Erik had a very fun day today. He went for a long walk with Mormor, Morfar and Papa. Then he met some nice neighbors who live on either side of my parents.

This afternoon he got to play with some big kids. Troy and Carrilyn came by with their kids Kyra and Nate. Kyra told us all about Ariel (The Little Mermaid) and Nate played ball with Erik. We hadn't seen the Stoberts since our wedding so it was very fun to catch up with them.

After they left for their own date night, we went to Applebee's for dinner. Erik was so good! He sat in his highchair and played, then Joe and my mom fed him some sweet potatoes. Erik had a good time watching the servers walk around. Our visit is halfway done and we've had a great time so far. Maybe tomorrow we can go to the Botanical Gardens.

Pears Pears Pears

So Erik got to try an actual pear at Thanksgiving dinner...
and he frowned and gagged.


















Then at dessert we gave him his usual baby mush, but this time it was pears. And he couldn't contain his joy and excitement. He bounced up and down and leaned towards Joe as he went to spoon up more pears or, heavens, try to eat his own dessert.

A Perpetual Motion Machine

Erik woke at the crack of dawn today, so I'm blogging half awake but there are a couple new developments I want to let you all know about. Yesterday he pulled to stand on his own for the first time! He pulled up on my bent leg and got all the way up. It was very exciting. Then today I decided to check on the progress of his upper teeth and surprise! He has a brand new tooth poking out! His front left tooth finally broke through and the right tooth looks like it isn't very far behind.

I wanted to take a picture of Erik in one of his new onesies from Norway but I got about six that look like the one at the top of the page before I got this second one. He's always moving!

Take me riding in the car car

His Daddy's Voice




Tuckered out

Happy Birthday, Brady!

Someone get that boy a napkin. Erik had fun at his first ever birthday party. Some friends from ECFE were there. They alternated between sitting on the floor playing with Brady's toys, taking the toys away from each other, and being consoled in their parents' laps.
Except Alley, who is obviously going to be the next breakout model for Gymboree. By the way, it looks like her dad is about to step on her patent leather Mary Janes but he actually stepped over her and she maintained her cool and relaxed pose.

Now that he's seen what toys Kevin and Brady have, Erik came home and started working on his letter to Santa. First on his list is continued good reports about his buddy, Ellis. We tried to explain it's another bearded old man that is helping Ellis, but it got too theological for Erik and we just let it go.

Thanks to Dawn Rundman, Erik made it to his clinic visit for his flu booster shot. He weighed 22 pounds in his onsie, diaper and socks. This is up from 20 pounds, six ounces at his six month visit.

Happy Birthday, Morfar!

Erik had a good day today. He took a marathon one and a half hour nap before church, was an angel in church and at lunch at Yum!.

He had a rest at home and then we went back to church for our young parents Small Group. He hung out with the babysitter and let us be with the grownups. He saw his friend Liam who is about nine months and is crawling. Liam's mom Karen predicted Erik would be crawling in a week. Maybe he will start while he's visiting his besteforeldre in Chicago!


After small group we went over to the Rundmans to pick up some 12 month clothes. Tomorrow Erik gets his flu booster shot and I will find out what he weighs. I believe it was Dawn Rundman who pointed out Erik is on the cusp of many new things: crawling, teeth and pulling to stand. It's a very exciting time in Erik's World.

Erik enjoyed his quality time with his grandparents this weekend. It was too short of a visit for a bath or walk, but they had some nice cuddle time in church and at Yum!.

A visit to Kevin's house

We got to visit our friend Kevin again today. You may remember him from an earlier post. He and his parents had us over for a playdate and lunch today. Kevin will be one in six weeks and he is walking. Erik did not seem overly impressed, but his parents were. Part of us dreads Erik learning to crawl and walk, but we keep encouraging him anyway! Kevin had many fun toys including a walker. This was Erik's first time in a walker. At first he pushed himself backward but then he leaned a different way and he got himself forward, too. He seemed quite proud.

