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.

Not Much of a Sleeper

He's so helpful!

Monday and Tuesday Erik experimented with not taking an afternoon nap. This did not go over well with his mama. We sat down and had a talk and today he took two naps again. They were only thirty minutes each but at this point, that's ok.

Regular readers may remember that Erik often removes one or more socks and/or shoes while he's waiting to be removed from baby jail, I mean, his crib. He'll throw them over the side onto the floor. Monday afternoon when he was supposed to be napping but wasn't, I came in to check on him. He had taken off his pants and thrown them on the floor. Possibly the funniest sight I've seen as a mom.

Erik is eating with a fork

Thursday night I was feeding Erik some mashed up sweet potatoes. I got out his little plastic fork from IKEA. He ate a few forkfuls from it so I got out the video. Naturally, after that most of the potatoes fell off his fork! Oh well. The second half you get to hear his babbling and see him wave.

This morning he woke up with a fever of 102. We took him into Baby Urgent Care and he had an ear infection. I took him in last Wed because he's been rubbing his ear. The doc saw fluid but it wasn't infected. So Erik's back on amoxicillin. His fever finally came down but he sure hasn't slept much since we put him down an hour ago. It may be a loooong night.

Erik is stacking rings!

Erik got a ring stacker this fall and it said it was for 18 months and up so I put it away for a while. I got it out a couple weeks ago and as you see from the video, he has really learned how to get those rings on there!

Eleven Months

On the way home from North Dakota this weekend giving Brown Bear a hug

and playing So Big

One night this week, Joe and I were getting Erik ready for bed. He had his yellow bear, Mr. Beeps. Joe and I each kissed Erik good night, then Erik held up Mr. Beeps and we kissed him. Then Erik made Mr. Beeps kiss Erik! So cute!

I joined the YMCA last month and have been going evenings and weekends. I always peek into the childcare room to see how busy it is. They advised me on the best time of day to bring Erik, when it would be pretty quiet. Erik's been a little stranger shy lately, he takes a while to warm up to men especially, even his grampas! So I was pretty nervous about bringing him. I bit the bullet and brought him in this week. I set him down in the play area and stood in the adjacent lobby to fill out the proper forms. He didn't cry. I left to change into my workout clothes and came back to peek on him. He wasn't crying. I exercised for a half hour and peeked in again. Still no tears. I changed back into street clothes and picked him up. The day care lady said he had played the whole time and had lots of fun. I was so proud of Erik. He didn't even punish me for leaving him. It was so great. And there were hardly any kids there.

Breakfast

Yum

Babbling

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

President's Day

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

Home Improvements

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

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

If Erik Had a Twin Sister

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

Does she have some Cheerios over there?

Like Erik, Brook enjoyed looking out the picture window.

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

Peek a boo!

Nine Month Pictures

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




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

Shake it, baby

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

Nice legs, Joe

More new tricks

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

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

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

Yay!

First Kiss

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

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

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

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