Eric is 11 months and 3 weeks old!

On May 1, Eric's left eye tooth popped through!

We have been working very hard to learn how to be gentle. Petting the dog and cat softly (not hitting), touching Moma's hair gently (not pulling), touching Dada's eyes gently (not gauging), etc. This week, Eric has started using one finger to touch things when I tell him "nice." He will go over to Bailey and grab his face, so I say, "Eric, can you pet your dog nice?" and most of the time Eric will stop grabbing Bailey's face and touch him with one finger! Hooray for progress!

Eric has started pointing at everything. He is more curious than ever about his environment. He is very observant and now dances when he hears music and laughs at the appropriate times while watching TV.


Happy Cinco de Mayo! Eric's favorite Disney character is Handy Manny the Handyman, here is his Handy Manny Cinco de Mayo shirt, it says "Sinko" de Mayo, lol!

Eric is 11 months and 2 weeks old!

This week is rough, we are teething and growing and dealing with allergies. Rubbing ears and general crankiness have become the norm. The doctor says he is too young for allergy medicine, but can use saline nose drops to help wash any pollen out of his nose and can take tylenol for the teething and growing pains.

There are times of laughter however, one is when he sneezes. Every time he sneezes he looks at me and giggles!

He has also started tickling our feet - I guess turnabout is fair play! He is pretty pleased with himself for finding our tickle spots.

He scrunches up his nose when he laughs really hard (also when he eats a big bite of food). And speaking of food, this week we tried pretzels and also some beans, he loves both!


"Sailing, sailing, over the bounding waves..." Let's go travel the world on the open sea! (doesn't it look like he is ready to go right this very minute? lol!)

Eric is 11 months and 1 week old!

This is a busy week! Along with working on getting those top eye teeth through his gums (the right one came through on the 17th), Eric is teaching himself new sounds including 't,' 'v,' and 'b.'

He is also facing his fears about the clapping Eeyore, the tickle me Elmo, and the singing crab toys he got for Christmas. He brings them to me and I explain how they work. He watches me turn the toy on and off. Then he watches me interact with the toy while he sits in my lap. Next he walks around the toy watching it very carefully. He brings the toy over to me and sits in my lap with the toy. He will now kiss the Eeyore and dance with the crab - Elmo is still a bit scary, but we are working on it. :)

The little dance thing he does with the crab toy is too cute, he bends his knees and then straightens them and bends and straightens - who taught him to dance like that?!? LOL!

This week he has really started to get the logistics down of climbing. He has tried to climb out of the bathtub, up the living room chair, and on my leg (as I am sitting on the floor) as a step up to the sofa! This climbing has also lent itself nicely to stepping up into the house from outside in the backyard. He holds onto the wall and steps right up! (April 19th) Stepping down was a different kind of challenge and took a bit longer to master, but he got it all figured out the very same day and can now go in and out the door like a pro!

Also this week he has really started to exert his wants. He will now do what I refer to as "temper tantrum feet" which is basically him stomping his feet when he can't have something he wants (where do they learn this stuff?) and becoming a "noodle" or complete dead weight when he is picked up and removed from the area.

This flurry of learning and activity led to him sleeping from 8:30pm to 6am on the 17th! This is the first time EVER that he has slept all the way through the night! Apparently it was a fluke because it hasn't happened again since.

This has been such a monumental week, I decided to do a mini scrapbook called "A Day in the Life of Eric" below are a few of the images that will be included in this scrapbook.


Morning Cheerios


The grill at school that he enjoys so much!


School is out, time to go home!


yeah, dada is home!


time for our after dinner walk


brush teeth and head for bead! (there are 5 whole teeth to brush in there now!)

Eric is 11 months old!

Since those top two teeth have popped through, eating has become a whole new wonderful experience. Eric will now hold a cheerio or fruit puff in his fingers vertically and bite it in half, then set the half down and start again with a new one, lol!


Bath time has recently become a lot more fun. Apparently the allure of the dog's water bowl finally transferred over to the bathtub. Until now, bath time consisted of Eric standing in the shallow water holding onto me (usually around my neck) while I bathed him as quickly as possible while singing to him as a distraction to keep the whining from setting in.


Suddenly, sitting down and splashing in the water is super fun and it's hard for me to get him out of the tub! :)


xylophones are much more fun to drag around the house than to play as a musical instrument!


after dragging that xylophone all over the house, i need a drink!


whoa, its bright out here, good thing i've got my shades!


I'm so cool with my shades!


check me out!


too cool for soccer or the dog!

Eric is 10 months and 3 weeks old!

I thought for sure we almost had either waving or high-5 with the way Eric has been holding his arm in the air, but it turns out, what this arm-in-the-air thing really means is, "tell me the name of this object please."

Also, this week, Eric has started to scrunch up his face to show when he doesn't like something. And he has started what I like to call "pre-running." It's not quite walking, but it isn't quite running either. Everyday when Scott arrives home from work, Eric "runs" over to hug him.

Eric is 10 months and 2 weeks old!

This is the fun Easter pic, the formal one will be next week. :)


On Thursday the 26th, his 4th tooth appeared! It looks like his eye teeth aren't far behind!


This is one of Eric's favorite toys at pre-learning school. This little grill has ketchup, mustard, spatula, fork, and plastic food. It makes grilling sounds and says things like, "Who wants a burger?" and "Put some corn on the grill!" Too cute!


This is NOT Eric, but this boy is playing with one of Eric's other favorite toys at pre-learning school. The gears are magnetic. One gear has a handle, turn the handle and you can see that one gear turns all the other gears!

Eric is 10 months and 1 week old!

We have been trying to each Eric how to wave as well as how to do high five. He will now put his arm straight up in the air if we both put our arms up first, lol. I'm not sure if this is waving or high five, but it's definately progress!


His top left tooth broke through today!!! Hooray!


We had perfect park weather today! Just look at that sky!


A very rare pic of the kid who never sleeps actually sleeping! I take him for a stroller ride and 10 minutes into the walk, he's asleep - go figure!

Eric is 10 months old!

This week at school Eric had lots of fun playing with gears. During the course of the two days he attends each week, he picked out 3 different games that all had gears associated with them. He is so curious to learn how his world works!


Happy Saint Paddy's Day!!!


Our gorgeous child's silhouette!


Eric likes to bang objects together!



Eric has learned how to open doors! We had to put latches on all the kitchen cabinets because he kept walking in there and pulling out all the pots and pans, lol!

Eric is 9 months and 3 weeks old!

Eric is having a tough time getting onto this new missing-hour-day-light-savings-schedule.

Eric will sometimes imitate actions or sounds Scott and I make. Although his understanding of words far outpaces his ability to use them, his babbling has turned to jabber and is starting to sound a little like real words, phrases, and sentences. Sometimes I swear I hear him saying, "Hi!" He definately thinks he's saying something, so we respond as if he really is!


Shopping spree!!!