Erin, Big Girl

'Big girl Erin' has been one of her favorite phrases lately, and we agree, she's definetely not a baby anymore. Her language has really taken off this month. She speaks in 2-4 word phrases regularly now. They usually are not ambiguous... 'move, dada' or 'sit gaga'. She gets a kick out of watching a 'bee-yo' (video) on the computer, including celebrities singing ABC's on Sesame Street or a home video of Erin going down the slide in grandma's basement. She's happy filling in the next letter if we stop singing the ABC song abruptly. My favorite new word of hers was a long time coming, her name! It sounds like 'Ennh' as the R is still difficult, but this has largely replaced pointing at her chest when she wants something.



Tea parties are a big hit and always require an audience of stuffed animals. If an animal falls over we hear a frustrated 'sit up, sit up!'

Fran is back on call this month and working a lot. I finished a week of night shifts in the ER and had this weekend off, so got to spend time with Erin while I switched my biologic clock back to being up in the daytime. As usual, Grandma and Grandpa Prekker have been a huge help. We're eagerly awaiting an extended visit from Grandma Beth who gets in tomorrow evening.

Happy New Year!

Ok, so no one in the Prekker household actually stayed up to welcome the new year, but we are embracing it none the less. We had a lazy day around the house today, playing with Erin, napping and a minimal amount of housework... it was great.

Erin has had a great few days. The cold lingers just a tad with a runny nose and the occasional cough and nasty diaper, but mostly we're back to normal. Erin's goal lately has definitely been learning and using language. She's got another 10 new words since my last post and we're having trouble keeping up. She now says date, tea, cup, grape, what, yeah, home, bread and cheese. She imitates a lot of other words, but hasn't yet started saying them spontaneously. She's still refusing to even imitate her name, so she just uses hand signals to indicate herself. It works, but it'll be nice when she learns her name.

She spends some time before sleeping and when waking up in the morning talking to herself. It's often gibberish, but she does mix in some real words. This morning we were awakened to "cut apple," over and over again. Before nap today we heard a lot about "hundo Tom!!" Erin loves to talk about Tom, but is still a little shy when she actually sees him.

We ran some errands yesterday and Erin saw a helicopter land on the UMMC hospital roof while we were right outside the building. She thought it was the greatest things ever, but now keeps pointing at the sky and saying "more." I've become such a disappointing parent because I can't conjure helicopters. She also had a great time running down the icy sidewalks. I wish we could spend more time outside, but it's just too cold outside these days for much more than the hurried walk to the car.

So to play catch up on photos, here are a few from the last few weeks.