rocks for the winter. Of course, we have never seen these marvels of rodent foresight. But we did get a nice walk through the rocks and Joe managed to trick his camera and one of said rodents and get a shot of a pika in hiding.

Friends gave us their baby/toddler back-carrier which has served us well this summer: Peter got a lot more exercise out of supposedly short and easy hikes and Jennifer felt she could keep up much easier. Berend is mostly quite happy to sit and watch the scenery as long as he gets out to stretch and run around every now and then. As you can see: The whole family is happy as can be.

Now that we have seen the joys of toddlerdom we felt we missed the sleepless nights and unconsolable crying that comes with infancy and are expecting another baby to join us in March 2005. Berend probably hasn't understood quite what is happening yet, but he will! Dexter, in contrast, is probably horrified by the idea of having yet another individual in the household to track and make sure that everything is OK.

Back to Jennifer and Peter's stories.