February pictures

Here's Erik in his new hat Grampa gave him.




Erik is actually moving snow now when he shovels.

Erik's on Flickr

Al Franken put a picture of Erik on his Flickr site. (Flickr is a site where you can post lots of photos.)

Don't you think Joe and Al have very similar hair?

Muffin Man

Remember a few months ago I wrote that Erik was in the bath and said, "Water going down the drain"?

Since Christmas we've been on a big muffin kick. A couple times a week he helps me mix up (usually blueberry) muffins. We always sing "Do You Know the Muffin Man" (just like we always sing "Rub a Dub Dub" while washing his hair). So now he knows the muffin song pretty well and will sing it while playing on his own, but he can't say Drury Lane. During a bath, earlier this week, he was singing "Muffin Man" in the bath and said, "Do you know the Muffin Man who lives in the drain?"

Erik Endorses Al Franken

St Louis Park, MN --

Early Tuesday evening, Erik Lindell endorsed Al Franken in his run for the Democratic endorsement in Minnesota's US Senate race.

In related news, our precinct went Obama over Clinton 2:1, which seems to be consistent with the rest of MN. Also, on my way out of the bldg, I saw Congressman Ellison and shook his hand.

Toddler Prayer 102

One of Erik's little friends is spending a couple days in the hospital with RSV. Joe called to tell me this just as I was preparing Erik's lunch. So I decided instead of saying our usual "Hands Prayer" where we sing a song, we would do the kind of prayer where you make it up yourself. I asked Erik to fold his hands and to say "Dear God" (pause for Erik to repeat) "thank you" "for food." "Please make Claire feel better". He seemed to find this all very odd and I can't say he really participated by repeating, but he did listen. We did it again at dinner and it went a little better. It got me thinking all kinds of thoughts about what makes prayer prayer, does what Erik did "count", I wonder what does "count". But after a while my brain started to hurt so I just decided that it didn't matter what I understood about prayer, that God would take care of it.

Joe and I each had the experience today of asking Erik "Why?" and having him say "Because". This was a first for us.

Erik is really humming along learning pronouns. Yesterday he kept practicing saying "We are flying on a plane", emphasizing the "we". Today he tried saying "I am lying on the floor" instead of saying "Erik's lying on the floor".

Erik had a great time in Arizona this weekend, visiting his great-grandparents. On the car ride from the airport to their house he was practicing saying "Hi Great-Gramma. Hi Great-Grampa." He warmed up very quickly to them once we got there. I'm sure getting there at lunch time and being fed by them didn't hurt!

Toddler Twos

Erik is becoming more and more of a toddler. He will often answer questions "no" that he clearly means yes. For example, I'll ask if he wants water, he'll say no as he's reaching for the glass and immediately takes a drink.

He has definate opinions about with whom he wants to do things. Today, he wanted to play basketball with me, rock in his chair with Joe and only I was allowed to read certain books. If the other parent offers to do it, yowza, he lets us know what he wants. Sometimes it's flattering and sweet to be chosen, sometimes it's a relief not to be, often it doesn't matter one way or the other. He's pretty receptive still to us saying, "you can say, 'Papa do it, please'" and then he'll say it nicer.

He's also huge into throwing. Fortunately, so far it's mostly confined to balls and usually we're playing catch.

It's sooo helpful to remind myself that he's not becoming a bad tempered child, he's just going through a normal and necessary phase of asserting his independence. I just hope this continues to be helpful as we get deeper into the Twos!

He also has a great sense of humor. He loves to do things that make us laugh. He just learned to jump in place with his feet leaving the ground. Once he did it and fell on him bottom. I laughed and so he tried to fall every time. And if he says something that makes me laugh he'll keep saying it as long as I keep laughing.

Erik sings the alphabet

Here is a You Tube video of Erik singing his ABCs.



Erik spends much of his day singing the alphabet. Anytime he sees printed letters he will sing "ABCs" or say "E-R-K spells Erik".

