What happened to the rest of November?

Where did the month go? I can't believe Thanksgiving has come and gone and Christmas is fast approaching. I'm completely ready to start decorating this year though. Erin is so much more aware of everything than she was last year. She already recognizes snowmen and Santa Clause and all of the other commercial holiday figures (it's sad how commercialized Christmas has become but hard to avoid at the same time). She is actually obsessed with Santa. Last year she was terrified of anything Santa, but this year she has seen Santa several times. He came to the end of the theater production I was in and she came to all the shows so Erin thought that every time we got in the car she was going to see Santa. It's very cute. I cannot wait for Christmas morning with her. I have a feeling it's going to be the most fun Christmas morning yet.

Both the kiddos are into everything - especially Jeffrey. I've got a gate up at the kitchen and doors closed at the stairs etc... He is certainly keeping me on my toes. He's not yet crawling on all fours but gets up on his knees and rocks back and forth. A few times he's made one move forward that way, but generally he launches himself forward and proceeds to army crawl around the rest of the house. The boy is going to have some super developed shoulder muscles.

He's still not sleeping really well - certainly not as well as Erin was at this point. He's up at least once in the night and often several times. Part of it may have been teething as he broke a third tooth through yesterday. I'm trying lots of different ways to encourage him to sleep through. I've stopped nursing him in the middle of the night so he won't think he HAS to eat to get back to sleep. Last night I was able to just go into his room and rub his back for a few minutes and he calmed right down.

I've also increased his solid food intake. He gets 3 solid meals a day now - cereal and fruit in the morning, fruit and veggies at lunch and then cereal with fruit and a meat at dinner. He's even sitting in the big high chair to eat his meals now. He certainly loves his solid foods now.

Erin is doing a lot of exciting things now. She LOVES to color and draw. She will put smiley faces in sunshines if you draw her a sunshine. She can sit at the table and do that for hours. She is getting much better at recognizing colors now too.

She still loves to play with Jeffrey and gets concerned if she can't see him at times. Her favorite game to play with him is "tickle" where she lays almost on top of him and tickles him under his chin. He LoVes this and squeals every time she does it. Thankfully she never puts her weight completely on him. I still have to watch her very carefully with him.

Erin's other obsession is the Disney cartoon "Little Einsteins." This is about 4 little kids and a rocket and they go on special missions each episode. The kids who are watching are brought into the show by doing special movements or helping to count etc... Erin can now count to 13 on a regular basis and mimics all kinds of physical movements such as clapping in a pattern. It's amazing to see all the things she can pick up on.

Well, I've written a novel here, but I feel like everything is happening so fast these days. One blink and I've missed something with both of them.

More playing with Photoshop

I've been playing some more with Photoshop these days. I've been experimenting with backgrounds etc... What do you think?

Erin found a cute seat to sit and eat her apple


Before


After

Too cute for words...

...but I'm going to give it a try. This happened a week or so ago and was just the cutest thing Erin has done in quite some time.

After coming with me to a long rehearsal we took some down time before going to bed and watched some football. Erin had two of her friends - her baby and Norman my old stuffed beaver - down in the basement. She decided it was time for them to take naps so she took turns bringing them upstairs to her bed and laying them down. Then she'd come back down and get the other one. This pattern went on for 15 minutes or so and is nothing new. I often find Little People, crayons, books tucked into her bed -- and sometimes even ours.

Well after one of her trips back downstairs with Norman, she climbed up onto the couch with Nana and me. We figured she was beginning to get tired herself and was going to sack out on the couch for a few minutes. Well, were we wrong. She looked at me and said, "Baby eating." I wasn't sure what she was talking about but what followed cleared up all my questions. Let's see if I can put it into words.

Erin turned Norman onto his side so his tummy was against hers. She then lifted her shirt up and snuggled Norman close. She was "feeding" him just like mommy feeds Jeffrey. She held him close for about 10 seconds, sat him up and proceeded to burp him -- a little vigorously but quite cute. She then laid him down the opposite way and repeated the process on the "other side".

