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!

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!