Daddy’s View

This is the 2nd blog entry today.

What a fun weekend so far!

Yesterday, Eric rode his new bike.  I picked it up at a second hand shop for children’s stuff.  It has a spider-man theme and training wheels.  Eric outgrew the bike that I bought for him last summer at the Goodwill store.  He did not get to ride it much last year.  He had not figured out the pedalling part yet.  He was certainly ready this year!  I aired up the tires and adjusted the seat and handle bars to fit him.  He was very patient and tolerant of this delay, although he was defintely anxious to ride his new bike!  I helped him get comfortable with the bike and reassured him that the training wheels would keep him from falling over.  I gave him some gentle pushes to get him moving.  Soon he was pedalling!  I had to keep reminding him to pedal in order to keep moving and reminded him to steer when he was heading for the grass, a bush, our camper, etc.  Mommy came outside to see him on his bike and immediately ran back into the house to get our camera.  Eric rode up and down our sidewalk and around the driveway a few times.  Mommy had by now gone back into the house.  I decided that he needed more room to ride and get used to pedalling and steering, so we went out into the street.  I reminded Eric that he was only allowed to go in the street with Mommy or Daddy.  He agreed.  Earlier in the driveway he stopped and said, “I can’t go in the street!”  He was reminding me, since I was encouraging him to keep pedalling.  Of course he was not yet even close to the street, but he felt the need to set me straight.  Anyway, out in the street I continusously kept watch for cars and let Eric know that I was doing so.  He expressed his concern that cars would be coming.  I reassured him, and he started pedalling toward the corner.  It is a very slight downhill to the corner, so it was easy for him to gain momentum.  He pedalled enthusiastically all the way to the stop sign.  We turned around and pedalled back.  The slight uphill was a challenge, but I helped him a little, and he made it all the way home.  I was so proud!  My little boy is growing up so fast.  It seems like just last week that he was learning to walk, now he is riding a bike!  We heard some thunder in the distance, so we put away the bike and all of the toys in the garage.  When we got inside, Eric excitedly told Mommy, “I rode my bike to the stop sign and back!”  Mommy looked at me, and I confirmed that he did indeed ride all the way to the corner and back.  Mommy was thrilled!  She picked him up and gave him a great big hug and kiss.  We both praised him generously for this accomplishment!  Mommy and I are so proud of our son!

Today is the Indianapolis 500 race.  This is one of a few days during the year when we get some free entertainment over our house.  This year, the fly over was a stealth bomber!  Very cool looking jet!  Eric and I enjoyed the show last year with the more typical F-16 or F-18 or whatever fighter jets.  This year was a special treat.  The stealth bomber is quite an exotic looking aircraft.  We were in the house and getting ready to start our day.  We had just put on Eric’s shoes when we heard the roar of a low flying jet over the house.  Eric and I immediately ran outside to see what it was.  We got out just in time to see the bomber flying over our front yard, very low.  It was headed for the speedway, which meant the race would begin very soon.  Knowing that the jets usually fly over the speedway 2 or 3 times, we ran back inside, I put on my shoes, grabbed the camera, and went back outside.  Mommy was ready and waiting for us to go, but she patiently waited for us, as we waited for the next pass.  We could still hear the rumbling off in the distance.  We waited for a few minutes, although it seemed much longer.  Eric and I kept scanning the skies for the jet to appear.  Finally, the rumbling grew louder, and our anticipation grew with it.  As the roar of the jet approached, suddenly the jet appeared over the tree tops.  Wow!  Eric was excited, but maybe not as excited as me 🙂  I got quite a few good pictures and some video as the jet passed over and made another 2 passes during the next 20 minutes or so.  We were finally convinced that there would be no more fly-overs, so we loaded up the car and headed for our next adventure.

Next stop…Menard’s!  This is one of Eric’s favorite places.  Just ask him!  “Save big money at Menard’s!” he frequently sings.  He repeated this chorus over and over today in the car and at the store.  I returned some unneeded hardware and picked up a few more items for the house.  We spent more time than necessary of course.

