Daddy’s View

I made it out of work early this week on Tuesday for Eric’s music class.  He was very excited to see me at class.  This was my first time with the new theme.  The current CD is The Frog Collection.  There are some new faces in class this time around, as well as a few familiar ones.  Eric is much more involved with the music and activities these days.  He sings out loud and “follows the leader” to copy what the teacher is doing.  During one particular song, Eric blurted out, “Good Job, Daddy!”  The entire class started laughing 🙂  It was a funny moment.  Even the teacher, Miss Diane, lost her place in the song.  Just to be sure everyone heard it, he of course repeated it twice!

Tonight, we were playing catch in the living room with Eric’s baseball.  It is a soft stuffed ball, so no worries about damage to the house.  We play catch most every day now.  Either catch or soccer or both.  He also has a small stuffed ball a little larger than the baseball that looks a little like a soccer ball.  Mommy and Eric tossed the ball a few times.  Then Eric and I tossed the ball a few times.  Then we all tossed the ball in a triangle pattern.  After a while, Eric sat down on the sofa and said, “Eric watch!”  He wanted to watch while Mommy and I tossed the ball back and forth.  Of course, we continued to toss the ball to him in our triangular catch pattern.  He really enjoyed playing his part from the sofa.

This past weekend was Eric’s cousin Michael’s open house.  Michael graduated high school this year.

We packed up the car Saturday morning and drove north for the weekend.  We arrived just as the party was getting started.  Michael came out to the car to greet us.  Eric was excited to see him.  Grandma and Grandpa were already there.  Aunt Bev and Uncle Mike have a large property with several acres.  Eric loved running around the yard.  We walked toward the back yard where Uncle Mike had all of his cars parked.  Race Cars!  Eric loved it!  He kept saying “race car!”  There was a red race car and a white race car.  There were others, too, but these caught most of Eric’s attention.  Throughout the day, Eric made several trips into the back yard to see the cars.

Michael brought out his old train set from when he was a little boy.  He had a lot of Thomas engines and cars.  Eric played with these for a very long time.  I helped him set up the track.  It had a bridge and a tunnel.  Eric was fascinated by the tunnel, although he kept getting frustrated when the trains would get stuck.  Later in the afternoon, he was focused on the bridge.  He rolled all of the train cars over the bridge and into one big pile up.  When all of the cars were in the pile, he started rolling them the other direction over the bridge until they were all piled up on the other side.  The trains were a big hit!

Aunt Bev and Uncle Mike also have a new boat.  They just bought it this spring.  It is bright yellow and big!  Aunt Bev picked him up to let him walk around in the boat.  Eric loved it!  He walked toward the back and sat in the driver’s seat, playing with the steering wheel.  Aunt Bev turned on the power, so Eric could honk the horn.  Aunt Bev showed him where the button was located for the horn.  Eric pushed it, and it was very loud.  It startled him, and he did not like it.  After a few minutes, Eric said, “Eric ready to get out.”  The rest of the day, Eric asked almost everyone to pick him up to play in the boat.

Eric’s cousins, Mario and Anthony, arrive later in the afternoon.  Eric loves his cousins.  They are closest to his age, 3 and 5.  They played together for most of the afternoon.  they walked around by the race cars.  they played ball in the driveway.  They played with the trains.  They picked flowers in the front yard (with Aunt Bev’s help and permission of course).

It was a long day.  We kept Eric up past his bed time.  We packed up and headed to Grandma’s and Grandpa’s house for the night.  Eric was ready for bed almost as soon as we could get his pajamas on.  I think he fell asleep before his head hit the pillow.

Today is Aunt Carol’s birthday.  I will not mention her age (40), because that would be rude 😉

We all met up at the race track in anderson to celebrate with the buffet special.  We also celebrated Father’s Day a week early as long as we were all gathered together.  Eric has been talking about Aunt Carol’s birthday since early this morning.  He is very excited about it.

When we arrived at the track, Eric was anxious to walk around.  He did not want to sit still.  Mommy was hungry, so I walked around with Eric.  We walked outside and along the side of the track.  Unfortunately, the playground was removed when they built the casino next door 🙁  We returned to our table, and Eric immediately asked to go for a walk.  We just got back!  We distracted him with some toys, so we could all eat our dinner.  Grandpa finished eating his dinner, and he took Eric for another walk.

After everyone finished eating their dinner (and dessert), we exchanged cards and gifts.  While I was opening my Father’s Day cards, Eric grew impatient and started tearing the paper from my gift box.  When finally I finished with the cards, Eric helped me unwrap my gift.  Mommy did some sneeking around and managed to get Eric’s picture taken at a studio for his 2nd birthday.  She framed one particular 8×10 photo for me.  I was surprised!  Eric is such a handsome boy, and he posed for some very nice photos.  The theme for all of the photos is sports.  He posed with a football and a basketball.

After gifts, Eric was ready for another walk.  Aunt Carol and cousin Tyler took him this time.  They walked all around and outside again.  When they got back, he was ready to go again!  After a few minutes, I went walking with him again.  Eric is fascinated with walking around this place!  At least he is burning off energy for a good sleep tonight.

As we were all preparing to go home, Aunt Carol was holding Eric and talking with him.  Eric started singing to her.  “Happy Birthday to you!  Happy Birthday Aunt Carol!  Happy Birthday to you!”  It was so sweet!  Aunt Carol loved it!

Eric started his new music class today.  I could not get out of work early this week, so I missed it.  The new music CD is the Frog collection.  After dinner, we played the new CD in the living room and danced and played through the whole thing.  Eric already recognized a couple of the songs that he heard in class today.  He especially liked hopping around like a frog and saying “ribbit!”

After the music CD, we played ball.  Eric and I played catch.  Eric is very good at throwing but still learning to catch.  We threw the ball back and forth for a while.  Eric was holding his hands together in front of him, but the ball kept falling between his arms.  Finally, he caught it!  I congratulated him and told Mommy all about his catch.  He was thrilled!  Mommy played catch with us for a while.  We threw the ball around in a triangle.  Eric caught the ball again later.  While we were throwing the ball, I kept encouraging him to catch it.  The ball now was his small orange plastic ball, just a little smaller than a tennis ball.  At one point I said, “Keep your eye on the ball!”  To which Eric responded by holding the ball against his eye!  Mommy and I could hardly stop laughing.

After playing catch, Mommy left us alone in the living room again.  Eric picked up another ball, larger than the first.  He wanted to play “soccer”.  He made sure we were both standing at opposite ends of the living room.  He carefully placed the ball on the floor in front of him.  This process was actually pretty entertaining.  Eric held the ball in both hands.  He spread his legs and put himself into a half squatting position.  He looked like a sumo wrestler preparing for a match.  He then bent over at the waist and placed the ball on the floor.  With the ball precisely where he wanted it, he stood up.  Eric straightened his legs and kicked the ball.  I blocked it with my foot and kicked it back to him.  We kicked back and forth several times.  On one particular kick, I kicked a little too hard, and the ball hopped across the room over some of his toys.  Eric ran to pick it up, but not before scolding me, “Gentle, Daddy, Gentle”.  This is the phrase we use with Eric frequently when he is playing too rough or throwing or kicking too hard.