Soup

Last week Joe picked up a can of Minestrone soup at Trader Joe's. He heated it up for lunch today and much to my delight, Erik loved it! He kept asking for more peas and beans (green and kidney). So I thought maybe I should look up a recipe, figuring it would have a lower sodium content. The TJ soup had about 800mg per serving, the recipe in my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook had 1100 mg per serving! So I went online and did a google search for low sodium Minestrone. I found some recipes but I also read that Progresso and Amy's brands have canned soup that has half or less than TJs. Lucky Erik gets more beans!

Also, Joe suggested that I could make the BH&G recipe with low sodium beef broth. We suspect that's the source of the high sodium. The recipe calls for three cans.

Awww

Well, our internet connection isn't letting me post pictures from Christmas so I thought I'd let you know some of the cute things Erik is saying now. Let's see...

I often ask him "Can Mama help you?" so he's started asking for help by saying "mama help you". However, he can't really pronounce the words so it ends up sounding like "mama hype yew". Very cute.

We were driving home and he wanted to kick off his boots. I thought I'd talked him into keeping them on but when we got home I turned around and saw he had bare feet! I said, "Erik, you don't have any shoes or socks!" and he laughed and said "Goofball!" Sometimes Joe & I call him a goofball when he's being silly.

I love that lately when he wakes up from naps, the way I know he's awake is because I hear him laughing. I peek in the room and ask who the gigglepuss is. That just makes him laugh more. So sometimes he now will laugh and say "Erik gigglepuss".

Frequently during the day, but especially if he sees writing somewhere he'll say, "E-R-K spells Erik".

Another church nerd in the making

Erik has developed a cold in the last few days. Sunday morning it really hit him full force and he's been napping a lot since then. Joe went to church and I stayed home with Erik while he napped. Then when he woke up we drove over to catch the last hymn and go to baby Sunday School, or Lambs, as we call it. About half an hour into Lambs, I decided Erik needed to go home and go back to bed. He was too tired to put up a fuss but after we put his coat on he plaintively requested, "more church please".

Snow!

Joe and Erik went outside this afternoon and played with the neighbor boys. As you can probably tell, Erik got very snowy. Even his eyelashes turned white. Erik enjoyed walking in the snow but if he fell he was pretty helpless to get up again. About a half hour after they came in, he was at the door , requesting "outside...snow".

Our first glimpse

Here's your first picture of Baby Lindell! Would you like to guess the gender?




It's a boy!
Yes, we had our ultrasound this morning. I was pretty nervous since I have friends who have had unexpected results during this procedure. Everything seemed to be fine. Nothing urgent enough to schedule an early visit with an OB anyway. The only surprise was that I went in thinking I was 19 weeks, 2 days into this pregnancy, and the baby measured a week or two bigger. The technician said there isn't that much variation in size until the third trimester so the measurements are fairly reliable. I just find it hard to believe I'm 20 weeks, 6 days! I guess this little guy will just come out when he's good and ready.

It was fun to get to see his profile. Erik didn't really cooperate with that and we weren't able to see his profile. The new little guy was much more active than I remember Erik being during the ultrasound. That makes me nervous as I think Erik is plenty active! Joe doesn't really think it's predictive though. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

We welcome any boy baby name ideas.

Softens your hands

When we can't afford the daycare, Michelle makes Erik pay in dishwashing.

No camera, no pictures

Well, I probably won't be posting too often for a while. Our digital camera broke so I can't put new pix up unless they are from my neighbor. Joe and I will have to get busy and shop for a new camera.

We had the neighbors over for dinner. It was fun, the three kids ran around from room to room playing with toys and needed minimal supervision. So the four adults could sit and talk and eat. It's really fun to see how comfortable Erik is with the boys. Joe and I took him to his room to change his diaper and when we came out they'd moved to the back room. Erik walked into the front room and called, "boys...boys" like a parent calling his kids home for dinner!

Trick or Treat

Erik is all dressed up and ready to go out into the neighborhood.
He's so intrigued by the little mittens you'd think he'd never worn them before. Maybe it's because his actual mittens have elastic at the wrist and are slightly harder to pull off.

One Year Later

You may recall that about a year ago (Dec 6) Erik was just starting to be interactive while reading books. Here's an update. The lighting is pretty bad. I was taping it myself while home alone with Erik and didn't notice how overexposed it was until later. I wasn't sure he'd do it all again, since he'd gone through it with me a couple times. So, just enjoy the home video quality.

