Daddy’s View

This weekend was a poker marathon.  My parents came to visit this weekend.  Dad and I were entered in a Texas Hold’em poker tournament on Saturday, so Grandma and Grandpa arrived on Friday evening.  Mommy’s parents also came over for dinner and a friendly game of poker.  Eric was so excited when Grandma and Grandpa showed up.  He was double excited when the other Grandparents showed up.  Now, this is a party!

Eric played and showed off to Grandma and Grandpa.  Such a ham!

Saturday, we were off to the tournament.  We played well, had fun, and came home after just 3 hours.  Oh well, the prize money will be waiting for us next time.  We came home to find Eric and Mommy both taking a nap.  Mommy and Grandma had planned to go shopping, so we told them to go ahead, and we would watch Eric for the afternoon.  Then we realized that the Oaken Bucket game could not be watched on our TV.  Our satellite package does not include the Big Ten Network.  Dad and I suggested that Eric go with Mommy and Grandma, so we could go watch the game at a sports bar.  This sounded like a great idea, except the bar we went to also could not get the game.  We were led to believe that it was “blacked out”, which we could not understand.  Anyway, we came home and settled in front of the TV to watch another Big Ten football game while listening to the Purdue vs. Indiana game on the radio.  It was not long before Mommy, Grandma, and Eric were back.  They had decided against shopping, and instead just went for lunch.

The afternoon was spent playing with Eric.  Grandma and Grandpa really enjoyed this.  Eric sat in Grandma’s lap and let her read a few books.  Grandpa and I messed with the computer and DVR for a while.  The other Grandparents were coming over for dinner and poker again Saturday night.  When they arrived, Eric couldn’t believe such a party could take place two days in a row.  Grandma brought spaghetti for dinner, and Eric loved it!  He ate as much as we could give him.  There are few foods that he will eat so eagerly.  Congratulations to Grandma!

Eric traded laps while we played cards.  He enjoys playing with our coins.  We just have to watch he doesn’t throw extra money into the pot! 🙂  Time for bed and no fuss tonight.  A very tired boy was very sleepy.

Sunday morning, Eric was happy to see Grandma and Grandpa were still here.  We all played and visited until nap time.

Eric loves all of his Grandparents so much!

This weekend we took photos.  Mommy’s family needed an updated family photo since the addition of Eric.  The last family photo was taken before Eric was born.  We all got dressed up Saturday evening and met at the Target store to get our photo taken.  Eric and I were both dressed in a white shirt and red necktie.  We looked pretty sharp!  Mommy wore a red sweater.  She looked beautiful!  Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Rob, Aunt Carol, and Tyler all were dressed just as sharp.  Together, we were a great looking group.

Eric hit it off right away with the photographer.  While we were waiting for our appointed time, Eric started playing peek-a-boo with the photographer.  The two of them were laughing like crazy.  Eric immediately had a new friend.  The photos turned out great.  We are anxious to get the prints back.

After the photos, we had a dinner reservation to celebrate (a couple weeks late) Grandma’s birthday.  This was the first weekend that we all could get together.  Dinner was very nice, albeit very long.  We ate at Stone Creek in Zionsville.  Eric insisted on sitting next to his cousin Tyler.  Eventually, we were able to get him to sit in his high chair while we all ate our food.  By this time, it was getting late, and Eric was getting tired.

The whole group headed back to our house for the after dinner party.  Eric caught his second wind on the drive home.  When everyone showed up at the house, he was so excited!  He ran around playing with Tyler and chasing the balloons.  Eric finally wound down, and we put him to bed.  He was too tired to put up a fight.  He was off to bed and fast asleep.

The family stayed a little longer to play the board game “Taboo”.  We teamed up as couples with Tyler as the referee.  Mommy and I won easily.  Then we split into the traditional boys versus girls teams.  Of course the boys won (again) with great help from Tyler.  When will the women learn?

