Uncles

Well -- we are back in warm Virginia -- it has been almost 70 degrees this weekend. Wow! We had a nice time in Wisconsin. Erik is very social and enjoys being the center of attention. He liked spending time with his grandparents, great grandma, and uncles but seemed to be extra amused by Uncle Colin. He would just walk up to him and hold his hand. Erik also giggled and giggled at him whenever he did something "funny". Although, I am quite fond of Colin as well I wasn't quite sure of why Erik seemed to enthused with him. Well, the following video helped to explain that!




It is not every day that Erik is allowed to run full speed while carrying a weapon. In addition to that fun he got to play on the treadmill! Wow -- what fun.

Of course Uncle Colin also did other fun things with Erik like playing catch. He actually encouraged Erik to throw things. Erik found this fun and now likes to throw lots of things -- shoes, toys, food. Thanks Uncle Colin! :)





We spent most of our time in WI at home with my family.


Here of some photos of Erik enjoying himself....



Riding his bee from Grandma and Grandpa






























On the pool table














Resting in Great Grandma's (GG's) lap




Looking cute is his bright orange PJ's

Christmas Gifts

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you are having an enjoyable week. We are spending a few days in snowy Wisconsin. We are looking forward to 2009 with great anticipation due to the fact that we have been blessed with a wonderful Christmas present. We hope you share some of the excitement with us!

This present is expected to be "unwrapped" the last week of June or so.

Regaining Strength

As I said in the post below our house has been a sick one this week. Well, Erik seems back to full strength. To prove this he got down on the floor and did push-ups with Victor. His form could use some improvement but he sure gets points for being cute!!!!




Erik loves to mimic what we do. Therefore, he is getting really good at picking up signs. He now signs eat, more, please, all done, milk, duck, baby. That is all we have tried to teach him -- I need to learn more signs because he picks them up as soon as I teach it to him.

He is also really affectionate now. He loves to kiss us, his friends, animals in books, etc. It is really cute -- he makes a loud smacking sound with his lips. He is such a fun little boy.

Christmas Fun

Well -- this has been a tough week for our house. First Erik had the stomach flu, pink eye, and a double ear infection. Well as you can guess he passed the 72 hour flu bug on to me. Not fun. I think I am better now but still feel a little more worn out than normal.

Before all this trouble hit our house though we had a fun time with playgroup last week decorating gingerbread cookies. Erik seemed to understand that the frosting was for the cookies. He did taste a little but most of it went on the cookies. Some of his friends seemed to think the bowl of frosting was just to be eaten out of. Erik did not like the idea that the candy was for decoration -- ate it right off of the cookie.

Here are some cute photos of his friends and work of art....

Sick Day

Well -- Erik is now on his first ever course of antibiotics. He did pretty good making it 15 months without them but now he is really a sick little baby. He has had cold after cold this fall. Recovering pretty well in between. He came down with his last cold the week before Thanksgiving. He seemed to recover except for a lingering cough that we heard mainly at night. Yesterday, Erik was very clingy and fussy but didn't have a fever. He started coughing and sneezing in the evening and before we put him to bed I noticed he had some drainage in his eyes. His eardrums also looked a little pink so I told Victor I would probably take him in the next day because he didn't seem right.

Well, overnight he vomited multiple times and had a high fever (103.2). So needless to say into the doctor we went -- he agreed with the pink eardrums so Erik is now on Amoxicillin for a double ear infection with a bonus of pink eye plus occasional vomiting which seems to be associated with coughing.

Poor baby!!! He is sure snugly. He has laid on either Victor or me since 10:00 pm yesterday (it is now 1 in the afternoon). At the moment he is laying on the couch watching his first ever movie. I know he feels terrible if he is actually willing to lay down.

We are hoping he feels better soon.

Here are some cute photos of our sick boy...

Watching veggie tales....


Draped in cold compresses when his fever was 103.2...

thanksgiving and other little turkeys

recognize this little guy?



how about now? yes, erik's changed a bunch since the three week point. in the past couple weeks, erik has gleefully discovered his nose. and his bellybutton. and other parts. i'm taking it all as a sign of good manual dexterity. plus it might help us figure out if he's regular or goofy-handed. so far, it seems the left one works best in the nostril.






just to catch up on a few events in the past few weeks...

erik braved the cold on the milwaukee lakefront last month. apparently the mittens weren't doing the trick.











erik ate cheddar bunnies with grandpa on the floor. this was the day before thanksgiving. the day after thanksgiving, erik showed off his clapping skills at dinner.










erik discovered that he's still small enough to fit into interesting places.
















"i still really really really really want to touch the computer."


















remember when erik was a baby and he used to play with wipes? oh wait...

Double Trouble

Erik and Cullen spend a lot of time playing together. They usually play pretty well together --- although there is some fighting and toy stealing. Cullen was here tonight and I captured them playing and getting into trouble together. Enjoy!