Practice makes perfect

Erik and I practiced at home before Joe took him out Trick or Treating. He learned his lines pretty well.


He really enjoyed coloring on the package Joe received from Amazon. It's great that he's old enough now to play with random things. Today green seems to be his favorite color. Just like mama.

Choices

Erik is just starting to be able to make some simple decisions. Up til now, he mostly would repeat the last option we gave him (milk or water? -water). On Monday I was putting his shoes on him to go outside. I grabbed his white shoes. He started saying, "brown brown brown". Ok, we'll put the brown shoes on! Tuesday morning I asked if he wanted Cheerios or a banana, he paused a really long time, and then said "apples". It's great to see that he keeps ideas in his head that he can pull up on his own without me offering them. So this afternoon I asked him which costume he wanted to wear trick or treating tonight. He chose the pumpkin.
It worked out well, we went to Mac for lunch with Joe today. Erik was already wearing regular clothes and I didn't feel like changing him. So I put the firefighter costume on over his clothes and he really got to wear both costumes today.

At the Zoo

Last Saturday we took Erik to the Lincoln Park Zoo. He had a great time and loved it.
He's learning to say many animal names like giraffe...

and of course he's been saying "fish" for a long time.
Erik can also make many animal noises so when we told him what animal we were looking for he would make the appropriate noise. I think Joe was disappointed there were no elephants, and I was disappointed I didn't get around to buying an ice cream cone. But these were minor compared to the fun of taking Erik to see so many animals.

voting booths are now open

We can't go wrong this Halloween with two options as cute as these:
Option I: Our Little Pumpkin

Option II: Our Little Firefighter


voting booths will be open until Noon on Wednesday, October 31st.
Thank you

Do it yourself potty training

Last January I bought a seat to put on our toilet for when Erik is old enough to start trying. I wanted him to be very used to seeing it. It hung in the bathroom for months. Then this summer he became very interested in Mama and Papa's use of the toilet so we started having him sit fully clothed on his seat. Then he would tear of one square of toilet paper, throw it in, flush and wash his hands. He loves doing this. A couple weeks ago we had Erik sit naked on the seat while he was waiting for the bath to fill. This worked well because he was super excited about the bath, so sitting on the potty didn't bother him, and well, you know what listening to running water does to a person.


Thursday afternoon Erik was playing when he looked at me and said, "poopy" and pointed to himself. I asked if he wanted to sit on the potty and he beamed and ran to the bathroom. I took his pants down and sat him on his seat. Imagine my surprise when he, uh, well, peed and pooped in the potty! Since then he will ask to sit on the potty a couple times a day. Sometimes something happens and sometimes nothing happens.

It's pretty cool. He's so proud of himself.

Whatever happened to September?

Well, here's the thing. For those of you who don't already know, we're expecting in April. So if Erik's sleeping, I'm sleeping too. I sleep a completely ridiculous amount of time. I'll be glad when this first trimester exhaustion is over. So, despite many adorable things happening in September, it's completely gone from Erik's blog. Oh well.

And may I suggest that you sign up for Google Reader or an RSS feed to your email, if you don't already do this. In Google Reader, you create a Google account. Then you can set up Google reader with the blogs you read. Everytime you log into Google, it will update you on your blogs. So then you don't have to check them all everyday, it will let you know if there's anything new. That's what Joe & I do. For the RSS feed, I guess it sends you an email with a link to new posts. Joe thinks this would be the best option for anyone who considers themselves not so tech savvy.

I hope to see more of you all in October!

Barnehage

Today was Erik's first day of Barnehage. We had signed up for a Birth to Two-year-old parent and child class, but it was canceled due to only five kids enrolled. So we checked out the class for two year olds. The biggest drawback is that it's during Erik's regular naptime. I haven't decided for sure if we'll join the class. I hate to think of him as fussy every Monday morning as he was today.

