22 months

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...