Ha!

Christmas Cards

I have to tell you this little story. We put all our Christmas cards & pictures on the dining room wall using blue painter's tape. There are lots of babies on the wall and Erik will point to them and lean and then we go through them: this is your friend Abby, this is your friend James, etc. Erik isn't content to look, he also wants to rip them off the wall and eat them. I really don't have that big a problem with it, since it's the end of January, but Joe doesn't think we should let him destroy pictures. So I let Erik have one or two pictures of my friends kids that Joe wouldn't care if they got bent. So Erik loves the heck out of these pictures. He holds them, folds them, chews on them. They are the velveteen rabbit of Christmas cards.

Just dreamy

So for the last three nights, Erik has been sleeping through the night! And not the six hour definition of the sleep books, but from 7 pm to 7 am. This means I am experiencing something I haven't experienced in months...dreams! I am dreaming again. I guess when you wake up a lot, you never get into a deep enough sleep state to dream.

Erik and I had a very fun morning. First he slept in until 8. I fed him and drove with Kevin & his mom to a local mall that has a fun play center for kids. Kevin & Erik are just a bit young for it, we had to tail them to make sure they didn't get hurt. Then they sat in the mechanical vehicles and pushed buttons and turned the wheels. Joe pointed out I should have brought my camera so I could have posted a picture of them. I agree. Then we had lunch at Davanni's. Yummy calzones. Erik and Kevin were very well behaved and so Tara & I had a nice relaxing lunch. Since Erik missed his AM nap he's had a marathon PM nap. What a great day!

A Small Victory

Here's a picture of Erik in the beautiful and soft sweater that my co-worker Bonnie knit for Erik when he was born. Thanks Bonnie!

The last week we've been attempting to sleep train Erik so that he no longer wakes twice in the night to nurse. Sunday night was really hard. Erik was awake and alternating between crying and moaning for hours, even with Joe and me comforting him. Last night he made up for it. He was just a little fussy and Joe and I each went in once to lay Erik back down. However, there was no screaming and no nursing! He was in his crib from 7 pm to 7 am. Hooray! Let's hope he does it again tonight and tomorrow night and every night he's not sick or teething.

Some new stuff

One morning last week while Joe was gone I walked by Erik's room and heard a wheezing sound. I panicked a little bit afraid that Erik was having trouble breathing. When I walked in, I saw Erik standing at the side of his crib with this blue block in his mouth. It has holes at the top and bottom and Erik was sucking and blowing on it to make a sound. It was very funny and a big relief.

Last night Erik voluntarily put Cheerios in his mouth! and then ... he swallowed some of them! This is huge for him. Joe saw Erik balance momentarily while standing. Did I mention that he can play catch? Very fun.

Erik - the week in review

Last weekend Erik had a brand new experience. His grampa and gramma came and stay with him for three days while mama and papa went to New York City. The reports from Gramma and Grampa were universally favorable. He did a lot of playing and touching things. Also some sleeping. Mama and papa were happy and relaxed after a weekend of remember what it was like when they were DINKs. [This doesn't fall directly under the category of Erik's World, but just to give a little more info on our weekend, we saw the musicals Rent and The Drowsy Chaperone. We had delicious meals at Utsav and Le Pain Quotidien (the latter was the site of a Newsweek interview with Jerry Seinfeld recently). We also took in some public ice skating, public art and spent time in Brooklyn with Susan. A wonderful and fun weekend all around.]

We came back late Sunday, Erik's grandparents drove home Monday and Tuesday Erik broke out in hives! We called the nurseline, but since we were going in Wednesday morning they said to just wait. The doctor diagnosed the hives and gave him some Benedryl, which made the hives fade quite a bit. She said they were probably not caused by anything like a food or a chemical allergy. They were probably caused by a cold virus. So we did not go over to Brooke's house for lunch, but took it easy at home. By Thursday, the hives were much better and we did go to ECFE.

Today Erik's friend Soren came to play. Soren is about two weeks younger than Erik. They are both very proficient in the sound "aaaahh". They enjoyed the same toys, usually at the same time. They both loved chewing on toys the best.

An exciting day

When Erik woke up this morning we checked his mouth and yes, he has eight teeth. So we let him chew his first stogie. Ok, it's really a dipping stick to help him learn to feed himself. He really likes it. In fact, today he enjoyed chewing on it so much he was slightly less interested in dipping it in food. He does ok with a spoon though.

