Monday, November 22, 2010

Ta Ta!!

Erik has a new love for Thomas the Tank Engine.  He can't actually say Thomas so he calls him Ta-Ta, and with enthusiasm as in TA TA!!!!!
Nothing like walking through Target (where many Thomas items exist, seriously he spotted Thomas on toothpaste) with your son yelling TA TA's! at the top of his lungs and then madly laughing.
Men snicker, women giggle.  It reminds me of my little brother who substituted his F's for his T's when he was little and he really REALLY liked trucks.  Mom had to stop taking him to the store until he could pronounce his T's.  I'll be sure not to take Erik to Hooter's any time soon.

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Scary Santa

We hit the mall early this morning for the annual picture on Santa's lap.  Knowing that Erik is at the age where he's not totally fond of strangers we were prepared for a crying picture.  We were not prepared for the AWESOME reaction on Santa's face.
My mom didn't get pictures with us with Santa, I'm sure because there were just too many kids to wrangle around Santa's lap and someone (ahem....Kerrie) would have been screaming their head off.  It's too bad, I think everyone needs a picture of being scarred forever by an old man in a red suit.

Complete with large Alligator tear going down one cheek.

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Thanks

It's that time of year again when we give thanks for all we are grateful for, that obligatory pass around the table where everyone says what they've loved about the year.  Someday I think it would be fun to have an
"un" thanksgiving so we have a day we can just bitch about all the crap we've also been through, sometime in May would be good, 6 months from the thankful day.  I'll bitch in May, right now I'll say I'm grateful for my family, my life, my job and caffeine, the one thing that gets me through it all.

Here's a little video of some of the things that make Erik happy.  It took me hours to figure out how to splice these all together, Erik will probably be able to make his own this time next year. Please forgive the mistakes in it, it's my first editing attempt - (for some reasons theres a couple "enter text here" things going on, ignore them!) I hear elementary kids can do this for school projects.  Geez, it has taken me two solid evenings

Wishing you all a wonderful holiday filled with family, food and fun!

Monday, November 8, 2010

Spanish Lesson

Child counting rocks
Uno, dos, tres, taco , cinco....
Me:oh! You speak Spanish!
Child: Only the numbers

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Jealous?

Erik's been sick lately.....the Dr. said to "watch him"....I watched him, really closely.  He did this.  It's been a very messy weekend.  Guess we need to go back to the Dr.

And this was 10 minutes after his bath...(and you can't see it all behind him!), we both had to get in the bath after this......

Saturday, November 6, 2010

15 months old

Seriously, he's 15 months old today.  That amazes me, soon he will be 2 and 3 and 30!!!!  It has to stop.  He can't keep growing like this.  I don't age this quickly, I don't understand how he can.

I tried to make a compilation video of a bunch of snippets of his months to emphasise that it feels about as fast a video to me the way he grows.  But, I can't figure it out, I worked on it forever....and then it started be all wonky so I gave up.

SO instead I will tell you what he's like now.  his hair is coming in curly....well, he has a spot on the top of his head where there is a bit of hair...and in that section he has ONE curl!!  I hope it keeps coming in curly!
See it right there?  On top?  Doesn't he just look like the head of the Lollipop Guild?  That one munchkin with the big Lollipop and one fat curl on top of his head. "Weeeeeee represent the lollipop guild....." and look he even spent some time on Halloween with Dorothy!

He still doesn't walk, but he's beginning to crawl and even though we vacuum every single day he finds the tiniest things to put in his mouth.   Chicken and Peas?  No thanks!  Cat Hair?  YUM!!  He's also very concerned about the screws holding this border down, he spends a good deal of time trying to pick the screws out. 

We took him to the Aquarium a while back and he LOVED it!  He's been interested in fish for a while (all the books) and knows they swim and make a bubbly noise.  We didn't realize they made him so happy!  It was funny at the aquarium when we went in he began laughing and cackling and shaking he was so excited to see real fish!!  I took a little video of it, it's very dark...but you get the gist.  And he did this at EVERY TANK all day long.



