Friday, April 27, 2018

11 Months

We are only ONE month away from this little man’s first birthday!! I don’t even know how that is possible and will refrain from writing about it now such that I can maintain my composure for one more month. 


I was lucky to snap one quick picture before he grabbed the blocks and then promptly threw them over the side of the rocker.



This month we have seen more of Eric’s personality come out. He’s a pretty funny guy and has a few tricks he has been showing off.

The biggest influence this month has been Alexa. Most mornings, Olivia and Eric eat Cheerios before school with Alexa.  There is a heated debate at Casa Dean as to whether or not Alexa is his first word.  He will look/point to Alexa and yell “Ah! Ah!” and at school, he will look at the speakers and yell the same “Ah! Ah!” Olivia and I think “Ah” = Alexa so that is his first word. But Matt disagrees – he has some complicated standard based on percentage of syllables in the word that Eric is able to say. So, we haven’t quite settled the dispute yet, but regardless, this boy LOVES Alexa and constantly wants her to play music. Specifically, the Trolls soundtrack. It plays on a constant loop in our house.


Eric is also very interested in talking on the phone – this all started with this pink phone at school and then transitioned to him just putting his hand to his ear. He does this ALL. THE. TIME. It’s usually pretty cute but has led to some VERY long nursing sessions when she stops eating every 5 seconds to pretend to call me.


Other tricks include him yelling (AHHH!) while we pretend to be scared; playing peekaboo; blowing a kiss; and pointing/waving.  Here is a video of the yelling:

This month we took a trip to McGuire ranch where he was loved on and coddled as the littlest member of the crew!


I had to include some of the beautiful pics my friend Bethany took of the big kids!



 

And speaking of being loved on, the Williams sisters came to watch one of Olivia’s softball games this month and they were just putty in his hands. He basically refuses to feed himself if there is a willing participant who will do it – lucky for him, Minah Williams is just such a sucker. ;)


Before the heat of the summer sets in, we have been trying to enjoy the cooler weather and recently introduced E to the wonders of a slide (I'm obsessed with how he leans back on Olivia and throws his hands in the air, as if he's on some roller coaster!)

More than ever, this little guy is on the move. He is a quick little crawler, and eager to get explore.

Much to Matt’s dismay, one of his favorite activities is to destroy the contents of the cabinets while I make dinner. I view this as basically a necessary evil while I'm trying to get dinner on the table, but I think Matt (who is the master of the dishwasher) is less than thrilled with the extra loads.


Eric also isn’t a huge fan of the gate – he has tried on multiple occasions to sneak by just as we are closing it and if he knows Olivia is upstairs, he will stand at the bottom and yell for her.

And speaking of sister, he usually wants to be wherever she is, doing whatever she is doing.  A few weeks ago, I was giving her a quick bath in my bathroom before bed and little brother wanted to get in that bath and made sure I knew it!



Food wise, we are still hit or miss. Some days he will eat 3 quesadillas for dinner. Other nights he will pick at food and then have a handful of Cheerios. So, we continue to work on it.  One night mango was a big hit

Like his sister though, he is always up for a snack of cheese and crackers


We are wrapping up our daily lunch dates as he nears the one year mark and will likely transition to the next class soon.  Thankfully, he’s doing much better with bottles (which I have mixed feelings about) but I know its the best thing for him in the long run.

Personality-wise, Eric continues to be the happiest baby and just really loves people. He will wave at everyone we see, yell at someone if they aren’t paying attention to him, and if he is really interested in you – an awkward staring contest may occur. We went to Lupe Tortilla for dinner a few weeks ago and Eric became obsessed with the lady sitting at the table next to us. He would not stop staring at her and smiling. Matt turned his highchair completely around but he contorted his body such that he could still see her. So, pretty sure we made that dinner as awkward for her as possible…



I feel like a broken record, but this baby is just pure joy and we are all still so smitten with him.  After our recent Lupe Tortilla dinner, I was putting Olivia to bed and she was expressing that sometimes she feels jealous of Eric because when we go out, people are constantly coming up to us and commenting on how cute and happy he is.  But even as she carefully and gently expressed these feelings to me, she kept stopping herself with comments like "But I understand because he does make the cutest faces ever!"  So, even in moments of jealousy, you really can't help but love this little guy.

