8/23/14
Where did this summer go?!?!
The last time I blogged, we had just returned home from our
trip to Nashville…and that was just before the 4th of July!!! Since that last entry, I honestly don’t know
where the summer went. I guess the old phrase;
“Time flies when you’re having fun” still has a lot of truth behind it.
Over the summer, Erica has been making us laugh with her fun
personality that seems to grow and get better every week! She is fully aware of her ability to make us
laugh, and she continues to find more things that make Laura and I laugh many
times each day. In addition to making us
laugh, she has been getting bolder in her attempts to see how much mischief she
can get away with before we scold her.
She’s had some more teeth come in, and a few of them has
caused headaches and pain for the 4 of us this summer (Lexi is included in this
as well!!!) She now has her top back
molars mostly in, she has the top K-9’s mostly in, and she’s working on the
front 4 on the bottom as well. There was
a stretch of over a week this summer where she didn’t want anything besides
being in our arms or walking around the house crying. Those were some pretty tough days, but we
appear to have put them behind us (at least for now) and we’ve been enjoying our
happy little girl again the past couple of weeks!
The summer has had its fill of little trips to keep us
busy. As mentioned in my last post,
Erica and I spent almost a week at the lake after school got out in mid-June,
and since then, I’ve been away from the house almost a month this summer! The following is a quick idea of our travels:
-
The trip to the lake in June, from a Monday –
Sunday in mid June
-
Nashville, from a Thursday-Sunday in late June
-
North Dakota, from a Sunday – Sunday in mid July
(Erica had an extra 5 day bonus with Grandpa and Grandma C. in ND after mommy
and daddy left)
-
Daddy went to San Diego for school training,
from a Tuesday-Friday in late July
-
Another trip to the lake, from a Monday – Sunday
in mid August
-
A quick trip to Fargo for a day on mommy’s
birthday in late August
-
We’ll end the summer with a trip to the lake on
Labor Day weekend, Thursday-Sunday
***Add
a couple of weddings to the mix and 4 weeks of summer school, and you can see
why I’m confused as to where the summer went to!!!
Through all of the travels, Erica has been a trooper! She’s done really well in the car. She seems to get fussy after 3 hours or so,
and we are usually able to pull off the highway for a quick diaper change on
occasion and get right back on the road and keep on cruising to our
destination. Grandma Barb found some kid
CDs somewhere and plays those whenever Erica rides with her in her car. She apparently hears some of the songs enough
that she has started singing a part of one song at times. So we borrowed the CD for the drive home from
the lake on one of the trips and were amazed when the CD bought us another hour
of peace and quiet after she started fussing!!!
Grandma Cheryl recently found a pack of CDs for us, and we again
experienced some peace and quiet on the trip to Fargo with the CD playing.
Mommy’s ability to work from anywhere with internet access
has been a huge perk for us this summer!
She was able to work while at the farm in July and from the lake in
August. That’s been a huge bonus for us
to be able to do some traveling, and Laura’s ability to get away from home
without having to take many days off of work!
Although she would have loved to have taken full days off and hang out
with Erica and I, we’ve been able to spend a lot of time together as a family
once she finished working!
Summer school was the longest, fastest 4 weeks of my
life! It started a week after the 4th
of July, and seemed to end as fast as it started; despite being filled with
headaches caused by delinquent kids!!! I
rejoined the summer team I’ve worked with for 5 years after taking last summer
off to start Daddy Daycare. I worked 4
days a week and was home before 1pm, so I was still able to spend some time
with Erica during our shortened days of Daddy Daycare! While daddy was at school, she had several
baby sitters over the course of the 4 weeks:
A week was spent in ND after we left her with Laura’s parents, a week
was spent with my parents at the office, and 2 weeks were spent with our
neighbor girl who loves hanging out with Erica and getting paid for it!!!
We had a pretty exciting addition to our home this
summer…well, at least to our yard…we had a fence installed just before the 4th
of July. It encloses the majority of our
backyard, so now Lexi and Erica have an enclosed place to run and play. Her first few times in the yard were spent
finding and picking up all of the hidden rocks that were in the grass, but now
she enjoys running in the yard and picking up Lexi’s toys before Lexi can get
to them!
