Sunday, August 03, 2008

Future Cobbers?

 
 

We made an appearance at the Concordia College Corn Feed in Richfield today. Adin won the prize for youngest future Cobber. Erik ate more corn off his cob than I've ever seen him do before. Then we went and played on the great playground until the gravel was hurting his feet too much. Next year we won't wear sandels. I hope next year the mid-90's grads made a better showing. Joe was the only one!
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Thursday, July 31, 2008

True Confessions...

of a mother of two. I know I'm not supposed to compare but...I'm going to!
Two things about Adin that make me do a happy dance:

He can put himself back to sleep. If I'm walking with him and he's getting nice and drowsy, I can set him down in his crib and his eyes may open briefly, then flutter shut. Erik was more of a screamer when he touched the crib which was very stressful.

I can take him to the child care at the YMCA and come back an hour later. To be fair, I joined the Y when Erik was closer to one, and so more of an age of stranger anxiety.

Friday, July 25, 2008

Friday night

We went to playgroup at church today. It's tough because it's just a little too late in the morning for Erik. He almost fell asleep on the way to playgroup! He did ok the first half, but the second half he was acting up, in retrospect because he was tired. I tried to get him to come over and join the group in prayer and he started wailing that he didn't want to, he wanted to play. So that disturbed the group more than if I'd just left him alone!

In other news, I have completely forgotten the middle part of the times tables. I can't for the life of me figure out 40 divided by 7. I blame pregnancy and parenting.

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Tummy time

Adin had his most successful tummy time ever this morning. I put him on his tummy in his crib and did an oldies song and dance routine. He stayed on his tummy a long time, lifted up his head a lot (to see his mama) and he even laughed! Plus I got a pre-YMCA workout.

Ditto

I had a little adventure today. Erik doesn't particularly like getting dressed. This morning I got his shirt on, but he was resisting the diaper and asked to go "bare". (We read the comics together this morning and he was quite taken with this one) I told him it would be ok to air out for a while, and let him run off. I turn around and he's run out the front door and onto our step! So I bring him in, 'lock' the screen door (I thought) and he runs out again, this time running down the sidewalk! I was torn between running after him, which would make him run faster and hoping he'd come back on his own. He came back, and it was hilarious. Of course, not only was he almost naked, but his face and hands were also covered in green marker. Boys.

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Friday night Erik fun

 

 

 

Friday Joe and Erik went into Minneapolis to play with new friends Sawyer and Tinley. Erik loved going down the slide with them. They took turns, help each other, had lots of fun. Erik got to try his hand at cranking out some ice cream. I'm not sure it ever solidified but he enjoys machines of all kinds!
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Sunday morning Adin

 

I went out Friday night with Adin in tow. We met some of my co-workers at a restaurant for over priced dinner and drinks. They enjoyed holding him, but were having a hard time getting him to smile. This is unusual, as he's quite smiley and laughs when anyone looks at him and talks to him. Bonnie and Linda thought he was probably overstimulated in the restaurant. I think they were right, because as soon as we got home, he was his usual self.

I was thrilled this morning to see the beginnings of a roll on his thighs!
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Vignettes

This week Erik and I were in the front yard watering and I asked him to do something for me. He said, "I'd be happy to"!

A couple times I've told him we're going somewhere and he's burst into tears and said he didn't want to go. It happened that it wasn't a big deal, so I said, 'ok we'll stay home.' His tears wound down, he asked where we were going, I said, 'nowhere, we're staying home'. He began to cry again and said he wanted to go!

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Imagine that!

 


Erik has been showing some imagination the last couple days. Yesterday, I came into the living room and he informed me he was going to a party. "Where?" I asked. "At Nora's". He walked over to the back door and said he was going to the car. He let me know he'd driven to the party and asked if I was going to come. I said, "sure", and he asked what I was going to bring to the party!

He will often now say, "I have an idea" and then take me by the hand to show me what he has in mind. He'll say, "it's a surprise, close your eyes."

Yesterday he wanted to watch a video but I told him I didn't know where the DVD book was. He said he could find it, put a finger up to his chin and said, "let me think".
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Adin's Baby Book

 

Warning: this post refers to human waste products.

