Daddy’s View

Eric played in his new swimming pool today!

Aunt Deborah missed Eric’s birthday party, because she was on vacation.  We were visiting Grandma the following weekend.  So, finally Aunt Deborah was able to come over and visit with us.  Last Saturday, she stopped by in the afternoon.  We were playing in the front yard – actually, Eric and Mommy were playing, and I was trimming the shrubs.  when Aunt Deborah pulled up in her car, Eric shouted her name and ran to greet her.  I finished my yard work and we all sat on the front porch and talked and played for a while.  We went into the house to open Eric’s gift from Aunt Deborah.  Aunt Deborah had also brought some birthday cake, so we first lit a candle on it and sang “Happy Birthday”.  Eric blew out the candle with a big smile!  He was not hungry, so he did not want to eat any cake.  He might be the only 2-year-old that ever turned down chocolate cake!  Now for the gift!  It was a very large and colorful gift bag.  I helped Eric lift the heavy box from the gift bag.  It is a swimming pool!  It is a small inflatable kiddie pool with a large elephant sprinkler attached.  We can hardly wait for a hot day to set it up!  Eric will love playing in the pool.  Thank you, Aunt Deborah!  After opening his present, we headed to the playground.  Aunt Deborah pulled Eric in his wagon over to the playground.  Eric climbed all over the play equipment and went down the slides.  So much fun!  After the playground, we walked back to the house and played in the front yard.  Eric, Aunt Deborah, and I blew bubbles and laughed.

Earlier this week, Eric started juggling.  He pronounces it “jungling”.  It is a very impressive act.  He uses two of his toy balls.  First, he makes sure he has our attention.  Next, he announces that “Eric is jungling!”  Finally, he throws the balls up in the air and lets them fall to the ground.  That’s it!  That is Eric juggling.  He has so much fun doing this over and over, laughing the whole time.  Of course, Mommy and I are laughing and cheering him on the whole time.  Eric made sure to give Mommy and I our turn to juggle.  It was fun for all!

Eric went for his first ride in his new wagon on Mother’s Day.  He really loves his new wagon!

Later that evening, Eric and I treated Mommy to “spa night”.  We pured a hot bath, lit some candles, turned on some soft music, and gave her some quiet time alone to relax.

This weekend, Eric and I went to visit Grandma D.  This was Grandma’s Mother’s Day gift.  Grandma really enjoyed spending time with Eric!  Eric and I arrived on Saturday around 12:30pm.  Grandma fixed us lunch, and then we walked over to the park.  I packed Eric’s wagon in the trunk.  Eric played at the park for a long while.  He climbed on the playground set, went down the slides, walked across the bouncy bridge.  The playground has 3 slides.  Eric went down all of them.

Grandma brought some bubbles along.  Eric enjoyed blowing and chasing the bubbles.  Several other kids also joined in the chasing.  After a while Eric sat down to rest…but not for long.

After a while the playground became very crowded with bigger kids running around, so Grandma and I decided that it was time to go home.  Eric sat back in his wagon for the ride home.  Once back at Grandma’s house, we played in the backyard.  Grandma had plenty of toys stowed away in the shed.  She happily got them out for Eric to play with.

It got colder when the wind shifted, so we went inside.  We played for a while longer before going to dinner.  Grandma chose a pizza place, since she knows that Eric loves pizza.  We all had a good time at dinner, despite my spilling my drink all over Eric.  Luckily, I had a change of clothes with us.  Eric and I excused ourselves to the bathroom, while Grandma found our server to help clean up my mess.  The pizza finally came, and Eric was excited!  Grandma and I were frantically blowing on pizza slices to cool them for Eric.  The sauce was very hot, and we did not want him to burn his mouth.  He waited somewhat impatiently.  Eric ate more pizza than Grandma could believe!

After dinner, we played a while longer before bed time.  Eric had not napped at all, and we kept him up late playing (don’t tell Mommy:)  Eric lay down and fell fast asleep.  Daddy was not long behind him.  It was a long day!

