1st week of Daddy Daycare 2014...at the lake!!!

This is the first week of Daddy Daycare this summer, and we are celebrating it by spending the week at the lake!!!

After a looooooong week last week making up for our numerous snow/cold days, I was ready to get out of town!!! Two days last week were spent on diversity training and the other 3 were spent downtown Minneapolis for a PLC conference that was awesome. But...now...it's summer!!!  Since Laura is in Sioux Falls on work this week, I decided to head up here to the lake with Erica and Lexi. Although the lake isn't nearly as relaxing as it used to be when I ventured up here alone in the past, it is equally fun and rewarding!!!

After a long weekend with Erica being needy and getting into mischief at home, I was scared to do this week up here alone!!! She was equally troublesome on Monday afternoon when we got up here. It was a long day chasing her and repeating "no!!!" A million times, but once she went down I decided I needed a new mental approach to try and get through the next day with more fun. I decided to take things into my own hands, be a better, more entertaining and proactive dad and see how that would treat me...and I'm so glad I had that enlightened moment!!!

We woke up yesterday and had breakfast before heading into Two Harbors to see if there were any ships. We pulled in and got Erica situated in her umbrella stroller for the first time. Lexi was a pain in the ass for the duration of our walk on the pier...whimpering and whining for unknown reasons!!! While we were out walking, a quick fog moved in and we couldn't see the end of the pier nor town behind us!!!  Before heading back to the car, we walked down to the tiny beach at the end of the pier and I showed Erica how to throw rocks into Lake Superior...a right of passage for any Minnesota kid!!!  We got back in the car after a few minutes of throwing rocks we packed up in the car to take my girls on a special tour...

We pulled into Superior Shores Resort and I explained to my girls how their mommy and I were married on the beach 5 years ago. We walked across the big lawn between the resort and the beach and made our way across the little bridge where I first laid eyes on my beautiful bride on our wedding day!!!  We looked for our special rock we wrote our names on, but didn't see it amongst the large pile of special rocks from the numerous other couples that have tied the not on our beach over the past 5 years after us. We walked to the water past our "alter" and threw more rocks while Lexi sniffed every rock nearby.  We took a few "selfies" on the beach and I snapped a few more of my girls on our special beach before we made our way back to the car amongst some running and giggling through the grassy lawn of the resort. We made it back to the lake in time for lunch...and a quick breath before heading out on our next adventure...

Swimming!!!  I picked out Erica's swimsuit last weekend, so we had to try it out. I almost died trying to inflate her floating raft, but was saved by an air compressor in my dad's garage!!! We packed up and headed a few miles up the shore to the resort our development is partnered with. We waded into the pool water and I shrieked at the chilly water. Erica agreed with me as we waded in with her in my arms. She cried when I tried putting her into the raft that almost killed me. So we swam around in my arms for a bit before discovering a beach ball. That ball was the best thing Erica could've asked for in the pool!!!  She love her raft, finally, because she could better play with her ball!!! After a little while, we made our way into the hot tub...don't worry...it was pretty much bath water!!!  She loved it and relaxed in my arms for the few minutes we were in there. We played with the ball some more before heading to the shower where I rinsed her off before getting her ready to head back to the lake for a nap. We ended our day with a walk with Lexi around the neighborhood before having dinner and a bottle. 

Today's adventured brought us to the car dealership for 2.5hrs for our warranty clear coating. I was shocked to be awaken by my alarm and not Erica. Go figure...the one day this week we had to get up early, she let me sleep in!!!  I was terrified by the thought of staying in a waiting room for 2hrs with her, but she did great. It was like a separate service center within the dealership, so we enjoyed  lot of empty space for her to roam and explore while we waited. This overlapped nap time and I knew she was tired, but as expected, she refused to sleep in my arms. But by the time we left, she was sleepy and fell asleep by the time we left the dealership and pulled into town...a mile up the road!!!! We drove to the harbor again and napped as a ship was getting ready to leave but woke up as it started backing out, so we got out of the car and headed down the pier again. It was super windy and with my arms full with Erica and an attempt to take a picture, my hat flew off and floated off the pier and towards the water before snagging on a  rock. I was reminded of the great people in this world when a guy walking by on the pier told me to hold his bag and hopped through the wiring on he pier to grab my hat!!! Apparently I looked lost with Erica in my arms and a hat blowing away, so he took it upon himself to grab it from the rocks below without thinking twice. If only the world had millions more caring people just like him!!!  Anyways, we took some more pictures and headed back to the lake for a bite to eat and a 2.5 hr nap for Erica...she made up for the non-nap this morning!!!  After dinner, I gave her an early bath and loaded up the girls for a surprise in town...Dairy Queen!!! Erica scarfed down some ice cream and unexpectedly helped me slurp down my smoothie!!!  Lexi got to lick the remnants of our ice cream treats, and all was well in the world!!! Erica squeaked and giggled the whole way back, so apparently, dad was spot on with his surprise!!!  She went down for bed soon after we got home and since then, I've been working on this entry!!!  