Talking on the phone

Erik loves to play with the phone. We won't give him our cell phones, because he ruined one drooling on it, but I let him walk around with our cheap home phone. If there is actually someone there to talk to him he usually just pushes the phone away but when there is nobody there he walks around jabbering away. It's pretty cute -- now if I only knew what he was saying. :)

Friends

Well we have been busy with friends this week. Erik is a really social little boy. He gets excited when the doorbell rings and runs over shrieking to get it. He doesn't always play directly with his friends but he does make it clear who he enjoys being around because he frequently stops what he is doing and gives his friends big hugs and kisses. They don't always enjoy this but
I think it is cute. He has started smacking his lips at the end of his kisses -- they are still open mouth kisses but they end with a smack of the lips. Very cute!!

Last night we hosted our friends Bonnie, Matt, and Keira. We tried to get a photo of the two kids which proved challenging!


Erik has figured out where his feet are and can show you when asked. He also can show you his head and nose -- although not with 100% accuracy. I tried to get a video of this but cooperation was not to be had. Oh well!

Lollipop

Hi all --

We have had a busy couple of weeks! We went to Wisconsin for a short visit. It was nice to see everyone. Erik is a trooper as our social schedule was quite busy. He has left us tired however because he had a cold and didn't sleep well so we awake many times throughout the night. Ugh!

One of Erik's favorite recent activities was trick-or-treating. We only took him to a few houses in his Monkey costume. He really didn't care about that much but when we got home I let him have a lollipop while we handed out candy to the neighborhood kids. That was very exciting for him! Check out his tongue!


It is very nice to be home again although we have a lot of laundry to do! This morning I was separating piles of clean clothes and Erik thought he could help. He loves to "help" with whatever I will let him assist me with.

Mama = I want!

Well -- Erik has a new favorite word. Mama -- you would like I would find that flattering however he has decided to expand the meaning of the word from being just what he calls me to indicating that he wants or needs something. I guess we know who he thinks meets his needs most of the time! I am thankful to be the one able to do that but wish he would pick a different word when whining about what he wants. Enjoy the video below......

i've got a banana in my pocket

in this episode, our little monkey erik goes to a halloween party in the neighborhood.
the little monkey was quite taken with a little duckling (usually it's the other way around -- monkey has two three-year-old girls in the neighborhood who have crushes on him).

we even a caught a little interspecies handholding...



this is astronaut elsa, one of the three-year-olds.



at the party, monkey met up with a cullenosaurus. took his binky and ran away with it. something very oddly familiar with the scene...kind of like the old godzilla movies, except in miniature. there wasn't any fighting, but some of the sounds coming out sounded dubbed.


later, erik was eating a peeled apple.

Utensils are overrated!

We have been letting Erik practice eating with his own spoons and forks. He has a lot of fun with this even though it is a lot of work for him. He usually picks up a piece of food, puts it on the spoon,and then tries to eat it. Most of the time it doesn't make it in his mouth. He is a little more successful with forks and thinks that "stabbing" his food is lots of fun. Tonight I figured I would let him have fun with applesauce -- he did have a lot of fun but really didn't seem to utilize his utensil! Enjoy!

Trying the video again

Still not working -- sorry!

More fall fun

We have had a busy week. Erik was a little under the weather -- with the runs. Not fun for parents or child. He also cut two more teeth -- up to eight now. We spent Monday - Wednesday homebound due to his diarrhea but the last couple of days we have been busy.

Thursday afternoons we have a playgroup with a few friends. It is interesting to get the four boys together (ages 13 months - 18 months). Sometimes they play nicely together, sometimes they fight, and at times they are just crabs. Yesterday -- was a crabby day! First, we hung out at Leslie and Cullen's house and then went to a book sale at the local library -- that was crazy. People were jammed into small rooms practically climbing over eachother to get books. Not really my idea of fun but I did manage to find a number of great books for Erik at a great price.

Today we went on a walk, went to the gym, took Erik for his 7th haircut, bought Erik a new pair of shoes (he is now in 5 1/2's), went to a nursery to pick out pumpkins with Cullen and Leslie, made dinner, made a chocolate cake for a halloween party tomorrow. Phew -- Erik is now in bed and I am about to make lasagna (also for tomorrow).

Here are some photos from todays activities. Enjoy and have a great weekend!

The first video is of Erik looking at a truck book (one from the library sale) --- the first thing he does is point at and says truck. Good luck understanding him.

The two videos do also show pre- and post- haircuts!

Alexandria Fall Festival

Another fun activity this month was the Alexandria Fall Festival. It took place in a small city park but had lots of fun activities for kids.



Erik's favorite thing was the fire truck but he also had fun painting a pumpkin, riding a pony, and going on a hay wagon ride.

Brave baby boy riding a horse!

Facinated by the fire truck!

Playing peek-a-boo with Victor. Isn't he cute?