In honor of her Irish roots and St. Patrick's day, Erin decided it's about time to post some more pictures and give some updates. I agree.
Erin has been 10 months old for two weeks now and has been having a great month. We traveled out to Portland for a week and just got back yesterday. Despite all of my angst about flying with her, Erin did really well. It was a lot of work to keep her entertained, but we managed. I'm pretty sure that the lady sitting next to us on the flight to Minneapolis last night was a little less than thrilled about reading "Sheep in a Jeep" for a half hour straight, but she kept her mouth shut. It was hard work to keep her entertained on the planes, but in the airport it was a piece of cake. She loved all of the activity and new things to look at. Her favorite pastime was waving to the people that we saw. Most of them weren't paying any attention to her, but it didn't seem to bother her one bit.
Our wonderful eater disappeared for a little while during our trip to Portland, but Erin seems to be eating well again now that we are home. At her checkup today, her weight has dropped in percentiles again and now she's at the 47% in weight. Not so bad, but she's at the 90% for height, so she's looking very lean. As long as she keeps gaining weight, I'm not too concerned, but we'll have to keep pushing the high calorie foods. Lucky gal. Erin finally figured out that what goes in her mouth doesn't have to stay in. In Portland she discovered that she could pull food out of her mouth. Her favorite is to retrieve a cheerio that has been sitting in her mouth for several minutes. What a treat. In Portland, Papa Joe gave Erin her first taste of ice cream and in true Lee girl fashion, she loved it.
Erin has been sleeping through the night like a champ for a while now. She still goes to bed pretty early, but we might be able to shift that back slightly as she is getting older. She takes two naps every day, but continues to be inconsistent about the length. It's ok with me for now because she seems so happy and well rested most of the time. Erin also wowed me by sleeping pretty well while we were in Portland, something that she has never done. We had several missed and troublesome naps, but had only one bad night. Nice work Erin. It's amazing how much better the trip went because sleep was going well.
Erin is still fine tuning her walking, but she has been a full fledged walker for a few weeks now. She amazed everyone in Portland with her skills. She also learned to climb stairs and sit herself up by herself while we were home. She is so proud of herself and loves the attention she gets for them. We had her 9 month check up today and our doc was surprised that she was walking and even more surprised how many skills that she skipped on the way to walking. Now that she's walking, she seems to be going back and filling in the gaps. I think that climbing the stairs at home helped a lot. Now that she's spending so much time on her feet, I rediscovered a pair of shoes my stepsister Kara gave us when Erin was really little. They are really cute and have a real sole and should be better for walking outside. Erin, however, was initially quite skeptical and kept trying to shake them off and high step out of them. I guess heavier shoes take a bit of getting used to.
Her talking has improved a lot and now Erin spends more time babbling and making noises. I'm pretty sure that she says uh-oh and up (only when she sees stairs), but she understands so much more. We've all been talking to her constantly she she was born, but it's amazing to discover that she actually understands some of what we say. She certainly understands no, not for Erin, and just for looking, but she also is starting to follow other commands like give kisses, not in your mouth, turn the page, pat the dog, pat mom's nose, wave, clap and say hi and bye. She will also tell you that the cow says "mmmm." Unfortunately when asked, she will also tell you that the dog says "mmmm," the kitty says "mmmm" and the chicken says "mmmm." It's just very exciting to watch the wheels turning and the immense progress over a short period of time. I keep trying to get her to say "mama," but she much prefers the sound of "dada." Matt is very happy.
In Portland, the weather was great and we got to spend time taking walks, playing with friends and even visiting the zoo. Erin was rather indifferent to most of the animals at the zoo, gave me the stink eye after I tried to give her some sunglasses, but loved playing "so big" while I pushed the stroller. Erin loved playing with Lucy and Brennan and continues to be fascinated by older kids. We got a chance to see her friends Keats and Anna. Anna and Erin had a hard time sharing toys, but managed to share a really nice cold that now Erin has shared with me. As with the last cold, Erin seems to be handling it much better than I am. I'm such a baby.
Our only difficulty in Portland was a bit of stranger anxiety/separation anxiety. One morning I left Erin with Grandma Beth for an hour while I worked out with Jan. The separation itself went ok, but Erin was very wary of Grandma Beth for the rest of the week. She was ok with playing with Grandma Beth from a distance and only if I was there as well. It was hard to have such very clingy kiddo and that Erin's personality was a bit subdued most of the week. Despite this, Grandma didn't take it too personally and has agreed to come back and help watch Erin in April and in June. What a trooper.
Erin, Matt and I took full advantage of our one nice springy day this weekend to get outside. Erin was delighted to walk on the sidewalk... that is until she fell and bloodied her lip. I'm sure it's just one of many injuries to come this summer. 
