A month of firsts!!!

12/27/13

December has been an exciting months for firsts with Erica!  She had her first visit to the urgent care, has been crawling all over the house, standing/pulling herself up on everything, she celebrated her first Christmas, climbed her first flight of stairs, received her first pair of big girl shoes, spent an extended period of time with just dad while mommy was away in Duluth for work, taking her first steps behind her walking toys, and over the past 2 days she has her first 2 teeth coming in!!!  Of course...I've included some pictures at the end...

She has been the joy in our lives ever since she was born almost 9 months ago, and she hasn't stopped rewarding us with love and laughter since day 1!!!  She reminds us every day of how lucky we are to have her in our lives and how fortunate we are to have a healthy and happy baby in the house!

I'll start by bringing you some comfort...Erica is fine and the urgent care was a precautionary trip.  When she first started standing, she was very unsteady and of course, she took some tumbles.  One night we noticed a thumb-print sized bruise on the center of her chest.  It turned black and blue and began fading away over a few days.  However, as it faded away, a small pencil-tip sized lump appeared in the center of it.  It was white and just below the surface.  When you put your finger on it, you could feel it rolling.  It was bothersome for her when we tried to touch it.  A few days later, on Thanksgiving weekend, we decided to take her in to an urgent care on a Saturday to have it looked at.  The doctor was great and guessed it was a bruise as we'd figured as well.  She explained the bump was likely blood vessels beneath the skin that had begun the healing process and some scab-like parts hadn't fully been absorbed by her body yet.  A few days later we followed up with Erica's regular doctor and we couldn't even feel the lump, and she concluded the same thing as the other doctor had.  Needless to say, the lump on the center of her chest gave mom and I a little scared and caused a little stress.  We were relieved leaving the urgent care knowing the doctor wasn't too worried about it!

When Erica first became mobile within the last month and a half, she started getting places by barrel-rolling across rooms.  She then began an army crawl using her strong arms (mostly elbows) to pull herself around without the use of her legs.  Over the past 3 weeks, she has been crawling normally...and she is fast!!!  She is really enjoying discovering all the things she can pull herself up to and stand against.  Whether it's the end tables in the sun room, the chairs at the dining room table or her favorite...our front windows!  She loves crawling over to the windows and watching outside and seeing cars go by.  Regardless of what she sees, she giggles most of the time!  If Lexi is at the windows barking, Erica starts crawling that way to see what the commotion is all about.  I must say, although she loves pulling herself up to the windows, she really enjoys pulling herself/crawling into the dishwasher when the door is open after dinner!  It's low enough for her to pull herself on to, and she enjoys laying on her belly and pulling the bottom rack in and out!  Her daily adventures and discoveries around the house are the best source of entertainment for Laura and I.  I often find myself just laughing at the things she does.  Her noises/sounds are always worth a laugh for daddy!  She makes these deep growling sounds (which sounds like a gremlin), and high pitch squeaks, but mostly, just random noises and grunts as she is discovering her voice!  Lately, she's been adding her hand into the mix of sound effects...she moves it across her lips and makes babbling sounds, as well as smacking her lips together while eating!  Apparently, this means that mommy and daddy are great and boiling/steaming food and pureeing it into awesome meals!

A couple weeks ago, my parents took her to Burnsville to buy her first pair of shoes.  They are cute little shoes that provide support for her feet and ankles as she begins taking her first steps and standing on her feet.  Laura's parents brought down a plastic dog (that we call, "Woofy" because "puppy" is already taken by Lexi!) that she can sit on and be pushed around, but the seat also pivots up so she can stand behind it and push it.  She has been cruising around with that and seems to be moving a little faster and more sure of herself each time she moves around.  Combined, these 2 generous gifts from her grandparents are helping her move closer to her first steps on her own at rapid speed!

