September series

So now we move onto late summer/early fall. You'll see fewer pictures of our little girl, because she rarely sits still for a picture now. She's busy running and talking (we've got a spreadsheet of 51 words so far - what, doesn't everyone keep a spreadsheet of their toddler's words?) and we are busy chasing after her, so it's hard to get many shots. Here she is "helping" dada fill the bird feeder.
One of Erica's best words (in her daddy's mind) is "TOUCHDOWN!" In the photo below she has just moved from her touchdown stance (hands up in the air like a U) to the safety stance, as is her normal process. This is proof that she is Nate's baby. In addition, she says "football" and "baseball" (Grandpa taught her that one). Nate couldn't be prouder. Next we are going to work on hockey words.
Here's a shot of Erica and her friend Elise after a hike up in the mountains. Can you see why it's hard to get a shot of her? She's so busy! Erica's the little one in back.
I coerced Erica to stand up on a stump and get a drink of juice from Dada. That's one of the keys to good photo ops. Put her somewhere that it's hard to get off of and offer her food or drink.
Look at our big girl! If you look close, you'll see that she is FILTHY! It was a cold hike. It snowed a little. She wasn't really dressed appropriately. We are bad parents, but in the end, everyone had fun, and no one got frostbite or anything!
Okay, all caught up now! On to fall!

Longer Video

Okay, here is a longer video of Erica dancing, and then kinda walking. Soon we'll have a video of her walking by herself, since she took her first solo steps yesterday! How exciting!



And another older video that I think shows that Erica is her daddy's child, and has no love for referees. (I'm talking in this one. It's only fair that Nate and are both embarrassed by this post!)



4 days to the big FIRST BIRTHDAY. Wow...

Happy Earth Day!

This post has nothing to do with Earth Day, it just happens that I'm posting on Earth Day. Here are a slew of Erica pictures from the past few weeks. (Oh, let's be honest. Pictures from the last few months.)

Erica at her Great-Grandma Emily's 90th birthday party. After being held too much, Erica and mom spent some time on the floor crawling under tables.

Just a random shot of Erica trying to get the camera. I love this picture!
Umm, honey, you have a little something on your head. Just a little something, right over there.

Erica had a horrible stomach bug one week, and this is from an afternoon when the only way she would eat was if she fed herself with the spoon. Lovely. Apple blueberries everywhere.

Mom took this picture of Erica and herself. That is the face of a mom who loves being hugged by her baby, and isn't so thrilled that she is now covered with apple blueberry glop. (See previous picture.)

Erica at her first Passover. She did love Matzoh, but is eating puffs here. (Puffs are leavened, so this isn't quite kosher...)
Erica's first Easter basket from Mom, Dad and the fuzzy Easter Monster.

Erica systematically digging through her Easter basket. If you look closely, there actually is a bunny in there.

Erica and Grandma Dyanna with silly bunny ears that she got from her friend Reid.

Ah, the latest in Erica hates the holidays series. Mom waited a little to long to feed her, so Erica had a meltdown. Reid is calmly trying to figure out what's wrong with the girl sitting next to him.

Erica on daddy's shoulders.

Erica practicing her standing on the cage that protects the TV.

Erica drinking from a straw at the New York Deli News. She had brunch with Mom, Dad, Grandma, and Grandpa. She even got to order off the kids menu!

Erica on Earth Day. There, now the post has something to do with the title (for those of you who made it this far.) Happy Earth Day. We are all caught up on Little Levene's adventures for now. Oh, except I still owe all those graph watchers an update before the big one year mark!

Erica and Mommy

Something strange has been happening lately. Dad picks up the camera when Erica's with mommy, so we get more and more proof that Erica has a mommy. (This is partially because mommy has learned to ask.) Regardless, here's a whole blog on Erica with mommy!

Erica eating the book Margo got her. It's titled "Books are for eating". Erica is not a good reader so far, but there is nothing better to chew on!

Erica getting a smooch from mommy. SMOOCH!

Some pictures of Erica and mommy at the park. This is her first swing, not including baby swings. It was fun for awhile, and then abruptly not fun at all.

Erica and mommy going down the slide. No, mommy does not have knee high white socks on, she hasn't seen the sun since....well, probably two summers ago. Thank goodness it was cloudy, or this shot wouldn't have come out at all due to the blinding whiteness!

Erica at the park

Three weekends ago we took Erica to the park for her first attempt at playing on the playground. She liked the swing for a little while.

Here she is, looking tiny in the big swing.

Daddy tried not to push her too high, but eventually she got tired of the swing.

Then she got to sit on Daddy's shoulders! What a couple of cuties! (Meaning adorable people, not small tasty oranges.)

There were some other families at the park, and one of them was nice enough to offer to take our picture. (Yes, mom is unshowered. I wasn't PLANNING for a photo op at the park!)

Erica had a great time riding home in the bjorn.

Eventually the fun of the day caught up with her though, and she took a nap. Comfy. (Makes your neck hurt just looking at her, doesn't it?)

Just some pictures

Here are just a few pictures from the past month and a half. I'm beside myself that my baby girl is going to be 9 months old in a week! Last Sunday we celebrated her 38 week birthday, which means Erica has officially been out longer than she was in. In honor of the special day there was a huge football game. Perhaps you saw it?

Erica and Daddy going for a hike on the Highline Canal. Mom's taking the picture. The Levene's provided the pack as a Christmas present to us.

