Well, this year has basically marked the end of Kent & I having a baby boy and the beginning of us having a BIG boy instead! Erik is now FOUR years old - wow! He is
very conscious of his new 4-year-old status; I will frequently hear him say "I can do that - I'm 4 now!" He is getting better at playing by himself and making up stories with his toys. He loves to make his cars & trains talk and I love to listen to his conversations with his toys - "Stop! You are going to fast. You have to go to jail. No, no, I wasn't going fast! Ha, you can't catch me!" Erik is happiest when he has a task or job; he insists upon helping Kent with any chores that need to be done in the garage or outside (such as cutting up tree limbs that have fallen) as well as helping me cook - provided it involves making cookies or desserts! I will frequently hear him instruct Elin on how to do things properly; she will sometimes go along with his suggestions, but she will be just as likely to either ignore him completely or come crying to me! Ah, the joys & pitfalls of having siblings!
Here are some of Erik's recent memorable phrases & favorite things:
1.
"Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't" - this has become Erik's catch-phrase or answer for almost anything! This phrase first began when Erik couldn't decide what shirt to wear and so Kent's response was "I guess you changed your mind. Sometimes you do & sometimes you don't." Erik took that statement to heart & has completely run with it!!
2.
"Both hands on the steering wheel, please" - Yep, Erik is an excellent backseat driver these days. He will tell us what color the lights are & if a stop sign is coming up (though sometimes he gets confused & wants us to stop at every light regardless of color).
3.
"Watching Elin is MY job" - as mentioned above, Erik likes to be in charge! He will frequently try to direct Elin's activities and will let her know if she is doing something wrong! He also likes to keep me informed of her activities - unless he has decided that whatever she is doing looks like more fun and then he joins in. This usually results in a very quiet house which means they are getting into trouble & I have to run & put a stop to it - their most frequent trouble activity is using crayons on the walls or throwing their toys all over the room ("we were playing fireworks, Mommy!")
4.
"Daddy, I'm trying to get situated!" - this one popped out while Kent & Erik were trying to get comfortable on the couch for story time. Erik kept wiggling around until Kent got frustrated & asked him what he was doing and this was Erik's response! I was in the kitchen & heard Kent laugh and tell Erik that 'situated' was a pretty big word for a 4-year-old and that he sounded just like Mommy! Ha, ha. I didn't realize that I used that word a lot, but I've clearly used it enough to rub off on Erik!!
5.
Videos!! Erik loves videos and would watch them all day if we would let him. He loves Thomas the Train, Doc McStuffins, Bible stories from Beginners Bible and sometimes, he will condescend to let Elin watch Curious George & Daniel Tiger, which he still secretly loves but must feel that they are a little young for him now!
6.
Diving for toys while swimming. He would rather swim down to pick up toys than to do anything else in the pool. He is getting really good at it and can almost swim down to the very bottom of our pool (9 feet) by himself.
7. Last, but not least, his
BIKE! He got a new bike with pedals & training wheels for his birthday and he is beyond thrilled. He is very proud of the fact that it has pedals and he will often drop that fact into random conversations! He wants to ride it
all the time, indoors or outdoors. We hope that he won't keep the training wheels for very long - he had a balance bike previously which is supposed to help reduce the dependency on training wheels. He does pretty good with controlling the bike and following directions; his main problem is that he gets completely preoccupied looking at his wheels turn (or the wheels on my bike) that he veers off course! On a side-note, I'm getting better at slamming on my brakes and coming to a complete stop at a moment's notice!!
As we did for Elin this year, Erik has several birthday parties or celebrations that took place over the course of several weeks. Since I don't plan to make month-long birthday celebrations a tradition for our kids, I sincerely hope that this year was an anomaly! I've included some pictures below of Erik over the past 4 years as well as his birthday celebrations that took place in July. Enjoy!
Photos of Erik through the years:
 |
| June 2015 |
 |
| Erik at 2 Days Old, August 1, 2011 |
 |
| Erik at 1 Year Old (August 2012) |
 |
| Erik at (almost) 2 Years Old (May 2013) |
 |
| Erik at 3 Years Old (July 2014) |
 |
| Erik at (almost) 4 Years Old (June 2015) |
Erik's first party on July 3. This one was held at the Cochran's home as part of our July 4th get-together. Erik shares his birthday with Adam Deininger and both boys had gifts to open to kick-off the July birthday month:
 |
| Erik telling Devin & Kieran about his trains (you can see he had already opened one gift related to Thomas the Train!) |
 |
| Erik showing me the cool stuff he had opened so far! |
Erik's second party on July 30 - his actual birthday. This party was our family supper party with cake & gifts. I've decided that even family parties deserve decorations, so I will hang up crepe paper, birthday banners & other party stuff to make it fun & festive!
 |
| Blowing out his candle |
 |
| More cars for his trains to pull! I love the look on his face here! |
 |
| Super excited! I think he had just opened a package with Troublesome Trucks inside!! |
 |
| Party goers! |
 |
| Opening gifts from Gramma & Grampa |
 |
| Yum. CAKE! |
 |
| Erik closing his eyes while Daddy brought out his big gift! |
 |
| His new Bike!! |
 |
| Outside photo with his new bike & helmet! |
Erik's third party on July 31 - this one was a family Friday night get-together & consisted primarily of singing & eating cake at the Zbaraschuk's house!
And, finally, the 4th birthday celebration for Erik: sitting in the birthday chair at Sabbath School on August 1! After this week, Erik graduates to the 4-year-old Sabbath School which is upstairs from our current Sabbath School rooms. Upstairs is where the big kids go to Sabbath School!!