Erica's first Christmas was a blast, though exhausting for her and mommy and daddy!  We left home with a full SUV and a crowded backseat with Erica and Lexi snuggled in for the long drive to Fargo.  Brett hosted dinner and gift opening at his house in the afternoon before heading to the farm for a couple of extra days.  Even though she was up way past her bedtime and had to be in her car seat longer than she wanted, she was spoiled with tons of gifts and has lots of new toys to keep herself entertained for months to come!  It was at Brett's house where she conquered her first flight of stairs.  We were all impressed with this accomplishment...but I was most impressed with the fact that she did it so easily...as if she'd done it many times in the past!  She just kept moving right up the steps, never falling or missing stride!  It's a good thing we have a baby gate at our house to guard the steps, but we may need one downs stairs now because we can no longer retreat to the basement and keep her confined to the smaller space...now she knows how to get back upstairs!!!

The week before Christmas, Laura had to be in Duluth for her work.  She left home Sunday afternoon and came back Thursday around dinner time.  In between, Daddy Daycare was back in full swing!!!  Of course, she was with our nanny during the day, but when I came home from school, it was just daddy with his girls!  I had a blast being home along with Erica and Lexi and enjoyed it thoroughly, but I don't know how single parents do it...it's a ton of work with no down-time unless the baby is sleeping!!!  It was pretty evident that Erica was missing her mommy because she was often saying, in her own special way, "Mom mom" or "mama!"

And finally, Erica's 2-3 months of drooling all over the place and gnawing on her toys and our fingers is paying off...her first tooth started poking through Christmas night.  It's barely poking through, but I can feel it when she nibbles on my fingers!!!  And, this morning at breakfast, I noticed the second one coming in right next to it!  So, whenever they are up, she'll have both of her bottom front teeth!  I think the best part about these new teeth is that she is not fussing at all!!!  Two weeks ago, we thought they were ready to poke through because she was super fussy and wouldn't let us near her bottom lip, let alone her jaw.  But now that they are actually through, she's not even fazed by them.  So, knock on wood with us...

And so, I'll wrap up this entry like I've done over the past 18 months...Thank you so much for following along with Erica's journey through her young life, and my young journey as a dad.  Being a dad is by far the best thing that has ever happened to me (just behind getting married to the best wife a guy could ever ask for!).  Each day is better than the previous.  And though there are some new challenges each day as Erica explores and discovers new things in her world, the laughter she brings us far outweighs everything else!  Being a daddy is by far the most fulfilling feeling in the world and I've loved every minute of it!  Thanks so much for reading this entry, and we thank you for your best thoughts/wishes and/or prayers you've sent our way...we are truly a lucky family!  Take care!

A few of our most recent professional pictures...

Erica enjoying looking out the window. We suspect her bruise was from falling onto a crank. We have since removed all of the cranks on the low windows!

Erica riding on Woofy!

She met Santa at the MN Zoo. Santa said she was so well-behaved, he wished all kids were as great as Erica!

Erica tormented Lexi by opening and closing her gate while the poor dog was inside of it!!!

Opening presents at Uncle Brett's!

Posing in front of the Christmas tree at the farm

A bed time picture we sent mommy while she was away at work in Duluth. 

Erica climbing on daddy while he wrote this blog entry. Notice all of her new toys in the background!!!

Daddy's slacking as baby's growing!!!

It's been waaaaay too long since I've updated this blog!!!!  Erica has been changing in so many ways since my last post over a month and a half ago!!!  I'll try to capture the highlights: (of course there are a few pictures at the end!)

She is eating real food now. Cereal never went that great for her until we added apricots. Eventually we cut out the cereal and stuck with just fruit and she loved it!!!  Since then she has been on a big food eating experiment!!! She loves sweet potatoes and apples. Carrots are close behind them as are pears and mangos. She tolerates avocados but hates anything else that is green. Her faces when she tries a new food is priceless...she looks so disgusted or upset and then quickly spits it out!!!  She learned how to eat from a spoon fairly quickly and she is pretty neat though she has now been trying to take the spoon from us and tries to feed herself. I must say, Laura and I have gotten pretty good at roasting, boiling, steaming and pureeing food over the past month or so!!!  Erica seems to enjoy the little tastes of humus and ice cream dad sneaks her on occasion!

We really enjoyed watching her on her first Halloween!!! She was a monster...a pink, fuzzy monster!!! And she was the cutest kid ever!!!  We carved our pumpkin the night before and managed to fit her in there for a cute picture. On Halloween we took her to see the grandparents and great grandparents and some other family in town before taking a quick tour of the neighborhood. She was a trooper!!! She lasted over 2 hours in her costume and endured several cycles of getting in and out of the car and never made much of a fuss!!! I think she knew how cute she was and wanted to show off!!!

