We call her "Fang"

Erica has four teeth now. Two on the top, and two on the bottom. The bottom two are pretty normal, as you can see in the below picture. She's got the middle two bottom teeth.

The top two teeth on the other hand, well that's a different story. Nate and I didn't even notice she had the first one until it was pretty well established. That's because it isn't one of the top middle teeth, but the one to the right of where the top middle right tooth would be. Now the next top tooth is coming in, and it's the tooth to the left of what would be the top middle left tooth. Confused? Look at the picture and you'll see what I mean. (You can click on the shot and it will get bigger, so you can see the teeth better.) For those of who who speak tooth, these are the lateral incisors as opposed to the central incisors, which we were expecting first.

The result? Our daughter looks like she has fangs. I have a friend who thinks these are actually the central incisors, and they'll just move in, but I'm not so sure. Regardless, I hope she either gets the middle teeth soon, or the teeth she has starts migrating, because Fang looks a little silly right now.

Baby Jail

Mom and Dad are afraid I'm going to start crawling soon, and have started putting up baby jail.

Hey, will someone let me out of here?

If you do, I'll share my orange doughnut with you.

Oh, orange doughnut, how I love your perfect roundness and slightly cat furry texture. Wait, what was I thinking? I wouldn't give up my orange doughnut!

Mmmm, orange doughnut...


(Like my Picasa icon?)

New Layout

In honor of Erica's eight month birthday, I'm playing around with a new template. No promises that things won't change occasionally, as I hone my wicked html skills.

It was a big week for us. Erica had her first swimming lesson with mommy on Wednesday. (No pictures. How on earth am I supposed to take pictures in the pool? Either the camera or my baby or I would drown.) She loved the pool, especially once she learned that her yells echoed throughout the entire pool: loud baby. We started baby proofing the house, in anticipation that Erica's not going to stay immobile long. She's proving us right by stretching forward, forward, forward and then falling flat on her face over and over. It's a fun game. A little arm strength, and I think she'll be moving! Yikes... Watch out kitties....

Happy Sunday to everyone. The entire Levene household has a cold, so we are hunkered down watching playoff football, and taking down Christmas decorations. Christmas decorations seem like such a good idea in November/December...

Holiday Updates

Well, the holidays have come and gone, and there was no time for blogging. What a crazy, hectic few weeks! Hopefully life will get back to normal now. Here are a few shots of Erica during the holiday chaos. First, the pre-Christmas shots:

Erica before Grandma Donna's concert in her fancy clothes and shiny red shoes.

Erica with mommy. Mommy got a haircut, and Erica is wearing a lovely hand-knit outfit from Margo.

Now shots of Christmas itself. We spent Christmas Eve at (G+G)L's house, Christmas morning at our house and Christmas afternoon at (G+G)I's house. Christmas day eve we relaxed in our toy and book filled house.

At (G+G)L's house, Erica poses with all of her loot from the out of town relatives. The beer bottle is from Daddy, and was rinsed out before he gave it to her. (That's for all the child services people reading our blog. We are fit parents, I promise.)

Christmas morning at our house. Erica's looking at me as if to say "Really mom, you bought me all this stuff KNOWING how much I was going to get from everyone else." (Dad's feet are thinking the same thing, I'm sure.) Who can resist buying presents for a baby?!?!?

Erica and daddy playing before we head out to (G+G)I's house.

Whoa! A Christmas explosion at (G+G)I's house! It was a fun day, but exhausting. I can't imagine what it will be like next year when Erica's a little more grown up!

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.

Thanksgiving. At last!

Sorry, soon is a relative thing when it comes to Thanksgiving pictures, but better late than never. Hopefully it was worth the wait. We had two Thanksgiving celebrations this year, one at each Grandparents' house. Here are the highlights from both.

Erica and I started the day with a run around the neighborhood. When you've got two thanksgiving dinners to eat, you need to do something to ensure you don't weigh 700 lbs by the end of the day. Erica slept, and I pushed her around in a jogging stroller with a flat tire. We usually do the Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning, a local race, but the day was just to crazy to try and cram that in.

After our morning workout, everyone got dressed up and got ready to go to (G+G)I's house. Only one of us tried to eat our shoes.