Once she was finished with Norman she put him in one of her little red chairs to watch football. She went upstairs and got her baby and started all over again with baby. She repeated the process 5 or 6 times, feeding, burping and setting up to watch football.

I caught it video, but didn't get a still picture of it. She was very quiet and laid back about it that I could have very easily missed it.

It just goes to prove that Erin picks up on Everything she sees and hears.

I am 6 months old now

I am six months old now!!!!

I am 16 lbs. 6 ozs (50th percentile) and 27 1/8" long (75th percentile) -- that's about 1 pound heavier and 1 inch longer than my sister was at this age.

I still spit up.

I can army crawl all around the house and I love to find all the cords on the floor.

I can rock back and forth on my hands and knees.

I have 2 bottom teeth.

I can sit up on my own.

I sleep on my tummy (whether mommy likes it or not).

I drool a lot.

I chew on everything.

I still spit up.

I am starting to get a little more hair.

I have big-boy carseat because I was getting too heavy for mommy to lug around in my carrier.

I love to eat cereal and fruits and veggies -- bananas and sweet potatoes are my favorites right now.

I can make a mess with the cat food.

Did I mention I still spit up?

I squeal and squeak when I am happy.

I LOVE to give you my best smile.

I giggle at my sister because she's just so cool.

I stress my mommy out beyond belief because I am into everything and she wishes I was like my sister and would just sit in the middle of the floor and be happy.

I have decided it is very cool to be 6 months old.

Halloween Happenings

Each year, Halloween gets a little more fun with Erin. This year she had her first experience really helping to pick out pumpkins and went on her first door to door trick-or-treating experience. We dressed her up as Boo (from Monster's Inc) and Jeffrey tagged along as a cute little lion.

Although we picked out some nice big pumpkins, we didn't get a chance to carve them because Erin's great-Oma came down to visit on her 88th birthday. How many toddlers have an 88-year old best friend? It's great. Anyway, we didn't get time to carve pumpkins because it was so beautiful on Sunday we went up to a local orchard on top of one of our local "mountains". We picked out some apples and wandered through the pumpkin choices. Erin and Jeffrey sat down in the middle of the pumpkin patch for a little break. Although I couldn't get them to look at me, they were certainly a cute pair among the pumpkins.


When we got back to the house, Tom spiced up the house with the smells of cooking applesauce. Erin did get some time to paint the small pumpkins she had picked out. Here's a sample of her artwork. She LOVES to paint and has been asking every day since then to paint more pumpkins. It's great that she loves craft time because when I was her age (and a little older) I never felt like participating in craft time much.

On Monday it was close to 80 degrees out in the afternoon. Erin and I planted some daffodil bulbs in the yard and Jeffrey lounged on the back stoop in his bouncy chair. After playing in the dirt, I encouraged Erin to take a little nap by reminding her that she would get to go out with her pumpkin basket and get some candy.

We headed into town to hang out with some friends from the theater group we are part of. They all sit around in their front yard and hand out candy, listen to music etc... Erin's favorite part of the night was getting to dance to Sid's crazy music. We took Erin trick-or-treating from there and hit about 15 houses.

I gave Erin two glow-sticks, one to carry and the other to wear around her neck. We practiced saying "trick-or-treat" most of the day. Erin would walk with us to a house and as she walked up the sidewalk she'd recite "trick-treat,, trick-treat". She would knock on the door (she can't reach most doorbells still). Then she'd wait patiently with her pumpkin basket out. Whenever the homeowner would come do the door, I'd prompt Erin, "What do you say?" and Erin would just smile shyly. Everyone thought that was very cute. Then as we'd head back down the sidewalk Erin would begin chanting, "trick-treat, trick-treat". My silly little girl. Jeffrey came along in the stroller and was asleep by the end of the adventure.

As soon as we got back to Sid's, Erin returned to her dancing ways and picked out a sucker from her pumpkin. It was a great night, if just for the fun of watching Erin get more and more excited about Halloween. I can't wait for next year.