Since Erin's birthday we're rapidly heading towards being a "big girl." According to Erin, "big girls" go to school, ride bikes or trikes, put their pee or poop in the potty and sleep in big girl beds. By the end of this week hopefully she'll have done all of these things.
Erin starts "school" on Tuesday. We went for a visit last week and she did great. She didn't cling to us at all and wanted to join in with the other kids and seems interested in what everyone was doing. She loved the little kid bathroom and spied on a few kids using the potty. She did comment that one of the kids used "a lot of toilet paper." I guess it doesn't take that much to impress her. They take the kids to try to use the toilet every few hours and I'm hoping that watching her peers do this will inspire her. I doubt that she'll refuse to try (like she does at home) when all the other kids are doing it. That will be excellent.
The teachers want to put her in a class with the older kids (mostly kids closer to and a little older than 3) because she is so big and seems more mature than the younger kids. The next youngest kid in her class is just over 2 and a half. I'm a little hesitant, but I really think that she'll do great. We decided to go ahead with the older kid class and we'll reevaluate in another week or so.
Erin has also started riding her trike almost every day. When Matt and I are both able to go for walks, one of us will walk the dogs and the other pushes her along on the trike. I have to say that the push/steer bar is the key to enjoying a toddler with a trike. Nice work Matt.
She has also decided that she loves the bike trailer. We are thrilled and since the weather has been so nice, we've been able to take her for a bunch of rides. We've kept the rides fairly short, but are venturing a bit farther each time. She likes to talk about wearing her bike helmet and the "big bumps" that she goes over in the trailer. We took her today to meet Nate, Tina and Aleia at the park. She managed to fall asleep in the trailer on the way there and back. It still amazes me how kids can fall asleep in the most uncomfortable positions.
And last but not least, we decided it was time to take the side off of her crib. I still feel like a fool, messing with a good thing. But, she had managed to climb out once and bonk her head and it has to happen at some point. We debated whether to wait until things had settled down after starting school, but I think that she's going to be so tired with school that she might just conk out. We'll see. So tonight the side came off, she talked a lot about how it was a big girl bed now and how big girls stay in their beds. She took a book to bed, sang and talked for about 20 minutes and now it is silent. Could it really be that easy?
I feel like a big girl now too. I had my last day as a resident on Friday and now move on to being a chief next week. Wow. It feels very surreal. I never really thought that I would actually finish. I'm trying to hold my new status over Matt, but unfortunately he still knows more than I do, so it's not as satisfying as I thought it would be. Oh well.
The stars aligned and Erin, Matt, Laura, Jan, Dean and I all got to go to the cabin last weekend. It was great and Erin had a great time playing in the water and riding the pontoon boat. Unfortunately Saturday was really stormy, but Sunday was perfect and we stayed through the day to get a chance to play outside as much as possible.
We also got the chance to go see our friends Katie, Jon, Sarah and John and their little girl Mia for dinner this week. It was great to see everyone and Erin had had fun playing with Mia. Katie brought out an ice cream making ball after dinner and the girls took turns rolling it down the hill and chasing after it. She also thought the fruits of their labor were pretty tasty.
Erin playing with the pea gravel at the park near Muggy's house. Almost as good as going down the slide.
Erin hearing her favorite book from Papa Joe and Jeannette. She was fascinated by Jeannette's pink fingernails. She was also thrilled when Papa Joe shared a Milky Way candy bar with her.
Erin was excited at the graduation that she got to clap for everyone. She was inspired and clapped constantly while Paul played her guitar.
Erin will happily read just about anywhere! She seems to prefer slightly tight and uncomfortable places. One of her favorite spots is in Duncan's kennel. She pulls a bunch of books in and closes the door. I haven't included photos for fear that CPS will come to our door.
These are Erin's birthday photos. There are a few other cute ones on Laura's blog. She had a blast blowing out candles, eating treats and opening presents. She got this hat from Papa Joe and Jeannette and insisted on wearing it the rest of the night. The day before her birthday, I told her "today you are one, but tomorrow you will be two." She repeated this phrase for at least a week until she finally agreed that now she is two.
