Eric's favorite things about Christmas

Eric had a lot of fun with Christmas this year. By far his 2 favorite things were putting ornaments on the tree and filling up his Santa's workshop. The workshop is like a countdown calendar, and there is one magnetized fabric piece for the 25 days of Christmas.



He adored putting ornaments on the tree. It was his absolute favorite thing to do. We put about 20 ornaments a day on the tree for a LONG time (I have a lot of ornaments). And then if we got any new ones, we immediately went home and put those on the tree. He filled all the lower branches, with 5 or 6 ornaments on each branch. I would come behind him and move some of those to the top. He loved to look at them all and lie down under the tree to glance up through the branches.

Reading and Adding

In case any of you didn't see over Christmas, Eric can add numbers 1-5 (ex 3 + 4, 2 + 5, etc). Robert taught him to do this by using the fingers on his two hands. He used his hands for the first couple of hours, and now he just pictures it in his head and counts it. It is pretty cool.

And, he read his first book on December 16. It was the first BOB book. It is pretty basic - Mat sat. Sam sat. Mat sat on Sam, etc. But I was pretty impressed. He has been showing signs that he was ready to read, so I just tried it out, and he read it all by himself. He wanted to try the next one right away, but then he floundered some. I think 1 book at a time is enough for him. I plan to get another one out this weekend and see how he does. Here are a couple of pictures of him reading.

Merry Christmas!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! I will try to do some updating later this week. Here is a family picture of us from Christmas Eve.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! Eric had a great time yesterday being with his Daddy. He knows his memory verse "Unto thee O God, do we give thanks". This first picture is part of the costume he would have worn if he hadn't been sick for his Gymboree program. The second is of him running through a pile of leaves today. He thought that was big fun.

Halloween

I know I am very overdue for a post. We have been sick for a couple of weeks. But, I wanted to tell you about our fun, fun Halloween. On the Thursday before Halloween, we went to Gymboree for their party. They did a good job, and Eric had lots of fun. This is the thing he still talks about the most from Halloween. On Saturday we did Trick or Treat St with Abbie. On Sunday night we did Boo at the Zoo with Daddy. On Halloween night we went to the Candy Factory. That is a huge thing one church around here was doing. Eric had a blast, and this is the second thing that he still talks a lot about. Then we went to Trunk or Treat at our church. Then we went to a carnival at the church where I exercise. Then we trick or treated at 2 of our neighbors. I feel like we definitely got good use out of his costume! And I loved spreading it out over multiple days. I like making the holidays last as long as possible. I also had fun making bat and jack-o-lantern pancakes for the 2 of us.

Yeah, he caught it!

Fishing for prizes at Gymboree

Eric and Abbie

He got so much candy at the zoo, that he could barely lift his pumpkin.

Daddy and Eric at the zoo.

Blasting off.

So excited about entering the candy factory.

Trunk or treating with Jackson.

To infinity and beyond

I thought you might like to see Eric's costume - which he LOVES! He wants to dress up in it every day. He is Buzz Lightyear from Toy Story for Halloween.

The pictures above and below are from our homeschool

this past Friday. The boys played trick or treat and got a treat for

every folder game that they did. They loved it. Eric loves

this new folder game I made of the pumpkin patch.

Here are the goggles I got to go with his costume. They light up.

He loves them and wears them even more often than the

costume.

Breakfast with Giraffes

What a blast! We went to the zoo today with Abbie, Tracie, and baby Aubrie for breakfast with the giraffes. Eric loved feeding them, although he was a little overwhelmed at first by their very long, sandpapery tongues.

Homeschool fun

Last Friday Eric and I started doing a combined homeschool with his friend Nate. We are covering transportation and safety right now. (ask Eric sometime about the traffic light safety poem) The boys are having lots of fun. Today was our 2nd day of this unit. Tammy (Nate's mom) had made the boys each a personalized apron. She is very creative. The boys made sugar cookies and decorated them with red or green sugar (stop and go). They also made their own grilled cheese sandwiches. Eric had a blast doing this! I got so many great pictures, but here are a few.

Pumpkin patch

We went to the pumpkin patch yesterday with Caleb and Shelby. Eric had a very good time. Here are just a few of the many pictures I took.

Isn't he adorable!

I love these sweet expressions of joy!

They all rode in these little tractors pulled behind a large tractor. That was big fun.




Robert and I both commented on how big he looked to us in this picture. Not a little baby anymore....

