Babbling

Now that Erik's ear infections have cleared up he's finally babbling more. Other people probably don't give it another thought, but it's music to my ears!

President's Day

Yesterday Alley's daycare was closed so she came over and hung out with me for 10 hours. I was a little nervous about having two kids for so long but it turned out ok. Alley is a fantastic napper and slept for two hours in the morning and an hour and a half in the afternoon. That helped. The other big help was that Erika came over with Brooke for a couple hours in the mid (non-napping) day. I think it was easier for two adults to watch three kids than for one adult to watch two kids. We put them in highchairs and they all ate lunch at the same time. It was pretty fun. The three ring circus kind.

Home Improvements

Here are the closet organizing tools that our Handy Friend Lloyd installed yesterday. I haven't really had a chance to reorganize the items in the closet yet, since Erik has been underfoot. I'm pretty excited. I think it will help us a lot.
It's kind of sunny but in this picture you can see a) the finished curtains b) my new hair and c) Erik's in 18 month clothes!

Sometimes I think that I should have called this blog My World or something. Then I could put in links that are unrelated to Erik, like this amazing video or a picture of the pharmacy with a light burned out so the sign reads HARMACY. Who would really get a prescription filled at a harm-acy? I wouldn't. Oh well. Next time I start a blog I'll make it all about me!

If Erik Had a Twin Sister

Erik got a taste of what it would be like to have a sister yesterday when I babysat Brooke for a couple hours. It was fun, they played and chatted. I spent a lot of my time trying to keep them from eating each other's Cheerios. I don't know why. In this picture I've set up an Erik feeding station on the couch and a Brooke station on the Learning Home.

Does she have some Cheerios over there?

Like Erik, Brook enjoyed looking out the picture window.

Erik joined Brooke at the window.
Probably because she had some Cheerios on the window sill.

Peek a boo!

Nine Month Pictures

My mom is visiting. She has disliked our kitchen curtains for the four years we have owned our house. Probably because they were so plain and didn't go with the walls. So this visit we went to Target to look for some new ones. The problem is that the ones at Target are much bigger than my windows, plus they cost $30 per panel. That seems like a lot of money to pay when we'll have to alter them anyway. So we went to Kohl's to see if they sell curtains. It turns out they just sell shower curtains. But as we walked through the kitchen section, we saw a lovely tablecloth that seemed to have the same green as my walls. We did some math and figured out that if we bought the biggest tablecloth it could be cut into four panels that would fit my kitchen windows. And the tablecloth was $30 on sale for $17! Way to go, Mom! The kitchen looks so nice now.




My mom went with me to Penny's yesterday for Erik's photo session. I wanted pictures of him in his beautiful lion sweater that he got for Christmas, but Erik was somewhat uncooperative. He didn't want to sit by himself and look at the stranger with the camera. He wanted to sit in my lap and chew on the camera. The photographer was very unenthusiastic about trying the tub shots we'd scheduled, given Erik's frustration level. I thought we should go for it and it turned out Erik loved being in his diaper in the tub. There were fun ducks and a fake bubble to play with. He didn't want to pose in his after bath hooded towel, though. The Smiles by Wire service is no longer available, so I can't post a link to the pictures. However, this photo of our proof printout should give you a little idea of the pictures we got. I think my favorite is of him looking over the side of the tub at the toys on the floor.

Shake it, baby

Here is a picture of Erik playing his new favorite game. He puts something in the can and then shakes it! Oh the noise! The raptures of joy! Could this be the baby who has a double ear infection and bronchiolitis? Oh wait, here he is...
This is how Erik spent the day before we found out he had more than just a cold. Sacked out. Thank goodness for modern pharmaceuticals.

Nice legs, Joe

More new tricks

This morning I offered Erik a rice cake which he spurned. I tried again, breaking it into a smaller piece. He took it and put it in my mouth! I ate it and gave him another which he fed to me again. So cute!

We were playing ball and he caught it so I said "give me five" and held out my hand. He gave me five and smiled. He did this a couple times.

I was folding some of Erik's laundry while he played in his house. When his fuzzy blanket that I swaddle him in for naps came out of the basket, I gave it to him to cuddle. He started pulling it over his face and we played peek a boo for a few minutes! This is the first time he's covered his face and been able to sort of initiate peek a boo, rather than pull the blanket of my or his face!

Yay!

First Kiss

Tuesday I tried to get Erik to kiss me when I said, "Give Mama a kiss". He thought it was very funny. Yesterday morning I said, "Give Mama a kiss" and before I could make a kissy mouth to show him, he kissed me! So all day long I said it and usually I needed to make a kissy mouth before he would turn and kiss me. It's so cute. Then today he had a runny nose so I didn't ask him to kiss me anymore!

Erik got a basketball hoop and balls last spring. He's enjoyed playing with the balls but really didn't get dropping the balls. Today I gave him one of his foamy tub letters (v) and he dropped it in the hoop! I clapped like a maniac and he did it about 20 times. It was so cool.

Erik also has a monkey who plays three bongo drums. He has long enjoyed hitting the balls down, but this week was the first time I've seen him put them back on the drum. It's so fun to see him picking up new skills.

That's the good news. Unfortunately, Erik seems to have choked on his own phlegm tonight in bed and had another first. His first throw up. Lucky for me, I was at the grocery store, so Joe rescued Erik, bathed him and called the nurse line. They seemed pretty sure it wasn't anything serious, just gross. So that's good. Erik was in good spirits and now has gone back to sleep (in the Pack n Play in our bedroom. All in all, a pretty exciting week!