More pictures

I finally caught a picture of Erin with her thumb. What a cutie.


Erin is getting more adventurous while standing. She decided today that she could hold on with one hand and try to pet her best friend. Duncan is becoming a little wary of her "petting."


Matt got a pair of kazoos for Erin for Christmas. Mostly Matt plays his and Erin tries to take them both for herself. There is a lot of drool involved.

New tricks

I forgot to mention a few of Erin's latest tricks in the last post. Erin has been clapping for a while now, but about 3 weeks ago, we discovered that she would often clap on command and would clap during specific songs. Her favorite is "bingo." When you get to the part about "B-I-N-G-O" with clapping, she claps along with us. It's very cute and will get her to stop fussing on the changing table. She also greets us in the morning or after naps by clapping. It seems to be an all purpose "I'm pretty happy" kind of gesture.

Erin also wowed me two nights ago when she reached out and turned the pages to Goodnight Moon. We've been reading it at bedtime for ages, but since she was swaddled until very recently, she didn't get to show off her dexterity. So far she only gets to help with the board books, since she likes to crumple the pages on regular books, but she seems very happy with her new found skill.

Erin is also rapidly improving upon her standing, walking with help and pulling up skills. She pulled to standing against the outside of her crib yesterday and today took one step while holding on to the inside of the crib. I fear that mobility is upon us and Matt and I need to get serious about Erin-proofing the house. Luckily having Duncan forced us to get a head-start several years ago and we're actually in ok shape (I hope).

Besides sucking her thumb, Erin has discovered playing with her tongue. She's been blowing raspberries for months, but now just holds her tongue out and chews on it. She also sticks it out sometimes when she's concentrating really hard. Hmm.. I fear that she may be taking after her daddy in yet another way.

Erin continues to be a trooper about the cold. She's resigned herself to the snowsuit, but gives me such dirty looks after she's all strapped in.

I guess that's about it from here. On the whole she's doing better with night-time sleep. She was only up for real once last night, but it took her an hour to get back to sleep and followed that up with 2 ultra short naps today. Who knows. I'm trying to just let it go and not over think it.

Merry Christmas!

Erin and I were out in Portland for a week and got home on the 23. We had a good time, but our visiting was limited by the weather. Portland had rotten weather. It snowed 13 inches , with some ice thrown in there, and it was cold! If we wanted cold and snowy we would have stayed home. Portland was shut down, the buses stopped running and we did a lot of walking. Unfortunately while we got to spend a lot of time with Gramma Beth, we only got to see Papa Joey for a few minutes once. I think that we all got a bit of cabin fever and by the end of the week, Erin was a tad on the cranky side. She also struggled with sleep and was waking almost every hour during the night. On the bright side, Erin had many happy piano sessions with Gramma, had a blast playing with Lucy and Brennan, loved being fed by Muggy and got to take a bath in Gramma's new sink.







Erin and I made it home in time for Christmas. We had a great time with Matt's extended family on Christmas eve and over to Jan and Dean's for Christmas morning. Erin was totally spoiled by her Grandparents. She seemed to enjoy herself and loved playing with the wrapping paper.



We've continued to have a tough time with sleep since coming home, but I think that we're heading in the right direction. We gave up the swaddle cold turkey when we got back, so we've had 4 nights sans swaddle. Erin' s having a bit of a hard time adjusting to her newfound freedom. She swims herself in circles in the crib and I found her on her tummy this morning. She didn't really seem to enjoy either of those, but I'm sure she'll settle down.

Erin is getting really good at standing up against the couch, the coffee table and her crib. She will even take a few steps holding our hands. She also starting to seem frustrated about sitting still, but can't seem to get the idea of crawling. Her other new trick is thumb sucking. She still loves her pacifier, but I've caught her sucking her thumb several times over the last few days. Who knows if this is something that will stick around, but it's pretty cute.

Mama's home!

I just finished 8 weeks of call every fourth night and I'm so excited to be home with Erin again. It was a long stretch without enough time at home, but I really enjoyed my month at Minneapolis Children's and got the news that I was selected as one of the pediatric chief residents to start in 2010. That means that I'll be chief when we move over to the new University Children's hospital and when we have our accreditation visit. It will be a busy year, but I'm very excited about it.