This afternoon I took Erik for his first haircut. The verdict? Scissors are tolerable...

...razors are not.

He actually did pretty well. He was calm enough afterwards that we were able to go shopping.
Later I treated him to a ride in the clothes basket.
So, all in all, a pretty good day.

Sunday Pictures

"Papa, this is the best bath EVER!"

Erik and his ghetto blaster are ready to terrorize the streets of St. Louis Park.

Erik is doing so many things now that I'm afraid that I will forget to tell you all about them. Hmm. Let's see. Oh, I think that on Friday I said that Erik is getting another tooth. Well, today Joe said he thinks Erik's getting TWO teeth. So we think that next weekend, Erik will have eight teeth. Yowzaa.

We went to Kevin's first birthday party yesterday. Very fun. Lots of babies. Kevin had this drum full of musical instruments he got for Christmas. All the babies had fun shaking the noisemakers and sucking on the drumsticks.

Here's a link to a super cute picture of Erik on a playdate with Alley and Brooke.

New Year's Eve

Emily shows Erik how to play with his new turtle

Erik tries his new inflatable sleeping bag for sleepovers at Gramma and Grampa's new house

Erik tries out his new walker car

Erik and family had a lovely weekend celebrating Christmas and New Year's in North Dakota. We had delicious ribs at Ona's in West Fargo with the whole crew: Great-Gramma Midge, Great Uncle Linn, Ona of course, Gramma and Grampa, Aunt Emily and her friend Dan, and Aunt Susan. That night we drove (very, very slowly) to Oakes and had our last visit to Gramma and Grampa's apartment. They will move into their lovely new house (which Santa already visited) at the end of the month. Hooray!

Erik had about four days of good health and not needing Tylenol to be in a good mood. Then things started going downhill again. After that last tooth cut, his constant drooling stopped, but the coughing stayed and then got worse. His nose was running and he started rubbing his ear when we layed him down for a nap. So, with the holiday weekend coming up and all, Joe called the nurseline yesterday and they had me bring in Erik. The doc looked in Erik's ears. She said the left one looked good, but the right one had some cloudy, thick fluid and the bottom of the tympanic membrane was starting to get red. She wrote me a prescription and told me to fill it if he got worse.

He napped a ton in the afternoon, and when he was awake he was miserable. So I went to the pharmacy and Erik has had his first dose of amoxicillin. The pharmacist got me all worked up, telling me that nausea and diarrhea are normal on this. I had been thinking I would just have to watch for an allergic reaction, but the normal reaction sounds pretty bad to me. This is going to be a fun, fun weekend.

So today Erik was ok while home with me. Then Joe came home and fed him dinner. To be fair, it really couldn't have been handier. Erik was sitting in his highchair with a bib on, so everything came out onto the bib and the tray. And really, he needed a bath anyway. I'm just wondering, is this the beginning of a ten day trend, or a one time occurance?

Fun and games

Erik is up to all sorts of fun now. Yesterday we had a great day and played three new games. I built a tower out of his stacking cups and he knocked it down, because knocking down towers is one of his favorite things. So then I said, "I didn't knock down that tower, you did" and I poked him in the tummy. He laughed so hard, you would have thought I was Julia Louis-Dreyfuss. So I did it again and again and again. He just laughed and laughed these huge belly laughs. I tried to call Joe so he could hear, but Erik is too interested in the phone, he became distracted and didn't use his whole belly for the laughs.

Then later he started blowing raspberries. So I tried making the sound when he had been just plain babbling, and he imitated me! We did that back and forth for a while. This may be the first clear vocal imitation I've heard him do. Maybe. So we did that off and on throughout the day.

Lastly, we were playing with Erik's new house. Earlier I had opened the window and played peek-a-book with him through it. He loved that. Then he opened the door and was on the opposite side of the door from me. He stuck his hand through the door pane and I pretended to eat his fingers. He loved this and repeatedly stuck his hand out for me to eat. He then stuck his hand out, and when I moved to eat it, withdrew his hand and laughed at me! He tricked me and played a game on me!

Everyday is a new adventure for Erik and he is always learning new ways to interact with his world.