He's been a little sick this week.....trying to figure out if it's teeth, ears, a virus.....who knows.   But man he's sure been grumpy.  This last picture was taken today - he turned 15 months old.  He likes to sit on this airplane, however he is very unstable - as soon as I snapped this picture he fell off and hit his head.  Sigh....I think we have a world of bumps and bruises ahead of us.

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

God and Preschool

Yesterday a new child was visiting my program and she brought along her older brother to visit with her.
He was......energetic.  At one point I did have to tell him that he needed to follow our rules (and then I told him what they were), the conversation went like this.
Me: You can use the stairs to to get onto the stage - we don't jump
Him: Grown-Ups can jump
Me: Nope grown ups use the stairs too
Him: My big brother can jump
Me: Nope EVERYONE uses the stairs
Him: Well....GOD can jump, because he's God and he could just levitate up there.
Me: Yes he could, but God likes it when people obey the rules so I'm sure God would use the stairs to be a good example for the little kids.
Him: Well, God could do whatever he wants.......and he went on and on and on...and ON, about all the things God could do and how God was the boss of the world.
Me (after listening for far too long about God and how he was the boss): Well, God may be the boss of the world, but I'm the boss here and you can use the stairs to get on the stage or you don't go on the stage.
He used the stairs..........and then started the same conversation with Santa Claus.
I walked away this time.

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Crawler!!!

He crawls!!!  He crawls!!!  He finally crawls!!!!  He may not be completely up on all fours.....but that's definite crawling.  See??

October

October is typically one of my favorite months, because fall begins and there's that little holiday HALLOWEEN!  I love everything about October, to me it feels like a new beginning.  A new season, a time to dress up and be someone else!  We decorate the house in a big way, and I love it.  Apparently Erik is my child because he has loved it too!  Today being the 2nd of November all the Halloween decorations are gone (replaced with Turkeys and Scarecrows of course), and Erik is missing them.  I took him to Big Lots tonight (because as soon as I get home each day he insists on "BYE BYE MAMA!!" - again, totally my child), and of course the Halloween items were all thrown into one corner in a sad sale heap.  Erik looked sad.  He began to cry, for the unwanted Halloween decorations.  Sighing loudly and saying over and over "Bye Bye Pumpums, bye bye skeletons!"  I distracted him with singing Christmas decorations. 
He had a great time passing out candy, dressing up as a frog and going to Mommy's school's Halloween party.  When we were passing out candy I was afraid the big teenagers and their scary masks would scare Erik.  Nope, the scarier they were the harder he clapped!!  I hope he grows quickly, finally someone to do scary things and ride scary rides with.......I'll be set between him and niece Ava for riding scary rides while Mike waits on the sides.
Here we are at the school party.....The Princess and the Frog .
 We also took a long weekend trip to Reno (whoa that place is NOT Vegas).  We tried to find things to do for Erik......this was it.  He was happy sitting under an Elephants Crotch banging the balls and making Elephant sounds.
One day we went to the Train Museum in Carson City (insert long boring sigh here), and as much as Erik is my child, he is also very related to Daddy since he lit up with happiness to see the "Choo Choo's" and spent the entire two hours we were there saying "Choo Choo" over and over.   And now Mike has someone to spend hours looking at trains with......and it doesn't have to be me...WHEE! ;)







We did the usual Pumpkin Patch family trip and our pumpkin obsessed child LOVED the pumpkin patch!


The funniest part of the trip to the Pumpkin Patch was Erik riding a pony.  I walked with him holding him on for the first lap and then the handler told me he would watch him so I didn't have to walk.  I was VERY clear that Erik didn't really sit up well and he would need to hold him and not let him go.  He assured me he would.
As he walks away with Erik I tell the other guy (in Spanish) to PLEASE go make sure he doesn't fall he isn't very stable....just as he goes to help Erik falls, you can see it here. 







Man they are lucky he didn't fall completely off that horse!

Oh......and to end the month he pooped in the tub.  Probably won't be the last time....so yucky.