We showed up, had some free play time before circletime started. At circle time we sang a hello song and "Head Shoulders Knees and Toes" in Norwegian. Then we went down to the gym to run around. The theme for the month is free time activities. So the instructor, who chose the unfortunate name Huldra, had the kids run back and forth doing different actions (hop, crawl, kick) while labeling them in Norwegian. Erik lost it at this time. He went to the door and cried that he wanted to leave. I sat by him and persuaded him to stay by letting him know next would be snack - juice and bread. So we went back upstairs and he drank apple juice and ate bread with brunost. We left then. I decided not to stay for the final half hour of art.

Changes

One big change in Erik the past weeks has been his teeth. He cut four upper teeth last week and is cutting two more lower teeth this week.

This is very hard for me to believe, but Erik is also saying a new word (or two) pretty much every day. Today's word was "pizza". Our good friend/real estate agent Brent Johnson had a gathering for his friends/clients. I told Erik we were going to get pizza and every time I said "pizza" he said "pi-a". It was very fun. At the pizza place/movie theater they had huge blow up black and white stills from movies. One was from "Alice in Wonderland". It showed Alice, the Cheshire cat, and the rabbit holding a big watch. Erik liked this poster and I named the animals for him and said there was a clock. When I said clock, he started clicking his tongue. He's been doing this lately and I wasn't sure what, if anything, it meant. There's a book we read about sounds and I always click my tongue for the clock. I didn't put two and two together until tonight, because he's never done this while reading the book.

This summer Erik has been very interested in pushing his stroller and somewhat frustrated that he can't reach the handle. Today I got him a Graco doll stroller - free! He was quite taken with it and we put various dolls and stuffed animals in it and he pushed them around going, "wee! wee!" He got a little upset when he couldn't climb into it himself but was easily distracted.

Erik's in a very fun stage right now.

The clothes make the boy

Erik was experimenting this morning. He thought he might dress up for the BBQ/baby shower we're hosting this evening.


Erik has been up to some fun new tricks this week. On Saturday, while Joe's parents were here, Erik said, "Grampa", clear as day. Then Monday he said, "cheetah" and Tuesday he said, "oval". Not the most useful words in daily communication but it's fun to hear him imitating so many words. He was at our neighbor's house on Monday and she said he put his head down and did a somersault out of the blue. Then, when they were outside he saw Gavin's scooter laying on the ground. Michelle said Erik picked it up, put one foot on it and started scooting! Wow!

What a face!

A little bigger everyday

It's so fun to see Erik in new situations as he gets older. Today I took him to a church playgroup and he played with the Little Tykes kitchen. No big deal, but it's the first time I've seen him do this. It was so cute at snack time when he and the other kids sat at the mini table and ate canned fruit with mini silverware.

After dinner we went to the St. Louis Park Splash Pad. This weekend I talked with my family about Erik's personality. We all agreed that he's an explorer when he's in a familiar environment. So it's interesting to me when I take him somewhere and he hangs back and observes for a while. He definitely held back and watched for a while at the splash pad. He became comfortable faster than he did the first time we went, and by the time we left he was playing with a little 18 month old we met there.

Sorry, no pictures today.

Take your grandson to work day

We drove over to my dad's office to disrupt the workday. Erik didn't get a free pass, we put him to work answering the phones while we went for coffee.



Dad's co-workers enjoyed seeing Erik in person since they'd been seeing life-sized pictures of him on the walls.

Fun in the sun

About a half mile from my parents' house is a municipal pool with a great preschooler area. There's a pool that's zero depth entry on one side, and gradually deepens to 18". It was only this empty because it was safety break for 10 mins. Erik was lukewarm about the pool. He walked in it with us, trying to lift his feet very, very high with each step to step over the water. What he really loved was ...

this totally rad splash pad. In the back you can see the rainbow shower area which was of no interest to him, or anyone else. The hot activity was this "Water Factory" as the girls in the far back left of the picture called it. Water sprayed from the fountain, was directed into three different troughs, each had foam levers to raise and let water flow or lower to dam the water. There were foam gears to spin the water wheels and one side had three basins that drained. Erik loved it, and the big kids ran around like maniacs, collecting water in buckets and dumping it back into the fountain. Eventually it started to rain and then a lifeguard spotted lightning so we left. But we'll be back. Oh yes.

