Ha!

Christmas Cards

I have to tell you this little story. We put all our Christmas cards & pictures on the dining room wall using blue painter's tape. There are lots of babies on the wall and Erik will point to them and lean and then we go through them: this is your friend Abby, this is your friend James, etc. Erik isn't content to look, he also wants to rip them off the wall and eat them. I really don't have that big a problem with it, since it's the end of January, but Joe doesn't think we should let him destroy pictures. So I let Erik have one or two pictures of my friends kids that Joe wouldn't care if they got bent. So Erik loves the heck out of these pictures. He holds them, folds them, chews on them. They are the velveteen rabbit of Christmas cards.

Just dreamy

So for the last three nights, Erik has been sleeping through the night! And not the six hour definition of the sleep books, but from 7 pm to 7 am. This means I am experiencing something I haven't experienced in months...dreams! I am dreaming again. I guess when you wake up a lot, you never get into a deep enough sleep state to dream.

Erik and I had a very fun morning. First he slept in until 8. I fed him and drove with Kevin & his mom to a local mall that has a fun play center for kids. Kevin & Erik are just a bit young for it, we had to tail them to make sure they didn't get hurt. Then they sat in the mechanical vehicles and pushed buttons and turned the wheels. Joe pointed out I should have brought my camera so I could have posted a picture of them. I agree. Then we had lunch at Davanni's. Yummy calzones. Erik and Kevin were very well behaved and so Tara & I had a nice relaxing lunch. Since Erik missed his AM nap he's had a marathon PM nap. What a great day!

A Small Victory

Here's a picture of Erik in the beautiful and soft sweater that my co-worker Bonnie knit for Erik when he was born. Thanks Bonnie!

The last week we've been attempting to sleep train Erik so that he no longer wakes twice in the night to nurse. Sunday night was really hard. Erik was awake and alternating between crying and moaning for hours, even with Joe and me comforting him. Last night he made up for it. He was just a little fussy and Joe and I each went in once to lay Erik back down. However, there was no screaming and no nursing! He was in his crib from 7 pm to 7 am. Hooray! Let's hope he does it again tonight and tomorrow night and every night he's not sick or teething.

Some new stuff

One morning last week while Joe was gone I walked by Erik's room and heard a wheezing sound. I panicked a little bit afraid that Erik was having trouble breathing. When I walked in, I saw Erik standing at the side of his crib with this blue block in his mouth. It has holes at the top and bottom and Erik was sucking and blowing on it to make a sound. It was very funny and a big relief.

Last night Erik voluntarily put Cheerios in his mouth! and then ... he swallowed some of them! This is huge for him. Joe saw Erik balance momentarily while standing. Did I mention that he can play catch? Very fun.

Erik - the week in review

Last weekend Erik had a brand new experience. His grampa and gramma came and stay with him for three days while mama and papa went to New York City. The reports from Gramma and Grampa were universally favorable. He did a lot of playing and touching things. Also some sleeping. Mama and papa were happy and relaxed after a weekend of remember what it was like when they were DINKs. [This doesn't fall directly under the category of Erik's World, but just to give a little more info on our weekend, we saw the musicals Rent and The Drowsy Chaperone. We had delicious meals at Utsav and Le Pain Quotidien (the latter was the site of a Newsweek interview with Jerry Seinfeld recently). We also took in some public ice skating, public art and spent time in Brooklyn with Susan. A wonderful and fun weekend all around.]

We came back late Sunday, Erik's grandparents drove home Monday and Tuesday Erik broke out in hives! We called the nurseline, but since we were going in Wednesday morning they said to just wait. The doctor diagnosed the hives and gave him some Benedryl, which made the hives fade quite a bit. She said they were probably not caused by anything like a food or a chemical allergy. They were probably caused by a cold virus. So we did not go over to Brooke's house for lunch, but took it easy at home. By Thursday, the hives were much better and we did go to ECFE.

Today Erik's friend Soren came to play. Soren is about two weeks younger than Erik. They are both very proficient in the sound "aaaahh". They enjoyed the same toys, usually at the same time. They both loved chewing on toys the best.

An exciting day

When Erik woke up this morning we checked his mouth and yes, he has eight teeth. So we let him chew his first stogie. Ok, it's really a dipping stick to help him learn to feed himself. He really likes it. In fact, today he enjoyed chewing on it so much he was slightly less interested in dipping it in food. He does ok with a spoon though.

This afternoon I took Erik for his first haircut. The verdict? Scissors are tolerable...

...razors are not.

He actually did pretty well. He was calm enough afterwards that we were able to go shopping.
Later I treated him to a ride in the clothes basket.
So, all in all, a pretty good day.

Sunday Pictures

"Papa, this is the best bath EVER!"

Erik and his ghetto blaster are ready to terrorize the streets of St. Louis Park.

Erik is doing so many things now that I'm afraid that I will forget to tell you all about them. Hmm. Let's see. Oh, I think that on Friday I said that Erik is getting another tooth. Well, today Joe said he thinks Erik's getting TWO teeth. So we think that next weekend, Erik will have eight teeth. Yowzaa.

We went to Kevin's first birthday party yesterday. Very fun. Lots of babies. Kevin had this drum full of musical instruments he got for Christmas. All the babies had fun shaking the noisemakers and sucking on the drumsticks.

Here's a link to a super cute picture of Erik on a playdate with Alley and Brooke.

New Year's Eve

Emily shows Erik how to play with his new turtle

Erik tries his new inflatable sleeping bag for sleepovers at Gramma and Grampa's new house

Erik tries out his new walker car

Erik and family had a lovely weekend celebrating Christmas and New Year's in North Dakota. We had delicious ribs at Ona's in West Fargo with the whole crew: Great-Gramma Midge, Great Uncle Linn, Ona of course, Gramma and Grampa, Aunt Emily and her friend Dan, and Aunt Susan. That night we drove (very, very slowly) to Oakes and had our last visit to Gramma and Grampa's apartment. They will move into their lovely new house (which Santa already visited) at the end of the month. Hooray!