Tomorrow, grandpa and grandma will arrive in the afternoon and our week in solitude will come to an end. Laura will be up Friday night after working in Duluth and it will be an early night to bed for her because she is running the Grandmas Half Marathon on Saturday!!!  She has been a running machine over the past few years and I'm so proud of her for ramping up her training to tackle her next challenge!!!

Thanks so much for checking in with us. I'm so glad to be done with school for the summer and ready to kick off a busy summer with my Little Nugget and Lexi. I'll try to be better with more frequent updates. Enjoy the pictures below and thanks again for reading my Daddy Diary!!! Take care!!!

In the car, heading North!!!

Talking with mommy on the phone, cuddled in for the night

In Two Harbors, strapped in to the new stroller

Struggling to take the first picture on the pier

My 2 girls!!!

Erica and Lexi throwing rocks on our special beach

Erica on our beach

The cutest little girl ever!!!!

Ready to go swimming!! (Daddy picked out a cute suit, didn't he?!?!)

The pool toy that almost killed me!!!

A cute moment before bedtime with her "bah bah"

Erica wanted to buy this car while we waited, but daddy said no

 Watching the ship leave...just before daddy's hat blew away!!!

Our bed time treat...Erica helped me finish my treat after she finished hers!!!

Loooooong overdue!!!

This update is loooooong over due!! I last posted a few days before Erica's 1st Birthday, and today, she is now 2 months past her big day!!!

I look back and try to figure out why I haven't had much down time since then...and the only thing I can think of is that Erica has become a crazy little walker/runner in the house since a week or so before her birthday...and since then she hasn't stopped walking around and exploring the house at nearly every waking minute!!!

Her first bday party was a blast. We had all of Erica's grandparents at our house and by aunt and uncles from my

Mom's side, a few of my cousins and more importantly, Erica even had her great grandparents over to our house, although we did miss Laura's grandparents who were unable to make the trip from North Dakota.   We had a big taco bar with 10lbs of beef for nearly 20 of us!!!  And while we were eating, Erica had a surprise visit from some real princesses, courtesy of our neighbor, Tim. (He is prime minister for the St Paul winter carnival and he had a few of the princesses at his house before an event and they called to see if we want a visit for some pictures...it was awesome!!!). Erica was showered with gifts...everything from books to blocks, a baby doll to a shopping cart, and of course, lots of clothes.  Her biggest gift was a swing set from Laura's parents that is now standing in the back yard. It has a slide, 2 swings and a small platform with a ladder leading to the slide, with a little enclosed place with a small door underneath that serves as a small play house.  The highlight of the day was letting the birthday girl dog into her cake!!! Laura made a cake shaped like a cupcake especially for Erica to destroy...and she put a pretty big hole in it before she filled herself up with cake and frosting (everyone else had cupcakes that matched her big cake).  

Since her birthday, April and May have gone by in a blink!!!  In April, I was gone for 2 weekends in a row at the end of the month to go 4 wheeling at the cabin and turkey hunting (I bagged a nice Tom this spring!!! I pretty much had to shoot it in self defense as it came in for a landing about 20 feet from me after flying away from being shot at by Dan Hopkins on the other side of the field I was sitting on!!!). I brought home one hell of a cold that weekend two...and since the last weekend in April, one of the 3 of us has pretty much been fighting the cold!!!  Over Memorial Day weekend last weekend, we were trying to help Erica fight a 102 degree fever and a rash. Not fun...especially when the weather turns warm and hits 80 degrees for the first time since last September!!!

For the sake of time...and, I'm sure your angry at me for not updating this blog at least once in the past 2 months...I'll provide a few snapshots of the things Erica has been up to lately:

- she is a runner!  She runs/staggers around the house and babbles the whole time. If she is not pushing or pulling a toy behind her, she is carrying something in a hand!