Merry Christmas

PeaceErik's first Christmas present

Reading "Funny Face"

Erik discovers his inner pianist

Erik's first Christmas was as wonderful as we hoped. My parents dove into town on Thursday during the one day of bad weather we've had recently. They got stuck in the ice driving up the ramp between 394 and 100. We were very happy to see them arrive. Saturday my Grampa and uncle Gary flew into town from Bismarck. We were delighted to see them and Erik had lots of fun playing with his relatives. He has been on a kick of being extremely well behaved in church and Christmas Eve was no exception. He got a noise maker during the children's sermon that he was supposed to use during specific parts of the service, but he mostly just chewed on it. The teething marathon seems to be over. We've had two nights of fantastic sleep and our happy boy is back, even without the help of Motrin. He's still a drooling machine, though. You may notice that many of his photos include a bib. We rarely or never had to bib him as a newborn but now he soaks through his tops so we leave a bib on him whenever we remember.

Erik is blessed with many loving friends and relatives who gave him lovely clothes, delicious books and fun toys for Christmas.

It was so nice to be home for Christmas and avoid the traditional Christmas APB.

A rare smile

Erik is teething (again, still?) and is not sleeping well. He is also spending much of his day between a moan and a cry. So it's nice when the Motrin kicks in and we see our boy for a while.

Erik is Cruising!

We have had a fun couple of days. Yesterday we met our friends Brooke and Kevin at Edinborough Park in Edina. It's an indoor park with an acre of play area divided into many little areas. It's free for kids under 1 yr. That was fun for Erik since he can now pull himself up to standing, and cruise along furniture. He particularly like standing and holding on some netting. We will definately be going back.

This is a fun video of Erik cruising with a little bonus mixed in.

Cruisin'

Erik can pull himself up on his Exersaucer or the laundry basket and cruise between them and the couch! Would anyone care to place a bet on when he'll be walking?

I'm pretty sure the poor little guy is cutting another tooth! I think after this one he'll be done for a while.

100 Posts!

Yay for me!

Ok, so enough about me, let's talk about Erik.


Here are a couple of pictures from this week. I let Erik play with my lunch bag and he enjoyed the crinkly noise it made. Somehow he got his arm through both the handles and I think it looks like he's carrying around a chic handbag.

When Erik was born, a friend crocheted him a washcloth. He likes his tiger lovey, which goes with him in the car, and he likes his yellow bear lovey, which goes with him in the stroller. However, at this point the lovey of choice seems to be the washcloth. I think he likes that he can pull it and it stretches. Also, he seems to like to pull it over his head when I lay him in the crib, and the holes keep him from smothering himself. The great thing about this lovey is it is easily replaceable. For example, over Thanksgiving at my parents', the washcloth disappeared into the sofa cushions for a few days. My mom found a virtually identical washcloth that her aunt Helen had made 20 years ago. This temporary replacement was completely acceptable to Erik.

So anyway, now that he's crawling, he has found that he can sit and play with the lovey, then when he wants to crawl over to some cords or something, he can put the lovey in his mouth, thus freeing his hands for crawling and pulling cookbooks out of the bookcase. I think it's hilarious, because it's such a niche skill. In a few months he'll be walking and then it will be easy to keep the lovey close by as he explores. But for now, Erik has adapted.

What is Erik up to today?

Erik is Crawling, the Movie!

Challenges

Erik is having a challenging weekend. This past week he began cutting back his food intake. He probably ate half as much solids and nursed a third less than usual. But then Friday night he went on strike. He refuses to nurse. We are hoping it's because he appears to be cutting three teeth at once. If that's the case, he should go back to nursing when it's over. (Although, you'd think if he was striking from teething pain he'd still nurse once we'd given him Tyleonl.) It was really tough at first because he wouldn't take his milk from a bottle either. However, I do have a couple sippy cups that the liquid just pours out of, and he's been taking a couple ounces at a time from that. Also, Joe was mixing milk with cereal and at least we knew he was getting some calories. However, now we're not giving him cereal any more because he's taking more ounces from the cup and because the cereal seems to have stopped up his digestive processes if you know what I mean. We're a little nervous about that.

When I had nursing trouble when Erik was born, I had a lot of people who could offer advice because they had been there. Now I have to read books and the internet because most of my friends weaned their kids at 5-7 months, and the friend who made it all the way to a year, her son didn't cut any teeth until the last month. So we're plugging along, hoping for the best. I'm kind of down, but I'm trying to keep it in perspective that it isn't a catastrophe, it's just an inconvenience. But I really miss nursing.