Sunday morning after church, we came back to Grandma’s house for breakfast.  Grandma made a coffee cake for us and fried some bacon and eggs.  Eric thought it was birthday cake and wanted to know where the candles were!  We settled on calling it “breakfast cake”.  Eric ate plenty of bacon and breakfast cake.  Grandma was again impressed with how much Eric ate.  So was I!  He has not eaten much lately – just another phase, I guess.

We headed home in the afternoon after saying goodbye to Grandma.  we were all having so much fun that none of us wanted the weekend to end.  But Mommy was at home alone and surely missed us!

Eric’s 2nd birthday party was Saturday.  It was a small party for our family…as small as our family can be anyway 🙂

Mommy and I hyped it up all week.  Eric was very excited!  We even practiced blowing out candles at the dinner table a few times in the days leading up to the party.  When the day finally came, he waited patiently for everyone to arrive.

Reluctantly, he took a nap.  By “take a nap”, I mean that he talked and played in his crib for about an hour until Grandma and Grandpa and Aunt Cindy arrived.  So, the party begins…without a nap.  Eric was so happy to see everyone.  He loves having all of his family around.  Uncle Joe, Aunt Traci, Jake, Aunt Bev, Michelle, Grandma G, Grandpa G, Aunt Carol, Uncle Rob, Tyler.  Of course on his birthday, he likes all of the presents!

Aunt Bev made a wonderful birthday cake for Eric!  The party theme was firetrucks, and Aunt Bev made a bright red cake shaped like a firetruck!  Eric loved it!

Eric had some trouble opening all of his presents.  He wanted to play with all of them.  We actually took a break to eat cake and ice cream before finishing all of his presents.

Eric had such a great time.  Thank you to everyone who attended and contributed to Eric’s happiness by celebrating his 2nd birthday.  He is growing up so fast.  We cherish every moment that we have with him at every age.  At 2 years old, he stands 36″ tall.  Eric is walking, talking, running, jumping, pretending, reasoning, counting.  Eric identifies colors, shapes, letters, animals.  I am so proud of Eric.  I am also equally proud of Mommy for continuously teaching Eric new things.  Eric is so very lucky to have his Mommy!  So am I!

Today is Eric’s birthday!  Mommy called me on my way to work, so I could sing happy birthday to Eric.  He was very happy!

Mommy had a dentist appointment this morning, so she took Eric to stay with Grandma while she went to the dentist.  He got to see Grandma, Grandpa (home for lunch), Tyler (after school), Uncle Rob, and Aunt Carol!  Mommy spoiled him today.  She talked to him all day about his birthday and his birthday party on Saturday.  He is very excited!

When I got home from work, we opened some mail.  It was a birthday card from Grandma and Grandpa!  Eric loved it!

Mommy fixed pizza for dinner today…Eric’s favorite!  He ate it like there was no tomorrow!  His face was covered in pizza and his hands were sauced all the way up to his elbows!

After dinner, Mommy and I gave him a present…only part of his birthday – we are saving the rest for his party.  It is a plastic figure of the pig character from one of his favorite TV shows, “Super Why”.  It has a small hammer and toolbox just like on the show.  He loves it!  He brought it along when we walked around the block after dinner.

When we got home, it was bath time!  Eric loves to take a bath.  Of course, I alwaya make sure he has plenty of bubbles to play with.  After his bath, Mommy and I wrapped him up in warm towels from the dryer, and we sat on the sofa for a while until it was time for pajamas.

What a busy day on his birthday.  We are pretty sure he loved every minute of it!  Off to bed and sound asleep within minutes.