So I got out Adin's baby book last night and decided to start working on it. I filled in the easy stuff: background info on both his parents and grandparents. Joe picked out this baby book, it's a very cute one designed by Eric Carle with a "Very Hungry Caterpillar" artwork theme. You can tell it was designed by someone who is either a man, or has never had kids. On the page called "Your Birth Story" there's a section for "Mommy's Story" and "Daddy's Story" and they each have three lines! I'd like to see someone go through childbirth and sum it all up in three lines!

There's also a page on what was going on in the world around the time he was born. So I Googled his birthday. As it turns out, April 18, 2008 was "Poop for Peace Day". Wow. I'm happy that Adin did his part for peace. Maybe he will grow up to be a non-hawk moderate or liberal.
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Saturday, July 05, 2008

Erik's big ideas

 

Erik has all kinds of new tricks, too. We have been talking a lot about Michigan. He kept saying something about "again", which happens a lot. We'll read a story, sing a song or say a funny work and he'll want to hear it again. But this time he was thinking that the word "Michigan" sounds like the word "again". (He's been into rhyming lately.) I was pretty impressed.

Yesterday we had a very long car ride from Michigan to Chicago. He got pretty punchy at the end, but at one point began amusing himself in the car by rubbing a wipe on his fingers and face. He rubbed his ears. Then I suggested he rub his feet as they were actually fairly dirty. He did and held onto each side of the wipe and slung the middle around the bottom of his foot. Then he said he was using it "like a jump rope".

Today we were riding in the car and he was singing "Row row row your boat". He'd sing it fast and then slower, slower and then faster. And after each verse he would describe it: "fast and slow" or "slow and fast". It's so fun to watch his brain figure out the world.
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Little Adin

 

Adin's up to some new tricks. A couple of weeks ago, I put him on the changing table, which usually makes him cry, but this time he laughed! It's happened a couple times and I was able to record it once. It's so fun, so cute.

Then yesterday, I set him down on his back on the floor and went to wash my hands. When I came back he was on his tummy with his arm trapped underneath him. This didn't take me too off guard because I have caught him rolling onto his side a few times. He finally made it all the way over!
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Our Stimulus Check Summer Trip

 


We took a trip earlier to help stimulate the economy. On the way we saw a ferocious bear. Erik made friends with him so that turned out ok.

 


We stayed in Green Bay Wisconsin and visited the the National Railway Museum. Erik got to crawl around on a bunch of trains. This is the cab of the Big Boy, the largest steam engine ever built.

 


After looking at some real trains that didn't move, we got to ride on a train. It was pretty fun.

 


We took the S.S. Badger across Lake Michigan. After assuring the captain that he would be very careful, Erik was allowed to steer.

Thursday, June 26, 2008

Summer update

I'm so glad I did that flurry of posts a couple weeks ago, since we have had very poor internet connectivity since then. Adin is getting more vocal, cooing a lot. He is able to bat at little toys that hang above him. He can lift up his head on his tummy and when held on my shoulder.

Erik has been saying lots of sweet things about Adin the last couple days. He told me this morning "I like his eyes." Aaawww. We were all sitting reading and he kept absent mindedly patting Adin's head. Erik helped Joe take the sides off his crib and make it into a toddler bed. He says he was very careful with the tools! He is proud of the bed, will show it to visitors and is even sleeping in it!

Thursday, June 05, 2008

Hail!

Saturday we had a hailstorm. I was out gardening and the weather seemed fine to me. I heard the sirens go off around 5, so I went inside. Joe turned on the weather and there was a big storm heading for us. We went in the basement and when we came up an hour later the ground was covered in pea sized hail, with some hail up to quarter size.

Erik ran around the yard singing to himself while Joe and his mom cleaned up. Then Erik wanted to help.

Arty Party


Saturday we went to the birthday party of little Tenny (Tennyson). It was an Arty Party, which means an art teacher came in and lead some activities. Look how serious Erik is about his art.

Other people's babies

We went to a baby shower on Memorial Day. The very clever hosts created a Parenting Olympics. Joe and I were on Team Tinkerbell, the team that beat Team Transformers. My event (which I won) was dressing a Barbie doll.



Although I had to go first (a distinct disadvantage) and have two boys (same), my years of Barbie dressing served me well, and I won by two nanoseconds, approx. Joe's event was Playdough sculpting and I'm sad to say that he lost. However, could you sculpt a dragon?




Adin spent the shower being cuddled by the grandma-to-be. Erik made friends with their dog. Well, the dog wanted his bread and he managed to tolerate her watching him eat it.