Erin seems more grown up every day. She has thrived during her time with Matt, Laura and Jan and Dean. She learned how to clap about 2 weeks ago and now loves to clap her hands together. She even makes a clapping sound every once in a while. She has started to vocalize more and her favorite new noise is a growl. I think that she must have picked it up from the dogs, because neither Matt or I have voices that low.

I'm convinced that Erin is never going to crawl and I'm ok with it. She screams bloody murder every time I put her on her tummy and refuses to do anything but cry even if you leave her there for a few minutes. I figure she'll start scooting around on her bottom one of these days and then skip straight to cruising. She's learning how to pull herself up on the couch and chairs and loves to be standing. She's really taken to the Johnny Jump-up and will entertain herself for a long time. She also enjoys jumping when we're holding her so she's always a good arm work out.


Erin's remained mostly happy, but has started to develop more of a sense of what she wants. She's also getting harder to distract. She's picked 3-4 favorite books and we read them endlessly. She wants everything that is just out of reach, she loves to hold the spoon and help out while she's eating and has started fussing during diaper changes because she doesn't like to be lying down. She continues to be a good eater and we haven't found anything that she won't eat when mixed with rice cereal. In fact she often fusses while we're feeding her because we don't shovel fast enough. She has tolerated the cold well and is patient while we bundle her up and stick her in the carseat. Erin's favorite "toys" these days are spatulas, tins to bang on and paper. I hope that no one is contemplating any fancy gifts for her this Christmas, because this girl is enthralled by the simple things in life. What a kid.


We're still having good luck with Erin's sleep and she is usually sleeps about 12 hours at night and wakes only once. She's been going to sleep without too much fuss. She's somewhere in the transition between 2 and 3 naps. She won't take 3 good naps, but 2 is not really enough, so we've had some cranky late afternoons. I'm ashamed to admit that we still swaddle her for sleeping. It works so well and it's now such an integral part of her sleep routine. We've half-heartedly tried a few times to have her sleep without the swaddle with poor results. It's also been really hard motivate ourselves to rock the boat, especially when we were so desperate for sleep lately. However, now that I've got some time home and sleep at night is so much less important for me, we'll be going cold turkey with the swaddle when we come home from Portland. And please hold me to that.


We had Erin's 6 month well baby exam about 10 days ago. Yes, she was 7 months at the time, but time just got away from us. I'm happy that now she's had a few rounds of routine vaccinations and her flu shot heading into the winter. I've seen enough sickie kids in the hospital and am so happy with every week that passes that she's older and stronger. She has yet to be sick and I'm hoping to prolong that as long as possible. Her pediatrician was charmed by Erin's personality and happy with her growth. She was over 18 lbs at her visit and remains around the 75% for height and weight. We've been watching her language development carefully as she seems a little behind in that area. I think that we are more concerned that our doctor (she has the benefit of many more years of experience), but we're planning on having Erin's hearing tested and having a speech/language eval if things don't pick up.

Erin attended her first Prekker Christmas cookie baking day. We spent all day today over at Jan and Dean's and made 3 batches each of 5 different kinds of cookies. As always, we listened to the Peter, Paul and Mary Christmas special. I snitched cookie dough, Jan burned herself, and Laura chopped the nuts and tried to figure out exactly what size each of the cookies is supposed to be. The phrase, "I dunno, what did we do last year?" was uttered dozens of time and we had tons of fun. Erin presided over the whole thing and even donned an apron. She made us promise that next year she'll get to help more.

Erin and I are heading out to Portland this week to see everyone and have some pre-Christmas family time. Unfortunately Matt can't come with us, so he'll stay home and keep the house in order, hang out with the dogs and water the Christmas tree... oh and work and work and work. Matt's making the switch back to the ER so he'll be working shifts for the next 3 months.

7 months!

Erin had a busy week. She enjoyed her first Thanksgiving dinner at Grandma & Grandpa's house, and then turned 7 months old a few days later. Fran and I get a kick out of her curiosity. She's discovered the telephone, likes new foods (mangoes, sweet potatoes, prunes...), and loves to watch other little kids play. With our cold weather lately, I never realized how long it takes to bundle up an infant. She doesn't seem to mind.


