2009 Year End Update

My favorite picture

January 3, in her new Elmo slippers!

Scottsdale in October.

Scottsdale in October

Christmas Day

Christmas Day

What else? Watching Elmo!

I just like this picture.

Buzzy Bee for Halloween

I have been very remiss in updating Erin's blog. Thanks to all of those who have gently "prodded" me to do so! I realized after going back and reading Erin's last blog entry that I am already forgetting some of her behaviors, and thus need to more regularly update this to create a record of things that we want to remember about her. Others have shared with me how quickly you can forget details of your child's development, so this blog becomes a way of remembering.

2009 was such a memorable year for our family that it is hard to find a place to start. Erin is growing into a little girl from a baby right before our eyes. She loves clothes, loves talking on the telephone, loves people, and tries hard to be happy 24/7.

From Erin's health standpoint, we continue to be thrilled with her progress. She continues to grow and has gone from the 25th percentile above the 50th. She shows little outward signs of her heart issues, which can often manifest themselves via sweating, turning blue, being out of breath, etc. Sheila occasionally notes that her lips are slightly blue after eating but I can't see it. We did have an incident a few weeks ago where Erin woke from her morning nap throwing up every 5 - 10 minutes. After an hour, Sheila took her to Children's ER, as this type of vomiting can be a sign of heart failure. Luckily, it was a minor bug that she was quickly over. As always, the staff at Children's was amazing. Erin was seen right away, and Dr. Jeff Gossett was there immediately to check on her heart.

Erin continues to absolutely hate going to the hospital for her checkups. She seems to immediately go into meltdown mode, resisting any attempts to take her blood pressure, oxygen sats, or any other diagnostic. We were worried that if this continued, she would ultimately have to be admitted and sedated to get an echo of her heart to monitor her progress. As luck would have it, we were able to finally get an updated echo under the strangest of circumstances.

By way of background, Sheila has finally returned to riding horses, a long-time love of hers that she had stopped after Christopher Reeve's accident many years ago. At the time, Sheila was jumping and decided that it didn't make sense to take that risk. Over the years, she has expressed an interest to get back into riding and this past summer she finally took the plunge, this time taking up dressage, a form of technical riding that is based on command of the horse to show off the horse's athletic abilities. Sometimes referred to as horse ballet, dressage does not include jumping and was thought to be far safer. On Tuesday of the week before Christmas, something spooked Sheila's horse as she rode in the arena where she trains, and the horse took off at full speed. My understanding is that riders are taught to run the horse into the wall to stop them when they get out of control, since the horse will stop rather than hit the wall. Sheila's horse saw it coming, and being far too strong for her, took off in a different direction, throwing her from the horse from a full gallop into the arena wall. Unfortunately, she hit a cement shelf about six feet off the ground and broke three ribs, a bone in her vertebrae, suffered a partially collapsed lung, and various other bruises and contusions. When I arrived at the Lutheran General ER, she was strapped to a back board with a neck brace on, the classic position for someone with a cervical spine injury. Luckily, that was not the case, and after three days in the ICU, she was able to come home, albeit in great pain. It scared the hell out of both of us, and was far too close a call.

The morning after Sheila's injury, we were slated to take her to Children's for a checkup and yet one more try for a much needed echo. Priscilla and I took her, and she had the usual meltdown with the nurses trying to do their standard evalutation. The echo technician came by to try, and I told her I didn't think it would work. She agreed to try, however, and surprisingly, was able to complete the echo with Erin lying on my chest the entire 45 minutes. I laid on the gurney, Erin laid on me, and we watched cartoons on the TV. It was a good echo, good in that there was no deterioration of her heart performance. When I arrived at the ICU and gave Sheila the news, it helped lift her spirits considerably.

Erin was mystified and somewhat upset when Sheila couldn't pick her up upon her release from the hospital. We were told that it might take weeks before she was able to handle Erin, meaning that I would need to be around every minute that Priscilla wasn't there to do such simple things as changing Erin, putting her in her highchair, or putting her to bed. In typical Sheila fashion, she was back to picking Erin up (albeit gingerlly) within a few days. Hard-headed and stubborn, for sure. :-)

As I write this, on January 3, Sheila remains in significant pain, but has a full range of movement and is even beginning to go on hikes. She was extremely lucky, as she could have easily been paralyzed or killed. It was a very stressful time for the entire family.

