Daddy’s View

Another weekend gone…
I am constantly amazed at how Eric learns. Usually, he shows me that he learned something when I least expect it. Today, we were outside, and I was working in the driveway. Eric was walking around and playing with the rocks outside the garage. I turned away for a few seconds, and when I looked back he was sitting in his car. Now, we have been trying to show him how to climb in and out of his car since he got it for his birthday. It has been a little awkward and difficult for him, as he kept trying to crawl in head first. Anyway, he has not played with the car for a few weeks, and then all of a sudden, he just climbs right in. No trouble at all. So, for the next hour or so, I continue working in the driveway (checking brakes on one of our cars), and Eric continues to get in and out of his little car over and over again, opening and closing the door as he does. When he gets in, he has the biggest grin on his face as he holds the steering wheel for just a few seconds before climbing out again.

Yesterday, we played in the house most of the day until it was time to go to Debbie’s parents house for my birthday dinner. While we were waiting for everyone else to arrive, Eric and I wandered into the backyard with his ball. Their backyard is up against a city park with several soccer fields, so there is plenty of room to run around. I headed down the slope to the fields, kicking the ball. Eric is hesitant to follow. He keeps looking back at the house and saying “ma ma”. He is at the stage where he does not want to be far from his mommy. He prefers both of us near him all the time. Anyway, he can’t resist the fun of playing ball any more, and he follows me onto the soccer field. When he catches up to me, he runs toward the ball and without slowing he kicks it as hard as he can, saying “kick!”. We have not been teaching him the word “kick”, but I was saying it while I kicked the ball out to the field. He also has never kicked a ball like that before. He usually picks it up to try and throw it. He learns fast! We kicked the ball all over the field and across the next field. Eric got very excited when I would kick it real high and far. He took off running after it, so he could kick it next. He is running very fast lately. I think it might be his new shoes 🙂

Today was the motorcycle race at the speedway. As with any race at the speedway, the Air Force jets fly over our house on their way to the speedway for the opening ceremonies. This time, they flew over 4 times! The first three passes were low and we could see them. The final fly over was above the clouds but much louder. They must have been flying pretty fast. Anyway, after the first fly over, I asked Mommy to bring Eric outside, because I knew they would fly over again. When they did I pointed to the sky and said, “Look Eric. Look at the jets. Cool, huh?” On the final fly over, it was very loud for a long time. When I looked over at Eric, he was watching the sky looking for the planes. We could not see them, but he said, “Cooool!”

Every night when Eric goes to sleep, I think, “How could I possibly love this little boy any more than I already do?”, but every morning I wake up and I do. It is the greatest feeling.

Anyway, yesterday after dinner we were playing around the pool table. More specifically, we were playing Eric’s Music Playhouse CD, and we were dancing around the pool table. We sang and danced through all 30+ songs on the CD. It was a blast! Eric really loves to dance. He is learning some words to the songs and knows the different dances that go with each song. My favorite is when he makes the “Woo hoo!” sound of the train whistle during one song.

Another weekend gone. Weekends are my favorite time (no surprise), but not for the old reasons. The weekend is when I get a chance to spend a lot of time with Eric. During the week, I am home for 2 or 3 hours every evening before his bedtime. We spend some of this time eating dinner, an occasional walk around the block, and winding down for “nite nite”. But on the weekends we spend time watching Barney on TV, playing outside, trips to the store, swinging in the back yard, blowing bubbles on the front porch, and so on. This is real quality time for me. I cherish these moments more than anything.

This weekend we spent Saturday afternoon over at our condo changing locks and cleaning up. Just Eric and me. (We have new tenants moving in tomorrow.)

Sunday brought a trip to the mall for new shoes. Eric outgrew his first pair of shoes. His foot is now a 6W. There was a sale, so Mommy bought 2 pair – brown shoes for dressing up and running shoes for everyday play. He really likes his new shoes! Unfortunately, we realized this evening that one pair is the wrong size, so Mommy will return to the store tomorrow and exchange them for the correct size.

While we were walking at the mall (it is an outdoor mall near our house), Eric counted “1, 2, 3” all by himself. Mommy and I were playing a game, and every time we picked him up to swing him forward, we counted to 3 first, and we all said “weee!”. Soon, Eric was counting for us whenever he was ready to swing.

After all that shopping, I offered to treat for ice cream. When we got to the store, we decided we were all hungry and ordered lunch instead. Eric’s meal was served on a frisbee, so he now has a new toy! We served up ice cream at home later in the evening before bedtime. Eric loves to have ice cream with Daddy!

Tomorrow is Monday. I can hardly wait for next weekend!

Welcome to my blog. I hope that I will be able to inform and entertain you through stories, photos, videos, observations, and more of and about my son, Eric.

Eric is the first child for my wife, Debbie, and me.  He is (in our opinion) the cutest, most adorable, and lovable little boy ever.  He was born in May 2008.  This was the happiest moment of my life.  God has blessed us with a beautiful son.

There is a cliche that everyone has heard parents say “They grow up so fast!” and they really do. When we brought Eric home from the hospital he weighed less than 8 pounds and could be held in one hand. Now, less than 16 months later, he is 34″ tall and weighs more than 24 pounds. For those keeping score, he is 99th percentile in height for boys his age and 50th percentile in weight…tall and skinny. He is walking, running, climbing, talking (just words, no sentences), dancing, singing (humming), playing ball, feeding himself…

My wife and I both agree that if we had known how much joy raising a child could bring, we would have started sooner.

Anyway, this is the start of my blog. I am new to this format. For a nerd, I am surprisingly unaware of most internet trends. Does a facebook have faces in a book? I thought a twitter was a high frequency speaker…but isn’t it spelled tweeter? Oh well, I finally started a blog. I know, I know, blogs are last year’s internet trend. Maybe I will get on facebook and twitter next year after the next trend is already started. At least I had my own domain and website 10 years ago. Of course the website hasn’t changed much in those 10 years, except the addition of Eric’s web page to showcase his photos and videos.
That’s all for now. I don’t know how often I will add to this blog. That will depend mostly on my spare time, of which I have very little lately. I will try to make time and be somewhat consistent for those following.

-Robert