The trip to North Dakota in July was a lot of fun. Erica found a passion for riding on
tractors!!! She loved taking rides on
the John Deere “Gator” that great grandma uses around the yard! We took a handful of rides on that each day,
in addition to a couple of short drives on the lawn mower with daddy after I
finished “working my fields.” She
enjoyed watching the farm “kitties” sneaking around the yard. She watched Lexi chase the ball in the yard,
she played with a cool new trike grandpa and grandma got her. Grandpa rebuilt a tree house that mommy grew
up with. And she liked walking around
exploring the farm in between all of that fun I described above. I can sum up Erica’s 2 weeks in ND by saying,
if she wasn’t sleeping or eating, she wanted to be running around outside!!! The day before Laura and I left, we went to
her cousin, Whitney’s wedding. The
reception was at her Aunt Brenda’s farm not far from Laura’s parents, and Erica
loved exploring a new farm that afternoon before we had dinner.
There were a few days of sadness in our community this
summer when a police officer was shot and killed during a traffic stop a few
miles from my parents’ house in Mendota Heights. I actually knew the officer from a traffic
accident in high school, and another time he let me out of a speeding ticket,
and I’ll never forget how nice of a guy he was.
Officer Scott Patrick taught me that cops are good people and that
they’re real humans like you and I. The
morning after I got home from San Diego, I took Erica to the site of the
shooting to leave some flowers at the memorial the community had
established. It was very sad and somber
at the memorial and I found it difficult finding words to explain to Erica what
had happened at the site just a few days earlier and why she was seeing all the
pretty flowers and balloons on the side of the road. A few days later, I stood along the funeral
procession route as the community paid their respects to Officer Patrick and
watched all the police cars from around the country made their way from the
church to the cemetery. Erica wasn’t
there to see it with me that hot afternoon, and I hope she never has to
experience something as sad as that!
The last note on this adventurous summer ends with a quick
wrap up of our most recent road trip…to Fargo to watch mommy run in her 2nd
half marathon this summer! This was the,
“Go Far” half marathon and only open to women.
It was a pretty small group of runners (we estimated a little over 2,000
runners, split between several races of different lengths), so it made it very
easy to find Laura with plenty of time before she ran past. This particular course was full of loops,
down-and-backs and twists and turns. It
was really easy to see her many times because I borrowed Uncle Brett’s bike and
was Laura’s mobile cheering section, while Grandpa and Grandma C jumped from
place to place with Erica. It was a
foggy, muggy morning…one that made it very difficult to run in, but Laura did a
great job on just her 2nd marathon!
Erica was so excited to see mommy run in front of her each time! Mommy got lots of little boosts of energy
from priceless Erica hugs and encouraging squeaks of “MOMMY!” Judging by the expressions of other ladies that
ran by, I think most of them would’ve killed to have a cute little baby like
Erica cheering them on!!!
And with that, I’ll wrap up this rambling and
random collection of memories from this summer. Today, Erica started daycare at her new place, an in-home
daycare about 10 blocks from our house!!!
Laura will drop her off in the
mornings and I’ll pick her up after school.
Daddy Daycare has officially wrapped up for the second time, and it’s a
little sad! She was difficult at times
this summer, and downright exhausting, but there’s never been so much joy
watching my little girl grow up and change before my eyes…and she has
definitely changed this summer!!! Thanks
so much for checking in with us and reading this entry in my Daddy Diary. We greatly appreciate the best wishes you
send our way and are thankful for all of you in our lives! Take care!!!
Interrupting mommy while she works at home!!!
Enjoying the flowers at Aunt Brenda's while in North Dakota for a wedding.
"Helping" daddy get ready to head to the airport for his trip to San Diego for school.
Officer Scott Patrick's road side memorial at the site he was killed. The blue paint, "MHPD, 2231" is his badge number. It was incredibly sad and difficult to find words to explain to Erica where we were and why daddy brought her there to pay respects to a true hero.
Officer Patrick's motorcade. Prior to him passing by us, hundreds of squad cars from around the country preceded with their lights flashing in nearly an hour long procession.
We made several trips on our bikes to the local farmers market. On this trip, Erica dug into the bag and enjoyed some fresh veggies on the ride home!!!
Watching our second ship of the summer leave Two Harbors...on our second trip to the lake.
Erica's first day with pigtails!!!
Erica helped daddy get some paperwork while in Duluth. UMD class of 2035, watch out!!!
Mommy coming towards the finish line during the Fargo half marathon with her two new running buddies, Julie and Stacy, who she met while running around mile 8
Erica helped daddy now the yard. This is just one of the many "tractors" she rode on this summer. She loves them all and when asked if she wants to drive, she puts her hands on the steering wheel!
Coming home from Fargo. She was a really good traveler on our many road trips this summer...typically smiling while in the car!
Erica took this picture herself. One of her many "selfies" she took this summer while stealing our phones.
Erica's first day of daycare, standing outside Sarah's door and ready to play with her new friends!
Being silly and playing where the garbage can typically sits!