I picked up the local paper Friday night.  Not sure why, since I rarely read the newspaper.  This was the Carmel newspaper that gets delivered for free every Thursday.  I browsed the headlines…nothing too interesting.  I looked through the currents event calendar and found a listing for Family Day at the Clarian hospital in Carmel.  Saturday noon to 3pm.  Free food, drinks, games, prizes, petting zoo, firetrucks, helicopters, etc.  Did I mention free?  everything sounded perfect for Eric.  Mommy and I discussed it and decided we could go before Eric’s nap on Saturday.

The weather cooperated, and the rain held off until late in the afternoon.  We arrived at the hospital just after noon and parked the car.  Mommy stopped at the first table to sign up for something.  Eric and I walked over to the Dunking Donuts characters that were walking around.  Eric waved and said “Hi!” to the glass of milk.  Then he gave him a high five.  We found our way back to Mommy just as she finished up at the first table.

We all meandered toward the parking lot where all of the action seemed to be.  At the first booth, the ladies sitting at the table offered Eric a toy.  He picked one that looked like a lion.  The next booth wasa man from the zoo with a big owl perched on his arm.  Eric like seeing the owl.  We walked around some more and looked at some displays that were set up.  Then we came across the llamas!  The girl who was tending the llama offered to let us feed the llama.  I thought Eric would like this, so I took some of the food in my hand.  Before I could offer it to the llama, it was already eating it right from my hand.  I got a little more food and put it in Eric’s hand.  The llama ate it right away.  eric was not quite sure what to think of this.  We moved on.

We found another booth that had live bunny rabbits.  Since around Easter this year, Eric is fascinated with the bunnies running around in our yard all the time.  He calls them “Easter bunny!”  We walked up to the table so Eric could pet the bunny rabbit.  It was very soft.  Mommy was getting hungry, so we walked over to the food area.  The entire event was free, but donations were expected.  We put some money in the can and ordered three hot dogs, three bags of chips, and three drinks.  We sat on a curb and ate our lunch.  While we were eating, a dog in a fireman suit came driving by in a go-kart race car.  Eric waved at him.

After lunch, we decided to walk over by the fire truck.  On the way, we passed the man from the zoo.  This time, he had a snake wrapped around his shoulders.  We looked as we walked by, but we were focused on the fire truck.  On the way, we passed an ambulance.  It was open, so we could see inside.  I lifted Eric up into the ambulanc, so he could get a closer look.  He was very interested.  He wanted to touch everything.

After the ambulance, we finally made it to the fire truck.  I lifted Eric into the driver’s seat.  He sat for a minute looking at everything.  I picked him up and put him in the rear of the cab.  He could walk around and look at all of the stuff.  He really liked it!  He would still be in there tonight if I hadn’t taken him out.  We climbed on the back of the truck and looked at the controls for the fire hoses.

We passed by a police car with a booth set up.  We got some cool free stuff, and the woman at the table gave Eric a Junior Deputy badge to stick on his jacket.  He was proud of his badge and showed it to Grandma later that afternoon.  As we walked away, we heard a helicopter approaching.  We turned back toward the fire truck and saw the helicopter making a slow approach to the far end of the parking lot.  Security had the whole area cleared out, and the helicopter landed right in front of us!  Very cool!

We were all tired, and Eric was past due for his nap.  We headed for the car, but got side tracked by another booth with a spinning prize wheel.  Eric took the first spin…he won $20 worth of coupons for Dave and Busters.  I took my spin and also won $20.  Mommy finally took her turn and won $10.  This whole day was getting better all the time!  We picked up a fire hat for Eric from another booth and finally made it to the car.

After Eric took his nap, we took him over to grandma’s house for the night.  Tyler was already there.  Soon, Eric and Tyler were chasing each other all over the hosue and playing.  Mommy and I left to go to see a movie and get dinner.  On the way to dinner, we stopped at Toys R Us and bought Eric’s birthday present.  We bought him a wagon.  He gets very excited whenever he sees a wagon, so we thought he would like to have his own.  Mommy and I can hardly wait to see the look on his face and to be able to walk around the block with him in his wagon.  Eric’s birthday is this coming Thursday.