Seven months old

Today is Erik's seven month day. Here are his new milestones. For a couple weeks now he's been working on moving from sitting to all fours. He's pretty good at it. Today was the first day I saw him move from all fours to sitting. Very exciting. Also, he tried to pull himself up to a stand using something that wasn't me. He pulled on the completely full laundry basket. It was heavy enough that he was able to partially pull up. However, it wasn't tall enough for him to make it all the way up. He responds when I begin a familiar song or fingerplay like "Pat a Cake" or "Twinkle Twinkle". He's pretty vocal now, but he's still mostly making vowel sounds. Some consonants but I don't hear the fun "bababa" "dadada" babbling.

A friend from our ECFE class came over for an hour today to help me out. Someone else emailed me to say she was available Monday afternoon. This is the completely fabulous part of ECFE. Most people are there to meet other parents and they understand how challenging it can be sometimes.

As Erik scampered around on all fours I tried to get a picture of him doing his yoga moves, but as soon as he hears the camera turn on, he stops to turn and look at it. At least his hearing is good!

ow

Erik seemed more relaxed about my crutches today. He wasn't as sensitive, in general. On the other hand, my pectoral muscles are getting pretty sensitive from holding up my weight when I walk. It is mildly depressing how completely helpless I am. I couldn't get my own cereal, can't carry a bag and walk. Bleh. Oh well. It's just for a couple weeks.
Ok, gotta go. "The Office" is on.

down for the count

Well, to continue talking about me and my ankle. I took some Ibuprofen last night and then again this morning at 4. When I woke up at 7 my achilles tenden area hurt pretty bad. I thought that was odd since I'd taken drugs at 4 so I had Joe take me to urgent care at 8 when it opened. Here's something I learned:
Good reasons to go to urgent care - sprained ankle, toe fungus, bad cold
Bad reasons to go to urgent care - chest pain, can't breathe, cut yourself on a box cutter

After some epic wait time, I was seen by a nurse, doctor, x-ray technician, radiologist and some sort of fetch and carry tech person. The whole thing took two and a half hours and I came home with my ankle in an air cast and using crutches. I don't know if you've ever walked with crutches, but it's not that easy. So the question becomes, how do I care for Erik? This question is still largely unanswered. Today a bevy of friends came over and helped me. Erik was fairly puzzled and not in a good way. He was willing to have his diaper changed by kind women while I sat nearby, but he drew the line at these other women putting him down for a nap. He was having none of that. Oh, and I'm supposed to be on these crutches for two weeks. Two Weeks.

On a more positive note, here are some pictures of how far Joe is willing to go to entertain Erik:



before















after

Bizarro date

Well, I know the blog is supposed to be about Erik, but obviously I'm a large part of Erik's world so tonight the post is mostly about me. Joe's sister Emily and her friend Dan came over tonight and babysat. Basically, Erik slept and they stood watch which meant that Joe & I were able to have a date. We first tried to go bowling but leagues had the lanes until 9. So we stopped by the local yuppie bakery (are there still yuppies?) and grabbed a hot chocolate and a cookie. Then we went and walked around Lake Calhoun. I think it's three or four miles. It was a great time to chat and burn off some energy but by the end my feet hurt, as I didn't wear great walking shoes. We went to Barnes and Noble and read books for a half hour and then Joe was ready to go. He wasn't feeling that great - a headache and offended nostils from stepping in doggie doo. As we exited the store, I slipped on the curb and twisted my ankle. Bummer. Fortunately, we were a five minute drive from home. So I got home and my foot's up and I have an ice pack on it. But it's wierd because I used to sprain my ankle all the time in HS and college but this time it's almost like my body has gone into shock. I'm laying under two blankets shivering like crazy! The original plan was for me to drive Emily and Dan home since Joe had a headache, but I just couldn't. So he's doing that.

I had a couple funny pictures of Joe entertaining Erik to post but the camera is in the other room so I'll have to put them on tomorrow. Sorry no pictures.

Much thanks to Emily and Dan for babysitting.

Baby Storytime

We went to the library this morning for Storytime. We read, "Brown Bear Brown Bear", which we already have, "Here Come Poppy and Max", "Who's Peeking", an excellent book and my new favorite, "Funny Face" by Nicola Smee. We received photocopies of fingerplays from the book "Knock at the Door". I met two at home moms, one of whom is a speech pathologist! What a great morning.