We left Menard’s and headed for the parking lot in front of Kohl’s.  Mommy had spotted a carnival that was setting up before the weekend had started.  We thought Eric would enjoy it, so we planned to spend the afternoon there.  It was not very big.  It was set up in a parking lot after all.  Eric right away spotted the flying rockets, but he called them airplanes.  He wanted to ride!  I inquired about minimum height…36″…perfect, Eric is over 39″ tall!  We headed for the ticket booth to buy some tickets.  On the way, we spotted a few other rides that looked exciting, so we bought enough tickets for several rides.  We returned to the rockets, handed over our tickets, and Eric was through the gate.  Now, with the perfect timing that only a 3-year-old could manage, Eric announced that he needed to pee!  Fortunately, he was not sitting in the ride yet, so I mentioned to the operator that he needed to pee first; could we come back?  The operator returned our tickets, and we went in search of the portable toilets.  That was an experience that I will not describe here.  You can use your imagination, though Eric did very well considering the circumstances.

On the way back from the toilet, we passed a small roller coaster, and Eric wanted to ride.  He was tall enough, so 3 tickets later he was seated in the belly of a long dragon!  He was full of anticipation!  When Eric and the other kids were strapped securely in, all of the parents cleared out to behind the fence.  The dragon took off and circled the tracks, banking to the side around the curve, up and down, and around again to the front.  Eric was having fun, although he looked just a little nervous.  As the dragon rounded the front about the 3rd time around, Mommy heard him saying, “I’m done!”  When the ride finally ended, I asked him if it was fun.  “Yes!”, he replied.

Next, Eric saw the trucks, and he wanted to ride.  This was just a train of semi-trucks connected together on a flat oval track.  Again, we remitted our tickets, and soon Eric was seated in the cab of a cool truck!  The ride was uneventful, and Eric was smiling the whole time.  It is amazing that what looks mundane or boring to us can be so exciting for a child.  These experiences are all brand new to him, and he soaks them up eagerly.

So, we still haven’t made it back to the “airplanes” yet.  But now Eric sees the cars!  Another simple ride that resembles a merry-go-round, but instead of leaping horses and a grand canopy, this ride has several miniature cars that roll around in a circle.  Eric chose a yellow hot rod with flames on the side.  His Uncle Mike would have approved!  We soon discovered that the horn buttons in his car did not work.  Eric did not seem too concerned.  He was on this ride for the ride, not the sound effects.  The ride lurched to a start and off he went.  The cars circled for a few minutes until the operator stopped the ride.  Eric was smiling the entire time!

Okay, so now Mommy is getting hungry, and it is getting late for lunch.  We decided to go to “Five Guys Burgers and Fries” just across the parking lot, but on the way we came across a giant slide!  Eric loves slides!  Mommy and I agreed to one more ride before lunch.  Eric and I climbed a seemingly endless flight of stairs to get to the top.  Up, up, and up.  At the top, I positioned our burlap sack and sat down.  The attendant at the top lifted Eric into my lap.  Another boy was getting seated in the far lane, so we waited to go at the same time.  The slide was high and fast!  We were completely airborn by the time we reached the final hump in the slide near the bottom.  We were literally flying down the slide!  We were going so fast that we skidded beyond the stopping pad but safely stopped just before reaching the fence.  So much fun!

We headed over to the restaurant to get lunch.  Of course we planned to return for the “airplane” ride.  Finally, we gave our last tickets to the air traffice controller, and Eric boarded his rocket ship.  This ride went around in a circle and raised up and down slowly.  Eric enjoyed the ride, although he seemed to spend the better part of it studying the center part that attached all of the rocket ships…no doubt trying to figure out how it worked.

It was getting hot, and it had been a long afternoon, so we headed home to try a nap.  Eric has not been napping much lately…no luck today either.  He did get some quiet time in bed.  Mommy and I each grabbed a few winks of shut eye for ourselves.

After naps (most of us anyway), we went out for dinner.  We went to a local family restaurant that was highly recommended by a friend of Mommy.  We enjoyed some good food and hanging out.  Eric was allowed to draw right on the table with crayons, as it was covered in paper.  This was a novel idea for Eric, and he liked it!

This is the first of two blogs today.  I would like to share some photos from this month.

