A little bigger everyday

It's so fun to see Erik in new situations as he gets older. Today I took him to a church playgroup and he played with the Little Tykes kitchen. No big deal, but it's the first time I've seen him do this. It was so cute at snack time when he and the other kids sat at the mini table and ate canned fruit with mini silverware.

After dinner we went to the St. Louis Park Splash Pad. This weekend I talked with my family about Erik's personality. We all agreed that he's an explorer when he's in a familiar environment. So it's interesting to me when I take him somewhere and he hangs back and observes for a while. He definitely held back and watched for a while at the splash pad. He became comfortable faster than he did the first time we went, and by the time we left he was playing with a little 18 month old we met there.

Sorry, no pictures today.

Take your grandson to work day

We drove over to my dad's office to disrupt the workday. Erik didn't get a free pass, we put him to work answering the phones while we went for coffee.



Dad's co-workers enjoyed seeing Erik in person since they'd been seeing life-sized pictures of him on the walls.

Fun in the sun

About a half mile from my parents' house is a municipal pool with a great preschooler area. There's a pool that's zero depth entry on one side, and gradually deepens to 18". It was only this empty because it was safety break for 10 mins. Erik was lukewarm about the pool. He walked in it with us, trying to lift his feet very, very high with each step to step over the water. What he really loved was ...

this totally rad splash pad. In the back you can see the rainbow shower area which was of no interest to him, or anyone else. The hot activity was this "Water Factory" as the girls in the far back left of the picture called it. Water sprayed from the fountain, was directed into three different troughs, each had foam levers to raise and let water flow or lower to dam the water. There were foam gears to spin the water wheels and one side had three basins that drained. Erik loved it, and the big kids ran around like maniacs, collecting water in buckets and dumping it back into the fountain. Eventually it started to rain and then a lifeguard spotted lightning so we left. But we'll be back. Oh yes.

Mormor og Morfar

When I came downstairs this morning, Erik was already having loads of fun on the patio with Mormor. In the background you can see the inflatable pool he splashes in and out of all day, and the jug holding the umbrella ("ella") which shades him.
Here he is climbing up the step stool so Mormor can show him Gulgutten En (Jon) and Gulgutten To (Erik).
Erik cranked the Italian sidewalk cafe music and he danced with Morfar and Mormor. You can see how warily he is watching to make sure that Cabbage Patch doll doesn't get any funny ideas about who is number one in Mormor's heart.

A Little Bit of Norway

We'll have more pictures to put on another time. Here are Joe and Erik in front of the King's Palace in Oslo. Erik has a handful of gravel in his hand. After this picture I told Joe to take out Erik's nuk for the picture since we think he looks cuter without it in his mouth. Erik took advantage of this by putting the gravel in his mouth. He didn't really care for that and ended up spitting up a little bit. Maybe not our best parenting moment.


We went down to the area behind Raadhuset, where there is a big open area for Erik to run around. There are also three fountains which he was drawn to like a toddler to danger. Despite the fact that for two weeks he screams when we try to put him in the bath, he would have climbed right into the fountain if I hadn't held onto him every moment. He had a great time and also enjoyed looking at enormous photos of animals that were just behind us in this picture.

We had a lovely time in Norway and Erik really enjoyed playing with all his relatives.

The sights of Sicily

Here's Erik and me by the world's third oldest tree. I thought more of the tree was in the picture when I selected it, but it took an hour for these pictures to load so I'm not changing it now! Interestingly, a park guard followed us around the whole time we were at the tree. At first I thought he was afraid we'd let Erik do some damage to the tree, but he was probably more afraid that we would do something.

Here's Etna, smoking a little.

This is one of the fantastic views from the Greek Theatre in Taormina.

Sicily

After a few days in Malta, acclimating to the time zone, we were off to Sicily to see my brother, Jon. 'Zio Paulo' put Erik to work sweeping the roof of his apartment.


On Sunday we drove up Mt. Etna and saw the sights. Erik saw the world's third oldest tree and ate cherries for the first (and so far, only) time. We went into Taormina and saw the view from the Greek Theater. Can you spot Zio Paulo walking around with Erik?



Later Erik got some quality time with Zio Paulo while mama and papa had a glass of proseco.


During dinner, the wind shifted to blow hot African air on us. It was unpleasant, but the next day was worse. The temperature reached 112 degrees! We barely left the apartment, and when we did, Erik cried and developed heat rash. Tuesday was a balmy 108, so we stayed in the apt again, until rolling blackouts killed Jon's air-conditioning and we went to a mall. Erik loved the kiddie rides. He got to drive a car and an airplane.

If anyone is thinking about visiting Jon while he's still in Sicily: go for it! The temperatures we had were unusual for this time of year. If you go in the fall or spring it will be great.

Malta

It's pretty cool that the first foreign country Erik ever visited was Malta! He had fun playing with the 11 month old sitting next to him on the plane. They each had a bassinet to sleep in which helped mama and papa get a little sleep. Erik slept a long time once we got to Malta (from 5 pm to 9 am, I think) and didn't really have jet lag. Our luggage didn't come for a couple days so that was a bummer. Joe and Erik had some fun in the bathtub while waiting for Erik's swimsuit to arrive.

Here they are riding the bus to Valetta. Valetta is the capital of Malta. It has a lot of fortifications because everybody and their brother has tried to invade them throughout history. Malta is the most bombed country in Europe because in WWII both sides wanted to control Malta as a gateway to Africa.

Once our luggage came, Erik got to swim in the pool. He loved it. Couldn't get enough. Which was funny because about a week before we left he started hating baths. (maybe you could tell in the bathtub picture above that Joe is having more fun than Erik)