As for Erin's stroke, there is virtually no evidence that she ever had one. The Early Intervention folks who have been visiting her monthly since we brought her home have discontinued the visits a few months ago, telling us she is normal in every way. She walks like a champ, uses both hands and arms, and has full range of physical movement. In their last visit they put her development in a range from 16 to 33 months, which shows just how advanced physically she is. The only area that held her back was speech, in that she didn't have quite as many words in her vocabularly by comparison to how advanced physically she is. She has the Clary competive spirit, because since that visit she is learning what seems like a word a day. Her communication skills are advancing rapidly, allowing her to communicate her likes, dislikes, and wants more readily. What amazes us is when she comes up with a word that we don't think that she has ever heard, and uses it in context.

In her last blog update from August, Erin was just beginning to walk on her own. We were trying to figure out how long she had been walking this week, because it seems like she has always walked. She walks (or runs) everywhere. One of her greatest joys is being turned loose in public to run around. Whether it be the zoo, the airport, a restaurant, or our country club in Scottsdale, she loves to explore and roam around, staring at strangers without aplomb and smiling broadly at all who engage her. She is a favorite at the CC, and somewhat of a flirt with all of the staff. They bring her bread to take out on the lawn in back to feed the birds, an activity that she takes great joy in.

She has become a very good eater. The only thing we can't seem to accomplish is to get her to take regular milk. On occasion, she will take chocolate or strawberry milk, but not in large quantities. She absolutely will not take regular milk, so we have resorted to giving her her formula before bedtime. Other than that, she gets all of her nutrition from regular food.

To try and wean her off of formula and force her to drink milk, our pediatrician advised us to cut off all liquids except for milk, as a means of forcing her to take it. She proved to be my daughter, as she went 5 days without any liquid whatsoever. We were advised that this was in no way harmful for her, but after 5 days we had enough of the stress of worrying about her and gave her water, which she loves. Since then, she gets her milk via formula at night and the occasional flavored milk when we can convince her to drink it. The great difference from before is that now Erin happily takes her formula bottle, and occasionally requests it. In the past, readers of this blog will remember that getting Erin to take the bottle was a continual, highly stressful battle. She needed to be in a quiet room, distracted continuously by various toys. Compare that to now, where I was able to give her her nightly milk/formula sitting on the couch in my parents home, watching football surrounded by family on Thanksgiving night.


Her favorite word right now is "no." She says it both emphatically, and softly in the cutest little voice in an almost conversational mode. Sometimes it means no, and sometimes it means yes. Most of all, she loves having some control, and exercises it frequently.

Her vocabulary is growing daily. She constantly surprises us when she blurts out a new word that we have no idea that she knew. She talks constantly, trying to communicate her thoughts and needs. She lies in bed at night and in the morning talking to her self, seemingly practicing her new skills. In fact, I am listening to her right now as she goes through her morning routine of waking and playing in her crib. Right now, she is playing with her puppy that she sleeps with, a gift that was given to her during her ICU stay. She is talking to it and imitating it with various barking sounds.

She even has slang. Da-da has become Da. Ba-ba, her word for dog, as become Ba. My favorite sound is to hear Erin roaming through the house looking for me, calling out Da, Da over and over. We continue to have trouble getting her to say Mama, but last night for the first time she needed Sheila's attention in a store and called out Mama to get her to notice the dress that Erin wanted. Sheila was thrilled, and Erin got the dress.

In addition to speaking new words, her comprehension of what we are saying to her is growing even faster. She follows requests and understands what we are asking of her, though not always obeying. Like any child, she takes great joy in acting out her independence, and loves the feeling that she is getting away with something. You can see the sly little smile on her face during these times, expecting to get caught but enjoying every second that she can milk out of it.

Erin has a full range of animal sounds that she can do on command, imitating a duck, a vicious animal like a lion, a dog, a cat, a pig, and a sheep. She seems to love animals, especially dogs. Seeing a dog, whether it is live or in a book results in a string of emphatic exclamations of "baba." We took her to the mall's puppy store a few days ago, and she was in heaven watching the puppies.