Erica in her party dress and tights before Annika's second birthday party on New Year's Day.

Erica realizes that her play mat is WAY more fun than she had initially believed. Look mom, my foot goes through the "6"!

Oh my goodness, and I can chew on the "3".

Oh yeah, don't I look ridiculous, in a cute way.

Love the action shot of Erica beating on Daddy.

A family picture of dad, mom, and baby big head. Too bad all three of us never look good in pictures at the same time!

"We don't need no stinkin' baby proofing'." Thankfully the most dangerous thing in this cupboard is a Kitchen Aid mixer and a Barefoot Contessa brownie mix.

Weight update, and a run in with Santa (or two)

Erica's mommy was a paranoid crazy woman this week, and made Erica's dad take her to the doctor, for fear of an ear infection. Erica is fine, she just has a bad cold, but we got a new point for the weight graph! All you graph lovers rejoice, because there is finally an update. Her six month appointment point is included here as well.


In other news, Erica has had two visits with Santa. Those of you not related to me (Erica's Mommy) do not understand what a big deal this is. I am TERRIFIED of Santa. I never sat on Santa's lap. Not once. I remember my mom trying to bribe me when I was older with large cash sums ($50) to sit on Santa's lap, but she never succeeded. I was not going to go sit on some strange old man's lap. Parents teach you over and over not to let strangers touch you, then want you to go sit on some man's lap who's wearing a fake beard and a rented red suit. Really... Anyway, it's a testament to my hope that Erica doesn't share my neurosis that she has visited Santa twice already. (She only sat on his lap once.)

The first Santa encounter was when daycare had a holiday party for kids and parents. It was fantastic. There were crafts in every room. Erica and I went to the toddler's room, and stuck stickers and pom poms on a construction paper tree. Okay, I stuck stickers and pom poms on a tree, and Erica ate off two of the branches. Then we dressed a gingerbread girl ornament in the preschool room. Okay, I dressed a gingerbread girl with clothes that Erica picked out. (I'd hold up two dresses and ask her which one she liked. The one she tried to eat was the one we picked.) Then we decorated a sticker Christmas tree and sticker snowmen and colored with a green crayon in the infant room. Okay, I decorated the sticker tree while Erica ate sticker snowmen and a green crayon. (It's good when your kid eats the crayon at daycare, so they aren't worried the next day when her poo is green.) Our daycare director actually took a picture of that little craft attempt. Erica may not be ready for crafts yet, but I am!

After crafts, the infant room director convinced me that it would be okay for Erica to see Santa. I went and got my camera and then scoped out the situation. Turns out Santa was the grandpa of one of the girls in the preschool room, so it seemed okay. He was really nice, and even took off his gloves when he held Erica because he said gloves scared the little kids. She did okay, and I did not rip her out of his hands and run screaming into the night. Erica never smiled, but did manage to come away with 6 long white fake beard hairs and a candy cane.

Santa encounter number two was at my office Christmas party. Every year my boss throws a Christmas party for our center, buys every kid a present, and arranges for Santa to come visit. I attached the picture above, because it gives you a sense of how big Erica's gotten. The person in the red coat is not Santa, it's mommy. Just in case you were confused. After we visit with folks I work with and eat, Santa arrives to give the kids their presents. This Santa works with me, so he's got to be okay. His beard is real too, which seems much better. Also, there is no lap sitting.

Erica looking askance at Santa, while mommy takes her present.

All in all, Erica and I survived the Santa visits, and we are hoping that this will solidify her "good" standing on Santa's list.

Erica travels!

We took our first plane trip with Erica a couple of weekends ago. We started the trip as a visit to see great aunt Bonnie, but it ended up being a mini-family reunion. Uncle Alex flew out with us from Denver. Great Uncle Alan, first cousins once removed Aaron and Andy, and great grandma Emily all came out to visit. (All relationships mentioned are to Erica.) Erica was great on the plane, and we had a fantastic trip!

Erica hiding under her daddy's arm.

Erica with great grandma. Emily had on a goregous blue sweater the first time she met Erica, and it made Erica's eyes so pretty. Unfortunately, we didn't get a picture!

Look at what a big girl Erica is, playing with her toys on the couch while the boys read magazines.

Erica and great aunt Bonnie. I love this picture!

Not only does Erica play with toys on the couch, she also watches TV with Andy and Alan. Even though there is a lot of Packer gear on here, they are watching college football.

Just as a clarification, Aaron and Johanna were at the mini reunion, there is just no photographic evidence. I kept thinking we should take a group picture, but it never happened. So just to have a picture of Aaron and me, I'm including this shot from 2006. Enjoy!

It's been awhile...

Erica's doing great, but we haven't posted any pictures in awhile. Here's a quick update on our five-month old big girl.

Erica in her little chair, eating a toy. Yum! She's sitting up really well now. We are still waiting for her second roll over. Her first time was over a month ago. Roll kid, roll!

Nate set up Erica's high chair, in preparation for her starting solid food next month. It still seems to be a little big for her at this point.

Erica loves her daddy.

These pants Grandma Dyanna got her are a little big still, even though they are 3-6 month size. As you can tell, she's trying to pull them down, so she doesn't look like such a dork.

Finally, Erica finally got introduced to the flower pillow her mom made her. Unfortunately, I still think the cats like it more than she does. She's cute though!

Happy Columbus Day everyone!