Flashback

I was looking back through some older photos tonight. This one caught my attention (enough to make it my computer desktop for a bit). It was taken last summer when she was 14 months old.

As I was looking at her adorable pinch-her-cheeks-face and thinking how young she looks, I was also thinking about how these are her baby photos. Okay, no duh. What I mean is she'll be 30 years old someday looking back at her baby photos and this is it.

She will see how cute she is, but she'll never know what she was like as a toddler. Not the little things, anyway. Like how she stops what she's doing and spins around when she hears the theme music to The Office. How she knows dialog in the Lion King and cries when the last scene comes on. How she thinks anything goopy on her hands is lotion and starts rubbing it in (including cottage cheese or oatmeal). How she'll take a piece of paper and crumple it up just to call it trash. How when I'm looking at my blog, sometimes she'll come up and want to "watch Erin" in one of the videos. How in a lot of her books, she can say the last word of each sentence because we've read them so many times. Or how she'll turn on her daddy's clock radio and start dancing when I'm getting dressed in the morning.

I hate to think that all this stuff will fade from our memories someday. She is such a delightful person to be around that I will miss who she is now as she gets older. But if I love being around her this much at not even two years old, I can't imagine how much better it will only get from here.

N.A.B.

So we're 90-something percent sure we've decided on a name.

We debated on when to go public with it, and we figure now is as good of time as any. We already decided not to wait until he's born to announce it (like we did with Erin), so why wait? It's always the first question people ask me when they find out we're having a baby, so why not just tell them? So......

Noah Alexander

His first name is not really inspired by anything specific. We were both throwing out suggestions and that one stood out for both of us. And Alexander is Noah's uncle's name. I think it fits together pretty well.

Like I said, we're not 100% sure, but pretty close. So give us some slack if we change our minds.

Erin: "I Like Snow"

Dust Off The Ol' Porch Swing...

It was actually warm enough to sit on our porch swing this afternoon (with us bundled up of course). I couldn't resist taking some photos. Several turned out very well.

There Are Worse Things, I Guess

Erin is really good at two things: listening to what we say when we're not talking directly to her, and putting phrases into correct context.

A few minutes ago I was making our oatmeal and I needed to put hers in the freezer for a few seconds to cool it off. As I opened the freezer door, something fell out onto the floor.

From the other room, we hear "oh crap."

Before today she has only repeated it a few times after we let it slip. Today was the first time she used it on her own. So she's got the hang of it now. Great.

Erin's Conversation With Whoever is Listening

While we were driving over to the other side of town today, Erin was keeping herself occupied by naming all the things she likes. It went something like this:

"I like hair."
"I like eyes."
"I like ears."
"I like chinchillas."
"I like cars."
"Chinchilla cars."
"I like shoes."
"I like eggs."
"I like pancakes."

Still a Daily Request After Three Weeks

Today we tried putting on Toy Story just for some variety. She didn't care for it. Just kept asking for "Li King." Some day she has to get tired of it, right?

The thing is, she gets so excited when I'm setting it up to play the movie. She starts squealing with joy about baby simba. How can I deny her that happiness?

What's Next, Same Name?

Remember my twin? Well she's having a boy too.

Who Let E.T. In?

20 Week Belly

When Did She Get So Old?

Erin had a growth spurt right around Christmas, but even since then, she's so much older and bigger! I look at her and wonder how she was ever 6 pounds. It seems like a lifetime ago.

If I might brag a little:

• she can name just about all of the capital letters when you show them to her
• she knows all the basic colors
• can count to three (sometimes to five, but she mixes up four and five)
• she's saying two and three word sentences
• can name a circle, square and triangle
  

It's crazy that she's about 3 months away from turning two. Oh, and that also means that two months after that her little brother will be here. Oh dear. That's very soon......

**

A friend of mine from the Mommy & Me playgroup just gave us several boxes of her son's old clothes. I just got done washing and sorting them all. Our little one will be good to go from 12 months through about 3 or 4 years old. This is just amazing! I'm so glad we'll be able to save that money for other things.

Now I just have to find space for all these boxes.

We Have a Little Momma In the House

For a while now, Erin has loved her baby dolls. Recently, she has started doing motherly things to them...like wanting to change their diaper, feed them, tickle them, push them in the stroller, etc.

But I think the cutest thing has just developed. She has started saying "this is (fill in the blank)."

So she'll sit down with one of her dolls in her lap and explain things to her.

"This is crayon."
"This is toes."
"This is Enin (Erin)"

I'm thinking she'll be a good big sister...

Technical Issues

I promised the ultrasound video, but I'm not sure that I remember how to get it uploaded. The DVD has several files on it, not just one video file. I managed to figure it out for Erin's but I have no idea what I did.

So unless I can figure it out, you'll have to settle for the still photo below.

She's Keeping Us In Line

Nobody's talking. Erin and I are in the dining room eating our oatmeal. Daddy's in the kitchen putting the dishes away.

Daddy: (burp)

Erin: "Daddy, 'scuse you"

Our Little Guy

That's right, we have a son! Everything is looking great. He's 11oz and still on track for a June 6th due date.

I got bored this afternoon, so I went ahead and pulled down Erin's boxes of clothes to find the neutral stuff. There was actually a lot more than I thought. So we have a good start, but we definitely need more.

Oh, and in case you don't know what you're looking at in the ultrasound photo, the smaller circle in the middle is his head/face and the circle to the right is his abdomen. We also got the ultrasound on DVD, so I'll post that video in a day or two.