Crunch Crunch

Erik and I hunkered down at home today. Joe went to the Vikings game and I didn't even try going to church. I didn't realize until tonight how mild it was, or I would have taken Erik for a walk. Now that he has been eating carrot mush and does not seem to be allergic to it, I decided to give him one to chew on as a teether. He enjoyed chewing on it, but eventually got his little teeth in there and was getting pieces off. So I put it in his safe mesh feeder, but he no longer was interested in chewing it. I think tomorrow I'm going to try putting the carrot in the freezer for extra teething relief.

My dad flew in today with some fun gifts. He and mom had been in Norway and brought Erik fun presents - clothes, books, a CD and some chocolate. Ok, the chocolate is for Joe & me. Erik had international book reading night tonight. He got to hear two books in Norwegian and one in French. It is very difficult for me to switch between Norsk and Francais but Erik didn't seem to mind. He really didn't even seem to notice I wasn't speaking English. He's very accepting of other cultures.

Oops

I almost forgot to post today! We drove around doing errands this morning. We did some car related things, bought shades for the back windows of the car and checked out the child care room at the gym I'm thinking about joining. I'm a little nervous about leaving Erik there, but I'm sure it's safe and fun.
Tomorrow I should have pictures of Erik with his Morfar.

Friends

We went to playgroup today. The babies are so interested in each other. They look, and pat and pull each other's hair and take each other's toys. Erik is much more vocal when he's around other babies, too. Today we met at Erika's house. I brought some board books along because Erika and I are trading books for a while. It was fun to have new books to read at bedtime. One of them moved Joe to tears.

If you didn't get enough of Erik as Yoda, check out Lea Severson's blog. Lea is a friend of Beth, who hosted the Halloween party. http://www.leaseverson.blogspot.com/ Lea has a fancy camera and she edits her pictures all arty and nice.

Let's Swing

Whee!

It was a balmy day here in Minnesota and we took advantage of that. We went for a walk with our friends Erika and Brooke. First we went to the park and hung out on the swings. Then we went back to our house and had lunch. It was fun to have another adult around for lunch conversation.

Erik did some fantastic sleeping the last 24 hours. He went to bed at 6:45 pm, ate at 5:30 am, and slept until 7:30. Then he napped for an hour and 20 mins this morning, and for just under 2 hrs this afternoon. I finally got the napping secret out of our babysitter. Obviously it works. He was still tired really early tonight. He barely made it to 6:45 when Joe came home from work. Let's hope he does a repeat of last night. I'm pretty tired. too. Joe and I stayed up past midnight watching election returns.

Carrots!

No, that's not a goatee, it's yummy carrots.

What is this strange and unfamiliar Election Day feeling? I'm not sure. I'll have to reflect on that for a while.

Some bad, some good

Today was a tough day. It started out well. Erik and I went to Baby Storytime at the library and stayed for an hour afterward for playtime. However, his naps continue to be a paltry 30 minutes, and he is not responding to my efforts to day sleep train him. He wakes up super cranky and tired but I haven't found anything that will get him back to sleep again. This afternoon he woke up wailing and I couldn't soothe or comfort him. I tried giving him Tylenol and taking him for a walk. He did calm down on the walk.

On the plus side, eating solids continues to go very well. He has now eaten sweet potatoes, peas, squash and carrots. He eats anything and has become fairly neat. Usually if he gets messy, it's the fault of the parent who is feeding him. At this point, eating solids is not for nutrients or calories, just for experience, and so far, it's been a pleasant experience for all of us.

A beautiful day

After church we had a picnic in the backyard and then took turns raking. Later, we met up with some friends from ECFE and went to the playground. Erik sat in the baby swing again. He was happy to swing, but not very fast, and he wanted dad in front where he could see him. He went down the gentle slide and was pretty happy with that.

Day Four of BloPoMo

Last weekend Joe's mom drove down to the Cities with Joe's Lindell grandparents. Mickey and Leona flew down to Arizona on Sunday for some warmer temperatures. It was very nice to see them. Erik and I didn't get a chance to say goodbye, since he had an extreme blowout moments before they had to leave, but we called them later and said goodbye over the phone.