Breakfast with the Elephants

Eric's favorite animals at the zoo are the elephants. I love taking him to the breakfasts where he can interact with an animal. We went on Saturday with Tabitha and Aaron. Abbie was also there with her daddy. We got to pet their trunks and pat their heads. Eric really enjoyed that. He has been talking about it ever since. We also walked around and saw other animals at the zoo.

So busy!

We have had such a crazy busy week that I have not even had time to blog about any of it. Last Saturday we went to a block party at a church near our neighborhood. Eric had the best time!!!!!! There was a police helicopter there, which was the first thing that caught Eric's eye. He was allowed to climb in and play with all the knobs and adjustments. He would have stayed in it all day, but other children occasionally wanted to see it. He would get down and do something else, but then run back as soon as they left. I think I see a pilot in our future... We got to watch it take off, which was pretty amazing (and extremely windy).
Monday we had exercise and then went to lunch with Abbie, Tracie, and Aubrie.
Tuesday we went to the park with Caleb and Shelby. I got a picture of the kids at the end of the day, probably should have done it first, as they were all hot and tired by the time we were ready to go.
Wednesday we had another play day. There was a really neat tunnel at this park, and Eric got to learn about his echo. So, he and Michael practiced by yelling a lot. Notice how sweaty they are.
Thursday we had exercise again. Then we played with Nate. His mother and I did a few educational things with the kids. We are planning to start doing that once a week.
Friday I started work at Gymboree where I am teaching a music class. (Eric is of course my favorite student) He was thrilled to be going back to Gymboree again and loved playing all the instruments.
I am going to be a little more careful in my scheduling in the future. We were a little hectic this week.

Fun at the Fair

We went to the White County Fair last night with Robert's parents, his brother Tim, and his uncle Warren. Eric had a fabulous time! Rides, games, animals, what more could you ask for?

He loved the fishing game!

Eric milked a cow! By far the coolest thing he did at the fair.

His favorite thing to do was ride the ponies. He did that twice.

He loved riding all the rides.

His grandparents were showing him a cricket. His Nana was letting it crawl on her arm so he could see it. When it fell to the ground, he immediately began to chase it so he could stomp on it. I was so proud. :) Here he is with his "squished" cricket.

Observant boy

Eric frequently learns things on his own, through his own observations. He was marching around the kitchen yesterday when he caught a glimpse of his reflection in the shine on the dishwasher door. He looked at the reflection as he went by, then suddenly stopped and said, "Hey! That is the wrong leg." He was marching sideways and noticed that as he lifted his left leg, the reflection was lifting the right leg. He stood for several minutes in front of the dishwasher testing out this new discovery.

Also on a sweet note, he was looking at the blog last night, and he saw the picture of the three of us and said, "Look, it's my family." That is the first time he has said that, and I thought it was precious.

So Tired!

Eric woke up this morning at 5:45. His eye was bothering him. I don't know if it was itchy because of allergies or if he had an eyelash in it. We couldn't see anything, although it was a little red. We went to exercise and came home for lunch. After we ate, he was just sitting on the couch staring off into space. It was still an hour and a half to 2 hours before his normal nap time, but he looked tired, so I asked him if he was ready to go to bed. He said, "No, it is not nap time", and then he flipped onto his side. I thought he had thrown himself onto the couch because he was mad that I suggested he needed a nap, but I walked over to look, and he had fallen asleep. He was so very, very tired, but he did wake up about an hour and 45 minutes earlier than usual this morning.

Teaching again

I started teaching the 3 year olds at church again last night. (This is the same group I taught all last year in the 2s.) It is a class of all boys. There are 6 that come regularly. We have a fun new curriculum, and the boys had a great time. We are covering Gen 1 right now, and I got little magnifying glasses for the boys to use. Eric and I collected some leaves and rocks before class, and the boys LOVED looking through the magnifying glasses at the items. (Caleb is sitting on Eric's right, and Jackson is on the other side of Caleb. Jackson is another of Eric's friends.) Eric is the youngest one in the class.

A World of Wonder

Eric and I went to The Wonder Place today. Wow! What a neat place that is for little ones. Eric had a fabulous time. His favorite room to play in was the grocery store room. We played in there for at least an hour. He loved picking out food and letting me ring it up at the cash register. And then he loved working the cash register while I and some other children checked out from him. There was a water table, sand table, stage with costumes, puppet area, playhouse, kitchen, building area, art area. Then they had these tubes with air shooting through them. He could put little balls or scarves in them, and they would move through the tubes. He could flip a switch and change where they went. We had a great time and can't wait to go again.