No surprise, Erin takes great interest and pride in her clothes. She is picky about what she wears, even going so far the other night as to go to wiggle out of my arms during our bedtime book reading, go to her dresser, pull out a new (non-matching) pair of pajama bottoms, and demand that I change her existing bottoms. She checks out the shoes of virtually everyone she meets, and loves going through Sheila's shoe collection and pulling various shoes that she wants Sheila to put on. A favorite activity is for one of us to take her into her closet and show her each of her outfits, where she oohs and aahs over favorites, pans others with a quick no, and takes great delight in the entire process. She loves shopping, and runs from rack to rack looking at clothes like a seasoned shopper. Obvious trouble brewing for me, for sure.

Current routine involves waking up around 7:30 each day. I usually get her up, we all play for awhile, and then she has breakfast. She plays for a few hours, and then usually takes a nap for an hour or so in the am. Lunch is around noon, where she usually eats a pretty good amount of food. She is a fairly adventurous eater, and needs variety to keep from getting bored with her food. Pasta with red sauce is her current favorite, followed by whatever someone else is eating.

After lunch, more playing until an afternoon nap, followed by more playing, dinner, and then the bedtime process which usually begins around 7:30 in order to get her down by 8. We try to break up the day with various excursions and field trips, which she loves. She is enrolled in Bubbles Academy, which is a once a week hour long playtime for toddlers in a giant padded room filled with toys and stuffed items to climb on. It is great fun to take her (I am the only Dad, surprisingly) and watch her delight at all of the activities that they put the children through.

Sheila and I take turns putting her to bed, and we both enjoy the one-on-one time we get with Erin. After getting a big kiss and putting Erin in her crib, I take my time straightening up the room and picking up the used formula containers and medicine dispenser (she is still on viagra three times per day). When I am done, I lean over her crib one more time and am always rewarded with the biggest, sweetest smile I have ever seen. It melts me every time, and is the best moment of my day. She is so happy at those moments, and so are we. She continues to sleep through the night without incident. Since she began sleeping all night, we have only had to go in there on a handful of occasions. Recently, I had to make two trips as she woke up crying hard around midnight. I have no idea what caused this, but both times I sat and rocked her in her chair until she pointed at the crib, letting me know she wanted to go back to bed. I got the big smile both times, so it was totally worth getting up for. She was fine the balance of the night.

Other favorite activities continue to involve helping out. She loves to get off her changing table at night and gather up her clothes to put them in her clothes hamper. She gathers each article, walks to her closet with a huge smile, and emphatically puts them in her hamper with a little war cry for each item. She loves helping with laundry, taking clothes from the washer and putting them in the dryer. The same with unloading the dish washers. She just likes to be involved and feel like she is contributing. We hope this behavior continues for a good long while.

We are spending a good part of the winter this year in Scottsdale, far longer than we ever have. Our street is a boulevard divided by a wide grassy park, with playground equipment at one end. With so few homes in our development yet, it is almost like our own private park, other than a few other children that we occasionally see. Erin loves to run and play on the grass, and enjoys taking walks exploring the neighborhood. She is endlessly fascinated by almost anything she encounters, including a cactus that left her with 30 or so tiny needles in her little hands. I don't think she will do that again.

She has always had a fascination with the telephone, and loves nothing more than to play with the cordless phone or a cell phone. She has now taken that activity to grabbing the phone and demanding that we dial someone for her to talk to. Both sets of grandparents are regular recipients of Erin calls, where she babbles endlessly into the phone. Every once in awhile, she breaks into a loud laugh as if she has been told something hilarious. At times, she lies on the bed, feet crossed talking into the phone like an teenager might. A harbinger of things to come, no doubt.

Another favorite activity that is demanded daily is a good dose of Sesame Street and Elmo, usually watched on the computer. In the morning, Erin runs into my office, pounds the desk chair, and chants "Mo...Mo", her way of saying Elmo. She loves anything to do with the Muppet characters, including clothing or dolls. Santa Buddies was a big hit at Christmas time, featuring a pack of Golden Retriever puppies who save Christmas. I probably saw the thing 30 times. Luckily, it was cute and she loved it.

Most of all, Erin loves to be around people. We are lucky that Sheila's family is able to spend so much time with her. She loves Grandma and Grandpa Casserly, and greatly enjoys visits from her aunt's and cousins. We were able to get to Macomb to see my parents a few times, and she had a ball roaming around a different house. I would be remiss if I didn't mention how lucky we are to have found Erin's nanny Priscilla. They have a tremendous bond, and Priscilla is absolutely wonderful with Erin. We couldn't be luckier to have her as part of our family.

