Baby in a bucket

Since we are certifiably crazy, we decided to host both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day dinners with a seven month old. Erin decided that she needed to help us out, so she helped Daddy set up the bar. Yeah, you can see how much she helps. Apparently, she's the only drink in the joint!

Couch potato

Now that Erin is sitting really well, she and I will sometimes just hang out on the couch. On the particular day that these pictures were taken, I got a bunch of really different expressions from here. Here's her resigned face, thinking, "Mommy, I guess I'll just never stop you from taking a million pictures of me."

Party time face.

Thumbs down on this movie, Mommy! (Actually, I was trying to capture the fact that she always sticks her pinky out when she sucks her thumb, but I was a little slow.)
The perfectly posed smiling picture! Finally!

Erin meets Santa

In mid December, there was a Children's Christmas Party at my work. This was Erin's first encounter with Santa. It was interesting for her, to say the least. She wasn't quite sure what to make of the whole situation, and this is the best picture we were able to get! You can see her confusion in her expression.

The rest of these pictures were taken on December 21st at daycare. Erin still didn't seem too sure of what was going on, but was far more interested in Santa's beard than anything else. She was definitely more relaxed about the whole thing. (And, as you can tell, Mommy and Daddy aren't great at switching up her wardrobe.)

Breakfast at Erin's

Since we were in complete and utter shock that she decided to eat well at last, we had to video it! Also, Erin makes a funny noise because of the way she closes her mouth on the spoon. It's kind of a squirting sound, as some of the food always comes back out, some to dribble down her chin, some to squirt all over Mommy or Daddy feeding her! She devours her food now, and it's just so much more fun to feed her now! I can't wait until she can start table food and chewing and eating what we're eating!



Breakfast from Barb on Vimeo.

Yay for carrots!

Finally! Erin got excited about eating solids. She opened her mouth for each bite, and even seemed to get impatient for me to keep shoveling it in! I don't know what did it, but I hope it's a trend that continues. She loves carrots as much as her Mommy does! We finally got a happy eating baby picture!

Bath time!

Erin can sit in the bathtub now, so we don't have to use the sling in her tub. We still use her infant tub, because I think the big tub is still a little too big and overwhelming. In the infant tub, she can still grab the sides to pull herself up if she needs to.



There's a little toy attachment on her bathtub that she just loves, especially since she's been teething. She's learned to pull on it to get it into her mouth. It's just so amazing to see how much she's changed!




She still gets wrapped up in a hooded towel when we're all done. She's starting to get a little too big for them, so we'll have to switch to regular towels eventually. Here's Daddy kissing the nice clean baby!

MMMMMMM......peas!

We've struggled with getting Erin to eat solids. She just really hasn't been that into it. But we've found a way that works, and we also found a food she doesn't seem to mind....peas. Since Todd really doesn't like peas (I do), he wasn't exactly thrilled, telling Erin she'd gone over to the dark side. Hee. When she was done, we were hoping for some happy eating pictures, but I guess it just wasn't meant to be. This was the most excitement she could muster for the camera.


We got a little bit of a half smile, but that was only with her cheek being tickled by Todd.


Still nothing...


Then, deciding that eating and posing were just too much work, the little diva decided to take a siesta. Who knew eating was so exhausting?

I can crawl!

I finally managed to get some video of Erin actually crawling! If you listen to the audio, you can also hear her babbling...."dadadadada." One of these days, she'll say "mama" and there have been one or two times where I thought she did!

Yes, she is now trying to get into everything. If I put her down, she'll usually head towards the Christmas tree and the presents underneath. Thankfully, she can still be distracted by a toy or two most of the time. She'll crawl to me to get picked up. It's challenging, but I'm still loving it!

Santa!

On Saturday, December 15th, it was the annual Children's Christmas party at my work. This provided us with the best opportunity to introduce Erin to Santa. First, though, we got her all dressed and fancy in her peach fur coat and hat. Todd is very proud of it because he picked it out.


We were a little early and had to wait in line. I've heard so many horror stories of children being afraid of Santa. I didn't think Erin would cry, but I really didn't know what to expect. It was more a photo opportunity than anything, and we got some cute ones. Erin was definitely more interested in Santa's beard than anything else. I guess next year will be the real test.

Learning to crawl

Erin & the pacifier

Since she was very little, Erin hasn't had much interest in a pacifier. We try periodically. Right now, she's far more interested in it as a teething toy.

Erin can hold her own bottle

I think we're still a long way from her being able to feed herself (she still doesn't sit up on her own that well), but it's a step in the right direction. She also can't hold a bottle that's too full. This is just her 1 ounce with added antibiotics. Baby steps!

Snow day

We got our first big snowfall of the season on Saturday, December 1st. We decided to lay low that day, but on Sunday, we ventured out. After spending a whole day running errands, Erin was sick and tired of her car seat, and even more sick of waking up in new and different places. Of course, when we finally got home, we couldn't leave well enough alone. We got Erin all bundled up in her snow suit, and headed out to the middle of our cul de sac, where they plow all the snow into one big pile. It makes it look like we got a lot more snow than we did.


Erin really wasn't so sure about what was going on. Her snowsuit is a little big on her, so she can't sit as well as she usually does and she can't really move her arms very much. So we had to make do with just lying her down on the snow pile.

We tried to get some cute pictures of her propping herself up in the snow, but she face planted the first time and I wasn't fast enough to get a picture. The poor girl had snow on her nose and was quite upset about how cold it was. At least we didn't have to worry about her trying to eat it!

Our neighbor spotted us outside and was kind enough to offer to take a family picture. Too bad Erin isn't smiling, but I think the confused look suits her. :)

Erin was finally able to lie down and just enjoy it. She looks so peaceful in this picture, and I just love the red nose and cheeks. We didn't have her outside for more than a total of 15 minutes! It may be something like torture for her, but I think the pictures are worth it and I think she'll like them when she gets older!

A few non traditional firsts

Todd & I were looking back over Erin's older pictures today, marveling at how much she's changed. Here are some of her non traditional firsts from the last six months or so.

This is the first time at the cabin, where she spent most of her time sleeping on one or the other of us, unless it was night time, in which case, she was wide awake.


Erin's first Twins game. She was 4 weeks old:




Erin's first trip to the zoo, and her first trip to the Bird Show, all rolled into one:

Lastly, here are some pictures of Erin at her first Holidazzle parade. We went to go see Daddy on the Target float.

Going places

Erin is starting to army crawl/creep reliably, though more often than not, she'll roll to get where she's going or else she winds up going backwards! She's even gotten the real crawling motion down, but can only do it backwards, and has only done it once or twice. We find ourselves moving her a lot to keep her out of trouble. We can't quite baby proof (at least not the stairs) until we get some work done, so we have to keep an eye out! Here are some recent pictures of her trying to crawl!