Daddy’s View

I needed to fix the driver side window on our family car.  I picked up a replacement window mechanism from the auto parts store on Friday evening before the 4th of July.  Saturday morning, I set out to start replacing it.  I had done this last summer, but the part broke.  Fortunately, the auto parts store honored the lifetime warranty, so the replacement only cost me the few hours to get the job done.

I spent the first hour and a half cleaning up the garage.  This was not just to be able to work (I can work in a dirty garage.), but I wanted the garage clean enough for Eric to come outside with me while I was working.  Once the garage floor was clear of oil puddles and swept free of leaves and dirt, I told Mommy that she could send Eric out any time.  It was only a few minutes later – long enough for Mommy to get him dressed – when Eric walked into the garage.  Eric was very interested in what I was doing.  He insisted on getting right up next to me while I disassembled the door.  He really wanted to help.  I let him hold my screwdriver and play with the pliers.  He was very helpful.

On Monday, I returned the defective part and picked up a replacement window motor for my Camaro.  The passenger window stopped going up and down early last summer, and I had not gotten around to fixing it.  No big deal, since it was the passenger side window.  I mostly drive the car to work by myself.  I figured that I was on a roll (pun) with the window repairs, and I had a 3-day weekend to take advantage.  I started Monday morning after breakfast.

Again, I told Mommy to send Eric outside whenever he was ready.  He wanted to play inside for a while, but he eventually came outside.  I had most of the door apart, but I was still removing screws and fasteners to get to the motor inside the door.  Eric was right by my side helping.  He actually turned the screwdriver for me to remove a couple screws.  He was so proud of himself, and so was I!  Such a great helper!

Now, I bored you with the above stories of my auto repair woes so I could show you the below photos that Mommy took…

This year we took Eric to Carmel Fest again.  It is a very large festival held in Carmel every year for the 4th of July.  They have music, food, games, shops, and other booths and activities.  It is held in the City Center where the police and fire station are located next to the city hall.

We walked around and got some food to eat.  The weather was very hot, but we waited until the hottest part of the day was past.  We went around dinner time.  It wouldn’t be Carmel Fest if we didn’t walk through the fire station.  They always have it open for everyone to see the trucks.  This year, Carmel dedicated a new ladder truck.  It is very cool!  Eric walked end to end admiring the whole thing.  Just the wheels were taller than him.  He was very impressed with the size of the truck.  And it had a ladder just like his toy fire trucks.

We continued around the festival and found a booth with a tiger!  Eric gave him a high five and posed for a photo.

Happy Birthday USA!

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.

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!