With Fran working days and frequent 30 hour shifts, and me on nights lately, the grandparents have stepped in to help quite a bit. Here are a couple pictures that turned out really well.



Crawling remains elusive, but she loves to stand up holding just your hands-- here she is on Grandma's changing table.


The dogs make sure she's never lonely playing with her toys on the living room floor.



Although sometimes we can't agree on who should be the subject of the photo.



This one is funny. Makes getting christmas gifts that much tougher-- do we get Erin a bone, or Duncan a plastic duck? Both good for chewing, apparently.

Dad's week

I've been lucky to have Erin at home with me most of this week. We play with her toys, 'read' books (eat them), listen to music, and bundle up for chilly walks with the dogs. Erin's got the hang of her jump-up, she bounces and squeals and spins around. Duncan doesn't know what to make of it. Fran has left the university hospital for the friendlier children's hospital, but unfortunately call still comes every 4th night. I start a week of overnights this Sunday. Grandma lent us her bottles of bubbles, and they were a hit! Erin likes to watch Duncan pop them with his mouth. Good times.





Erin used to only be interested in the extra length of uke strings near the tuning pegs, but now she isn't content unless she can play with the whole thing. I like the second picture, maybe she'll be a cellist!

Our not so little girl

Since her half-birthday 2 weeks ago, Erin is growing in front of our eyes. She can sit up on her own, but crawling is not her thing yet. From the moment she wakes up in the morning, she's all smiles, shrieks, and curious looks.




Laura (with Tom and Erin in this picture), has taken over a bunch of the daycare duty these days. Without Laura, Grandpa, and Grandma, we'd be in trouble and Erin would be spending more time as the rogue baby in the hospital nursery ("Hold on, this baby doesn't have an ID band... and she's in cloth diapers!")





Bath time is still a party for Erin. We've clung onto this white plastic tub long enough, and the puddles on the kitchen floor from her splashing telling us it's time to move to the real bathtub.

Thanksgiving is coming up, probably Fran's (and my) favorite holiday. We're looking forward to seeing Muggy and Paul again-- it will be fun for them to watch Erin's new achievements in person. Dinner is at Grandma & Grandpas... Erin's first "feast"!

Erin's 6 months old!

By the looks of it, she can hardly believe it either! So many new things in the last few weeks... We've got a more consistent sleep/nap schedule, a great eater of people food (apples, pears, rice cereal, and of course the blueberries above), and lots of smiles and squeals. She is so curious-- everything new needs to be examined, touched, and tasted. A wonderful age, for sure.

Erin's first Halloween was kind of anticlimactic as her 6:30 pm bedtime precluded extended trick-or-treating. Grandma and Grandpa came over to babysit while Mom and Dad went to a nearby party dressed in their last-minute costumes (not pictured).


rin's special embroidered green scrubs (a great baby gift from Jon & Katie) made for a pretty cute doctor costume, complete with blue rubber crocs. Look out ER!









Yesterday we got bundled up and took our first trip to the Como Zoo. Erin seemed to like the other kids and her reflection in the windows just as much (or maybe more) than the animals. I'm sure we'll be back. For the record, Dad's favorite was the monkey exhibit.

Erin and Fran scope out the tiger below.



I thought the zebra would make an artsy black and white photo... only to be spoiled by the stink eye from Erin.

Baby it's cold outside

Dad's home on vacation this week while Fran started back again at the University hospital. Erin's taken this in stride. The biggest change she's noticed is that it takes us so much longer to get ready to leave the house-- look at all those layers! Fall weather is definitely here. We went on a walk to a nearby park today. She looked so cute in the baby bjorn, I had to take a picture using the bathroom mirror before we left. My timing was good on the first picture, the second one maybe a little too late ("Daaaad, it's hot..."). Not sure why my mouth is open in both?



Speaking of open mouths... Erin + rice cereal = love. She sits at her chair and just goes nuts. Like catnip for babies. We tried pureed green peas a couple days ago too, that got a more lukewarm response.


Finally, one of my favorite parts of the day is the time she spends on the changing table (before and after the dirty diaper). She's always giggly there, and lately she realized how easy it is to buzz her lips together-- she does a good one in the middle of this clip. Maybe she'll be a trombone player after all (we've got to wait until she's walking to decide if she's drum major material!).