Dinosaur Obsession

Eric has been obsessed with dinosaurs for a few months now. That was sort of the theme for the end of this past week. On Thursday I took a photo of one of the dinosaur scenes he set up on the landing at the top of the stairs. It was a large dinosaur figure looking like it was chasing after some small dinosaur figures. Patrick said that he often sets up scenes like that one. Sometimes he mixes together his cars and dinosaurs. Sometimes they have "parties" together. This weekend I found them all (the cars and the dinosaurs) laying down as if someone toppled them over. I asked him if they were sleeping, and he said they were.

On Friday, we were talking about puzzles and Eric got excited to hear that we had a dinosaur puzzle that used to be Alex's. Alex got it out and helped him put it together. There was a piece missing, but Eric still had fun putting it together. I ended up taking a picture of him with his head positioned where the missing piece should be. He wasn't smiling for the picture, and when I mentioned that to him, he said that he "thought about smiling", but of course he didn't.

On Saturday, the local Hallmark shop was having their Ornament Preview weekend. I love Hallmark ornaments, so I took Natalie and Eric with me. We happened to also have Natalie's friend Maya with us for a short play date. Eric and I found a T. Rex ornament--we both couldn't believe it. This is the perfect ornament for him for this year because of this dinosaur obsession of his! We bought it, and I put it away when we got home. This morning, he asked if he could see the ornament. He played with it a few minutes. When I mentioned that we would take it out when it was Christmas time, he suddenly said, "I don't like the Elf." Oh my goodness--he still remembers the Elf on the Shelf and how he didn't want the Elf around to watch him!

Also on Saturday, we went to the toy store next to the Hallmark and there were dinosaur magnets, stencils, and even a dinosaur sticker book. There were also lots of dinosaur figures. I agreed to get him one thing. I know it's not his birthday or anything, but he is so passionate about dinosaurs that I couldn't help but want to get him something. After looking at the dinosaur figures for quite a bit (while still holding onto the magnets), he settled on the magnets. Now our refrigerator door is chock full of dinosaurs.

Today, after a trip to the Lifetime Fitness pool with the whole family, we stopped off at Target. They were having a backpack sale along with some other school supplies. They had the same dinosaur backpack that was shown in the Target ad in the paper, and Eric got excited when he saw it. He knows that he gets to use it for school and the whole idea of school excites him. The backpack will just show everyone else what this little boy is obsessed with. They'll ask him about it, and Eric will go on and on about dinosaurs. They'll all know right away that Eric is obsessed with dinosaurs.