August 2012

August was a LOOOOONG month for us, (partially because we had to wait until the near end for our ultrasound!) but we had many fun times, and were happy to have the weather break and cool down for parts of it, making it MUCH easier and nicer to play outside! I'm personally looking forward to fall and all the wonderful things it brings! Here are some things that happened in August:

* We were in Des Moines at the start of the month for our five year anniversary. Peter's parents spent the day with Eric so that he and I could go to lunch, do some shopping, see a movie, and go out to dinner. It was a really nice day spent not worrying about anything, and reminiscing about how much fun our wedding day was and how amazing and unpredictable the past five years have been.

* I took Eric to meet Clifford at the Sioux City Public Museum. I was worried about how he would handle the giant guy in a Clifford suit, but we talked about it before we went and he was excited. He kept saying "CLIFFORD! HUG!" All he could talk about was giving Clifford a hug. When we got to the event, there was story time first and it was all I could do to keep him from leaping from my arms to run over to Clifford and hug him. We got in line when the time came, and when it was his turn, he ran up to Clifford, stopped dead in his tracks, and just stared in awe. I bent over to ask him if he wanted to give Clifford a hug, he said "uh-huh, hug!" and ran over to hug him. I didn't get a very good picture, because I was trying to hurry for the sake of other parents...it was a long line. But it was really cute. :) The whole thing certainly went a lot better than when we went to see Santa last winter; that's for sure!!

* Peter and Eric have a new game called "FUMBLE!" in which Peter holds the football and Eric tackles him in some variation...either he just knocks him down, or he knocks the football out of his hand...or sometimes he just comes running full speed at Peter and they wrestle around on the floor. This is something Eric wants to play, pretty much immediately when Peter gets home from work. It's so, so, so much fun to watch how excited Eric gets when Peter comes through the door.

* Catherine came to visit and we had a lovely time with her. We were able to get lunch, go to the park to play, and go for ice cream before she had to head back to Omaha. Eric had a blast playing with her at the park and and even got out a "Vufv oo Ann Fafin!" (Love you, Aunt Catherine!)

* We finally made it to a couple of Sioux City Explorers games this month! We'd been meaning to all summer, but with the heat and lack of babysitters, we just hadn't made it. We took Eric to a game, and while he didn't want to sit still and actually watch the game, he still got a lot out of it. The park was small and empty enough that he could pretty much run around freely. We got to eat some baseball food, sit outside for a while on a cool night, and watch a little baseball. Eric had fun and the next day kept talking about the "bay-ba gam" we went to. A couple of nights later, we were able to go to a game with our friends Jake and Tova, sans baby and actually stay for the whole game, to Peter's delight! :-)

* Eric continues to make strides in the language and general communication department. It's been so fun to listen to him put phrases together using what vocabulary he has and can process at any given moment. It's a fun game, too, to try to figure out what the heck he's talking about sometimes! I also love how he's trying to figure out and piece together how language works. For instance, the other day, he bumped his head on the arm of the couch. He rubbed his head, said "Sorry, head!" and went back to playing. I'd explain to him that he doesn't need to apologize to his own body parts, but it was pretty cute, and I would have no idea where to begin explaining that. He'll figure it out. :-) He also has been doing some things such as closing his eyes and saying "Mama! DARK!" (Well, duh.) ...followed by walking around with his eyes closed ("ERIC! Open your eyes!!")

* Eric is learning about empathy and emotions, more generally. He's figured out that the feelings he has have names to identify them. If I ask him for a kiss and he won't give me one, if I pretend to cry, he comes RIGHT over and hugs me and makes sad sounds. But my favorite recent example of this has to be when we read a book we have called "Hug" by Jez Alborough. Eric LOVES this book and wants to read it all the time. Basically, there's a sad little monkey because all the other kids have their moms to give them hugs and he can't find his. Here's how the conversation goes: Eric -- "ooooh, CWYING!" Me -- "Why is he crying?" Eric -- "he sad!" Me -- "That's right. Why is he sad?" Eric -- "Want Mama HUG!" And he's so concerned about little Bobo that he won't let me change the page we're on until he's emphasized to his satisfaction that Bobo MUST FIND MAMA! I love this developmental stage!

* That said, he also has figured out that he can pretend to be feeling certain emotions. He's made a game out of coming up to me with a sad face and saying "I Saaaaad!" When I say, "NOOOO! YOU'RE HAPPY!" he starts giggling up a storm. Oh the fun times...I'm not at all surprised that he's good in the drama department.

* We ended our month with a trip to Des Moines to see family and friends. We've had three new babies born to friends of ours in the last month and we were so lucky to be able to go visit Cate Olson, Hazel Slocombe, and Myrah VanderSchel! Eric was pretty interested in the babies, but actually more interested in their car seat safety. "Car seat! Safe!" I'm so happy for all of our friends and their newest additions. Now we just have to wait for baby boy number two to come along! We got to go to Evan's 2nd birthday party and then also go to the zoo with him and his family on his actual birthday. Eric and Evan loved the train and going through the tunnel! In fact, Eric is STILL talking about the tunnel at the zoo almost a week later! While we were home, we had Peter's 10 year high school reunion, which went off without a hitch and seemed to be enjoyed by all. I know Peter had fun, because he was not ready to come home until 1:30AM! Thanks to Grandma Maggie and Grandpa Pete for babysitting Eric while we were out with old high school friends!

* The pregnancy has been soooo different this time around, over all. One thing that's stayed the same, though is that once I started feeling movement, I have felt it a lot! Just a couple of weeks ago, Peter was able to feel the baby for the first time! I'm still dealing with excess back and jaw pain, but it'll all be worth it! Our ultrasound was exciting, of course, as I've already talked about in my previous post, and we're just thrilled to have another little boy on the way!

Here are some pictures!