- she is now eating all normal people food. She loves chicken, strawberries, green beans and cheese. 

- she loves tormenting her puppy, Lexi!!!  She sits with Lexi in her kennel, picks at her food while she eats and takes her toys. Although they truly love each other, Erica giggles when she bugs her but Lexi is a trooper and let's her get away with a lot of crap. It's cute...if they are apart for a day or 2, both girls get moapy and appear lonely...and then they are so excited when they are back together again...Lexi doesn't eat normal and Erica appears lonesome. Adorable!!!

- Erica's favorite toys are anything mom and dad have with buttons. Whether it's stopping the dishwasher cycle, cell phones, computer, cable tv receiver or her toys, she loves pushing buttons and hearing electronics at work. 

- she is developing a great personality and sense of humor. She is a trooper when she is sick because she isn't too crabby but just wants to be held. She still laughs and plays, but gets more clingy. She has recently started noticing that her actions cause us to laugh, so she sees our reaction and giggles herself and tries to keep us smiling at her expense. 

- lately she is becoming a climber. She is trying to lift her leg/foot onto anything just to see if she can get on top of it. She tries the couch, her toys, the dishwasher door, chair legs...everything!!

- she loves being outside!!! She loves her swing set and water table (an activity table that holds water for her to stand next to and play in). She would be outside for hours if we let her!!!

- she loves shopping with daddy!!! Of course, we go to cool stores like Gander Mountain, Cabelas and Home Depot...and she loves it! N she sits in the cart and we make faces at each other. She's very helpful at holding things, putting things in the cart and drawing lots of attention from other shoppers with her babbling and cuteness!!!

- lastly, we are getting a nice addition to our yard for our girls...Lexi and Erica are getting a fence!!! We will have a black, chain link fence that will enclose our backyard, hopefully by the end of this month!  That way, our girls will both be safe and free to run around in their yard!!!  

I'm sure there's a lot more that I've missed, but that will have to do for now. I'm sorry this was so delayed and I'm even more sorry for my lack of pictures. I got a new phone last week and I hardly have any pics on here now, let alone snapshots of the past few months. I'll try to get some on here soon!!! Until then, these few will have to do....but of course, thanks so much for checking in and seeing how Erica's life has gone over the past few months!!!  Take care!!!

Real food!!

Bath time with Lexi

Sharing a bed time snack with daddy

Daddy and grandpa building a new fence on the cliff at the lake to help keep Erica a little safer

Erica playing with her water table on the deck

Erica's first bike ride in the carrier...we pretty much got this for free while Laura was pregnant...our goal is to go on bike rides a lot this summer!

Erica's personality at play...take that mommy!!!

Erica's swing set in the yard

Our little, musical prodigy

Catching up...almost a year old!

3/23/14

Time flies when you're having fun.  Lately, having fun has meant chasing Erica around as she's taken her first steps and pushing her toys around, and/or crawling everywhere with much more speed than a few months ago!

It's been about a month and a half since my last post, which has been way too long!  Since my last update, we've gone through the typical motions of a booming and growing little girl.  Each day, Erica shows us something new, or shows us a "new and improved" version of things she already does.