Earlier this week, Mommy read somewhere that at 2 years, Eric should have about 30-50 words in his vocabulary.  So, Mommy grabbed a notebook and started writing down all of the words that Eric has been using.  She was careful to write down only the words that we think he understands, as he will repeat most anything he hears.  Mommy called me at work to tell me this, because she got excited when she had written down over 80 words and was still writing.  The rest of the week, we have been paying attention and adding new words to the list.  The list is over 100 words so far.  Some are pronounced better than others, but these are words that he appears to understand the meaning when he uses them.  Eric is only 18 months!

Now, being an engineer, I cannot resist the urge to compile the list on the computer and post it on Eric’s website.  However, this may not happen right away, since my laptop died last week.   I am now shopping for my Christmas present, and Mommy and I have been time-sharing her computer.

This weekend is “Girl’s Weekend”, when my mother, sisters(in-law), niece, and wife all go away for the weekend without us men folk.  Just Eric and Daddy all weekend!

Mommy left after dinner on Friday night.  Eric was not happy to see luggage and such being loaded into the car.  He was especially not happy when Mommy drove off without us.  But soon, we were playing and laughing, and Eric’s attention was elsewhere.  We played and snacked and played.  We watched TV, played with his cars and balls, and shared a bowl of ice cream before bed time.

Saturday morning, I got up before Eric and started preparing breakfast.  This Saturday…PANCAKES!  No big surprise for Eric, since Daddy often makes pancakes for breakfast on Saturdays.  Eric was very hungry.  He ate almost an entire pancake!  A Daddy sized pancake!

After breakfast, we got dressed and headed out to the Indianapolis Children’s Museum.  Eric had not been there before.  This was a lot of fun for Eric and Daddy!  Eric spent almost two hours in the Playscape on the 3rd floor.  This is an area where kids of all ages can run around and play.  They have a water area, a sand box, a slide, pretend garden, wobbly bridges, crawling tunnels, toy cars, play house with kitchen and yard, building blocks, and more.  Eric spent most of the time crawling through the tunnel and going down the slide.  We had to cut the day short, though, so Eric could get his nap and some lunch.  It was quite an adventure and so much fun!

After Eric’s nap, we ate dinner and played until bed time.  Eric was calling Mommy’s name just before bed time, so we called her on the telephone and Eric talked to Mommy before he went to bed.  Eric was so tired from all the day’s activities that he just fell asleep almost instantly without any fussing.

Mommy came home this afternoon.  Eric is very happy to have both Mommy and Daddy home again!  We had so much fun, Daddy is counting the days until the next girl’s weekend!

Grandma and Grandpa and Grandma and Grandpa were here last weekend.  Eric was in heaven!  My parents visited for the weekend, and Mommy’s parents visited Saturday evening for dinner and a card game.

Before dinner, when Grandma and Grandpa got here, Eric was so excited!  Grandma and Grandpa brought some new toys that they received from a former tenant.  Eric now has in the living room a big plastic slide, small wagon full of building blocks, a Tonka dump truck, basket full of books, and several other small toy cars and trucks.  It was like Christmas on Halloween.  Eric may now believe in the Great Pumpkin!  Climb up the step, slide down…climb up the step, slide down…climb up the step, slide down.  Every time Eric came around to climb up again, he stopped in front of Grandpa and waited for permission to go “again”.  This was very entertaining for everyone, especially Grandpa!

We went to Zorba’s in Zionsville for dinner on Saturday evening (Halloween night).  Eric wore his new shirt from Aunt Deborah.  It has a picture of a skeleton that glows in the dark.  The shirt also shows little pieces of candy, as if we are looking inside Eric’s belly at everything he ate.  We had fun at dinner!

For bedtime, Eric wore his Mummy pajamas that Aunt Bev gave him last year!  Yes, they still fit.  A little short in the arms and legs, but they still fit well enough to sleep in… and oh so cute!

Sunday morning, Aunt Deborah came over to take Eric’s 18-month photos.  He had not had a professional photo since his 1-year birthday.  Mommy and Daddy are anxiously waiting for the pictures.  We took pictures in the back yard, while Eric sat in his swing and ran around in the leaves.  Our big maple tree had just dropped another giant load of golden yellow leaves over the entire back yard.  Eric loved running around in them!