Erica has become quite the mover lately!!!  At first she mastered rolling over but couldn't figure out the crawling thing. She began using the barrel rolls to get from one side of her blanket and toy area to the other. One weekend I tried showing her how to arch her back the other way in order to try and get herself up on her hands and knees. At first she just rocked forward and back and eventually face-planted. Since that first weekend though, she has been moving at warp speed with her hybrid army crawl. She is super fast and can scoot across a room very quickly when she wants to go after something!  This past weekend I started working with her on how to push/pull herself up on things while crawling. She now loves crawling over our legs while we sit on the floor, though she still face plants on the other side!!!  She has been following us around the house and has discovered the dishwasher door to be very fun to try to get up on and has enjoyed pushing and pulling on the oven drawer as well. Needless to say, we are now helping each other watch our backs while in the kitchen and we keep her out while cooking. Just the other day she found her way over to Lexi's kennel and began swinging the door open and close. It didn't take long for her to smack herself in the face with the door. Laura and I giggled while Lexi watched from inside her kennel as if to ask us, "how long are you going to let her do this to my house before you stop her?!?!" 

Lexi and Erica have become quite the pair of buddies!!!  Erica is now dodging and swinging her arms when Lexi approaches to lick her. Lexi also lucky enough to start reaping the rewards of dropped/slipped food in Erica's high chair when the meals are done. For some reason she always lays at our feet while we are feeding Erica!!!

Erica enjoys her baths more than ever!!!  We moved her tub into the bathtub a while ago so she loves being able splash around and play with her toys. Bath time is still as fun as ever because her and daddy get to crank the tunes and hang out for a little while together and do our thing!!!

Its become very clear lately that mommy is Erica's favorite person!!!  She has become quite clingy in this stage and screams when Laura leaves the room. Laura has been quite the trooper and has definitely earned "mom of the year" award the past couple of months with the arrival of my hunting season!!! Thankfully both grandmas have helped her be a single mom on a few occasions. I definitely owe her some long days to herself!!! Last Sunday was a fun day for Erica and I to bond while Laura went out to breakfast with her aunt and did some shopping while Erica and I hung out and played together!!!

Other than that, there haven't been too many major events happening around here. I'll try to get better with these posts and get them more regular. Next week Erica will celebrate her first Thanksgiving when Laura's family comes to town. Until that first tooth pops through or something else develops, I'll keep you posted. Thanks so much for checking in on my Daddy Diary!!!  Take care!!!

Erica loves her bath time!!!

She enjoys watching Wild games with mom and dad before going to bed most nights!!!

We spent a few hours in my parents yard helping get the yard ready for winter and she loved being outside by the fire with mom and grandma!

The cutest monster ever!!!

Practicing her scary face from her pumpkin the night before Halloween!

It's getting cool out so we had to bundle up for a walk with Lexi one afternoon!!! Both Erica and daddy stayed nice and cozy!!!

Food!!!

6 months old today!!!

10/1/13

It's hard to believe 6 months ago today, Laura and I became parents!!!  It's weird to think back and wonder what life was like before Erica.  In one word, "simpler"...but not nearly as fulfilling!  At this time on April 1st, we were just settling in as a family for the first time after our families met Erica.  We were full of fear, uncertainty, exhaustion and happiness.  It was a calm and peaceful end to an otherwise emotional and physical roller coast ride that started March 31st when Laura slipped and fell going into church Easter Morning. 

My sincere apologies for this being the first entry/update in over a month.  Since school started, days seem to have far less time in them than they used to.  Our new schedules, adjusting to life with a nanny during the week and Erica's routine have shortened our time together significantly than what we've been used to the first few months together.  I'm usually at school before 7am, and Laura starts work at 7am.  Until my after school activities started this week, I usually made it home a little after 3 and Laura finished working around 3:30 and we had the evening together until Erica goes down around 7ish.  Well...add a major cold/sickness to the mix over the past few weeks and you get a little girl that wakes up a few times a night, a sleepy mom and dad and you get thrown off more than usual.  Regardless, I'll do my best to highlight Erica's latest adventures and developments since my last update before the school year started...