Eric and Mommy spent some time preparing for the tree removal by digging up the hostas that were growing around its base.  We planned to replant these around the other trees.  Eric really enjoys helping when Mommy or I have work to do.  At least until it gets boring or less fun than playing with his toys.

Eric frequently gets hold of our camera and takes many photos.  It wears out the batteries for not too many useful photos.  Most are of his feet or the ground or blurry people without heads.  Occasionally, he gets some really good pictures.  He really is good at aiming the camera.  He just mostly plays around and pushes the button.  The timing of the shutter is delayed from pressing the button, so he does not usually get the picture he wants.  He did take this lovely photograph of the hanging flowers in front of our house.

Eric celebrated his birthday earlier this month.  One of the gifts that he received is a set of toy golf clubs.  He really likes these.  He seems to have the style for the sport, if not the skills yet.

This next photo is self-explanatory.  The look and the shirt say it all!

Today, we had a tree removed from our front yard.  Eric enjoyed watching all of the activity.  We watched out in the back yard while they trimmed the trees in the back.  Eric giggled every time he saw a branch fall.  We watched from under our covered deck, so we did not worry about any branches falling on us.  This also meant that we could not see the man up in the tree who was doing all of the cutting, but we certainly could see the branches falling.  Apparently, he could hear us, though.  After a few branches and the subsequent laughing and giggling, we heard the man call down “This is the first time I heard anyone laugh at this!”  I think the worker was as entertained by Eric, as Eric was entertained by him.

We went back inside for a while…until they started trimming in the front yard.  This would be the main event!  The medium size tree in our front yard was mostly dead, so we decided to have it removed before mother nature could make other dangerous plans for it.  Eric, Mommy, and I watched as they cut many of the larger branches from the tree.  They used a crane, parked in our driveway, to lift the branches out to the street, where they ran them through a large wood chipper.  Eric was fascinated by all of the machinery!  Finally, the tree was cut loose at its base.  The workers had climbed into the tree and secured cables and straps to a couple of the higher limbs.  The tree did not fall over when it was cut.  It simply swung to the side a bit.  The crane lifted it high in the air over the other trees to set it down in the street for further reduction with the chain saws and wood chipper.  As the tree floated up and over the other trees, Eric asked Mommy, “why is it flying?”  This was truly an entertaining day for Eric.  ( I think that I enjoyed it nearly as much!)

Grandpa D went on his annual fishing trip with several other members of the family.  This is the weekend after Mother’s Day.  This is the weekend that Eric and I go to visit Grandma D.

We got up Saturday morning and ate breakfast.  I fixed pancakes as usual.  Just before breakfast, I asked Eric if he knew what we were doing after breakfast.  He did not know, of course.  So, I told him that we were going to Grandma D’s house.  He jumped and cheered all the way down the hallway.  He was very excited.  Mommy left before we did.  She went to spend the day with her mom.  Eric and I finished getting ready for our trip.  First, a bath.  Then get dressed.  Next pack the car.  We rode in my camaro.  Eric is so excited any time he gets to ride in “Daddy’s Purple Car”!  Eric climbed into the back seat and away we went.

The drive went well.  We stopped a few times for potty breaks.  We sang songs and talked about going to Grandma D’s house.  Eric was very excited!  We arrived just as Grandma was crossing to her mail box.  Eric and I waved as we passed to turn around and park at the curb.  Such good timing to arrive while Grandma was outside.

Eric and Grandma went into the house, while I unloaded the car.  It is surprising how much stuff you need for a one night trip when travelling with a 3-year-old.  It is even more surprising that it all fits in my camaro somehow.  Eric and Grandma played cars in the living room for a couple hours until time for dinner.  They also played on the piano for a while.  I enjoyed watching both of them having so much fun!  I let them play and only interrupted to remind Eric to use the potty.  I actually took a short nap while they were playing in the kitchen floor rolling a ball back and forth.  I was nearly exhausted from a long busy week and a few short night’s sleep.

Time for dinner!  Grandma picked out a cool restaurant for us.  We all rode over to the restaurant.  Eric insisted that he wanted pizza for dinner.  I assured him that the restaurant would have pizza.  We arrived and went inside.  Eric was amazed!  The restaurant was full of trains!  There were model trains running inside a display case.  There was a larger train for the kids to ride.  There was a train that delivered food right to our seats!  It was definitely going to be a fun dinner!

