Spring is here! Time to pick flowers!

 

Here ya go. Play with soapy warm water for a change.

Erika is fully mobile now. And since the weather is reasonably sunny its time to demand to go outside at all hours of the day. Indeed, she is addicted to the swing. Two hours yesterday despite drizzle, and about 90 minutes today when as it was sunny. She also spent an hour in the back of the neighbor's pickup which was full of a load of planting soil.

Yes, you read that correctly. I came home from work and asked where Erika was. Jackie replied, "Oh, she's in the back of the Protestant's pickup playing in the dirt." First a couple things. We have affectionate names for all our neighbors, but they don't know it so keep it to yourselves. And the Protestant's oldest girl, Melissa, is a "mommy's helper" meaning that we pay her to stop by a couple times a week and play with Erika so Jackie can do other things. Melissa comes looking for work whenever she needs money for more tunes for her ipod. This time Erika came to her because they had a fresh load of dirt.

Anyway, Erika had a fantastic time in the dirt and she was filthy. In the picture here, we have dusted her off, and filled her bucket with warm soapy water in hopes that she will accidently clean herself in some strange reverse process that only works on kids who don't know that you are tricking them to get clean. 

Happy April Fool's Day!

 

Visiting G'ma Gladys

Erika walked quite a lot at Grandma's this weekend. A lot of it was trying to touch Tashi the dog. Tashi is much faster, so there was not much contact! Also Erika learned to stuff her pockets with carrots which she has no intention of eating. Overall, a very good weekend in Oregon.

 

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Whether you are wearing green, or eating green, or wearing what you are eating which is green, have a great St. Patrick's day! 

Cupcakes new shoes

Erika has joined the ranks of the shoe-buying public at Nordstroms. On Friday we went to the children's shoe department where the 1st pair of shoes is celebrated by the gift of a balloon, a stuffed "Nordie" toy in the shape of a shoe and a picture commemerorating the event.

Her new shoes are white with pink flowers and laces (of course) and she wears a size 3 and a half. Aunt Kmi, when are you coming to Seattle next so we can go shoe shopping? 

curls?

Not a lot of hair, but some curls going on back there. 

A universe of 4 and a half words

Erika speaks. Kind of. The variety and frequency of her audible output grows everyday. As if she's making her way around an orchestra trying each instrument. Every day it's like "hey! what else can my mouth do!?"
Words so far: Daddy, Mama, Ball, woof-woof, and Na'NAY-nay.
That last one being short for mommy goodness with a focus on milk.
She says "eeeeee..." a lot while kicking her legs to vary the intensity, but I haven't decoded that one yet. I suspect it refers to the way Bernake is handling the fed. When I told her that uncle Greenspan stepped down, she was all "EEEEE...!!"

It's got me thinking a lot about the chinese room. At what point does mimicry count as intelligence? Perhaps brains do cause minds?

We'll find out later.

Visiting the Seattle Center Children's Musem

 

Das Basement?

The Library has several children's books donated by the German Language Association. This is a page from one with the theme "things in the basement". How many things in the picture creep you out?? Let's start with an easy one: the human bone hanging on the wall? What's up with that? 

Cupcake re-virused

So we got off lightly with the flu, now Erika has a bad cold - runny nose and cough. She is not a happy camper at all. She is very fond of reading books, though, and we have to go through the pages of at least 20 books per day. She takes this activity very seriously. On the other hand, I am re-purposing the sacred "boppy" from being a customized breast feeding pillow, to being a neck support in a chair that is too soft. When cupcake gets situated, you pick up whatever is in reach and make due. 

Cupcake restored

The flu passed. I think we got off relatively easy this time. Here we see Erika completely absorbed in television. Not that we plan on having her hooked on the evil glowing box, but it kinda helps out that she can watch it on her own. In case you didn't know, there is a 24-hour network for the pre-school crowd called the Sprout Network. Taken in moderate doses, it works wonders. She is glued to whatever they are showing at the time. On the other hand, I have had just about enough of cute little talking mice/dogs/cats with British accents to last for a life time, but Erika seems to enjoy it all.

