Help with Erik's Kindergarten December Activity

During December Erik’s class is having a Gingerbread Boy unit that his teacher has asked families and friends to help with. This is to be a fun surprise for the children so none of them know about this. They will be taking a gingerbread boy to the kitchen for baking and when they return to get him he will have escaped.

Your part is if you live outside of Utah would you send a postcard stating that you’ve seen the Gingerbread Boy running through your neighborhood, while you were at the mall or where ever you might be when you see him. You can also say that you know Erik (Example: I am Erik’s aunt/uncle/friend and I saw . . .)

Each time the class receives a postcard they “will mark it on their map and track where the Gingerbread Boy is and all the places he’s running through so we won’t eat him. It will be very exciting for the children to receive postcards at school as well as celebrate and make note of just where he is on any given day so the more postcards we receive, the better!”

If postcards are sent before they start in December the teacher will just save them for when they do start the unit, so no need to worry if you would like to help out but not wait until December to get the postcard off. So if you would like to help send me an email, call or ask the next time we talk and I will give you the mailing address for Erik’s school and his teacher’s name. Or leave me a comment on this post and I will give you a phone call. :)

Thanks everyone.

We hope you are having a wonderful Thanksgiving month. We wish you the best as we head into the Holidays and winter weather.

Winter Wonderland!

So who is up for fresh powder?

This was about 40 minutes ago and it is still coming down. We have enough snow now on the road that you could start in our backyard and ski on down our road.

Erik is exstatic and hopes it does this all year. He is still learning the difference between days, weeks, months & years, but maybe he really does mean all year. :) However it's great that we have a nice little hill in the backyard for him to sled on. So Mommy and Cameron get to stay nice and warm (and dry). While Erik has his fun sledding.

What a week. . .

Since last Monday (so it's really what a week and a half) we have just been busy with all the little things in life. Life has been good but it seems like a lot of everyday things just keep happening.

I'm going to skip over the whole bully at the bus stop issue. That seems to be better now. But that took up a lot of my thoughts last week. Luckily this is a very nice community and so there was plenty of support and things are looking up at the bus stop.

Saturday our ward primary had their practice for the Primary Sacrament Program, which was the next day. Erik practiced reading his scripture for the program and did a very nice job. For some reason learning the word "whatsoever" was much easier for him than learning "kingdom." We were so impressed with him getting ready on Saturday all by himself. I guess the part that was impressive is that after breakfast he just disappeared into his room. We figured he was playing and so just let him be. Spencer and I cleaned up the dishes and then out came Erik all ready for church. (Usually he protests and throws a fit about getting dressed for church or about going to church.)

He was disappointed and felt duped when he found out that we were just dropping him off and that the rest of the family was not wearing church clothes or going to church. He wasn't sure that he liked having 2 church days in a row either. But by the time we picked him up he was just fine with it all. Having a pizza party and feeding the children doughnuts sure helped him be happy, as he put it. He really likes his primary teacher and the primary in this ward. We are just thrilled with it. Erik is getting to the point that he looks forward to primary time each week and doesn't protest much at all. He comes home so happy after church that it makes our Sunday evenings so nice. Needless to say the primary program went great. Erik did well, as did the other children. We only had one burst of laughter when a little 3 year old sunbeam (that everyone in town knows because she is so social) got a hiccup in the middle of her line.

Erik had a good Monday at school. But Tuesday he woke up with a temperature of 102. So he's been home all this week. Their poor kid was so worried about not going to school that it finally dawned on me that he thought he was not going to get to ever go back to school. After figuring that out he felt better about school but keeps reminding me that he's missing out on learning and is going to be behind. He is so worried that he won't learn what he should and sad that he is missing out on all that goes on each day.

Luckily so far no one else in the family has gotten sick. Cameron is just busy eating, sleeping and keeping someone (usually Mommy, but Daddy also) moving about the house while holding him. The little stink likes to be on the move but is not mobile yet. So he works himself into quite a fit screaming and crying if he doesn't get to move around the house throughout the day. Needless to say not much gets done. We have started using the johnny jump-up and that helps for about 15 minutes.

Spencer after he gets home from work has been busy figuring out wiring for the garage and the lathe/phase converter. Erik last night got a lesson on reading an electrical diagram and how a switch works.

So Happy

We love having our own backyard.

It's so great to be able to let Erik just run and play without having us right there. It's also great to be able to run and play in the yard with him. We have enjoyed having the room. Erik loves playing chase, or race or any game that includes running.