Tonight, we tucked in our little girl who is growing by the day and beginning to show her fun personality in the cutest ways and discovers something new each week!  It's so awesome to see how much something can change in a week, but Erica keeps blowing our minds with her development.  The latest thing she is doing this week is keeping her tongue out constantly, all day long.  Surprisingly, she's not drooling like you might think...granted, she still drools like crazy. 

Over the past few weeks, she's been grabbing everything within reach and putting it directly into her mouth.  It's crazy how fast she is at this new activity!!!  She is rolling over both ways constantly, and she never sits still...though she is almost able to sit up on her own.  She needs a little support now, but I'm guessing she'll be on her own in a couple weeks.  She has all of the motions down for crawling, but hasn't combined them in order to start crawling yet.  She has been eating food much more than ever before.  She currently eats 2 meals a day and has usually 4 bottles throughout the day.  We started her on rice cereal and began adding some pureed food.  She hated the peas we tried first...but then enjoyed the apricots.  Since then, she's had bananas, avocados, baby apple sauce and some mixed fruit baby food.  She's loved it all except for the avocados!!!  She's getting much better with eating off of the spoon, though we still have to force her tongue out of the way, and occasionally grab her hands away from her mouth and try to prevent as much spitting out of her food as much as possible...all things considered, of course!!!  Over the past week she has been laughing much more frequently.  She doesn't just giggle at anything when left alone, so it's fun to play with her to see what makes her giggle...and I must say, she has the most adorable laugh I've ever heard.  The thing that cracks her up the most is when we try to sit her on Lexi's back if she's standing nearby.  For some reason, it spooks Lexi (yes, a 75lb dog is spooked by a little infant!) and she runs away from us, and Erica laughs pretty hard every time...it's awesome!!!  We're starting to find ticklish spots on her...her feet are very sensitive, though she doesn't laugh when they are tickled.   But she does laugh a little bit when tickling the sides of her tummy or up high on her chest near her arm pits!  Regardless if she laughs or not, she always smiles when we ask her if she'll smile for us!!!  The coolest "trick" she does, is if you put your hand in front of her and ask her to give you a high 5, she'll reach out for your hand with an open hand...she usually has a pretty big smile on her face when we make a big deal out of it!!!

She is loving her toys.  Her favorites are plastic rings that make a chain when snapped together.  She tries to eat them and swings them around in the air and is always entertained by them.  She still enjoys her little stuffed giraffe that we've named "Twinkle" because of the music it plays when squeezed.  She has a toy remote control (the type for a TV) that has buttons that make all sorts of noises and enjoys that...though she seems to enjoy trying to eat it rather than push the buttons.  And she loves her toy phone.  It's shaped like an iPhone and even has the single button on the bottom with a clear screen.  The button plays a few sounds a phone might make.  This toy scares me the most because it rings and she just loves playing with it.  Each time it rings, I remind her not to answer it if it's a boy that's calling her!  Besides her toy phone, she loves looking at the screens of our cell phones and she tries reaching for them whenever they're in reach.  She's gotten so used to smiling for pictures on our phone that she almost smiles instantly when we hold it up now...it's great!!!  My phone is becoming so clogged with Erica pictures, we could almost retire our nice, regular camera!

She is so interactive now!  For a few weeks now, I've held her over my head and then bring her down towards my face with a gentle jostling of her body and she smiles and loves it.  Over the weekend, I held her a little above my head and drop her a couple inches while making weird noises and she laughs a lot.  I also began grabbing her by her hips and rotating her upside down while we sit on the couch so she looks at us upside down and she smiles and giggles...and drools down her forehead...yuck!!!  She occasionally gets into these fun moods where she just burrows in while you hold her and it's like she is giving you a hug as she reach around your neck.  I've been working with her on "giving kisses" by moving her towards our cheeks with her mouth...of course these are often quite slimy and always opened-mouth...they are cute, nonetheless and she smiles in approval afterwards as if she's saying "you're welcome!" 