Wednesday, June 04, 2008

Brother sweater vests

Our friend Carla knit the boys coordinating sweater vests, which they wore to church last week.


Erik seemed to think his was a basketball jersey!

Cuddle



After a bath, it's nice to have a cuddle.

Brothers



Erik will often request to hold Adin. I think it's a good sign.

How big is Adin?



Like father like son.



Bigger than a bunny, smaller than a bear.


We went to Penny's yesterday and had pictures taken of Adin. Joe saw the proofs but I haven't seen them yet. He thought they turned out nice. Adin is very smiley at home. I'm not sure the photographer got his best smiles, but that's ok.

Erik is funny


Erik, Adin and I had lunch with my co-workers today. Adin slept through the whole thing but Erik had fun. He played with some cooking toys and was completely enchanted by Anna, the other two year old visiting. If she left the room he asked "Where Anna go? What she doing?" When he was just playing on his own, he did his usual thing of talking and singing to himself non-stop. People kept telling me how funny he is. I have to agree!

Monday, May 12, 2008

A new week

Erik's seems to be sorting things out this week. He just seems calmer and a little more together. He's started referring to Adin by name instead of calling him baby or baby brother. He'll sometimes say good morning or good bye to Adin. The hitting has really decreased, too. My parents have been here for almost a week, so that has really helped. He's gotten plenty of attention and fun. I'm kind of hoping that he stays on an even keel after they leave. We'll see.

Tuesday, May 06, 2008

smiles and not so smiley

Last weekend Adin started flashing the pseudo-smiles. He's too young to really be smiling, but at least passing gas seems to make him happy. It's fun to see what he'll look like in a few weeks, once he starts to respond to us with smiles.

On the other side of the coin, last week Erik was struggling with being a big brother. He wasn't sleeping well, took a long time to fall asleep and woke frequently crying from bad dreams. During the day he's easily upset and was starting to act out a bit. When we first brought home Adin, Erik was a little more rambunctious than usual, but last week he was hitting and drawing on furniture and things. My heart just breaks for him, because I know this isn't his true personality, he's just trying to process a situation he doesn't understand. I wish there were a way to tell him that even though there's this loud munchkin who gets held in our arms all day long, we still love Erik so much it's bringing me to tears just writing this. I guess we'll just have to keep giving him hugs and kisses and let him process it in his own toddler way.

Monday, April 28, 2008

Flying Solo

Well, all the grandparents have gone home and Joe just left for work. It's just me and the two munchkins. It will just be for the afternoon, so I'm not too worried. I'm more concerned about tomorrow. Our neighbor emailed to let us know her son has croup. I was mentally counting on Erik getting to go over and play with the big boys this week for a few hours, like he usually does.

People ask who we think Adin looks like. It's easier for Joe to see the similarities to his side of the family, and for me to see the similarities to my side. When I look at Adin's face, I sometimes think he looks like my dad or my Bestefar, probably because of the forehead and eyebrows. Sitting here at the computer, with the way the light is hitting his hair, right his hair looks red, red, red, and in profile he reminds me of the baby picture of my mom that's hanging above her parents' bed. I think Adin's eyes are much bluer than Erik's were at birth. Erik had grey-blue eyes, but I think Adin's are truly blue.

My internet connection won't let me post a photo right now, but I'm sure everyone will have lots of opinions to share in the next few months, as Adin fills out a bit.

Monday, April 14, 2008

Hurry! Hurry!

Drive the firetruck!



One weekend Joe took Erik to a transportation museum and they got to ride on top of a real firetruck! I guess it was pretty cool. When I ask Erik about it, he says it was windy up there.

Spaghetti!




I've probably posted pix like this before, but I just get such a kick out of how messy he gets when he eats spaghetti.
The video is of him shoveling in peas by the fistful, and me trying to get him to say, "I love peas" like he did before I picked up the video camera!

Easter Sunday



Joe's family came to town for Easter weekend and Erik had a great time with them. I don't seem to have taken any pictures, though. Ooops. However, our friends Jen and Zach came over Sunday afternoon with their daughter Eleanor. Erik loved playing with her and asked after for quite a few days after she left. Here's a picture of the kids in their Easter clothes before they decided they'd really rather just wear diapers.

Getting ready for Easter




Here are some pix of Erik decorating the pussy willow branches with the decorations I won a couple months ago at a baby shower. He was pretty careful and enjoyed looking at the branches all month.

