The Fashion Plate

Last week Erik tried on his beautiful handknit sweater from Bonnie. It's still a little big for him so he's going to wait a few months to put it in regular rotation.










He is experimenting to see if it doubles as an invisibility cloak. Nope. I can still see you and you still need to take your nap, Erik.

Here fishy fishy

Mmmm, Erik loves Northern. He's hoping his Grampa and Gramma Lindell bring him some yummy fish to eat when they come to visit next week.











Who needs rice cereal?

Morfar

Erik received a visit from his Morfar (my dad) this weekend. Morfar enjoyed watching Erik sit and stand. It doesn't sound very exciting but it really is fun! We went to Zelo, downtown Minneapolis for dinner Saturday night. It was pretty fancy but Erik did well. We took turns walking around with him and received compliments from a couple servers. One thought he was very well behaved and the other thought he was very cute. We think he's both.

We went to baby story time at the library Monday morning. It was super fun. The children's librarian is great. Very enthusiastic and goofy. Ok, kind of a dork, but in a good way, like me! I figure, if you aren't willing to embrace your inner goofball, why are you working with kids? Anyway, I just wish I had written down the names of the books we read. Oh well.

Ok, I've been trying for a while now to upload pictures, but am having a hard time. I'll have to try again later.

Sitting Up

That's right. Erik has been doing brief wobbly sitting for a couple weeks. I would sit behind him and catch him every few seconds. It wasn't that fun because I couldn't really interact with him much. Yesterday he cleared the hurdle. It's so fun because now I can sit in front of him and we can play. Please feel free to mute your computer if you find my narration as irritating as I do.



Last night we went to Dulono's for pizza and bluegrass. We met some friends of mine from before I met Joe. Some people I hadn't seen in a year and a half. Others I hadn't seen in three to five years! It was very fun. They took turns holding Erik so Joe and I could eat. Erik didn't seem to enjoy this as much as he used to. I'm hoping this is because it was getting close to his bedtime, and not because he's developing stranger anxiety.

Erik's sleeping took a sharp turn for the worse Thursday night. Suddenly, he didn't want to go to sleep on his own and he woke up for two night feedings. I was hoping it was a fluke but he did the exact same thing last night. sigh.

Teeth

Yes, that's right. Plural. Erik now has two little teeth poking up from his bottom gums. He loves gnawing on my knuckles. I rub my finger on his bottom gum and teeth sometimes. He loves this and also when I rub on the gums over his molars. I understand now why they call these "milk teeth". They are so cute. It's pretty hard to see them, since any time we open his mouth he puts his tongue over them. So no picture today.

I've gotten some positive feedback on the new sidebars. If you haven't linked to the other blogs, I would encourage you to try them out.

Hello strangers

Hey, it's been a while! Erik enjoyed a visit from Mormor Gayle Tuesday through Thursday. They were able to spend lots of quality time together as she babysat while I worked either out of the home or in the home. When I was at home, I felt like I was running around like a crazy person, doing things like laundry. I kept asking her, "Are you ok hanging out with Erik for ten more minutes so I can, ..." And she of course kept saying yes. Then my friend Beth called and invited me to go shopping. So I actually left the house and went to upscale shops and bought some nice pants that weren't from Target. It was pretty amazing.

Today was the baptism of Beth's daughter Alley. In honor of the special occasion we dressed Erik in a suit and tie. Just kidding. He did wear a button down shirt and an argyle sweater vest though. We saw another baby at church, and a toddler at the baptismal party wearing button down shirts and argyle sweater vests. It was just that kind of day, I guess.

The Firstborn

Well, it hit 55 yesterday so when we took Erik out for his walk, we bundled him up. A co-worker gave me these lovely Land's End mittens and hat. And that's Paavo's jacket with built in reflective tape. Fortunately for us, Erik doesn't mind hats. Before I saw the temperature, I felt a little bad that we had so many clothes on Erik. I thought we were being overprotective. But once I saw it was 55 degrees I was glad that we had his ears covered.

On our walk, we stopped by the home of our friend Lynn. She is the pastor who did our wedding ceremony. It was fun to see her and her daughter. Lynn told us about her trips to the Gulf Coast to minister to Katrina victims. She said it was the most powerful ministry she's ever done. Of course Joe was a little puzzled by that since he thought she said she'd made two trips to the golf course. I suppose golf ministry could be powerful as well.

