Long overdue

What a month. Matt and I are working way too much and barely keeping up with life. So please accept our apologies for being delinquent about updates.

The most exciting update is that Erin has a new cousin! Harriet was born a few days ago and weighted 8lbs 4oz. I've seen just a few pictures, but she is cute and looks a lot like her sibs. I'm not sure when we're going to get a chance to meet her, but I'm thrilled that Erin will have a cousin close to her age.

Now on to the more routine:

Matt and I are really having a tough month, but as always, Erin is doing great. She's spending lots of quality days and nights with Jan, Dean and Laura. Sometimes Erin seems to find me and Matt a little dull after being entertained by the rest of the crew.

Erin has a real tooth now and is working on a few more. It popped through about 3 weeks ago, but now you can really see it when she smiles. I think that one of the top teeth is going to come through next and then she'll work on the other bottom one. Luckily she only experimented with biting for a few days.


Erin has also started making a little more progress towards crawling. I figured that she was going to skip it entirely, but she sometimes gets up on all fours and looks like she wants to move. She's also perfected spinning around in circles on her belly. We all find this very amusing, but she gets frustrated very easily that she can't go where she wants to. In fact she can scoot herself, but it is always backwards and she gets mad that she keeps getting further and further from what she wants. She is much happier to walk around the house endlessly as we hold her hands. She will cruise in her crib and along the coffee table, but hasn't mastered pulling herself up yet.

Erin continues to be the picture of health. I managed to get sick again, but Erin still hasn't picked anything up. We're due for her 9 month well child check, but I couldn't an appointment for another 7 weeks! Matt and I both really like our pediatrician, but the scheduling is a disaster. We're thinking of switching her to the clinic where I work for the convenience. My clinic has evening and weekend hours, a much more open schedule and is only a half mile down the road.


Erin is still sleeping well at night and has started sleeping through the night more frequently. I was waiting to intervene to see if she'd do this on her own and it looks like she might. It's been great for my sleep, but part of me misses our middle of the night time together, especially during these months that I spend so much time away. She's also decided that she will only sleep on her tummy. It's funny coming from a kid who has fought tummy time so much, but she seems happy with it, so I'll just let it go.

Erin's also wowing us with her fine motor skills. She's great at turning the pages of board books and can pick up smaller and smaller objects and manipulate them easily. She's getting even better at feeding herself cheerios and bananas. The mess is incredible, but she has so much fun and the dogs love it and get a lot of goodies from the floor. In the end the sticky floor is totally worth it.

Winter Fun

We're due for an update on the start to our 2009. It's been really cold lately, and Erin and the dogs have cabin fever for sure. Grandpa built Erin a sled (before Christmas), and the pictures above are funny so I thought I'd include them now. Grandma, Grandpa, and Laura have been very generous in watching Erin while Fran and I are back working irregular schedules this month. One of Erin's overnights with Laura allowed Fran and me to escape to a nice dinner downtown and a stay in a fancy hotel-- an urban getaway. Below is us right before leaving.


One of Erin's favorite Christmas presents is a picture book of farm animals that makes realistic sounds and has "fur" to pet. She loves to turn pages on cardboard books lately.



Why hear the pig when you can taste it instead?



Erin is a voracious eater. She loves cheerios and is getting better at picking them up and finding her mouth. Pureed fruit, veggies, and beans are always a hit. Part of our enjoyment is watching Erin try to open her mouth as wide as possible, like this. An apple that didn't fall far from the tree, if you've ever eaten a meal with Dad.



Speaking of food, family dinnertimes have been few and far between with Fran on call every fourth night and me working a lot of evening ER shifts. Last night was the first time all week we'd been together, so we celebrated with takeout from our favorite Thai place (and cokes!).

8 months

I got a bunch of photos from Laura from our Christmas celebrations, so I'll finish up Erin Christmas pictures. Laura took these with her brand new camera, notice how great the color is. Erin is also showing her serious side in a few which is cute. I'm starting to covet a new camera, but somehow that doesn't go along very well with my new years resolution to cut back on spending. Drat.

So our big girl is 8 months old today. She celebrated by taking only 30 minute naps and working on her first tooth! It hasn't popped through, but the bottom right gum is all red and swollen and I can see the tooth working its way up. I was beginning to think that we'd have to get her dentures someday soon so she could chew food eventually. Disaster averted. She is otherwise working hard at standing while holding on, and as this picture demonstrates, apparently she can manage to stand temporarily on her own. She is also really getting the hang of walking holding my hands and takes much more balanced steps. After a few feet, however, she gets impatient with me holding her hands and she tries to let go. Her independent streak is blazing through. Her balance and strength is getting better each day and I think that she'll be cruising very soon. She's also reluctantly making a few efforts at crawling, but can't seem to coordinate the bottom and the chest being off the ground together. It's an either or issue now and she won't tolerate trying for long.

Aside from these new developments, Erin continues to be a pretty easy going and happy baby. She is starting to let me snuggle with her for a few seconds from time to time which is really nice. She still has favorite books and we read "I Like Black and White" many, many times a day. Luckily for our sanity, she'll let us sneak in a few others into the rotation and sit through a few pages before heading back to the usual repertoire. She's still a great eater and has expanded her diet to include many fruits and veggies. We haven't found anything yet that she won't eat, but is less fond of pumpkin and prunes, she loves her pears and mango and will still happily "clap clap" for a bowl of rice cereal.


Erin is still stalled out a bit on the verbalizing. We saw an ENT and had her hearing formally tested before Christmas, luckily it was normal. So now we're considering a speech evaluation through county. Hopefully she just falls on slow end of normal and we (I) just need to be patient, but I want to know if there are things that we should be doing as well. She is still growling and squealing and tonight we had a "conversation" over dinner which was good. Maybe she's just going to be the strong silent type.

Laura came to watch Erin yesterday while I took care of a few loose ends at the hospital and she reported on how protective Duncan is getting of Erin. Apparently he gets really upset and growls when Laura takes Erin's pacifier away and is always underfoot to make sure no one mistreats Erin. He doesn't usually watch me this closely so either he's decided that I'm a lost cause or he's trying to stay on my good side so I'll feed him. I guess we'll have to keep an eye on this because I don't want him to get nutty with people.

Next week is my last week home before heading back to work. I'm not all that excited about going back and I'll be heading back to do a month on the bone marrow transplant service. Ick. The good news is, however, that Matt has next week off, so we will have time home together for the first time in months. I can't wait.