Thursday, April 03, 2008

"Help! Fire!"

Erik watched a video in which Elmo visits a fire station. Then on Saturday, Joe and Erik visited a transportation museum and got to ride on a fire truck. Today, Erik brought me a book about Sally the Sea Ferry, in which she uses the water from her wake to put out a fire on a fishing boat. Afterwards he talked about the book and started yelling, "Help Sally! Fire!". We pretended to spray water. Then he said, "help mama. Fire in my house." so I pretended to spray water in his little play house. He was sitting in front of it and seemed to realize what would have happened had I really been spraying because he said, "mama, I'm wet! I need a towel, I'm wet"! So I gave him a towel and he pretended to dry off. He did the same thing later, pretending that his crib was on fire, then requested a towel to dry it off.

Tuesday, April 01, 2008

Excuses excuses

Ok, so I won't be able to post any pictures for a while...I seem to have lost our camera. I took out the battery on Saturday to charge it and haven't seen the camera since. sigh.

This afternoon our friends Erika, Brooke and Evan came over to play for a bit. Erik and Brooke had fun, they had a little picnic on the floor of our front room and drew on the Magnadoodle. But Erik really wanted to go downstairs and I thought we should stay upstairs, since our friends couldn't stay too long. I told Erik we'd go down in a few minutes after Brooke went to the store. He sat down and played for a while, then looked up at her and said, "Thanks for coming over today." Subtle, huh?

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Four Eyes



Erik wanted to try on my glasses. They are a few years old, so you don't get the full Ralphie effect, but it's pretty good.

The kid really loves muffins



A couple weeks ago, Erik and I made muffins first thing in the morning. He was so excited to eat them, that while they were baking, he would not get up and play. He sat there for 15 minutes watching the timer run down to "muffins are ready".

Sunday, March 09, 2008

Manners

We went to brunch at the home of our friends Noel, Kristin and Grant. Grant is four months younger than Erik. One of the things Kristin had made was an egg fratatta. We didn't give it to Erik at first because it was too hot. When he saw us eating it, he begged for some "pizza". So I cut him a little bit. He's not developed a taste for eggs so I wasn't sure if he'd like it. He took a bite, looked up at Kristin and said, "it's pretty good".

Erik's grandparents were here this weekend, as Grandma Lois was on her way back from a week in Bogata, Columbia. (Blogger isn't letting me embed the website right now, but you can learn more about the trip at http://www.good-sam.com/bogota/index.asp). They left this afternoon and gave a ride to their friend Joyce. Joyce had been down here visiting her grandsons Cole and Nash. Erik wasn't very quick to warm up to Joyce, partially because he barely napped today. But as they walked out the door he said, "Bye Grandma, bye Joyce".

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

A little Norwegian

We read Erik a couple books in Norwegian. Well, I guess I read them in Norwegian, Joe reads them in English! One of them is a translation of "Where is Spot?" It keeps asking if Spot is in different places in the house. Then Erik lifts a flap and the text of the books says, "no". This weekend Erik began saying "nei" which is Norwegian for "no". Totally out of the blue. I sort of forgot this January to check into the Barnehage we tried this fall. Now that he's mostly given up his morning nap, it might work. It was so hard to contact them, I kind of dread going through that process again of trying to register.

Friday, February 15, 2008

Erik's World - Baby Brother Edition

There have been requests for more info on how baby brother is coming along. He is now at 30 weeks gestation. Ten more weeks to go! He's about three pounds and 17 inches long. We still don't have strong feelings for any particular name. Joe likes David, we both like Thomas, Kevin (Erik's friend from ECFE) said we should name him Tyler.

Arizona


Erik and Papa at the playground. Unfortunately, the camera wasn't handy when we saw the two havelinas walking by.


At a county park with Mama and cactus.


Erik had lots of fun visiting Great Grampa and Great Gramma. They read books, watched golf, and played with some Beanie Baby birds.


Joe's Gramma noticed Erik standing with his foot up like this and she thought it was very funny. So then he had to do it about a hundred times to make us laugh.

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?"

Tuesday, February 05, 2008

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.

Monday, January 28, 2008

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!

Saturday, January 19, 2008

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.

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

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".

Sunday, January 06, 2008

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.

Thursday, January 03, 2008

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".

Monday, December 17, 2007

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".