ECFE Party

On Saturday we had a party for Erik and his friend Thomas who turned one three days before Erik. It was very fun and we had a good turnout.

Here Erik and his friend Ben are playing with Thomas' toys while Cora looks on very seriously.


Erik is enjoying his cake. Mostly enjoying smashing it. I love that Thomas is reaching over to Erik. He can't eat frosting so I like to think that he was trying to get in on the sugary action. We were glad that they ate their cake outside on the deck as a good deal of it fell off their trays. After many of the guests had left, the let out their golden lab to eat up the cake on the floor of the deck.

The Neighbor Boys

One morning a week our neighbor Michelle watches Erik. He loves playing with her sons Jackson and Gavin.



Here the boys are enjoying birthday cupcakes.




Gavin laughs at Erik's fascination with the TV.



Jackson is teaching Erik how to play a board game.

We love that Erik gets this time with Jackson and Gavin. They are so thoughtful and caring of Erik. We're very lucky to have neighbors like this.

Happy First Birthday, Erik!

What a great birthday! Erik started things off well by sleeping well all night plus sleeping in this morning. He had fun with daddy and fun playing with the neighbor boys this morning. This afternoon he got an enormous package from Mormor and Morfar. It was five times bigger than he is. Papa came home early and we opened presents. We talked to Oldemor, Gary and Great-grampa, Mormor, Morfar, Grampa and Gramma. We went to Ben and Jerry's for our Free Cone Day ice cream cones and ran into lots of our friends. We love you so much, Erik. This has been an amazing year and you are just getting started.



This is what was in the enormous box. This is the chair that my grandparents gave me on my first birthday. Erik already has learned how fun it is to pile his stuffed animals in it, and to climb up on it and rock.



He's saying "hello" in this picture. You can probably see on his face why I rarely give him broccoli.

Snow Day

It snowed yesterday so I brought some inside for Erik to play with. It was perfect snowball snow, heavy and wet. He tried a taste, but found it a little too cold.

Erik's First Birthday Party - before

Although Erik's birthday won't be for a couple more weeks, we decided to take advatage of the family gathering together and celebrate Erik, too. In the last couple of weeks Erik has really started walking. He holds his hands up by his ears to keep his balance. Now that he has the confidence to walk several feet, he thinks he is Mister Independent. He is exploring things we don't even think he's noticed before. It is pretty hard to convince him that there are things he is not big enough to deal with, like outlets, or that don't benefit from being chewed on, like remote controls and cell phones.

The pictures show Lexi, Linn's granddaughter, showing Erik how to use his sleeping bag and rocking horse.