Needless to say, I'm loving this whole "daddy thing" more and more every day!!!  Like I said at the start of this entry, the words fulfilling, satisfying and rewarding are the only things that come close to describing what it's like to be a dad.  Of course words like, love, amazing, awesome and such help describe it as well...I've never had such a more rewarding and fulfilling feeling in my life than from being a dad.  There's no way I'd go back to living life without having Erica around...though our lives were much simpler back then, I couldn't go a day without my "little nugget" in my life and my wonderful wife to enjoy and share these moments with!

Before I let you look at some pictures from the past month, I must end this update on a serious note.  In my classroom, part of what I do with my students are activities I call "self discovery" things where I help my kids figure out more about themselves and what makes them unique and special.  I've always found these experiences to be rewarding as a student, and I've grown since my school days, so I put myself "in the trenches" with my kids and do the activities with them, both so they can learn about me, but so I can learn about myself as well.  This week, my kids and I have been writing "Bio Poems" about ourselves.  It's a 17 line poem, structured from the curriculum I use in the sense that each line is started for you and my kids fill in the rest about themselves.  I've included mine below:

Dan

Integrity, Only Child, Outgoing, Caring

Son of Tim and Barb

Lover of hunting,

Teaching,

Family

Who feels successful when students learn something new,

Sad when others are unwilling to try new things,

Nervous when faced with new challenges

Who fears not being around to watch my little baby grow into an amazing woman,

A world where people are hated because of their beliefs,

Some of my students are not nurtured, loved and supported at home

Resident of Minnesota!!!

 

                                                                       Lemke


The serious note I wanted to share with you was the realization I had a few weeks ago, that Laura calmly reassured me was probably the worst fear of all parents; not being around to watch my little girl grow up.  It took me a few days to work up the guts to share this fear with my wife, but her words comforted me, though only to a certain extent.  I am terrified of missing out on the opportunity to be a part of her life and to watch her continue to develop, discover new things, giggle and laugh, smile at us and do so many more things we have yet to see her do!!!  So, I have a request for any of you still reading this...if I'm unable to watch my little girl grow into the amazing woman that I know she'll be, please remind her often about how much her daddy loves her and of all things I described above that she loves doing with me!!!  I appreciate it!!!

My final thoughts for you tonight, as I climb into bed on a school night...I can't promise as frequent of updates as I used to do, but I will do an update at least monthly from here on out.  Of course, I'll always include pictures at the end...my cheesy way of making you read (or at least scroll through) my Daddy Diary!  In 2 days, I'll take Erica in for her 6 month check up at the doctor's office to see how much she's grown and to see how she's doing.  I know she's grown a lot, even in just the past month.  We noticed tonight that she will need a new sleep sack (I call it her "fart sack" because it's like a mini sleeping bag!) and when we got it for her, her feet were so far from reaching the bottom, and now she's too tall...and, last weekend we had to go out and buy a bigger car seat for her!  This one is mounted in the car and cannot be carried out as conveniently as the one we've used the past 6 months...so much for ease and convenience!!!  Thanks so much for reading my Daddy Diary.  I appreciate you checking in on my little nugget and reading about how much she's changed and how much joy she's brought to the people in her life!!!  We appreciate your kind thoughts/words/prayers/wishes you send our way!  Take care!!!

Lexi is loving Erica more every day!!

A typical meal time sight...before the food is added!!!

Tummy time is much more regular now...here she is showing her training progress for skydiving!!!

Food!!!

A party in the jungle...she loves bouncy in her favorite toy every day!!!

Erica and Laura during one of Erica's cuddling moods!!!  Priceless!!!

Erica and I dressed in our patriotic gear on 9/11

Erica on the left with her best buddy, Lyla, sitting with our nanny, Asah. 

Erica and I cheering on Laura during her 5k

Erica and Laura at the finish line!!!

She still loves bath time!!!

Erica on the right, trying to explain which team is the best team...Lyla needed to touch Erica to know what she was talking about!!!

Taken just tonight...our little Erica on her 6month birthday!!!

Daddy Daycare comes to an end...

8/25/13

Today brings the end of an era...it's my last day of Daddy Daycare, and I'm not happy about it at all!!!

When Erica was born almost 5 months ago, I knew I would be home with her for the summer. I was very nervous at the time and wasn't sure how it would go and wasn't sure if I'd be overwhelmed by full days of daddy-duty when Laura went back to work. Now that I'm sitting on the couch with Erica sleeping in my arms one last time for the summer, I'm a pretty sad dad!!!