It was warm enough today that Erik and I were able to go for a walk to the post office. He's very mellow in the stroller. I forgot to go by the park today. Monday Erik sat in the baby swing for a few minutes. He loved it. It will be fun when winter is over and daily walks start again. Erik will be big enough to really have fun in the baby swing.

We were invited to dinner tonight at the home of some new friends, Natalia and Chad. We met them in our birth class last winter and their daughter, Alexsandra, is just five days younger than Erik. Natalia is a food scientist, so dinner was fabulous. We had homemade bread, salmon in phylo dough, with pineapple upside down cake for dessert. It was fun to meet their neighbors as well. The three babies are old enough now that they really enjoy playing together. Erik was in Alexsandra's Exersaucer when baby Moddy came. She loved standing by the Saucer and playing with the toys. Erik kept reaching out to touch her hand. It was very sweet.
Natalia took pictures so I'll post them when she emails them to me.

Cheese!

Today I took in Erik for his six month photos. The photographer seemed quite taken with him and I can't blame her a bit. As usual, the hardest part was picking one picture. This proved impossible. Apparently, next week the pix will be available for viewing online. So I'll post a link and then everyone can tell me what they think I should have done. Won't that be fun? I showed Joe the "proofs" (they are actually just a computer printout on paper) and he loved the same two I did and picked the same one I did for the package. Whew. I did splurge on a couple of higher end things and some frames for them. Joe ordered one of these fancy 4 X 10s in June and still hasn't bought a frame for it. I figure, even if we could find a frame cheaper, it's worth the money just to have it and be able to display the pictures already!

Halloween photos

Ok, you've probably already seen these costumes on Alley's blog but here they are again!

The two loves of my life.

One of many shots of us trying to get a group shot of the kids. Alley is the hostess of the party. She's the weeping pumpkin. You may see that Erik's ears have slid over his face.

Brady, in an unusually somber moment, as an adorable dalmation.

Paavo, the nice lion, and his baby sister, the froglet, with their mother, Dawn.

Day One of NaBloPoMo

Thank goodness I remembered. I have a cold and am pretty out of it today. For example, I wanted some tea, so I filled the (metal) teapot and put it in the microwave. Ooops. Fortunately, Erik & I both survived the day, even if the microwave did not.

He is full of fun. All day long he reaches out his arms to me. He wants me to pull him to stand. He's pretty good now, all I have to do is provide something for him to pull against and he can pull himself up. He's shifting his weight from foot to foot and sometimes he moves his feet. Often it is away from where he wants to go, but oh well.

Tonight I noticed that when he's on his tummy (kind of rare now) he will get up on all fours and rock. Everyone asks me if he does that, I guess it comes before crawling. Now I can say he does!

Unfortunately, I can't post pix of Erik in his Halloween costume. Joe took the camera to Target on Monday to develop some photos and I don't know where the camera is anymore. Joe went to the Timberwolves home opener tonight so I can't ask him. Maybe tomorrow. In the meantime, you can click over to Alley's blog to see their pictures of Erik as Yoda.

NaBloPoMo

PEAS!!

Erik has been up to his usual shenanegans. He developed more stranger anxiety last week, as well as an intense need to always be within two inches of a parent. We are usually not allowed to put him down for any reason, and on those occasions where he deigns to sit and play, we'd better not leave his field of vision. Good thing he's so cute.

Wednesday was Joe and my third anniversary. Joe's former boss, Heather, came over and babysat. We went to a new (um, I don't know, is it a mall?) in Minneapolis called Midtown Global Market. About 20 local vendors have storefronts containing all kinds of foods and wares. We drank bubble tea, ate seafood, bought Japanese dessert, then ate some samosas and momo at a Nepalease restaurant. Very fun. Many thanks to Heather for making the evening possible. She was quite dazzled by Erik's sleep routine (lay him down in the crib) and warned us that any potential future children may not go to sleep as easily.

I will be participating in National Blog Posting Month in November. This means I will try to update this blog every day. There's more information at the website listed at the bottom of this post, however, the website does contain cursewords so read at your own risk.

Erik has a bath

Erik's First Meal

Welcome Svea

The highlight of our three hour delay at the Quad Cities Airport on Sunday was receiving a call from Jonathan Rundman saying that Dawn had given birth to their daughter Svea. The delay meant that we were not able to meet her on her actual birth day. However, I did get to see her on Monday and was able to pull the wool over her eyes, since she was born yesterday. Seeing her and talking with Dawn brought back many memories of six months ago when Erik was born. Now he's a great big 20 pound boy who had his first taste of rice cereal last night.