Barfy Cupcake

Erika got post-nasal drip last Sunday. Then she got the stomach flu. As we all know, the perfect time to toss cookies and change bedsheets and clothes is 1:51am which is just what she did last night. In between boughts of crying and throwing up, she has long stretches of happiness and babble which lead you to think that she is not going to suddenly cry and throw up on you again.

I don't think she gets sick like we do. She is not merely lying around with barely the energy to change the channel from the Gilligan's Island marathon. She has plenty of energy and enthusiasm for several hours, and then a brief period of crying, barfy sickness. I've written too much already. I'll leave you to imagine the diaper situation.

Cupcake and uncle Mark rooting for the Seahawks

New DVD of Erika available

Hello all.
I have compiled another DVD of Erika. I hope g'ma Hughes has a DVD player this time!
Anyway, we have some early walking footage, some cute babble, and the destruction of the birthday cake. I hope to have those out to family this week. Extra copies are available for anyone else who would like to see a baby crawling around.

Keyboards are for percussion?

As you would expect, Erika really likes things that make noise. The digital piano is just the thing for noise. Lots of buttons to push. She frequently ends up with pipe organ on top of a rock drum beat. Very avant-guard, no? 

New Carpet?

Cupcake enjoys our new carpet. It's Green! Isn't that something?
I'm sure we will look back at it and think "that was so 2006!" But anyway, thanks to Aunti Jayne for helping us break out of the Real-Estate taupe.

Phases of Cupcake

Aunt Kimi came to visit us for a week. We had a swell time, and she took lots of pictures to document the variety of moods we call Erika aka Cupcake.
It might be fun to think of captions for each of these.
One caption should read: "You there! Shut up and bring me another scotch!" Can you guess which one that might be?

Staying in for the weekend

It's raining a lot recently. 50F, overcast, and raining. There you have it; winter in the Pacific Northwest. I personally don't mind it at all. The air is so super-fresh and fragrant that I go outside periodically just to smell it. Cupcake doesn't seem to mind the weather at all. In fact, I'm pretty sure she does not know what weather is. When we lived in Texas, I really missed the rain. it's one of the few things in life that no one charges you for. It's completely free. It comes when it comes, and stops when it stops. It helps things grow, and sounds great on the aluminium porch covering out back. I'm not exactly sure what to do about the moss on my roof, but I'm working on that. 

Holiday blogging Hiatus

I haven't blogged anything in a while since all of my rare internet time is being sucked up with the 2006 portfolio rebalance. Now that I have a subscription to morningstar.com, I'm as happy as a pig in space! Also, Erika is more mobile and so I have to pretend to watch her more diligently.

And now for something completely different, last week we took a drive to Deception Pass. It was a 150-mile round trip and Cupacke did well. I'll try to post a picture soon!

This guy is NOT Santa!

 

Holiday kiss

A lot of teething this week. Looks like Santa will be bringing her two front teeth. She also figured out how to climb the stairs. I followed behind her to see her technique. She did well, except for the times when she fell backwards, and I had to catch her. Just as I suspected. The saftey gates are up, so don't worry. She won't be climbing un-supervised. 

Erika's 1st Birthday Party!

She was quite hesitant to approach a cake with a stick of fire on it. Probably a good thing.

Erika is serious about cake. 

Lots of friends came to help with the wrapping paper. 

Cupcake toddles

Erika has not done any appreciable walking ever since we left grandma's house this weekend - until tonight. Tonight she was standing up, leaning with her back to the couch holding a hat, of all things, in her hands. She was very concentrated on the hat. Then she arched her back, pushing off from the couch and started walking across the room looking like a chubby businessman puzzling over the Wall Street Journal while walking down the sidewalk. Those were her first true steps of independence. She doesn't seem that worried about the stopping part. I had to grab her before she crashed into some wooden toys, but from then on she wanted to walk on her own between Jackie and me. We spent at least an hour laughing and hugging and toddling back and forth. It's quite amazing to see her on her own feet out there in a sea of carpet. So much for all those who told us we had to make her crawl for some reason.