The Fintons

Concealed Dangers

Well, of course no news on my Prius yet. I said we had some slightly good news, and I get crushed with worse news. I need to be more Eeyore-ish. Maybe I won’t be disappointed.

Regardless, I am very grateful and in love with my family. Erik went and spent the day with Brandon’s mother today, and on the way home he recounted his entire day for us. He can actually tell you everything, and with detail as well. How much he has grown amazes me and Brandon and we enjoy being parents more and more everyday. It is truly rewarding. So I don’t want anyone to think with all the complaining about how much God hates me means that I am not grateful for how extremely lucky I have gotten with my little family. I am even overly attached to my dogs – a feat we never thought possible. They’re my kids, and I even miss them when I don’t see them all day. Ah. Weird, but good.

Another thing to be grateful for, today, however hard it’s been for me because of my need to do non-stop schoolwork, Brandon and I got to watch first hand Erik putting a puzzle together. Ok, I get that it doesn’t sound interesting, but watching him blows our mind. The level of comprehension this boy has is amazing. He isn’t good with counting, or learning things by singing, but his hand eye coordination and problem solving skills are…well…intense. We have been buying him progressively harder puzzles, and tonight we bought him a 60 piece that was for ages 4+. He had it put together in under 15 minutes with no help or persuasion. He had the major parts put together in under five, but the hard parts (with no distinct differences in the pieces) took him an few extra minutes. Brandon and I were watching him, and Erik was picking out combinations at around twice the speed we could. And he is 3. We truly enjoyed it. We are going to buy him a 100 piece one next. We know he can do it, just how long…

Sorry for the lack of aggression or playful banter that usually define my posts, but I’m exhausted and uncreative. It’s midterm week, and my mind is being put on a workout envious of zumba. And I wanted to share my story about Erik because of however uninteresting, I have it documented for myself. Yes, I admit this is my selfish post.

Deal.

Tags: Erik Milestones

Skiing

As I’m sure everyone knows that reads this blog, since pretty much everyone is on facebook, Erik has his first experience skiing yesterday.  He loved it, then hated it, then loved it.   We left on a high note so he wants to go back.

This seems to be everyone’s favorite picture from yesterday (thanks to my awesome photo taking skills and the amazing capabilities of Aperture).

Tags: Erik Milestones

This is how it’s supposed to be

Well, as life never lets me down, one of my classes is being taught by the devil.

Okay, maybe he’s not the devil, but he sure knows how to torture.  And he has these little beady eyes that make me think he is really evil deep down and enjoys seeing people fail.

Or maybe it’s just me.

As my blog is horribly uninteresting, and I think I’m pretty much the only one that reads it, I find it pretty easy to not hold back when talking about people who might stumble upon my blog.  I’m confident that I am safe here in my little bubble.  Safe is squishy.

Erik’s birthday is in 10 days.  He will be 3.  As mother’s go, I am a pretty sucky one, so I’m not so sure what we are doing for his birthday.  Or what we are getting him for that matter.  Maybe he would like a new computer.  Or maybe I would like one and I’m using his birthday as an excuse.  Heh.

Tags: Erik Milestones, Rambling, School

Yea yea I’m a parent

Not that this is something you generally post about, or would be interested in, or well any of that, but we think Erik is *mostly* potty trained.  Okay, I know this isn’t general blog reading material but damn it we have worked hard.  It’s been so slow going and we tried everything in the book.  Finally, he now has shed the diapers during the day with a few accidents in between.  Nothing like filling the land fill with 10 diapers a day, though.

So, go to Erik.  And to us.

Oh, and if you’re wondering what finally worked….well….it was getting his own bathroom.

Tags: Erik Milestones, Life

What a bad Mom I am

You think I would be better at updating this. If I didn’t hate iWeb so much, I probably would be better. At least that’s what I’m telling myself.

Erik is, well, Erik. I’ve noticed that in the past few months his facial features have drastically changed. I didn’t notice until I was looking through pictures tonight. He has definitely lost most of his baby look. I can’t believe how much he looks like a little man. We are quite proud of him, though.