- She is a dancer!  Whenever there is music playing; whether it's from a toy or the radio/iPod, she starts dancing.  Dancing can mean anything from rocking back and forth, shaking her butt, or swaying.  Regardless, it always gets going when the music starts.
- She is constantly on the go!  She never stops moving.  Whether it's her bedtime bottle and her leg is kicking, in the bath with both hands splashing, or she's pushing her toys around, crawling around the house, or trying to wiggle out of our arms while being held, she never stops!!!
- She's a talker.  She's not saying much yet, but she's always babbling and making noises.  In the car, we grunt back and forth to each other while I'm driving.  Her favorite thing to say is "Ba ba" which is what our nanny calls her bottle, and so we all refer to it as such.
- She's smart.  If she pushes her toys into an object and can't move it forward any more.  She shakes at it to try to rock it free.  If that doesn't work, she walk around the side of the toy and pushes it in reverse once she gets to the front of it.  She's also learning her shapes...very slowly, but she can put some of her shapes into her play cookie jar.
- She loves her puppy, Lexi.  She tries approaching her more often; whether Lexi likes it or not!  She uses her lips to almost say "puppy", but it comes out as "puh puh."  When we get home from being gone, Lexi gets a treat if the house isn't destroyed.  Erica has started giving her these treats, and both girls seem to love it!
- She has a fun personality.  She's always smiling and rarely crying.  If she cries, we know she needs something, and she doesn't cry too often.  Although, now that she's crawling, walking and falling more frequently, we've had a few more tears lately!
- She's becoming more independent/self-sufficient.  She plays for 10+ minutes on her own at times.  We put her in the sun room with her toys and do things in the kitchen, and she entertains herself.  She has been holding her own bottle for several months now, but it is really nice that she can feed herself the bottle from the floor or in her high chair.  She's also getting more into finger foods.  Her favorites are string cheese, peas (which she refused to eat when we pureed home-made food), and blueberry bread.  She has slowly started to try new foods, with mixed results, but she typically likes them better if she feeds it to herself first, rather than us getting it to her!
- She's very curious!  She's constantly pulling out drawers and trying to open cabinets!  We've installed door locks and handle locks on things, and have rearranged drawers in the bathroom to keep things out of her reach.  Whatever she does, she's always looking to explore and discover new things. It's so fun to see her learn new things all the time!!!

Over the past month, we've also transitioned her away from mommy milk to regular whole milk.  Laura successfully made it 11 months pumping for Erica.  And the remaining milk we have in the house will get her to the magical 1 year mark, which Laura set out to achieve long before Erica arrived in our arms.  Both with whole milk and mommy milk from the bottle, Erica has always been very easy to transition to new things.  She had her first bottle with me almost 11 months ago, and she never had a problem with it!  Her first time with whole milk, we mixed it with mommy milk at almost half and half, and she guzzled it!  She never liked mommy milk when it was cold, but now doesn't want her milk heated anymore, she just prefers it cold.  Along with moving towards real milk, we've also had her drinking more water.  She has a baby nalgene bottle with a flip-up straw/sipper and she loves drinking water from it!

She's still a pretty, darn good sleeper as well!  We put her down around 7pm every night, and she'll typically sleep until 7am or later the next morning.  Some mornings she's up a little earlier, other mornings we wonder how late she'll sleep, but it's consistently around 12 hours on average!

Daddy successfully survived a week long work trip while mommy was out of town and left us home alone.  Both Erica and I had a blast together, and Lexi did pretty well at keeping us all in line without mommy around.  Some dads seem to be scared of having to babysit for a night, but I love having my time with my Little Nugget with no one around...it's the best thing ever!

Other than those things, it's been a pretty typical month since my last update.  I'll leave you with a final story:  Several nights ago, I decided to get Erica started on our nightly bath routine.  However, that night, I mixed things up a bit.  Instead of starting the tub with her help like normal, I decided we should get undressed first, and then get the tub going.  So, while Erica was standing bare butt at the edge of the tub while it filled, I looked down and noticed she pee'd all over the floor!  I screamed at the amount of pee puddling at my feet.  Erica then screamed at my screams.  Laura laughed from the kitchen.  So, I had the little screaming girl sit in the tub while I rinsed her smaller tub and then started everything over again.  I'm still curious as to who screamed louder and who was more scared.  I'm not sure, but I think I win on both accounts!!!

Well, with that, I'll wrap this up.  If you're still following this blog, thank you so much.  I'll update this in just over a week when my Little Nugget turns 1 year old.  Until that point, this has been the best 11 and a half months of my life, and I'm so happy I get to keep her in my life as long as I'm around!  Thanks for all of your kind words and best wishes you've sent us along the way.  We've certainly been super lucky to have a happy and healthy baby in our lives for the past year!  Take care!!

10 Months Old!

2/2/14

After a January absence blogging, I'm trying to start February the right way!!!

January was a cold month filled with 5 "snow" days for school!  Those bonus days were a lot of fun with the return of Daddy Daycare!  Erica and I had a blast hanging out at the house, looking out the windows at the frigid neighborhood, and playing with her vast toy collection!  My favorite part of those cold days was spent taking afternoon naps in the recliner with Erica sleeping on my chest!  She hasn't slept on Laura or I for months, so it was a lot of fun having her snuggle in for a couple of hours each afternoon as I watched a movie with my Little Nugget cozied in with a blanket and her bunny! 