We are all looking forward to celebrating his one year birthday in a few weeks and as of right now, I'm pretty sure there are at least 3 celebrations planned for him!

Friday, April 20, 2018

Field Day 2018

We had our first Kinkaid Field Day today and it lived up to all the hype!  Basically since school started we have been hearing about how amazing and fun Field Day is.  I had 3 separate moms call me before hand to prepare me for the chaos and to make sure I had everything I needed for Olivia.  My boss (whose kids also attend Kinkaid) described as "the closest thing to Disney World without actually going."

All the students are divided into either Team Purple or Team Gold.  As luck would have it, our purple-lovin' girl got put on the Purple Team, which happened to win this year! 

A quick story for the memory book: One of my favorite things about Olivia is how she sees the best in people.  She is quick to give everyone the benefit of the doubt and her kind heart has often made me re-think my perspective on someone or a situation.  (Though I still maintain that the woman who hit me with her car while I was 8 months pregnant and then drove off is just a bad person and was not, as Olivia has suggested "maybe just in a hurry to pick up their child.")  I was able to see her thought-process first hand as she thought out loud the day teams were announced.  She got the in car and excitedly told me she had good news and bad news.  Good news - she was on Team Purple.  But then she told me there was also "horrible news" - Charlotte, her BFF, was on Gold.  She said "so now I have to root against my best friend!"  She then quickly checked herself and said "Well, I bet the PE teachers picked the teams.  And they don't really know that Charlotte and I are best friends. Because I'm usually with Max or Grant at PE.  So I bet they didn't even know!"  And just like that, within a few minutes, she had come up with a story that made sense to her and involved no malice or ill-will on the part of anyone else.  I just love this.  I hate to admit, but I think my first instinct would be to assume the worst and feel bad about it.  I am trying to adopt a more positive attitude and, in fact, my Olivia-inspired New Year's resolution was to give people the benefit of the doubt.  Probably one of my favorite parts about parenting (other than the snuggles and cuddles) are these moments when her natural instincts teach me a lesson or make me re-think my position.  I suspect those moments will be more and more as she gets older, and I'm so curious to see what other lessons she shows us.

Here are the members of Team Purple from Mrs. Hayden's class!

The events kicked off with the entire school marching onto the football field.  The Lower School kids all had Upper School buddies to walk with them and take care of them.  As you can imagine, our girl thought this was the coolest!

All the students then lined up on the football field and each grade took a turn competing in various events.  Kindergarten had a race down the field




After the race, she was so excited to see her daddy!


Her beloved Mrs. Hayden then released her to us and we were off to explore the carnival!

From the water-slide to carnival rides and games, to all the sugary sweets her heart desired, this little one and her friends ran around happily for hours until we dragged her away to ballet practice.  It was a great time and we can't wait for next year!





Friday, April 13, 2018

Spring Sing


Our sweet Olivia performed in her Spring Sing this morning and it was such a happy show that she was so excited about!  Their teacher taught them songs in different languages (Spanish, Arabic, etc) and they all did SO great!



Its been an insane week at our house with me having a trial (my first in about 8 years!) right when baby Eric gets sick with a high fever that he just couldn't kick.  Luckily Matt was in town and called in some grandparent pinch hitters to help us in a bind.

But we made it to Friday and we all went to the show and loved it!  Especially Eric who got to show off his latest tricks - waving and clapping!

Afterwards, Olivia had an early release day, so she and her friends were SUPER excited!



We were so proud of all these kiddos, but especially our girl!