Erich @ 20 months

Our little Erich is growing up to be a fine young boy. He now readily talks and we can carry on reasonably complex conversations with him. He has also started imitating things we do: for instance, his favorite thing to do at grandma/grandpa's is to sweep and swiffer the floors. It is always so funny to watch him handle a swiffer stick and go around the house pushing dust around cleaning everything!

Today, I was cutting up some boxes so that they would be easier to take to the recycling box... (er...not that we have recycling right now thanks to striking city workers, but that's beside the point). I had Erich help me take the cut pieces and put them into a giant box. He was studious taking on that task - placing each piece properly in the box and pushing them down gently. You could also see the pride he had in helping his daddy do chores. :-)

Sometimes he helps even when we'd prefer him not to. He helped unload the dishwasher today - taking and passing everything dish and plate in the washer to me as I put them away. I have never done dishes so quickly as I did not want him to hold any dish longer than necessary lest he drop and break it!

Erich also has begun to develop a keen sense of humour. The other day, he was eating some food when he decided he'd offer some to mommy and daddy.

Mommy? he asks.

Mommy said, Thanks Erich, but you can have it.

Daddy? he asks again.

Thanks Erich, but you can have it. Daddy responds.

With a great big smile on his face as if he knew he was about to crack a joke, he turned around and said:

TV? ... No! he exclaims as he knew the TV could not eat and then sticks the food in his mouth.

He's actually done this several times each time offering us something, then offering it to an inanimate object he knows cannot eat. Hilarious!

Finally, Erich has also grown in strength. We have taken him to the playground at Kits' Beach several times now where he has climbed onto monkey bars and swung from monkey bars to our utter amazement.