In addition to the photo's and video files (shown below) included with this update, I have uploaded more to my .Mac website, which can be found at http://gallery.me.com/jclary60015/100079. Feel free to peruse the photo's, or download any that you want. Incidentally, several people have mentioned that they check regularly to see if there is an update. You can subscribe to the blog site to get notification of whenever there is an update.

Thank you again for your interest in Erin and for following this blog. We look forward to a wonderful 2010, and wish everyone the same.

August 22, 2009

Erin TV

I am sitting here in the kitchen, watching "Erin TV" waiting for her to wake up. It is about 6 am on Sunday morning, and I wanted to add a brief update due to all the milestones Erin has been hitting lately. This week has been filled with a lot of firsts.

Although she has taken the random step here and there, this was the week that she really began walking on her own. At times, she looks like something from an old horror movie, arms overhead and staggering along like a Frankenstein character. Other times, she looks pretty good and confident at it. Best of all, she seems to be able to move both legs in a very natural fashion, showing no signs of her stroke, which has always been a major concern in the back of our minds. She gets such delight out of accomplishing a walk across the room, and often sits and applauds herself after crash landing at her chosen destination. We both love seeing her delight with herself. Michael Jordan once told me that the greatest gift his parents gave him was the gift of high esteem and self confidence. We both want the same for Erin.

Yesterday, Erin surprised me by pointing out her nose, eyes, and ears for me on command. We didn't know that she had learned those words. She knows belly button, and likes to lift up her shirt to find hers when asked. She seems quite taken with it. It is a perfect little belly button, not what you would expect if you had seen it filled with tubes and wires when she was first born.

Erin is also starting to gain some patience, shown through her willingness to sit and watch Sesame Street videos on the SS website. Note that patience is relative...it may be 5 minutes or even 10, but that seems like a lifetime when you are used to the energy and activity that she displays at all times. She will make her way to the kitchen table, and try to climb up the chair to get at the laptop computer, signaling that it is time for another Sesame Street session. At times, she likes to sit in your lap while watching the videos, occasionally glancing up to make sure you are enjoying them with her. Other times she wants to be a big girl, sitting in the kitchen chair by herself. When did she get so big that she can sit in a regular chair on her own? It seemed to happen overnight.

It seems like a lifetime ago when we had to watch her every second when she was on the couch or our bed, in fear that she would fall off. In fact, she did roll off the bed in Arizona once, scaring the living daylights out of me (and her). She was fine, but it was a scary fall from quite a height. Now, she climbs up and down anything like a little monkey. She figured out all on her own how to turn around and lower herself down while holding on, until her feet can find the floor, or until she is close enough to let herself drop. Yesterday, she did fall from her changing table as I stepped away just to deposit a dirty diaper in the bin. I was within a foot of her when she suddenly surged forward and went right off the front. I semi-caught her on the way down, and she bounced slightly off the floor. Once she figured out she was ok, she started laughing and I thought she was going to want to do it again. I passed on the opportunity to accelerate my heart rate that fast a second time.

On Friday, the two young ladies that Priscilla used to babysit came over to spend the day with Priscilla and Erin. They are 14 and 12 (I think), and Erin was in heaven all day long having playmates and people to show off for. She was quite taken with them, and it was really fun to watch her go through all of her tricks. She so loves being around people. She has made some very nice playmates at the park, and one of the highlights of her day is her daily visit to see her friends.

Finally, Erin is learning the word "no." She doesn't like it anymore than I do. When told no, she has a little routine that she often employs to try and get her way. First, she looks at you with a smile and begins to clap her hands. If this doesn't result in a yes, she moves on to stage 2 where she begins to wave at you. Stage 3 is a "aren't I the cutest thing you have ever seen" look (yes), with her head down, eyes peaking up at you and a huge smile. Stage 4 is the nuclear option, where she lies prone on the floor and cries. A quick distraction and we are right back to happy Erin.

The wakeup routine is beginning on Erin TV. She is rolling around in her crib, and sampling each of her binkies. Now she just tossed one out of the crib, and stood to see her handiwork in action. Now it's back down on her knees, binkies in hand and mouth. Shortly she will begin flipping back and forth, feet kicking and arms gesturing. Soon she will be standing in the crib, speaking in her own language to let us know she is ready to start her day. And so begins another day.

August 2, 2009 - finally, an update

Listen, Bucko....get your own cake!