Mormor og Morfar

When I came downstairs this morning, Erik was already having loads of fun on the patio with Mormor. In the background you can see the inflatable pool he splashes in and out of all day, and the jug holding the umbrella ("ella") which shades him.
Here he is climbing up the step stool so Mormor can show him Gulgutten En (Jon) and Gulgutten To (Erik).
Erik cranked the Italian sidewalk cafe music and he danced with Morfar and Mormor. You can see how warily he is watching to make sure that Cabbage Patch doll doesn't get any funny ideas about who is number one in Mormor's heart.

A Little Bit of Norway

We'll have more pictures to put on another time. Here are Joe and Erik in front of the King's Palace in Oslo. Erik has a handful of gravel in his hand. After this picture I told Joe to take out Erik's nuk for the picture since we think he looks cuter without it in his mouth. Erik took advantage of this by putting the gravel in his mouth. He didn't really care for that and ended up spitting up a little bit. Maybe not our best parenting moment.


We went down to the area behind Raadhuset, where there is a big open area for Erik to run around. There are also three fountains which he was drawn to like a toddler to danger. Despite the fact that for two weeks he screams when we try to put him in the bath, he would have climbed right into the fountain if I hadn't held onto him every moment. He had a great time and also enjoyed looking at enormous photos of animals that were just behind us in this picture.

We had a lovely time in Norway and Erik really enjoyed playing with all his relatives.

The sights of Sicily

Here's Erik and me by the world's third oldest tree. I thought more of the tree was in the picture when I selected it, but it took an hour for these pictures to load so I'm not changing it now! Interestingly, a park guard followed us around the whole time we were at the tree. At first I thought he was afraid we'd let Erik do some damage to the tree, but he was probably more afraid that we would do something.

Here's Etna, smoking a little.

This is one of the fantastic views from the Greek Theatre in Taormina.

Sicily

After a few days in Malta, acclimating to the time zone, we were off to Sicily to see my brother, Jon. 'Zio Paulo' put Erik to work sweeping the roof of his apartment.


On Sunday we drove up Mt. Etna and saw the sights. Erik saw the world's third oldest tree and ate cherries for the first (and so far, only) time. We went into Taormina and saw the view from the Greek Theater. Can you spot Zio Paulo walking around with Erik?



Later Erik got some quality time with Zio Paulo while mama and papa had a glass of proseco.


During dinner, the wind shifted to blow hot African air on us. It was unpleasant, but the next day was worse. The temperature reached 112 degrees! We barely left the apartment, and when we did, Erik cried and developed heat rash. Tuesday was a balmy 108, so we stayed in the apt again, until rolling blackouts killed Jon's air-conditioning and we went to a mall. Erik loved the kiddie rides. He got to drive a car and an airplane.

If anyone is thinking about visiting Jon while he's still in Sicily: go for it! The temperatures we had were unusual for this time of year. If you go in the fall or spring it will be great.

Malta

It's pretty cool that the first foreign country Erik ever visited was Malta! He had fun playing with the 11 month old sitting next to him on the plane. They each had a bassinet to sleep in which helped mama and papa get a little sleep. Erik slept a long time once we got to Malta (from 5 pm to 9 am, I think) and didn't really have jet lag. Our luggage didn't come for a couple days so that was a bummer. Joe and Erik had some fun in the bathtub while waiting for Erik's swimsuit to arrive.

Here they are riding the bus to Valetta. Valetta is the capital of Malta. It has a lot of fortifications because everybody and their brother has tried to invade them throughout history. Malta is the most bombed country in Europe because in WWII both sides wanted to control Malta as a gateway to Africa.

Once our luggage came, Erik got to swim in the pool. He loved it. Couldn't get enough. Which was funny because about a week before we left he started hating baths. (maybe you could tell in the bathtub picture above that Joe is having more fun than Erik)

Erik discovers mud!

The neighbor boys came over this morning to help me water the flowers. As I was showing them how to work the nozzle, Erik found that dirt + water = mud! First he was just squishing it with his hands. Then, while I was monitoring the watering he tried eating some. Despite not liking it, he kept trying. If only he had been that experimental with green beans!

Erik began saying, "mama" a couple weeks ago. Love that. Last weekend he started to nod, just a tiny nod. Yesterday I think I saw him shake his head. He's been saying, "yeah" for months, but we have yet to get a "no" out of him. It would be fine with me if he shook his head instead!

