I Am So Happy It Is Saturday!

It has been such a long week of adjusting to not having Erika with me all day. It is nice to see my students again but I also missed Erika so much. I just can't get enough of hugging, kissing, holding, and playing with her! Erika brings me such tremendous happiness that I couldn't possibly explain it with words.

A few people are wondering how Daddy made out on Thursday with Erika. Hmmm...let's see, they both looked really happy to see me when I came home from work. He found my itinerary very helpful. Peter attempted to take Erika to the park but while they were out he decided it was a little bit too chilly for the park. Being the teacher that I am, I will have to give him a grade of 78. Not bad but there was some room for improvement! You know - "nobody does it like Mommy!" I can't really say that now Peter knows how difficult it is because basically I think he already knew but never had to fully experience it.

Speaking of Daddy, the toy in this picture is one of his. Awhile back, we had gone to the circus and Peter just had to have one of these. Who would have thought that years later our daughter would be playing with it. I had no idea that she knew how to press the button to make it spin. I happened to be video taping her with the camera and she did it! I was so surprised. Peter said that he has been trying to show her how to do it but she never actually did it. See the action in the video below!

Also, I think she may have stood on her own for about one or two seconds today. I am in no rush for her to walk. I just encourage her when she is ready. I am a believer of letting her do every thing at her own pace...no pushing.

I think that she has her two upper front teeth coming in but I am not positive because Erika is not a fan of me poking around with my finger in her mouth. It does look like I can see two little chompers in her gums. I love her little teeth...but yikes, those things are sharp if you let her bite you.

Last weekend I taught Erika to share her food with me. So now she does that typical "baby thing" by putting the food in her mouth, getting it nice and soggy and then offering it to me! Sometimes I break down and take it and other times I just can't do it!



I have been doing my best at trying to make our living room more Erika friendly. Finally I bought some gates so that Erika can roam "free" in the living room without constantly being pulled out of the dining room and kitchen. Now the only problem we have is that the cats keep getting trapped in the living room. They have got to be thinking "enough is enough with all these gates!"
Okay...and maybe Erika is thinking the same thing as the cats! Peter warned me not to let her see how to open the gate. This kid seems so smart that she will have it figured out in no time!

Yes it is true that I am a reading teacher but Erika looks at the books on her own! I do try to sit with her and look through them but I don't do it half as much as I should or would like to. I love to watch her look through them with such interest.

OKAY and now I have saved what I think is the BEST for last!! The kitty cat keyboard that we bought Erika a few weekends back has a microphone on it. I sing this crazy song on it and Peter always talks to Erika on it. Well she has finally got the concept of making noise into the microphone and now she does it herself! The video is okay but really she does it even better. I am just not patient enough to wait for another video before posting!

Happy 11 months old today Erika! Next month you will be ONE YEAR!!!