The first 2 weeks were tough. I won't lie about that!  It took us time to learn how to work with each other while mom left us alone for the day. I don't think I was a bad dad before summer started, but Laura definitely had me beat in terms of all of the cues and signals she could pick up on from Erica!!!  Now, we seem to be very equal to each other, though she still has that mommy instinct that I'll never be able to topple!

My last couple of days with Erica this past week were not enjoyable at all. I caught a quick flu bug that kicked my butt and had me down on the couch for 2 full days while we were on the north shore for Laura's training. Luckily, Laura's parents were up there and were able to help for a day before my parents took over for a day while Laura finished her training in Duluth. Unfortunately for Grandpa Russ, he spent 2 of his vacation days on the north shore in the hospital due to a bout with diverticulitis. Now that I'm on the mend, I need to make sure Erica doesn't catch what I had!!!

I thought it'd be a good way to end Daddy Daycare by sharing some highlights from our first summer together:

- occasional baths during the day due to blow outs 

- dad screaming like a little girl when those blowouts got on his hands!

- walking Lexi and pushing Erica in her stroller around the neighborhood when it wasn't sticky hot out!!!

- Erica joining dad and "the boys" (the old  men neighbors) for a beer occasionally in the afternoons and listening to us talk about boring guy stuff!!!

- meeting up with friends and their young kids for dinner and play dates (thanks, Moes, Swaineys, Ericksons, Garcias, and Levendoskis)

- Taking Erica to school with me a few days to work in my new classroom at the high school. She can proudly say she was the first kid to fall asleep in my class this year!!!

- watching Lexi play fetch with dad during the day and smiling when she gnawed on my arms!!!

- we enjoyed a trip to North Dakota to visit Laura's family and a couple trips to the lake for the weekend

- Erica saw her first ship come into Two Harbors while mommy worked one morning!

- by far the best part of my summer was waking up to a smiling baby every morning in her crib when I awoke to her babbling and screeching!!!

There were countless other things I loved this summer, but I don't have time to list them all. Each week brought new excitement as I watched Erica discover more and more in the world around her!!! 

At the start of the summer, I had 2 goals: I wanted to get Erica on a napping routine, and I wanted to do some reading. I'm happy to say I accomplished both of those goals!!! Considering Erica never napped before the summer started, she now takes 2 each day and has a fairly established daily routine and both Laura and I can tell when she needs a nap!!!  My reading was fun as well. I read 2 books and just started another last week, though I'm not sure how much I'll be able to read once the school year starts next week!!!

And so, with this final update from Daddy Daycare for our first summer, I'll leave you with a laugh...as Laura and I pulled into St. Paul this afternoon returning from the lake, Laura smelled poop!!! We decided to press on and get home instead of a diaper change off the highway. We got home and Laura carried Erica into the house in her carseat with a startling observation..."Dan, her seat is leaking poop!!!"  Erica pooped through her carseat!!! Luckily the base prevented it from leaking on to the seat of the car!!!  It took both of us to extricate her, undress and rinse her before I bathed her and Laura began wiping out her seat. It took both of us to figure out how to take the seat apart and unhook the straps so we could clean it properly!!!  Now, it sits drying on the deck...until it dries, Erica is grounded and staying home!!!

Thanks so much for checking in on our latest update!! I appreciate you reading my Daddy Diary!  Take care. 

Here's a picture of my "little nugget" snoozing in my lap as I wrote this entry!!!

And here's the culprit of the epic poop I described above...before we started cleaning!!!!

Erica visiting grandpa Russ in the hospital in Duluth while Laura worked...before Dad got his dose of stomach problems!!

 

And this last one is Erica watching her first ore boat, the "Edwin H Gott", a "1000 footer" come into Two Harbors one morning

Daddy Daycare; North Shore Edition

8/18/13

This week, Daddy Daycare takes to the road for a special, "North Shore Edition" while Laura trains for her new job in Duluth!  (Yes, there are pictures at the bottom from our last few weeks together!!!)