1st birthday

At the beach with Mommy

Well, at long last I have succumbed to pressure and am updating Erin's blog. It's not for lack of motivation (or prompting by a number of regular readers!). It is simply hard to find the time to sit down and organize my thoughts with all that has happened. Since the last update, we have celebrated Erin's 1st birthday, and this past Friday we celebrated the one year anniversary of bringing her home from the hospital.

Last night, Sheila and I sat at the kitchen table over a bottle of wine and shared memories of those first few days at home with Erin. We laughed about bringing her home and our first gaffe as parents. We brought her in the house and elected to not wake her by removing her from her car seat, so we set her on the family room floor to sleep and wake on her own. Ten minutes later, we were both in the master bathroom when we turned and looked at each other in horror as we simultaneously realized that it had taken us only a few minutes to forget about Erin and leave her alone in the family room, three floors down. We flew down the stairs to find her sound asleep, oblivious of what incompetent parents she had inherited. I remember thinking that we were incapable of raising this child if we couldn't even remember to watch over her in the first ten minutes of her being home. Needless to say, it never happened again.

The first few nights were very stressful. I can remember waking what seemed like every fifteen minutes to see if she was still breathing. It felt like we were walking on egg shells with her being so fragile and her health still so questionable. It seems like another lifetime ago.

Today, it is hard to remember what life was like before Erin. It seems like she has always been with us. At times, we do reminisce about our ability to pick up and go on a moments notice, and how we rarely spent consecutive weekends at home. Traveling around the world and enjoying life seemed like the height of living. Then we take a look at Erin and realize that however fun that lifestyle sounds, nothing comes close to having this precious little one in our lives and that we wouldn't trade one minute of it for anything else.

She has developed from a little blob that did nothing but lie there and occasionally look at you, to a toddler with a huge personality. She has distinct likes and dislikes, opinions, and a willingness to let you know exactly what she is thinking and feeling (wonder where she gets that from?). She is perpetually happy, outgoing, and curious about anything and everything. Favorite activities include turning on and off the first floor lights from the Crestron controller, a source of never ending delight. Opening a drawer and pulling out the contents one by one to deposit on the floor is one of life's great joys at 13 months. Dancing with her shadow in wonder and amazement as it moves in perfect syncopation is another fun activity. She has a corner that she likes to crawl into, underneath a table, where she can sit on her boppy away from everyone and "read" a book. From time to time, she comes out to get another book to drag back there.

She is changing too fast. I was on the west coast most of this week, and even in five days I can see changes in her. Since I left, she has decided that she likes giving kisses, and gives them willingly now whereas previously they were rationed out only on rare occasions as an accommodation. Every day seems to bring more expression of her thoughts and feelings. She has mastered the look of complete disdain when she disagrees with something. I am sure I will get to know that look quite well.

There is so much information to share since the last time I updated this blog. A month or so ago, we had an appointment with Erin's cardiologist, Dr. Jeff Gossett. It included an echo cardiogram, which surprisingly Erin endured. I say surprisingly because it required her to lie quietly for 45 minutes or so, and staying inactive and still is not something that this child understands or accepts. Sheila did an amazing job by lying on the bed with Erin and soothing her, and she allowed the technician to do his job in getting the desired readings. Jeff was a little disappointed that Erin's blood oxygen sat levels weren't higher (they are typically high 80's), so that was disappointing. He elected to continue her on her three times per day Viagra routine, but has cut out all other medicines. We were hoping that she would be doing well enough to discontinue the Viagra but it wasn't to be. It is sobering to discuss future surgical procedures as she seems to be the picture of health and happiness. Looking at her, you forget about her challenges and see only this amazing child who is off the charts in terms of her development, intelligence, and curiosity about life. And yet, there is a grossly malformed heart beating in her little chest that continues to outperform any medical explanation for now, and will require fixing at some point in the future. It continues to be a wait and see game. As long as she continues growing and developing, we get to wait. The moments when we discuss the realities of her future with Jeff are very depressing to me. It's like running into a brick wall.

The truly good news is on the neurological front. We have been worried about how the stroke would manifest itself. She recently saw the head neurologist at Children's, and he was thrilled with how well she is doing. She exhibits almost no signs of the stroke, other than a tendency at times to keep her right hand clenched and close to her body. She tends to favor her left hand, yet has complete usage and dexterity with her right. We work with her on this, and she is slowly getting over the tendency to always reach with the left. Her early intervention professional Allison saw her a few weeks ago and she too was thrilled with Erin's progress, and stated that there seemed to be nothing impacting Erin physically, at least yet. We aren't out of the danger zone yet, but she seems to be overcoming a very serious stroke with little or no residue and so we continue to hope for the best.

