Update - January 29, 2010

In our backyard

The mountains behind our home

Elmo impersonator

Watching Sesame Street

Erin turned 19 months yesterday. As I think I have written before, it's hard to remember life before she burst onto the scene. Nothing new medically to write, other than the assorted colds that she seems to constantly have, or her first ear infection. True to form, you barely knew she didn't feel well, even though her ear must have been bothering her. She definitely has a very high pain threshold. Today at lunch, she fell in the gravel while playing in the park across the street, taking a little chunk out of her hand. Her reaction was more one of curiosity about her little wound, never complaining or crying.

The rate of growth in her vocabulary seems to be accelerating. She delights in using the words she knows, and continues to trot out a new one seemingly every day. She also seems to understand just about everything we say to her, and responds well.

We are enjoying our time in Scottsdale, where the weather has been mostly terrific. Erin loves going to the park across the street, where she is alternatively fascinated with the ceiling fan in the structure, sliding on the slides, or playing in the bushes. She loves to go up and down the rows of bushes that line the playground. It must seem like the deepest darkest jungle to her. Whenever a plane goes overhead (we are on the flight path for the Scottsdale airport, so we see a large number of private jets directly overhead on their approach), she immediately runs out into the open to point it out and call out "plane" over and over. She loves walking to the park with each of us holding a hand, swinging her between us. On nice days, we might visit the park 2 or three times during the day.

Another change is that she is growing more patient with downtime. Last night, she and I sat in the living room watching her beloved Sesame Street for at least 20 minutes, with her snuggled up against me eating her crackers the entire time. Tonight, she was good for 15 minutes lying snuggled on the bed while watching Sesame Street.

Erin is an affectionate, loving little girl who totally enjoys life. She loves to sit at lunch or dinner and waive and smile at every person who walks by our table. We recently went to dinner at Fleming's, and she was mystified that people would walk by our table and actually ignore her! The nerve.