I'm taking an online scrapbooking class to create a neat Thanksgiving Gratitude Memory Box. So I've been wanting to take a family photo for that project. So Sunday evening we went out in our yard and set up the tripod. We had a lot of fun just playing around in the backyard, watching the moon and just relaxing. I'm sure our neighbors thought we were crazy because Erik wanted us all to scream, but it was nice to know that the neighbors are at a distance where they may not have even been bothered. That's a nice feeling of freedom.

So here are a couple of our snapshots to give you upclose looks at how the boys are growing and changing.

Happy Halloween

Today we started our day with Spencer & Erik working in the garden.

Then after lunch they carved pumpkins.

Tonight was Cameron's first Halloween. He was pretty quiet for the trick-or-treating and even fell asleep in the stroller long before we got home. (Spencer is correcting me: Cameron fell asleep 14 minutes and 35 seconds before we arrived at home.)

Erik on the other hand enjoyed trick-or-treating this year. Just the other day he was telling me that he would go to every house in town (that would be more than 600 houses!). He was choosy about houses but went to quite a few (I lost count). He also thought that he was going to eat all of the candy tonight before bed. He was sad to find out that was not going to happen.

All in all it was a good Halloween and there's candy for all of November.

Small & Simple Joys of Boys

This last Sunday we sent Erik to get dressed for church. To our great surprise when he came out he was dressed and had tied his own shoes. We have only showed him a couple of times how to tie his shoes and found that both Spencer and I tie shoes differently. The poor child was confused. So we just left it for another day.

I have seen Erik work at tying his shoes, but he wanted to "do it himself!" All it ever produced was a long string of twists and knots that got bent over and knotted more. So I figured I would just let him be and sometime the moment would be right. Well he showed us. He came out of his room to show us that he was dressed and even tied his own shoes. We were so pleased that I think Erik beamed all the way to church that morning.

I can not believe how fast he is growing up. He no longer is my "little" boy.

As for my little boy, Cameron is starting to fill out. The boy loves food! I kind of worry that he over eats. As long as you keep handing him the spoon he keeps opening his mouth. When we stop he screams. Yet I would swear that his tummy has to be way beyond full with rice cereal & squash. He has figured out how to catch my hand and the spoon with both of his hands so that the food doesn't get away. If he were a little more coordinated I think he would be feeding himself.

Cameron, for him, is getting chubby. His little legs have filled right out and he no longer has long bird legs. His dimples are much more visible with his little cheeks getting plumper by the day. And the baby wants to eat every hour and a half.

I measured both boys the other day. Cameron is 24" and Erik is 4'. Cameron's hands and feet continue to grow longer with his body instead of him "growing into them". I've searched out the boxes in the garage so I can start boxing up the newborn and 3 month clothes and get out the 6-9 month clothes. We've only lived here a month and I'm starting to box up clothes for storage.

I'm ready to do the same for Erik. He has been in a size 6 but I've started buying size 8 clothes as he keeps growing so quickly. Size 6 still works in jeans as 8's are too long, but 6's are getting a little bit short. We had to buy him new Sunday shoes recently because he finally complained about his shoes hurting. I thought they were too small but he claimed they weren't until finally he couldn't stand it. So he's now in a boys size 1. I'm afraid it won't be but a couple more years and he will be as tall as me. He only has 1' 4" to go. Well see over the years how quickly they catch up to Daddy.

New & Exciting

Well Kindergarten gets more exciting. Erik came running up our street yesterday afternoon. That is no small feat. I literally mean up our street as we live at the top of a hill. He was so excited to show me what he brought home & I could not imagine what was in the box he was carrying. It was Kinderbear! So Erik had a sleepover buddy.

It was fun to see him that excited about Kindergarten. Then before bedtime he got to draw a picture of things he had done with Kinderbear and write a short report.

This morning it was time to box Kinderbear up in his house and send him back to school. It was cute to see all the boys at the bus stop gather round to see the bear. Then it was on the bus and off to Kindergarten for Erik & Kinderbear.

Cameron enjoys his stroller ride down to the bus stop. Mommy likes it because once Erik is on the bus it's quite time for me. Cameron falls asleep during the stroller ride. I use his car seat to go to the bus stop since the road has gravel and it makes the ride a little bumpy. But around the house since he wants to be sitting up (or standing) most of the time, I have started alternating the baby swing & the stroller for his chair.

Last night Spencer caught Cameron napping with one finger in his mouth & thought it was cute. Cameron loves to chew, and I mean chew, on his fingers. Usually it's either three of them or all of them at once. He can practically fit his whole hand into his mouth. He loves to bite! I keep watching for teeth since he does this and drools like no other. But none yet.