We have had a beautiful spring and sometimes an hour or two to actually enjoy it. We've been out in the backyard a bunch and got the trailer out a few weeks ago. So far, she likes it much better than she used to and talks about liking the big bumps!
It's tough to get pictures of two squirmy toddlers. This was our last dinner with Ann, Chad and Anders before they moved to Chicago. We miss them very much and Erin still talks about wanting to "go see big boy baby Anders in Chicago."
We had a nice Easter morning before Matt had to go to work. Erin got dried cranberries instead of chocolate and thought it was such a treat. I'm sure this is the last year that we can pull this trick.
Since I have been so delinquent about blogging (work just really has gotten in the way lately), this is going to be really long. Don't feel obligated to read it, I just needed some kind of record that Erin and I both existed and did interact over the last 2 months. Matt and I have had a few really busy months with long hours, lots of call and a few work trips sprinkled in. Gramma Beth came to help out for 3 weeks in April. Between the contributions of Gramma Beth, Jan, Dean and Laura, our house has kept running. So thank you so much and here's hoping for less busy times! Updating the blog has been on the to do list for a while, but recently I've started getting nasty emails, so here goes...
At some time in the last 2 months, Erin has really turned into a little girl. It is so much fun to see her mature and be able to express complex ideas. When she is relaxed and happy, we are treated to a constant monologue of Erin’s thoughts. She describes the cars and their colors as they drive by, she talks about things that happened “yesterday” which of course might have happened yesterday or last month, or she will recite songs or her favorite books to us. It is delightful.
Erin was thrilled about her birthday. After Matt’s birthday in April, she spent a lot of time pretending to have “Happy birthday parties” for her dolls and herself. She would spread out her blanket on the floor, bring over the tea set and hand out bowls filled with her play food to all of those who were there. She wasn’t picky about food for these parties and you were as likely to end up with a bowl of onion as anything yummier. Often she would declare that it was a “Happy birthday party for Dando.” One day I asked how old Dando was going to be. She thought for a second before answering, “Three minutes!”
During the week leading up to her birthday, Erin let us know that she would like cupcakes with pink frosting, ice cream (because it’s COLD!) and a pink tricycle. We managed to grant her most of her wishes and when she saw her tricycle was red, blue and yellow instead of pink, she didn’t seem to mind.
She has been fixated on “when Erin is a big girl.” Before her birthday she told us that “Erin ride a yellow bike when she is a big girl.” She also thinks that “Erin will put her pee and poop in the potty when she is a big girl,” and “Erin wear pretty undies when she is a big girl.” I keep assuring her than she can be a big girl with respect to potty training any time she would like, but she’s less than convinced.
Erin absolutely loves her trike and spends a lot of time talking about it and trying to convince me to let her ride it inside. I told her trikes were for outside. She accepted this for a minute before asking me with a twinkle in her eye, “Ride bicycle inside?” Nice try. We got a trike that has a push/steering bar on the back which is wonderful. We’re still working on pushing the pedals as her feet don’t automatically “go around and around and around and around” when the trike moves. She’s getting better and will repeat “this is how the big girls do it!” over and over again as we ride.
She is getting more sophisticated in her reasoning and doesn’t usually take no for an answer. We were driving home from the doctors last week and she asked to eat some Puffins in the car. I told her no, we would wait until we got home to have a snack. She paused and then told me “Erin ate Puffins in the car yesterday!” Hmm… I still said no, it would be messy. To this, she replied, “Erin won’t make a mess.” My goodness, I’m going to have my hands full soon enough.
Erin has endless self confidence and has no qualms about telling people about it. She’ll tell you she is a good cooker, runner, reader and that she is a “very fast runner.” When she is running, she’ll often turn around and command those following her to exclaim “look at her run,” “look how fast she runs.” She appreciates this and is even happier if you start each phrase with “WHOA!”
She is in love with exclamations. Her favorite is “whoa” but she also enjoys “wow,” “oh baby,” “whee,” “whoop-a-ding-dong!” Without fail, she’ll say “whoa” emphatically whenever she sees a truck or a bus or something that really impresses her. She also gets really excited and loud when telling people that something is cold.