We finally peeled eric away from the display case with the model trains, so we could take our seats at the counter.  The waiter took our order, and while we waited for our food, we watched the train come around and deliver food to other families at the restaurant.  Eric thought this was pretty cool!  While we waited, we went over to the big train and bought a token to ride.

Just as we were about to get on the train, we heard the whistle that meant our food was on its way to our seats…via train.  We hurried and sat back in our seats to wait for the train to arrive.  When it stopped, the waiter promptly delivered our food from the train cars onto the counter in front of us.  This was very cool!  Eric thanked the waiter for his pizza, and the train left to return to its station in the kitchen.

We ate our dinner, and Eric was ready to ride the big train.  Eric held up his token and smiled!

He gave his token to the conductor and hurried over to the passenger car on the train.  He sat down and patiently waited for the ride to begin.  I cannot recall ever seeing a bigger smile on his face!  When the ride was over, Grandma bought another token, and this time Eric jumped into the engine!  So much fun!

We finally dragged Eric out of the restaurant to go home.  When we go tback to Grandma’s house, she fixed Eric a bowl of ice cream.  After ice cream, Grandpa called to check in with Grandma, so Eric took his turn to talk to Grandpa.  Eric related most of his day to Grandpa, mostly about the trains at the restaurant.  Grandma read him a couple of books before he went to sleep.  Of course, Eric had found the two longest books in the pile!  I don’t think it bothered Grandma, though.

For breakfast on Sunday, Grandma had made one of her famous breakfast cakes!  Eric’s favorite breakfast!  He ate his fair share, and Grandma boxed up the leftovers for us to bring home.  After breakfast, Grandma and Eric played while I packed up our stuff and loaded the car.  It was finally time to leave.  It is not easy to break up those two having so much fun, but we wanted to get home to Mommy before she missed us too much!

Happy Mother’s Day Grandma D!

This is the third blog post today.  Be sure to read the other two!

After all the excitement over the weekend,  Eric had yet another funfilled day planned for Tuesday!

Mommy and Eric went to the zoo with Eric’s friend Blake.  Hot, humid, so much fun!

Eric’s friend Annabelle invited him to a birthday party at Monkey Joe’s.  He was very excited.  He talked about it for days, even while anticipating his own party!  Since Mommy spent the day at the zoo, I was tasked with taking him to the birthday party.  My pleasure!  Mommy stayed home to relax.  The birthday party was a lot of fun!  Eric climbed on everything in sight and slid down everything else.  So much fun!  HAPPY BIRTHDAY Annabelle!

Happy Mother’s Day to Mommy and grandma D and Grandma G and all of the other mothers who love their children and take care of their families.  You are all appreciated.  One day each year will never be enough to show our gratitude and love for you!

Eric woke up the day after his birthday party.  He remembered that it was Mother’s Day.  He ran to me and asked me if we could give Mommy her card now.  He asked me this earlier in the week after we had been to the store and bought a card for Mommy.  Eric could hardly wait to give it to Mommy.  I had also picked up a small gift for Mommy and wrapped it up.  Eric proudly carried it out to the kitchen where everyone was gathering for breakfast.  He also carried a card for Grandma D.  Mommy and Grandma both loved their cards!  Mommy is very excited about her gift!

Aunt Cindy prepared breakfast for everyone.  This was such a relief for Mommy.  After the long preparation for the party and the party itself, Mommy was not looking forward to preparing breakfast for a full house.  Naturally, I would have volunteered to make pancakes, but Aunt Cindy had it covered with her delicious breakfast lasagna.  Grandma D had brought some of her famous “breakfast cake”, too.  We all ate well.

Eric and I treated Mommy to a wonderful day of pampering.  Mommy spent some time alone at the mall to do some window shopping and get a massage.  Mommy needs a little quiet time to herself now and again.  While Mommy was out and Eric took a nap, I cleaned up the house and put away all of the preparations from the birthday party the day before.  Later, we went out for dinner and ate at Shapiro’s.  It was a nice quiet dinner, and we all got what we wanted.