I must admit we've had a few rough days and nights. Erik is getting another tooth, and we have stopped swaddling him. So he was having some trouble falling asleep. He seems to have turned a corner and is doing much better with that now. In fact, tonight he fell asleep so easily I had to go in and check that he was sleeping and hadn't smothered himself somehow. It was reassuring to remember that he had absolutely nothing in the crib with him.

Five years and counting

Yesterday was the five year anniversary of Joe and my first date. We met at 4:00 at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts on September 9th, 2001 to see the Degas exhibit. So yesterday we took Erik to commemorate. It was his first time in a museum. There was an exhibit of Calder, who is a surrealist sculptor, sort of. He made mobiles out of wire and steel. They are very cool and fun. I thought Erik would enjoy looking at them since they are sort of whimsical. He was very good at the museum, but he definately looked more at the people than at the art. That's fine. Here's a picture of Erik in the MIA stroller, and then one of him at home in his yellow romper.
Erik and I thank you for asking me out, Joe!

Life before Erik

When I lay Erik down for a nap, I have no way of knowing if he will sleep for a half hour, two hours, or something between. If I knew that he was going to sleep for two hours, I could get out the sewing machine and do some mending, go outside and water the plants, or do other tasks requiring a chunk of time. As it is, once he's down I pretty much plan on a half hour to get things done and any time after that is gravy. Today I laid him down around 4 or 4:15 and I started prepping dinner. He's been asleep for an hour and a half now, so I've been able to do a couple loads of laundry and get dinner in the oven. It's a wierd feeling to have so much time for chores, almost like I don't have a baby to tend. It reminds me of what my life was like before Erik, back when I could schedule errands and household tasks based on motivation vs. laziness rather than naps and feedings.

Memorial Weekend, Part II

On Sunday we drove to Great-Uncle Linn's cabin on Roy Lake. We barbequed with Linn, Great-Aunt Ona, and Great Grandma Vig. Ona gave Erik a book, "Jumbo, som dro ut i verden". It's a very fun book. We watched a lot of Food Network, since Joe & I don't get cable. It made us want to visit New Orleans! Sunday night we drove to Sisseton and spent the night at the home of Erik's Lindell Great Grandparents. They had just come back from Iowa, where they celebrated the 90th birthday of Mickey's brother. Grandma & Grampa Paul & Lois gave Erik some Thomas the Tank Engine slippers and some blue puppy Robeez. Very cute.

This weekend we let Erik take naps on big beds with pillows on either side of him. We rationalized this by telling ourselves that he rarely rolls over and when he does he only ever rolls once. Fortunately, he didn't prove us wrong until yesterday, when he was rolling safely on the floor. Erik is now a rolling menace. He rolled and rolled and rolled yesterday and hasn't stopped today!

He has this toy where he lies on the floor and there are two parallel arches above him with
dangling toys. A month ago those arches helped motivate him to roll. He would roll onto his side so he could mouth the bubble fabric on the arch. Today, however, he is trying to roll all the way and when he hits the arch he starts crying. It's a little funny, I must admit. I may have to put away this toy for a couple months until he can crawl under the arches.

Cool Dude

We had a good week last week. Nanny McJ came twice and did great. I have a tray with a whiteboard bottom that Nanny McJ writes comments on. I was nervous work day 1 because Erik has not been reliably taking a bottle. However, I called home at noon and he'd taken 4 oz great. She wrote on the whiteboard that the second bottle he seemed to want more. Work Day 2 I left three 6 oz bottles and he drank them all! Yay Erik! Even his slight fussiness at the new sensation of a tooth errupting did not seem to faze her.

We drove to North Dakota with my mom Friday. We stayed two nights at our farm by Wyndmere, ND. We saw Barb and Cindy Friday and Saturday. We had a pleasant surprise Friday night when Grampa's cousin Norris stopped by. He lives on the west coast and was in the area with his son. This weekend Erik discovered the many joys of Cool Whip. It's good he could learn about this at the farm, as neither of his parents are Cool Whip eaters so he's not likely to get any containers at home. One fun thing to do with Cool Whip is put it on your head. That was my favorite. Erik's favorite was a game: pick up the container and drop it on the floor. He quickly had me trained to pick up his toy for him. He's so bright.

That's our trip to No Dak in a nutshell. Tomorrow I will tell you about the trip to So Dak!