A few weeks ago, Laura accepted a new position and left her old job, along with the daily 2+ hrs in the car to and from Minnetonka!  Her new job will be doing the same thing, but through a Duluth-based company and she will be working from home!  So, today was our first full day up at my parents' lake home on the North Shore and we're looking forward to the next week up here while Laura gets trained in with her new company. 

To keep us company, Laura's parents are taking a week's vacation and will be up on the shore this week as well.  They will be staying at Superior Shores, where Laura and I got married just over 4 years ago, while we're 9 miles farther up the shore. 

Once we're done with this week, I'll be back to work and back to the grind...ugh!  When Laura went back to work from her maternity leave, I didn't know why she was so moapy and wondered how she was going to miss Erica as much as she was saying she would.  Little did I know what I was in for after a summer home with my Little Nugget and Lexi!  I've been depressed all month long knowing my summer is about to end!  It's been my most favorite summer yet...nothing can compare to how awesome it's been hanging out with Erica and bonding with her on a daily basis.  She is so fun to watch grow.  She gets cuter by the day and each week brings some new development or milestone she reaches. 

It's been a while since my last update, so I'll do my best to provide little glances at some things we've enjoyed over the past few weeks:

- Erica is now reach for everything she can possibly get her hands on!  Anything she does grab, goes right into her mouth!  Needless to say, mommy and daddy are always on our toes now and are cautious about what's in arms reach!!  Whether it's a plate, cell phone, dad's lips or mom's hair...everything is fair game!!!

- She has definitely found her voice over the past month.  It started with some panting (perhaps she's imitating Lexi?!?!) and now has moved into high-pitches squeals/screeches (like some sort of prehistoric flying dinosaur?!?!) and lots of grunting.  Erica and I have seemed to developed our own caveman-type language.  She grunts, and I grunt back and she grunts again and so for several seconds.  Laura is left to wonder what we're saying about her!

- She is constantly smiling!  It's pretty cool to see her always smiling throughout the day.  Our favorite time of day is the morning when Laura or I get her up from her crib...regardless of who it is, we are always greeted with some massive smiles when we peer over the edge of her crib!  I enjoy asking her to show me her smile, and she shows me that adorable smile with her one dimple almost every time on cue!

- She loves watching Lexi!  It doesn't matter if Lexi is playing fetch with us, attacking/chewing on me, or just lying around the house, Erica will just stare at her endlessly!  Of course, now that she is reach for things, she is now trying to pet Lexi if we get her close enough to her...and because she grasps everything her fingers touch, she usually ends up with a fistful of Lexi hair!

- She now tries to feed herself!  She knows when we're getting a bottle ready for her and once I sit down with her, she looks over to the table where the bottle usually sits and she sees it...and then she starts panting and the arms start flailing as she gets so excited for her bottle!  I then move it to within arms reach and she grabs it with both hands and pulls it towards her mouth.  It's funny because she hasn't figure out all the motions of her wrists, so she just pulls the bottle straight at her face and ends up with the bottle smashed against her lips. With a little help from dad, she is able to move it to the right angle and then immediately forces it into her mouth...all the while, her panting never ceases! 

I hope I haven't left anything out, but I know I can't possibly get everything from the past few weeks into this entry!  If you're still reading/following my blog, thanks so much for checking in with us and reading along as Erica continues to grow and develop before our eyes!  And of course, no entry is complete without expressing my appreciation for you reading this entry of my Daddy Diary.  Take care!

Erica watched her first ore boat, the Edgar B Speer, pull into Two Harbors this afternoon. 

Our Growing Girl!

8/7/13

Our little Erica is getting big...so fast!!!

I took her to the doctor for her 4 month check up yesterday.  She is definitely growing!  Laura, my parents and others were putting bets on how big she would be...She tipped the scales 1/2oz shy of 14lbs, and was 26in long!  If she hadn't been spitting up all morning before the doctor, I would've been right with my guess of more than 14lbs!!! 