Beyond a very goofy January schedule, we didn't have too much excitement in the Lemke House.  We spent a weekend up at the lake with just the 3 of us while Lexi stayed home with grandma.  The highlight (and purpose) of that weekend getaway was Erica's first time swimming!  We took her to Grand Superior Lodge for a dip in their pool.  She was really unsure of the experience at first, but began to relax and enjoy it as time went on...without shedding a single tear!  After some time swishing around the pool in our arms, we put her in an inflatable tube my parents picked up and had waiting for us at the lake.  She loved the tube!  We pulled her around by her feet while she sat and splashed around.  After a while in the pool, Laura and I began to feel chilled, so we knew the poor little girl was even colder than us.  So we ended the pool day with a quick soak in the hot tub.  Fortunately, the pool water was warmer than expected, and the hot tub was cooler than expected, so each was enjoyable for us.  Erica immediately loved the warm bath water of the hot tub and turned into a limp noodle in my arms and just soaked it all in.  A hot tub is always relaxing for adults, but it was funny to see Erica's reaction to the comfort and warmth of it!  The other fun we had that weekend was from watching the deer outside the windows each morning as they ate at the neighbor's house.  Erica was super excited and squeaky and saying her new word, "Hi!!!" at every opportunity.  The deer were well-aware of her presence as they all were watching her, and others took off immediately when she tapped at the windows!!!

A highlight/lowlight from January was Erica's first fever!  She came down with the fever and a plugged up nose/watery eyes a couple days after coming back from the lake.  Her temperature spiked close to 102 one day, and took a few days to fall back down to normal.  Thanks to a couple of days with regular doses of Tylenol and lots of apple juice, we tackled the cold and had a healthy, energetic girl again!  I can definitely tell that dads are wired for the health and safety concerns...those are the biggest things that get me worried/stressed...and my daddy senses were on high alert for a few days during her regular temperature checks and Tylenol dosing.  Fortunately, she's a trooper when it comes to the snot sucker, nose wiping, and taking her medicine!!!

January's biggest challenge has been getting Erica to eat a bigger variety of food.  We've introduced whole milk in an effort to start transitioning away from mommy's milk, and she seems to do fine with it, as long as it's not right out of the fridge and super cold.  She loves blueberry bread we found at Target, but beyond this new food, she is very reluctant to try new foods.  We noticed it appears to be a texture thing...or so we think?!  She loves sweet potatoes that are pureed, but she will not eat small chunks of sweet potato we give her. She dislikes the feel with her fingers and the texture of it in her mouth.  So, of course, she doesn't like much other food we've tried giving her.  We thought pancakes would go well...nope.  We thought French toast would be a treat...nope.  We thought introducing chicken with vegetables (baby food) would be tasty...not even close!  She does like cheese!  We broke up cheese curds and sliced deli cheese, but that's about the extent of her new foods.  We're hoping this changes with some more teeth (she still has just the 2 bottom front teeth from Christmas).  It's sometimes frustrating as we try to spoon feed her new things or break into pieces for her to try, and she won't even get it past the lips.  And if we're lucky to sneak a bite in her mouth, she gets the most disgusted look on her face and spits out the food as if she is gagging on it!  Laura used to be picky as a kid, I'm told, but for Erica to be so picky at 10 months is a huge shock to me!!!  She's too young to be picky, right?!?!

Yesterday, we had our 3rd pro photo shoot.  We think there will be a bunch of adorable ones, so we're anxious to get those back and see what sort of funny expressions were captured!

Other than that, I don't have much to report on this lame update...it's been too cold to go out and do anything fun...just ask Lexi...she's missed out on her walk most of the month as we've had well over 20 days below zero this month.  In fact, a couple of the cold days for school saw morning temps over -20 below, with windchills close to -50!!! 

On Friday this week, dad and Lexi will have the house to ourselves as mom and Erica are heading north to the farm.  Laura's friend, Stephanie is having a baby shower on Saturday, before Laura heads to Warren, MN (near Crookston in the NW part of the state) for 4 days of work.  Erica will spend that time at the farm with Grandpa and Grandma C hanging out.  This will be the longest time I've spent away from her and I'm already well aware of how much I'm going to miss her...even 5 days before they head north!!!

Thanks again so much for checking out my Daddy Diary.  I appreciate you checking in on us.  We all appreciate the best wishes you send our way.  Take care!

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!!!