We went to Madison last weekend with Jan and Dean for Muggy’s graduation and saw Gramma Beth, Ken, Papa Joe and Jeannette, Jan and Andy. Erin had a blast getting attention from that many doting adults. She is still quiet and reserved in new situations and with new people, but seems to get comfortably pretty quickly. It still seems to take her longer to warm up to men, and as such, Uncle Andy and Paul’s dad, Ron only got “a pat-pat,” when we were leaving. In fact, she specifically told me “no kiss for Ron.” Awww, poor Ron missed out on Erin’s specialty: very soggy kisses right on the lips.
Erin was a trooper in the car and was generally happy to have snacks and read books. She has had a resurgence in reading lately and loves to look at books. Before she was only happy to have us read them to her, but now we often find her snuggled up on the couch, or in Duncan’s kennel, looking at a stack of books. She can recite many of these books to us now and will correct us if we misspeak or miss a word. I also finally gave in and let her take a book to bed with her. I have to say that there aren’t that many or Erin’s traits that come from me, but I am pretty sure that her love of staying up to late while reading a book in bed is pure Lee girl.
Even before the books in bed, Erin has taken a long time to fall asleep. The good news is that she requires nothing from us after we put her down, but the bad news is that she often stays up singing and talking to herself for an hour or more after we put her down. Initially, I tried to shift her bed time and naps around, but none of that made much difference. And since she is so happy while in bed singing and seems generally well rested otherwise, I’ve just let this go.
Erin has gotten very interested in singing and nursery rhymes. She goes with Dean to the library every Wednesday for story time. I’m told that she doesn’t do a lot of singing there, but loves to do the hand motions when other people sing. She also loves to command singing at home or in the car. She’s even happier when we make up songs about her toys and blankets. I have to say that I’m not very creative and most of them are set to the tune of “I wish I were a little bar of soap,” but for now she seems happy with my unsophisticated attempts at music.
We had Erin’s 2 year check up last week and it went great. She is still tall and lean (~90% for height and ~50% for weight with a whopping 20% for BMI). She got 2 booster shots and blood drawn and did not shed a tear. This is not to say that she wasn’t surprised and upset by her pokes, but she recovered very quickly and loved her stickers. She got a princess sticker and a pony sticker. So far, the princess craze is lost on her, and she told me later that she got “a sticker of a pony and a sticker of a girl.” She is also still talking about her “little owies” from the doctors.
Erin is working on a pretty good sense of humor. She loves to be teased, which is either genetic or a defense mechanism for dealing with her Grampa Dean. She loves to tell us that the doggy in the book is a kitten and wait for our reaction, she loves to tell people that they are silly or a "teaser-beazer." She also says things that are funny without actually meaning to. Our recent favorite is when she was wearing a dress, she said "Erin has some no pants on!"
She has been very interested in letters and numbers recently. She will count up to 20 pretty well (15 and 16 really shouldn’t be numbers after all) and she will recite her ABCs. Even better, she will spell her name “E-R-I-N, Erin!” and actually recognizes most of her letters. She will tell you that “C is for cow,” “M is for Matty and Mama,” and “F is for Frances!” She loves to pick out letters she recognizes in books and signs, but is still convinced that most words that have an E and and R probably spell Erin.
We’re still having a few tantrums, but usually they are small and short lived. She is beginning to master the art of whining, which I’m not thrilled about, and is working on how to deal with frustration. Aside from tantrums, her most consistent overt expression of frustration is throwing. It is still pretty wimpy and she doesn’t actually throw things at people so I’m happy. She also hasn’t really gotten the idea of hitting people. She’ll swing her arms wildly when she’s unhappy, but mostly she ends up hitting walls.
Erin is going to be starting daycare at the beginning of June and she’ll already tell you “Erin go to school this summer!” She’s not that sure of what this will entail, but tells us that “Erin will have a teacher,” and “Erin go down the slide at school, Whee!” I’m a little aprehensive about how well this will go over. It’s hard for me to imagine her spending her days with people who are not genetically programed to love and adore her, but I’m sure that it will be just fine. I am also sure that our healthy streak is about to come to an end. It was nice while it lasted!