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!

 Eric loves his Mommy!

Eric is 3 years old!  We had a party last weekend to celebrate.  All of Eric’s favorite people were there: Mommy, Daddy, Grandma G, Grandpa G, Grandma D, Grandpa D, Aunt Carol, Uncle Rob, Tyler, Aunt Bev, Uncle Mike, Michelle, Uncle Joe, Aunt Traci, Josh, Jake, Aunt Deborah, Aunt Cindy, Uncle Rob, Annabelle (4) and her mom, and Blake (2 almost 3) and his parents.

Eric was so excited all week for his birthday and his party.  Mommy and I kept talking to him about it to get him in the spirit.  he did not need much encouragement.  He talked every day about his birthday party.  He talked about cake and ice cream.  He talked about presents.  He talked about seeing Grandma and Grandpa D.  He talked about his friends coming to his party.  And on and on.  When the day finally came, he was like a wild man running around the house all morning.  He was so excited, he didn’t know what to do.  The anticipation was at its peak.  Finally, Grandma and Grandpa D showed up.  they were early, since they were coming from out of town and staying overnight.  Eric loved it!  Eventually, more and more people started showing up.  Eric loves the attention!

The most memorable moment for me was when his friend Annabelle showed up.  He saw her get out of the car and start toward the house.  He got very excited and started shouting, “My friend is here!  My friend is here!”  Mommy and I then realized that this was the first time he had any of his friends over to the house.  He always saw his friends at their house or at music class.  This was a very big event for him!  After she got settled into the house with her mom, she asked if she could see Eric’s room.  This was a reasonable request.  Eric proudly escorted her down the hall and with a sweep of his arm and an excited tone in his voice he said, “Here’s my room!”  He later showed his room to his friend Blake after he arrived with a little less ceremony but just as much pride and enthusiasm.  The three of them ran around the house all afternoon chasing each other and playing with all of Eric’s toys.  The very same toys that I had spent hours picking up and organizing very neatly in preparation for a house full of people (24 guests plus Mommy, Eric, and I) were now scattered all over the sun room and family room.  These two rooms are more commonly known as Eric’s play rooms.  He seems to have taken over the house with all of his toys.

The party was much fun for everyone!  Eric opened presents.  Lots of cool new summer clothes!  Several cool new toys!  Aunt Deborah bought him his very own digital camera.  It sounds like no big deal, except that the camera is from Lego and looks like it made out of Legos and indeed you can attach Lego pieces to the camera on top and bottom.  Very cool!  Eric loves having his own camera.  He likes to run around taking pictures of everything.  Now he can use his own camera, and Mommy and I don’t need to worry about our good camera getting broken or lost.  All of his presents were great!  He loves all of them and plays with all of his new toys.  He has been wearing new clothes every day this week and still has more with tags not yet removed.  Mommy was especially happy about the new pajamas!

Time to eat!  We had ordered sandwiches and pizza from a local restaurant.  The three kids sat at Eric’s new table to eat pizza.  Mommy and I bought Eric a new table with two matching chairs just his size.  He really likes having “right size” furniture.  The kids ate pizza very nicely, and then back to playing.

Cake and Ice Cream!  We all gathered around the kitchen table to sing “Happy Birthday” to Eric, and he blew out his candles.  Aunt Bev made a beautiful cake with Mickey Mouse on it!  It was also quite delicious!  Eric was very excited to see his cake.  He really likes to watch the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse cartoon on the Disney channel.  Again the three kids sat very nicely, while they ate their birthday cake.  Eric was wearing his “mouse ears”, and the other kids received their mouse ears, while they were eating.  Very cute!  After cake and ice cream, the kids each received a small box full of goodies: whistle, ball, stickers, candy, etc.

The party started to wind down a little.  Most of the guests had a long drive and/or tired kids to get home.  Grandma and Grandpa D and Aunt Cindy and Uncle Rob were staying overnight.  After Eric finally settled down and went to sleep, we all played cards until we could no longer stay awake.  It seems everyone was exhausted from the long day.

Eric had so much fun and behaved very well all day.  Mommy and I are very proud of him!