Homecoming Part II

Here's Erik at the Augustana - Wheaton game. Augustana won, much to the shock of a certain Cobber. Speaking of Cobbers, leave it to Joe to run into people he knows at MY homecoming! Mike and Sarah happened to be sitting in front of us at the game and we chatted with them. Mike has a one year appointment to the Religion Dept at Augie.

We went to St. Paul in Davenport for church Sunday and saw many old friends from my HS days and some friends from Youth Encounter days, as well! Afterwards, we went to the home of our friends the Heuvelmans.

Here is Erik with Jim Heuvelman's enormous teddy bear.




Our last stop before returning to the airport was at the home of our friends the MacDowells. It was fun to see their house and meet their adorable daughter, Aisling. She gave me a charming and exhaustive tour of the house (this is the closet where we keep the broom!) It looks like Jen and Zach's daughter Eleanor was completely done in by the amount of detail included in the tour.

Homecoming

Friday we checked into the Stoney Creek Inn, a lovely hotel with very rough towels. We had a family snuggle on the bed.


Swanie was the campus pastor while I was there. He passed away recently, and Augie named the Slough Path in his memory. Swanie loved to go for walks on campus. What did he call them? Ambles? Meanders? Oh yes, saunters. Let's meet for a Saturday morning saunter, he would say. At least, that's how I remember it.

More homecoming pictures and stories to come.

Marion

We left Thursday afternoon, flying to Rock Island IL to attend my 10 year college reunion. Joe racked up a bunch of gold stars this weekend. It started out by him packing for Erik. It continued by him shepherding us extremely competently through the process of taking an infant on his first plane ride. We gave Erik Tylenol 45 mins before takeoff. He slept through most of the flight, only waking when we landed.
We rented a car and drove to Marion IA to visit our friends the Nevens. Here the Neven girls, Grace, Ruth and Lydia, are enjoying a good book. Grace is becoming a proficient reader and was able to read to her sisters.






Can you see Erik, who has begun to sleep on his tummy? Perhaps this is the reason his 30 minute naps are inching up to 45 minutes.



Friday, on the drive back to Rock Island, we stopped at the Coralville Scheel's to visit David Revier, experienced Grampa. Erik's nap had been interrupted, however, and David had to use all his charms to win over Erik.

Hallo Norge!

Erik sends greetings to his grandparents who are in Norway. It was the same temperature in Oslo and in Minneapolis today. Of course, tomorrow it will drop 15 degrees and we'll have snow, while they will still be in the 50's. Oh well.




This is what the drying rack looks like after we wash Erik's toys.



















Here are some important instructions when playing with Erik

Cobber Erik

Erik and Papa at the Hamline Homecoming Game
The Final Score

Erik loves football

After the game at Old Chicago

Suzette and Tennyson, Joe and Erik, Liesl and Samuel

The Perfect Day

So last Sunday, Erik's nose started running. This is his second cold. Monday I was home with him and in spite of his cold, it was the perfect day. Most days, he's awake for about 1 1/2 to 2 hours then naps for 30 mins. Monday he was awake for about an hour then slept for 45 mins. Maybe more like when he was a newborn. Anyway, I loved it. He wasn't cranky but was really engaged and fun. We played and played all day. He just needed more sleep. It gave me more frequent and slightly longer breaks during the day which really helped me recharge and be able to focus on him when he was awake. Win-win.

As the cold progressed it did start to affect him more. He lost his voice which was very sad. It was really hard for me to watch him trying to cry and only a squeak came out. Nights became hard, too. The first couple nights, the cold mist humidifier in his room was able to keep him comfortable. The last couple nights even though he was just tired tired, he couldn't sleep in his crib. We tried putting him in his carseat, not really expecting it to work, but it was like magic!

The picture is from this weekend when Erik's grandparents are visiting. The sleepiness and need to sleep upright represents his reaction to having a cold this week. Fortunately, things are getting better and best of all, Erik has his voice back. I've never missed his crying more!