Erica watched football with dad and grandpa for awhile.

Look at this amazing turkey my dad made! It looks like it should be in some cooking magazine!

Erica even ate a little turkey mixed with formula. Yum! See her cute festive bib?

Once we were done with Thanksgiving #1, it was off to (G+G)L's house. Not surprising, it was an E-TV marathon that evening! All pictures from Thanksgiving #2 were provided by Diane and Donna, our official photographers of the evening.

Erica and daddy playing on the floor. Erica is either trying to fly, or getting ready to attack. Watch out daddy and puffy blocks!

Here's Erica with her Uncle Alex...

and a picture with Great Aunt Diane.

More E-TV as Erica serenades us on her piano.

A rare sighting of Erica with mom! I was in the midst of a high action activity, thus the crazy hair.

Erica gets some snuggle time with Grandma and Great-Grandma.

This shot pretty much sums up the night. Can you tell who was the center of attention all day?

Erica vs. the monsters

Over the long holiday weekend, Erica found herself in mom and dad's big bed. She was just hanging out when monsters attacked!

Here brave Erica, with only one sock, vanquishes the first monster. (Pst, don't let grandma and grandpa know she's hanging out with only one sock.)

Oh! Erica takes on the monster, and removes the other sock. Now she's fighting sockless! (Grandma and grandpa are cringing in horror!)

Here comes the second monster, and you can see the third and first lurking nearby. Take that Icebat ear!

She is so brave, taking on two monsters at the same time!

Who's next?!?!

Thanksgiving pictures are coming soon!

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!

Solid Food

A couple of weekends ago, Erica had her first encounter with solid food: rice cereal. All in all, it went really well. She seems to be a fan of spoons, eating, and sucking on her fingers while she eats. Today she tried her first raspberry while she ate, and I got to try rice cereal in my eye! Fun! Here are some pictures of the damage the first day.

Mmm, rice cereal. I think I can feed myself.

Wow, this spoon Grandma Dyanna got me is so soft on my little gums!

Happy Election Day, Part 2

Nate wanted to have a picture of Erica in front of the NBC announcement of our new president. We had a few, but Erica wasn't in focus in most of them. She looks okay in this one though.

Okay, no more gloating. Now we have to wait and see how President #44 actually does.

Happy Election Day!

Of course, Grandma Levene bought this for me during the DNC in Denver. Thankfully I got to wear it in celebration on election night!

Happy Halloween!

Well, Erica could have been Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde for Halloween. She was happy, she was MAD, she was sleepy. Wait, maybe she was all 7 of the dwarves for Halloween. She was grumpy, she was sneezy, she was sleepy, she was cranky.... Anywhoo.... here is a pictoral play by play of Erica's first Halloween.

Erica starting the day as a happy baby in her Halloween PJs.

In her "Mummy Loves Me" bodysuit that she wore under her bee costume in the morning.

Our first stop of the day was daycare, where they were having a parade of all the kids in their costumes. Erica was a little bee, complete with wings and a stinger.

After all the crazy parents took individual pictures of their kids, we took about 80 million group shots of the kids in their costumes. Erica held up for the first 32 million or so, and then started crying.

The kids (including unhappy Erica) were loaded into rolling cribs for the Halloween parade, and rolled all over the building. Here Erica is asking the gypsy how to escape from infant Halloween jail.

Oh, the end. Erica has had ENOUGH of Halloween parades, bee costumes, and she hates Skittles!

After the parade, I took Erica home, and changed her into her in her backup costume Grandma Dyanna got her: a tiger. I was too scarred by the breakdown at daycare to shove her back into the bee costume again so soon. Erica napped in the car on the way to some trick or treating at Daddy's office. It was her first time visiting there, and she was a big hit. She laughed and smiled, and was just a joy in general. Phew!

The day ended with some actual trick or treating in our neighborhood. We tried the bee costume again, without a long sleeve shirt underneath. It was 70 degrees when we went, so there was no danger of her freezing. (It will probably be her last nice Halloween until she's 12. The weather is never this nice in Colorado for Halloween.) Erica was a trooper and didn't have a breakdown, but she did fall asleep as her daddy carried her home, and he was stuck snuggling a little bee for an early evening nap.

The End. Happy Halloween!