There was a delay

A delay in posts that is. I should have kept posting anyways without pictures but I was lazy and hadnt uploaded pictures in a while. So things in our household just seem to get busier by the week. While some things lack I feel like we are keeping up just great.

January was good month. The first half of the month Lindsay still had off for his Christmas/Summer holiday. It was a transition to have him all the time but it was nice and it was a transition to have him go back. Around that time we came across a guy at church who was traveling here from the Utah doing some self employed work and play. We knew we could help him by letting him stay with us and so we got to know Scott and spend a week with him while he was here before he traveled farther south. Scott is the man behind Fullgive Leather . And honestly his work is awesome. I will be doing a post all about his work in the near future because we ordered some sweet bags from him after seeing his work up close and personal. We were the recipients of his belts and I love mine. Definitely check him out and be on the lookout for my upcoming post.

January was also hot hot hot, so we spent lots of time in the pool or inside when it was raining, because if it wasn't hot it was raining (well I guess it was still hot when it was raining, that is so WEIRD!) You get a little relief as the rain falls and the humidity spikes up and you just cant get dry, even indoors. Your sheets, the carpet, your clothes, never all the way dry. Both Scott and Later in February when our friend Matt came out to visit asked each day if they could put their clothes in the dryer before changing so they felt dry for a few minutes. So funny! But sadly true.

After our fun times eating vegemite for the first time while Scott was here, and introducing him to the infamous tim tam slams February rolled around. And you know what that means? A certain little boy turned a whopping 3 years old!!!! I know, I could hardly believe it as well. These years are going by far too quickly. He is your textbook three year old, learning to manipulate well, throwing more massive fits than I have seen from him yet, and imagination growing out of no where. Funny story....just a couple nights ago...he was using the couch as a jungle gym. Lindsay reminded him again that he was not to jump on the couch, Erik's reply...."no jumping just flying dad." Those are the times it is hard not to just bust up. So for every bit of bad and pull my hair out moment there is an equally joyful one. He loves to get a kiss and a hug before you leave him and gets upset if you try to leave without it. (melts me), and he is understanding that other people have feelings so one night I was pretending to cry because he and Lindsay hadnt brought me home food when they went out to get some. Erik's response to my crying was to turn out to Lindsay and say, "You naughty naughty Daddy," and actually start crying because he felt bad. Obviously I stopped at that point and explained that I was okay. And now we know that we must be careful of our little guy's sensitive heart.

Erik's little language is progressing and his accent is slowly getting more aussie. He by no means sounds aussie upon normal conversation but there are a few words here and there that definitely come out with the accent. When he says, "last night" and randomly one day without prompting he started saying" g'day mate." I am teaching him about heroes in the scripture and he loves Abinadi from the Book of Mormon. He says his name with the accent and it is adorable.

So Feb. started off with a little birthday celebration. I failed epically at picture taking. We decided not to do a big party with friends this year, I think we will save that for next year. We invited one other family over for a birthday breakfast. (I chose breakfast because as I was thinking of his favorite meal I could make...well pancakes are his favorite) So we did it on a saturday morning.

 Upon talking with Erik about what he would like to do for his birthday he told me he wanted a "blue" birthday and so that is what we did. A few decoration and the counters loaded up with a pancake buffet. All regular pancakes with fun toppings. I didnt do a birthday cake, we just added ice cream to his hot cakes, stuck in a candle and blew out the candle. It was fun and low key, perfect to not have to stress about but hopefully he still felt special.

This year in place of his traditional birthday crown I made him a superhero mask with the number 3 on it. I made it durable so he could add it to his small collection of dress up attire and he loved it! It was a proud mommy moment.

At the start of the new year along with all my other small improvements around the house I added these trays underneath our entertainment center. Originally I thought I would change them out every week or two with new material......I do change it but not as often as first planned, thats okay I am not needing to hold myself to any certain standards, and he still loves it all.

 These are all trays I came up with on my own from scouring the web for tot tray ideas. But if you are interested in more seriously do a google search. One of my favorite homeschool sites I like to check out is 1plus1plus1equals1.blogspot.com but there are loads of other sources as well. You can find them on google or pinterest!

 Practising fine motor skills to use tongs to move puff balls from bowl to tea light holders

 Matching chipboard letters to ones I traced onto paper.

Cut up an old photo of Lindsay and I, laminated it and it is now a puzzle. I have since added magnetic tape to the back and it is on the fridge. I plan on making more of these!

Twist the lid off the jar, get the rocks out and put the corresponding amount on the numeric number. Erik can't identify numerals yet so this was exposing them to him.

So that was a bit more about the first month and half of our 2012, exciting and fun!