As always, I can't say enough about Children's Memorial or the wonderful people who work there. Everyone in the cardiology clinic seems to know Erin and a visit there prompts a steady stream of nurses to come by her room with well wishes and wanting to see how she is doing. I have gone on the board at the hospital, and have the opportunity to see the organization from a different perspective, which only accentuates my admiration and respect for the dedication and performance of the staff.

As I write this early on a Sunday morning, I hear Erin on the monitor as she begins to stir. We have an camera trained on her crib in both homes that illuminates the picture as if it were daylight, and I can watch her movements as she sleeps. She is the picture of tranquility. Sometimes we sit and just watch her sleep. She has the strange habit of sleeping on her knees, with her butt in the air and her hands underneath her. It is comical to watch. Even better is when she is trying to fall asleep, which involves a series of movements where she bounces all over the crib. She plays with her bear, cruises from one end to the other, samples all three of her Binkies, and lies there kicking her feet. Other times she is content to lie on her back and talk or sing to herself in a language only she can understand. It is a show like nothing else on TV.

I hear her talking. It's time to go and start her day. We will play in the crib, examine each Binky in great depth, and look out the window to see who is walking by, hopefully with a dog. How great is that?

Erin's daily routine is pretty set. She wakes between 6:30 and 7:30. I come home from the gym about the time she wakes up, and often am the one to get her out of bed. After having her formula and changing her diaper, she spends the first 30 - 45 minutes in bed with us. I don't get to work very early anymore, but it is a small price to pay to get that time with her. She is talkative, playful, and so happy to be with both of us. We also spend a good amount of that time with her sitting in my lap in my office, listening to her music. She loves "This Old Man" and "The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round." She starts wiggling and swaying the minute she hears any music, and loves to dance. When one of her favorites comes on, she gets a big smile on her face, and dances along. One song is like the twelve days of Christmas, only the twelve days of animals. When they get to the part of the chorus that mentions the duck, she makes a quacking noise that she has learned to associate any time she hears mention of or sees a duck. The downside to her love of music is that all day long I have kids songs playing on the mental iPod player in my head. I sometimes realize I have been humming the theme song from the Mickey Mouse Club for the last hour.

The other fun morning activity (for her) is the phone. She loves playing with the phone, and the highlight is to keep the phone off the hook long enough for the emergency beeping to begin, letting you know that your phone is off the hook and needs to be hung up. She gets a huge smile on her face, starts dancing to the beats and after listening for a few seconds, reaches over and depresses the phone switch to start the process all over again. She never tires of playing with the phone. She has an old Blackberry that she loves to talk into. She talks into it, then hands it to you to talk. This goes on over and over and over. She seems to love the idea that she can carry on a conversation on the phone like an adult. Given how little I like talking on the phone, she must get this from her mother.

Around 8:30, she eats breakfast. She is a big eater of regular food, and has become much better about taking her formula as well. She loves to try new things, although she is initially very cautious about smelling and closely examining anything new before she puts it in her mouth. She prefers to feed herself, and loves nothing more than smearing whatever she is eating all over herself and you too if she can get close enough. She sits in her highchair, slowly eating and talking and singing to herself throughout a meal which can often take 30 minutes. I guess she is in no hurry to be anywhere.

After breakfast is playtime until 9 or 9:30, when she goes down for a nap. If it is a Monday or Thursday when our housekeeper Helen is there, playtime involves Erin's strange fascination with Helen. Those two have a mutual love for each other, and it is interesting to watch just how taken Erin is with Helen, and with the vacuum cleaner. I can't stand to be in the same house as a running vacuum cleaner, while Erin adores it.

Erin typically sleeps for a couple of hours in the morning, and up to two hours in the afternoon. In between is more playing and lunch. Dinner is around 5:30, and we usually take her for a walk after dinner. We love walking through our neighborhood. It is filled with people and things to look at, especially large dogs. Erin gets so excited when she sees a dog, which she calls Ba-Ba (her way of saying bow wow?). We have a great park at the end of our block which is filled with children of all ages, including a number Erin's age. The park is usually packed with kids and parents playing on the equipment. I used to drive by the park every day and wonder if it got tiring going there day after day. I now know the answer - it does not. We make new friends, see lots of ba-ba's, and push Erin in the swing, something she never tires of. How lucky to have this park.