Carnival

It's been a looong time since I've posted. We rarely have internet available these days. Here's a picture from the Rundman's Welcome Summer Carnival. They set up a ball pit for Erik and another one year old named Liam. Erik, Liam, and the big kids all loved it and found many unique ways to play with the balls and the pit.

Here's a picture of Erik and his buddies building with Tinker Toys. I think that's what they're called.

Sorry about the extremely infrequent blogging. Our internet connection is quite tenuous and it's frustrating. I do have some fun new things to tell you about, though.

The last couple days, there have been times when I've said a word and Erik is definately trying to imitate it. For example, one of his word approximations that he's had for a month or so is to say "ish" for fish. Well, it turns out that "sh" is one of his very favorite sounds. He will say it if I say "wash", or "lunch" or any number of words from his daily routine.

Yesterday and today after dinner he & I spent some time in the back yard doing yard work. I brought out a blanket and toys in the hope that he would sit and entertain himself but he was way more interested in helping me pull dandilions and sweep the sidewalk. Which really slowed me down but it just was so fun to be outside that I didn't care. I got him his own little Erik sized broom to sweep with in yet another attempt to increase my productivity. We had to work a little on what is ok to sweep (sidewalk, steps) and what is not (plants, the neighbor's yard).

After a while he was no longer content to use the little broom and wanted mine again. So I tried to convince him that the big one was "mama's broom" and the little one was "Erik's broom". I'm pretty sure he tried to say "broom" and "Erik"! So fun.

ECFE Party

On Saturday we had a party for Erik and his friend Thomas who turned one three days before Erik. It was very fun and we had a good turnout.

Here Erik and his friend Ben are playing with Thomas' toys while Cora looks on very seriously.


Erik is enjoying his cake. Mostly enjoying smashing it. I love that Thomas is reaching over to Erik. He can't eat frosting so I like to think that he was trying to get in on the sugary action. We were glad that they ate their cake outside on the deck as a good deal of it fell off their trays. After many of the guests had left, the let out their golden lab to eat up the cake on the floor of the deck.

The Neighbor Boys

One morning a week our neighbor Michelle watches Erik. He loves playing with her sons Jackson and Gavin.



Here the boys are enjoying birthday cupcakes.




Gavin laughs at Erik's fascination with the TV.



Jackson is teaching Erik how to play a board game.

We love that Erik gets this time with Jackson and Gavin. They are so thoughtful and caring of Erik. We're very lucky to have neighbors like this.

Happy First Birthday, Erik!

What a great birthday! Erik started things off well by sleeping well all night plus sleeping in this morning. He had fun with daddy and fun playing with the neighbor boys this morning. This afternoon he got an enormous package from Mormor and Morfar. It was five times bigger than he is. Papa came home early and we opened presents. We talked to Oldemor, Gary and Great-grampa, Mormor, Morfar, Grampa and Gramma. We went to Ben and Jerry's for our Free Cone Day ice cream cones and ran into lots of our friends. We love you so much, Erik. This has been an amazing year and you are just getting started.



This is what was in the enormous box. This is the chair that my grandparents gave me on my first birthday. Erik already has learned how fun it is to pile his stuffed animals in it, and to climb up on it and rock.



He's saying "hello" in this picture. You can probably see on his face why I rarely give him broccoli.

Snow Day

It snowed yesterday so I brought some inside for Erik to play with. It was perfect snowball snow, heavy and wet. He tried a taste, but found it a little too cold.

Erik's First Birthday Party - before

Although Erik's birthday won't be for a couple more weeks, we decided to take advatage of the family gathering together and celebrate Erik, too. In the last couple of weeks Erik has really started walking. He holds his hands up by his ears to keep his balance. Now that he has the confidence to walk several feet, he thinks he is Mister Independent. He is exploring things we don't even think he's noticed before. It is pretty hard to convince him that there are things he is not big enough to deal with, like outlets, or that don't benefit from being chewed on, like remote controls and cell phones.

The pictures show Lexi, Linn's granddaughter, showing Erik how to use his sleeping bag and rocking horse.