He is still having trouble with his numbers, alphabet, and colors. He counts “2, 4, 6” most of the time. You can occasionally get him to say “1, 2” but the 2 is always followed by 4. He must hate the number 3. Poor number 3. Hopefully Erik remembers him soon. His alphabet is slow going as well. He knows parts of it, just not the whole thing. It’s cute when he tries to sing it though. Most of the time it comes out “A, E, P, D, T, C, W, R.” At least he knows what letters are. His colors are iffy as well. He knows red, green, and blue, sometimes. He’s actually not too bad with those colors, but the other, well…still slow going. Other than that, he catches on really quickly. He knows the names of, almost, everything. Anytime you’re out somewhere he can name off the animals he sees (he knows every animal…he loves them). He’s really good with names and his gross motor skills are very advanced. Just, the other basic stuff.
The potty training is still horrible as well. Maybe Brandon and I started too early. We don’t know anymore. I guess it’s just best to keep plugging along. He’ll get it someday….hopefully.

Tags: Erik Milestones, Website

WHOA!

I didn’t realize how long it’s been since I’ve updated!

Not much has gone on in the life of Erik. His vocabulary has gotten exponentially better. He can speak in sentences now. The cutest thing he says by far is the way he says “thank you.” Brandon and I have gotten him to say “no, thank you” now. It’s funny because he uses two different tones. He says no really low, then he says thank you really high. Haha, he’ll get the hang of it.

Erik started going to daycare. He only goes two days a week for a couple hours each day, but he loves it. It’s really good for him as well. I originally had a class to take this summer but then was able to drop it. The daycare was already paid for, and he needs the socialization so we kept him in it. He never wants to leave!! Whenever I go pick him up he cries. His teacher’s name is Alexis and he loves her.

The potty training is slow going. He fights with me when I try to do it. He constantly shouts no. *sigh* I’m going to try harder here, soon. I’m giving up on the waiting thing.

We have started going in the boat again and Erik loves it. The above picture is him in his new life jacket (yes it’s on backwards). He actually doesn’t mind his life jacket this year, so that’s a positive thing.

Tags: Boat, Erik Milestones, Erik Vocab

What are you doing?

Erik’s favorite saying is what are you doing? Or you’re so funny. If you ask him what he is doing, he’ll ask you again what are you doing? Kid is crazy, I swear.

He has developed a liking for fruit. To him fruit is candy. He has always liked it, but lately it’s 90% of what he wants to eat. He loves grapes, strawberries, and of course apples. He still will just bite into one and eat the whole thing. It amazes me. He’s so “funny.” Haha. He still likes his coaties best. For those of you that don’t know, that means cookies. He loves oreos. Who doesn’t?

Brandon has been trying to teach Erik how to ride his tricycle. He will sit on it and push with his feet on the ground, but won’t actually push the peddles. We’re doing it inside where there isn’t a lot of room though, so hopefully once it gets warmer we can go outside and practice. It will be nice when the lake isn’t frozen and we can teach him how to swim. If he likes it. Last year he hated anything to do with the water besides being on the boat. Hopefully that problem is gone now, since we live on the lake.

Tags: Erik Milestones, Erik Vocab

New teeth, new puppy…

Erik has been having a few bad nights the past week. He has been unhappy at night, but I really believe it’s because he’s getting his bottom molars in. The child is 100% a New Yorker as well because he hates the heat. To think he was born in Florida!

Erik still loves the swiffer and any type of broom or mop. He gets very upset when he can’t carry one of them around. He is very good at using the swiffer though after I sweep. He runs through the whole house for me! It’s great! He thinks it’s a fun game but it’s quite a help.

I think that is all on Erik news right now. We got another new puppy, his name is Drake. This dog is much smaller than our current dog. Actually about 1/10th Logan’s size, so Erik enjoys tormenting him when he can!

Tags: Dogs, Erik Milestones

He hates the swing, he likes the swing

Well, we took Erik over to the park when it first became warm out, and he screamed when we put him in the swing. Then Grandma and Grandpa Mannino put him the swing, and then he decided he loves it…again. Goodness.

Erik is officially walking like a champ now. Getting into everything possible of course but he rarely ever falls down. He is laying on my arm and watching me type at this very moment.

Oh and Erik got two of his molars in. The top first two. His bottom first two are coming in, and he didn’t have the best morning because of this. He’s a champ though and in a great mood after some tylenol.

Tags: Erik Milestones, Love

Not so much

Well, Erik did walk. Not so much again though. He took four to five steps that night, and well, that’s really been it so far. *sigh* Everyone just keeps telling us to wait, he will. He just has really bad balance still…but I think it might be because…

Erik has his very first ear infection. Not that we should be excited about this, but our poor boy is sick. We took him to his dr. this morning in Dickson City and he said that he had an ear infection in his right ear. He definitely isn’t the happiest boy right now, but is still being smiley Erik (most of the time).

Tags: Erik Dr., Erik Milestones