Nothing too new this week.. just the usual: work, eat, play, sleep.
Erin is still having a great time helping me cook. I made some cupcakes this morning for a friend and she liked to stir, scoop and pour. Unfortunately, she's a little messier and less precise than me, so our final products are a little sub par. I'm not sure exactly what went wrong with the cupcakes; they look great, but are a little off. Oh well, maybe we'll do better next time.
We also got out some baby stuff this morning to lend to a friend with a new baby. Little did I know that a infant car seat could be so much fun. She rocked in it, played with the buckles and tried to convince me that she still fit in it.
I should apologize yet again for the lack of posting, but I'm sure it gets tiresome to read. In any case, it's time for an update.
Today is a beautiful day in Minneapolis, 6 months of winter are almost worth it for a day like today... almost. Matt ran, I ran and we'll go play outside without a winter coat after Erin wakes up from her nap. I can just imagine the vitamin D being churned by my skin out in the sunshine!
So Erin continues to amaze us with her new tricks. She can say her numbers to 10 and can actually count objects 2-4 objects fairly reliably. She recognizes a few letters (her favorites are E and M) and she will spell her name for you if you ask. She will also insist that she writes. She'll ask you to write a name (usually she'll request Erin or Tommy), then she'll grab the pen, make a few scribbles and say "Tom!" I suppose my letters look like nonsense to her, so it's just all part of the game. She's very into coloring lately and will request it constantly. She's also great with her colors and loves to talk about the "purple plate," the "blue boots," or the "red balloon." She only occasionally has trouble identifying colors and will insist that we have a yellow car or a blue dog.
I stopped counting her new words over a month ago when I counted about 40 new words that week. Her vocabulary is in the hundreds and new and surprising words appear daily. This week she learned "opposites" and "absolutely." She will imitate almost anything and so we have to be very careful these days about what she hears. She loves to copy what we say to the dogs and so we hear her saying "kennel, Duncan," "be good, Oscar," and loves to tell them that it's "Erin's food, not for Oscar." Usually she's saying this as she's offering him something tasty from her tray. At home she talks in a constant monologue, describing what she is doing and what she wants us to do. She's using more and more full sentences and stringing 5-6 words together. Last weekend after we dropped Matt at the airport she told me "No see airplanes fly away."
Her sense of humor continues to evolve and she loves to be silly, tease and laugh. That being said, she doesn't always want to tease or be silly and will let us know by issuing the command "don't be silly, Mama." She also will let me know when she doesn't want to be tickled by telling me "no tickle Erin, Mama."
I finally broke down after our trip to Portland and gave Erin a haircut. It was cute and curly when we were in Portland, but is so scraggly here that I just gave up. I just cut the mullet off and it turned out ok, but next time I should remember that a high-backed highchair is not the idea seat and another set of hands or distraction would be a good thing. She moved her head all around and it's a miracle that I didn't lop off an ear. In any case, she looks a bit less scruffy now and you can barely tell that it's uneven. Good job.
Lately Gramma Jan (Gaga-Dun) and Daddy and Laura are her favorite people. She still loves to play with Dean (Boppa Deanie) and tease with him, but I have been really stink her eyes. I think it's the transition of me heading back to work, but my presence was enough to incite tears and tantrums this week. I heard enough of "go away, Mama," to last a lifetime this week. This weekend went better and I'm hoping it was just a passing phase.
She got some rain boots this week from Jan and Dean and they have rarely left her feet since. She gets a kick out of stomping around the house and taking them on and off. She does a good job of getting them on, but is only 50-50 for getting them on the right feet. None of those details seem to bother her and she is just so proud of herself. She is also more and more interested in wearing big people shoes. She lost it this morning when I wouldn't take off my shoes to let her wear them.
Erin remains an easy kid, but with more and more toddler coming out. She has very definite ideas about how things should be (any ideas where this came from?) and insists on doing things herself. She is very assertive about being independent with a lot of things and only accepts help if she thinks we aren't really helping. Still, it's pretty easy to get her to comply if she can help with a part of the process. Diaper changes are ok as long as she gets to pick the diaper and get warm water. Tooth brushing is ok if she gets to pick the song we sing, getting in the carseat is ok if she gets to help with the buckle. We've also relied on the timer a lot lately so things don't seem so arbitrary to her. She gets her 1 minute of teeth brushing then it's my turn, we'll play for 5 more minutes and so far when the timer goes off, she's ok with it. Sometimes it's exhausting, but still she's easier than most.