The doctor said she is in great health and is doing excellent!  She is in the 95% for height, meaning she is taller than 95% of other babies her age.  She is in the 50% for weight.  The doctor said to take that with a grain of salt because the babies they use for those numbers are all formula fed, and since Erica is on breast milk, it's apples and oranges to compare the two.  But, she did say she is a tall girl.  She couldn't say that it means she'll be a tall girl when she gets older, but that's what it's looking like at this point.  Perhaps we have ourselves a basketball or volleyball player on our hands?!?!  Just so long as she keeps growing and outgrows a good hockey size...we can't afford all of that gear nor do we want to become annoying hockey parents!!!

At this check up, Erica also had to get some shots.  There were 6 vaccines combined into 3 shots, plus an oral one.  She was quite the trooper.  I noticed my leg bouncing and twitching before the nurse came in.  Once she was on the table, she squeezed my thumbs (something we've done during shots since her first few the day she was born!).  She screamed a bit, but settled down pretty quickly after they were done.  The rest of the day she was a bit fussy and didn't sleep much.  I'm guessing that was because of her sore legs?!  She made up for it last night...we put her down for bed around 8pm and she slept in this morning until 10:30am!!!  What a good snooze!  I checked on her a few times to make sure she was still breathing after I got up...and I decided to let her sleep and catch up on her missed naps from yesterday.  But, at 10:30...out of jealousy, I woke her up and we started our day with a big bottle, clean diaper and took Lexi for a walk.

Other than that, I don't have much else to report on Erica.  Laura's last day at her current company is in 2 days.  She then has a week off before starting her new job from home!!!  She will essentially be doing the same thing she is doing now, but through a Duluth-based company that has a lot of employees work from home.  She is excited about this new opportunity...and a much short commute to work!!!  She will have training in Duluth in a couple of weeks, so Daddy Daycare will be on the road as Erica and I join her for over a week at The Lake on the North Shore.  Erica and I will be hanging out while Laura commutes to Duluth.  Even though it'll be a 45 minute drive each way, it will still be shorter than her current drive!!!  Grandpa and Grandma C will be in Duluth that week as well for a vacation, so we'll be spending some time with them while Laura works.  I have plans to meet up with an old teacher friend that lives near Duluth for part of a day, and Erica and I plan to head to Grand Marais with her grandparents another day during the week.  Once we're home, it'll be into the grind of school and normalcy again.  Laura's first day from home is also my first day of workshops.  It's also Erica's first full day with our nanny! 

I think I've mentioned it before, but we are sharing a nanny with our friends and their 6 month old girl at our house.  We definitely need the nanny at least for the first year so Laura can get into her groove and make a good impression at her new job, while Erica is still at a pretty high-maintenance stage in life.  With any luck, we may not need a nanny in a year or two?!?!  Regardless, it's a win-win for all parties...especially Lexi!!!

And with that, I'll wrap up this entry.  I hope you enjoy my Daddy Diary and I thank you for continuously checking in on our little angel, Erica!!!  Take care and thanks again!

And with that...

Professional Pictures

8/4/13

We had our first professional pictures with Erica taken a week ago...and now we have a problem...we don't know which one is our favorite!!!

Luckily for us, we purchased a package that gives us the CD with digital copies of all pictures taken...for this photo shoot and a few additional ones over the course of her first year to show her growth!!!  So now, as we look at these great pictures, we have no clue which ones are our favorites!!! Fortunately, we have the digitals so we can print and frame at our leisure, and not have to decide on 3 prints to be produced by the studio for an astronomical fee!

We took Erica last Saturday for her first pictures.  It's an in-home photographer that has been doing this for decades, but recently moved his business from a studio to his home.  His "in-law suite" was converted to a studio in recent years and it worked great!  He had a variety of props/stages inside as well as dozens of locations/sets to be used outside. As we walked around his acres of property on our way to a pond, we couldn't help but think how cute Erica would look in a few of the sets. 

Without spending hours typing this blog, I'll summarize it by saying Erica did an awesome job at the photo shoot, and she looks absolutely adorable in each and every picture the photographer snapped.  The instant we sat her down she struck a pose on her own and it was all smiles and great pictures until the tears started to flow an hour later that told us our time was up!  I've included a few pictures below to give you an idea of the variety of pictures we took last Saturday.  We're excited to go back in a few months and then repeat the process a few more times to capture some cute memories of our little girl as she grows before our eyes!

Enjoy...and, as always, thanks for reading my Daddy Diary!!!  Take care!