Erin's first pony ride

Well, not really. We were over at Todd's aunt and uncle's place. They have a very large dog, Scout. I can't remember what breed she is right now, and I was thinking how fun it would be when Erin was old enough to want to try to ride her. We figured why not try now. Obviously, Erin can't sit there on her own, but it was fun. It's a good thing Scout is such a docile dog! We thought it was hard to get Erin to look at the camera long enough to get a good face shot, but it's even harder to coordinate baby and dog looking at you. We did get a couple cute shots, though, and here they are.

Ultimately, Scout had decided she had enough, and tried to take off with Erin on her back! Luckily, I had the presence of mind to grab her, and there was never a time there were hands off of Erin. It was funny watching Scout make her escape!

Sitting

We're trying to give Erin lots of opportunities to practice sitting. Her grandmother bought her a super fancy potty training chair, and while we're nowhere near ready for that, we figured we'd let her try to seat out. As you can see, she wasn't too sure of it.


If she's anything like Mom and Dad, Erin will be something of a couch potato. So....we've gotten her started. Plus, the corners of the couch prop her up enough for her to practice without being held.

But this is what Erin thinks of that:

And here she is, showing off her big ol' buddha belly (too much formula! hee!), and her stylin' onesie and pants. She's definitely a growing girl!

In the Big Bed

Some mornings, if we're not ready to get up, and Erin isn't too hungry, we'll bring her into our room to cuddle. One of these mornings, I took a shower and left Erin with Todd, and came back to find this....


After Todd finally got up, I let him go shower, but I needed to get dressed. Erin likes to hang out on our bed and just watch the ceiling fan....whether it's on or not. She's such a happy baby! So, I just let her hang out, but she was in such a good mood, I had to take a picture!

New skills

There are a few new things that Erin has learned to do. And some new things we let her do. For instance, she can now sit well enough to sit in her stroller without using her car seat. Since Erin has developed a very strong distaste for her car seat, it's made walks much more pleasant. This way, she can also look out at the world, something she certainly enjoys. However, she doesn't seem especially thrilled about the cat hat that Mommy made her wear.

As a prelude to being able to eat solids, Erin has learned to use her tongue to give a raspberry. She'll sit around and just blow raspberries for 10 minutes or more. Sometimes, she'll blow raspberries when she should be eating, but it hasn't hurt her any. She now weighs nearly 15 lbs.


Erin is getting better at sitting, with and without assistance. She was able to sit with the pumpkins long enough to take this picture.

But not much longer....

We continue to work with her on sitting, and continue playing other games with her to get her to develop more new skills. We look forward to what every new day brings.

First meal

On October 22nd, Erin had her first taste of real food. She'd been eating like crazy for nearly a week beforehand, so we decided to start a few days earlier than our pediatrician had suggested. We couldn't help that in the back of our mind, we were hoping she'd sleep longer. That didn't turn out to be the case, but that was due to an ear infection, not the cereal. The first thing we did was get Erin into her high chair.


Next, I tried spooning a few bites into her mouth. She wasn't overly thrilled with it
.




She spit out more than she actually ate. But it was fun for mommy and daddy. The next night went a little better, but after starting antibiotics, we decided not to keep going with cereal. About a week later, we tried oatmeal, which went much better, except that Erin was a little too hungry to try to eat! We're still trying to get the hang of how to work this out, but each time Erin gets better and better at it.

She tried to slurp the oatmeal and suck it down. So we make progress. We will not be starting on real foods until after her six month appointment. And she continues to get better from her ear infection as well.

See how big she's grown

This is Erin when we brought her home from the hospital.


This is Erin this morning, getting ready to go out. I think there's a pretty big difference! She's now twice her birth weight, and about 5+ inches taller. It's amazing to see the changes!

Skol Vikings!

The team isn't so hot, but Erin can't help that. And she still looks good in a Vikings cheerleader uniform.

Bath time!

Erin loves her bath time! As soon as she starts getting fussy in the evenings, we stop what we're doing and start bedtime, and that includes a bath! We've taken way too many pictures of her in the bathtub. It's her favorite time of day. She even gets excited when we're in her room getting her ready and she can hear the water running. Todd thinks she's going to be a water bug later on!

Daddy's Little Girl

Todd loves hanging out with his little girl, but is usually the one taking the pictures. That makes it hard to get pictures of the two of them together. (I'm also not very good at taking the pictures, so they wind up blurry a lot. I think we need a new camera - or at least I do!) Here are some of them hanging out!

Weekend at the cabin

The three of us headed up to the cabin for a weekend getaway with Susan and Kevin. It was a lot of fun, as exhibited in this picture of Erin with her Aunt Susan.


We went to Itasca State Park, and it was Erin's first trip to the Headwaters of the Mississippi. Coincidentally, it was also Susan and Kevin's first trip up there as well. Kevin crossed the river at least three times! We had lunch at the new Visitor's Center, hit up World of Christmas for some shopping, as well as a round of mini golf. Even though he was carrying Erin in the Snugli, Todd still managed to win!




After all that, we were wiped out, and did what we do best....hung out on the couch! After a rest, we went out for Oktoberfest at a German Restaurant in Nevis. The food was pretty good and the entertainment was better! Whether it winds up being this year or next year, we look forward to our next trip up north!