Eric..

Eric, our loving, energetic, happy, sneaky, curly redheaded four year old.....No, it's not his birthday or anything...I just thought I'd take a moment to record a few memories of Eric-ness from the last month.  Eric has character...plain and simple..  Eric is quite our little adventurer lately.  First, to share is the fact that he and his good buddy Jordan our Pinecone warriors... They find, protect, and care for the pinecones at the local park.  Everytime we drive by the park (which is right by the school, so several times a day) Eric mentions..."mom, I think Jordan is at the park and we need to check on the pinecones..."  (and he is uber serious about it all!) So I just occaionally ask how the pinecones are and he'll tell me all about them..
     A couple weeks ago, while at Andrew's basketball practice at the Black Mountain Rec center, Eric pulled the fire alarm.  At first, I didn't know what was going on..I was helping Rachel write some sentences and Eric was running back and forth on the little track on the side of the court...(like I told him he could.)  Next thing I know I look up and the fire alarm is going off...my first thought was they were having a drill..(places do all the time, right?)  So, then I see Eric santering my way a little too slow and it hit me, so I asked..."did you do that?"  Yes...was his answer...I jump up and run to see where the alarm was, barely in his tippy toe reach on the wall..."here mom, that's where I pulled it"  (He was just being curious- seriously I've always thought about it myself, but I'm 36, he's four...)  I tried to put it back, but of course that didn't work.  So then there was the emptying of the building, and the waiting outside while the fire department and police showed up to do their go through (by law they have to do all this anytime the alarm sounds.)  I felt sooo bad as everyone was outside in the cold January night wondering what was going on., waiting for their practice to resume, or to get in to play raquetball, etc. We did tell those in charge that it was Eric...I was waiting to see if there was some fine I was going to have to pay...thankfully not.  In fact those in charge of the rec center kind of shrugged it off, like, it's okay, it happens..  I was thankful for that, but I did want Eric to learn some kind of lesson (as not to repeat this little adventure again, ) so I had a fire man talk to him for a moment. (as a side note, the fireman was surprised that it was Eric...didn't think he could reach it...but he did.)  All in all, I think Eric learned his lesson...and hopefully the black mountain rec center finally found their reset key...(see they had to shut the facility for the rest of the night since they couldn't locate it.)
    Eric is also our little cherub that doesn't like to stay in his bed at night...thankfully all the other kids (normally) go to bed and sleep fairly quickly...Eric on the other hand, doesn't like to lie still enough to fall asleep.  So, normally one of us has to lay by him for oh, 1-5 minutes, till he'll fall asleep...The other night when I went to lay down by him...this is the conversation... "mom, I don't want you to lay down here tonight...I'll go to sleep.." me- I know you will Eric, I'm just going to stay til you do...Eric - "okay mom, I'm asleep now, you can leave."  me - (trying not to laugh) "well, then I'm going to stay until you stop talking"  ERic - "mom, I don't want you tonight..I want dad."  Me - "I'm sure you do, not going to happen. Do you want to sing a song now?"  Eric - "okay mom, but I'm asleep now."  Me - sing song (all of 2 minutes)  Eric - ZZZZZZZZZ (finally asleep)

Okay, these are just a few snippets...seriously he keeps me hopping and I have to laugh (otherwise one might cry) Love you little man!