November 2012

December 2nd and I'm actually working on the November's post! Accomplishment!

November was fun! We did a lot of fun things in November, and Eric has just been a blast to watch as he learns a lot and his imagination and language expand!

* We were very excited at the election results, overall. It was our first time voting in South Dakota, so our votes didn't count for much, but it was still an exciting election season and Eric got to keep my "I voted" sticker. :-)

* We took a trip to Des Moines at the beginning of the month and it was really strange to know that it was our last trip to Des Moines as a family of three! I had a great girls' day out with Maggie while Peter, Eric, and Pete spent the day together. We also did some family/maternity/2 year photos with Andrea, and were able to attend the baptism of our good friends' little girl, Cate Olson! It was a great last weekend home for a long time!

* My friend Angie and her two girls, Leelia and Myrah came to visit for a weekend and we had a great time doing some shopping, eating out for lunch, and just playing together. Eric and Leelia seemed to really have a lot of fun, and it was great to see baby Myrah again!

* We had Thanksgiving here, just the three of us (and Bosley) and had a lot of fun cooking together and just spending the day at home. Our food was great, and I even made a pie for the first time! Peter made pumpkin pancakes with apple cider syrup (which Eric LOVED) for breakfast, we snacked a bunch, and had turkey and all the sides for our dinner! Eric enjoyed watching the parade and the dog show that was on afterward, too! He especially liked the marching bands...well, any of the musical/dancing parts.

* At the end of the month, my grandma and grandpa came for one last visit before heading south to Arizona for the winter. We got a couple of really fun days with "Grandma and Papa" before they had to leave (all too soon!)...They brought Eric's first birthday and Christmas presents for the season and he just loved them! It was so nice to see them and we'll miss them! We can't believe that the next time we see them, we'll have a little baby!

* Eric had his first dentist appointment this month. He was actually really good about it, considering his general hatred of all things that seem to be doctors' offices. It was just a "happy visit" as they call it, but he let the dentist look at his teeth and then was pretty good while I got my teeth cleaned. He did keep running away, though and eventually the receptionist just hung out with him while I was finishing up! I think it helped that I was able to talk to him about it beforehand. "Where are we going, Eric?" -- "DENTIST!" -- "What are you going to show him?" -- "TEEF!" (Points to his teeth...) He got a couple of stickers, and to play with new toys while we were there, so overall, it was a good visit!

* Peter's firm Christmas party was on the 30th, and we had a lot of fun getting out for the evening. Eric loves his new babysitter, Amanda and had a GREAT time with her while we were gone. We got a really nice electric blanket during the white elephant exchange, too! I was so tired by the end of it, though. As we're getting further into the third trimester, I'm finding that my energy levels are starting to diminish a bit. :-)

* Eric is just expanding his intellect and imagination by leaps and bounds. He's started to make up stories and scenarios, loves to play imaginary games (a favorite is to pretend to be asleep and be woken up by surprise...or for us to do the same), and is talking up a STORM! He loves to just tell us what he sees and we try to have him describe things as much as possible. He's speaking in closer to full sentences, and has just started getting the concepts of personal pronouns down..."MY shoes" as opposed to "Eric's shoes". He's pretty polite, and will often say "please" and "thank you" without being prompted. If one of us sneezes and no one says it fast enough, he'll say "BLESS YOU!", with almost a tone of disapproval that we'd be so rude as to not say it right away! He even says it to the dog when he sneezes! The other day at the store, we were blocked in by two carts and Eric said "EXCUSE ME!" really loudly. It was a little embarrassing, but at least he used the right words! We're constantly getting told by people that he's a really good talker, and we're really happy he's getting better at communicating with us. It's so great to see how he uses the vocabulary he has to try to get his messages across. I should probably just start a running blog post where I can list all the awesome things he says. As he's gotten better at communicating, we've also had some testing of boundaries and needing to use some preliminary discipline tactics. He now understands the difference between being a good cooperative boy and being naughty...not that this knowledge always makes a difference...but it's something.

* Much of November involved potty training time. We're less concerned with having Eric fully potty trained than we are with having the concepts at least introduced to him. He's a little young for it, probably, but he DOES get the idea. We've had multiple successes and I find that when we DON'T, it's usually because he's just too busy to go and sit there for a while to do it. I feel better knowing that he's at least started on the process. He really likes wearing his "unders", too. It'll just keep getting a little better, I imagine, and we'll take however long we need to. He really likes to just sit there and listen to music or read books while he sits there.

* As we head into the holiday season, Eric's really enjoying learning about Christmas traditions. We've started talking about Santa and he had a blast when we decorated for Christmas (Stories and pictures with next month's blog post). He loves the Frosty the Snowman show (we have it on DVD) and has started singing some Christmas songs. It's going to be a really fun to keep watching him learn and understand more about this time of the year!

* Here are some more random pictures from the month. Have a great holiday, everyone!