Sometimes we go for a walk with the stroller, other times she walks between us, holding a hand on each side. At times, when she thinks we aren't looking, we catch her looking up at us, taking turns looking at each of us with the biggest smile on her face. It's a look of joy and happiness, and one that we echo completely. She seems truly happy at all times. So are we.

The other nightly activity is sitting on the floor of the family room playing, which often involves reading a couple of books. Erin will go over to her book bin, pull out a favorite (often "Blanky" or "Binky") and bring it over to me to read while she climbs into my lap. She loves to turn the pages, and goes back over and over to favorite pages. When done with the book, she goes and gets another and we repeat the process. When being read to, she has a big smile on her face and continually looks up at me as if to let me know how happy it makes her to be doing this.

Bedtime is around 7:30. We take turns putting her to bed. Erin's favorite activity is having her teeth brushed, which Sheila has coined "brushy-brushy." Erin gets a huge smile on her face when you mention the phrase, and looks to her bathroom in anticipation. She takes her last formula of the day, and after reading a few books, she goes to sleep. She has become a pro at going to sleep. She rarely cries when we put her down for the night or a nap, and if she does it is for only a few seconds. If she has difficulty falling asleep, she talks to herself rather than cry.

Erin talks incessantly. She is a non-stop babbler, going on and on while interacting with you. In addition to nonsensical baby talk, she is slowly gaining a vocabulary. In addition to Ba-Ba, she also has down bye-bye, night night, Da-da,and the favorite "I pooped!" We still can't get her to say Mama, though.

I want to do a better job of updating the blog, for the purposes of documenting Erin's life for her (and for us) over the years. I think it will be valuable to her at some point to have an understanding of what her life was like, during the years that she will retain little memory of. I want to make sure I document days like today...nothing out of the ordinary. It's the ordinary days that I want to remember best.



We spent this morning like every other morning, playing in Mommy and Daddy's bed. We had breakfast, then we walked over to Starbucks. Erin climbed onto the table and sat there, content to suck on her sippy cub and amuse herself by reaching into the bag containing her treats and pulling them out one by one to eat. When she grabs one successfully, she gives a little laugh that sounds like a sinister "I just got away with something I am not supposed to laugh." She shared my scone and my smoothie with me, happily sucking on the straw. We did what we do every single day...we laughed and laughed. It's pretty good.

Update - May 21, 2009

Amazing how time flies. In one week, Erin will be 11 months old. Sheila and I find it hard to think about a time when we didn't have her. The last year has been filled with so many ups and downs, with some of the highest highs and lowest lows either of us has ever experienced (not all related to Erin), but the one constant throughout all of that has been the incredible joy that Erin brings to our lives every single day.

As I write this, we are in Scottsdale where we have been for last week. We continue to have a scorpion problem, although thankfully nobody has been stung (yet!) on this trip. We continue to work with the experts in trying to eradicate our home of these pests. It is definitely an experience, checking every floor and corner continuously while Erin is in the room to make sure there are no lurking scorpions.

The last week has been a bit stressful with Erin, as she has returned to her fussy eating habits. We think this is because she is teething, this time on the top. Over a 5 day period, feedings were nothing short of battles that would take up to 15 attempts before Erin would take the bottle. Her normal intake went from mid-30 ounces per day to as low as 20, and it was a big struggle to just get to 20. We were both very stressed over it, but she seems to be back to normal now. Interestingly, other than being overly fussy when trying to eat, she was her normal very happy playful self the entire time.

From a sleeping standpoint, Erin has really come a long way. She understands now that we are not going to come running back the minute she cries, and as a result she rarely cries when going to bed for naps or at night, and if she does, it is literally for a minute or two. We have a camera set up in her room that shows an infrared picture of her for observation purposes. After putting her to bed, she will usually play quietly by herself in her crib until she falls asleep in some of the most uncomfortable looking positions.

Mother's Day was a real highlight. We drove to Champaign to see Sheila's parents. I know it was a thrill for Sheila to spend the day with her mother, and with new new daughter in the home where she grew up. She pulled out her old Barbie dolls to show Erin, who of course promptly gave them the taste test. All in all, it was a perfect day.