Sleep is going ok. As usual she's mostly fine with just a few small bumps in the road. Last week she got up at 4:45 one morning, but luckily she's happy to sit in her crib and sing until we eventually got her up. It's taking her a long time to fall asleep at night, but again, she doesn't need us at all and just plays and sings in her crib until she passes out. She falls asleep in some very interesting positions this way, but she seems happy.
We had a great trip out to Portland last month and Erin was trilled to be around all of her cousins. Her quiet little world gets turned upside down, but she loves to imitate the big kids. She started drinking out of a real cup in Portland and will rarely agree to a sippy cup anymore. We've had a few spills, but mostly she does great and looks like such a big kid drinking from a real cup. Matt got a chance to interview at OHSU while we were out there and it was fun to entertain the idea that we may actually leave Minneapolis at some point. The weather was also a wonderful break from winter and we were treated to 50 degree, sunny days the entire trip. The crocuses were up, the trees were starting to bloom. How wonderful. Erin traveled well, as usual, but was so thrilled with having her own seat for the trip out there, that she kept trying to shove me out of my seat on the way back, while insisting "Erin own seat please."
Matt's finished interviewing now. He saw UCSF, UMN, Mayo, OHSU and UW. Now comes the really hard part of trying to figure out what to do. We don't have to make a rank list until the end of May and will match mid-June. It's kind of nice that we have some time to mull it all over, but at the same time it's hard to have a decision this big hanging over our head. Just so Erin could put in her 2 cents, this week Dean taught her to say "absolutely Minnesota." So helpful! I think that we are going to try to take a trip in May to get a second look at OHSU and UW, but finding the time is always a bit of a challenge.
Work is busy for Matt this month and luckily not too busy for me. I'm counting down my last 10 weeks of residency and it's hard to believe that it's actually that close. But in true Lee fashion, I've got a bad case of senioritis and I'd rather not be doing any of this at all. I shouldn't complain, really I've only got 7 more calls left and I should thank my lucky stars that I've made it this far.
I guess that about covers everything. Anyone with any good advice for helping us make this decision about where to go is welcome to share it, otherwise it looks like we may have to rely on whatever Dean teaches Erin next. It was always just a matter of time before she realized that she was in charge of this family...
Erin starts "school" on Tuesday. We went for a visit last week and she did great. She didn't cling to us at all and wanted to join in with the other kids and seems interested in what everyone was doing. She loved the little kid bathroom and spied on a few kids using the potty. She did comment that one of the kids used "a lot of toilet paper." I guess it doesn't take that much to impress her. They take the kids to try to use the toilet every few hours and I'm hoping that watching her peers do this will inspire her. I doubt that she'll refuse to try (like she does at home) when all the other kids are doing it. That will be excellent.
The teachers want to put her in a class with the older kids (mostly kids closer to and a little older than 3) because she is so big and seems more mature than the younger kids. The next youngest kid in her class is just over 2 and a half. I'm a little hesitant, but I really think that she'll do great. We decided to go ahead with the older kid class and we'll reevaluate in another week or so.
And last but not least, we decided it was time to take the side off of her crib. I still feel like a fool, messing with a good thing. But, she had managed to climb out once and bonk her head and it has to happen at some point. We debated whether to wait until things had settled down after starting school, but I think that she's going to be so tired with school that she might just conk out. We'll see. So tonight the side came off, she talked a lot about how it was a big girl bed now and how big girls stay in their beds. She took a book to bed, sang and talked for about 20 minutes and now it is silent. Could it really be that easy?
I feel like a big girl now too. I had my last day as a resident on Friday and now move on to being a chief next week. Wow. It feels very surreal. I never really thought that I would actually finish. I'm trying to hold my new status over Matt, but unfortunately he still knows more than I do, so it's not as satisfying as I thought it would be. Oh well.
