Pure Joy

Is there anything better than the sound of a child laughing? Especially the freakin' cutest child ever?? Erin just discovered that she can walk with this adorable little shopping cart that Cindy gave her for her birthday. We spent about an hour cruising back and forth from the kitchen to the sliding glass door, and she laughed her head off the entire time. It's so cute I can't even stand it. She can get going pretty fast! Of course she needs assistance to turn it around and redirect when she hits things like Tyson's suitcase that's still not put away. Thanks Grandma!

Bonk!

and again...

I am going to have to shopping cart proof everything!

My One Year Old

My baby is no longer a baby. She is a "toddler". I guess that term only applies if she is toddling, though, which she isn't just yet. She's almost there, though. She took her first successful step on my birthday, the 25th of March. She can stand pretty well on her own, and she's trying! Her hair is getting longer in the back, but it has a weird band of either really light colored hair, or no hair wrapping around the back of her head, it's weird. She does say words, now: "Hi" was first, then "Dad", then "Uh-oh"-the cutest, then sort of "Kitty". That last one is only kind of a word, she says it more like a sound. She has 8 teeth now! We took her to a plastic surgeon for kids, and they will schedule the removal of her ear tags in 3-6 months. Can you believe how far out their appointments are? Anyway, I will be kind of sad to see them go. I think they are cute. But you know how cruel kids can be. Here are her big One Year pictures!

The Big ONE!

Erin is One Year Old!!
We had two birthday parties--Why? Because I'm Crazy. Hence the title of the blog.
I thought it would be better to split them so as to not overwhelm the Birthday Girl. I think that was a good thing. There was a lot going on at both parties, I think she would have definitely gone into hyperoverdrive if they were together. Both parties included cupcakes up the yin-yang.

Here's Party #1:

Erin's First Birthday Cake-- carrot with cream cheese frosting. She acted like it was a normal occurance for her to get a cake that is bigger than her head. She just casually started eating the frosting, although she went for the cherry first. She couldn't decide if she liked the cherry or not. She was kind of confused when everyone started to sing. We were pretty much altogether this time, though.

Here is all my hard work. Baking and frosting are not my forte. Luckily my decorating skills are pretty good, so it wasn't a complete disaster. Cupcake flavors: lemon cream with home-made cream cheese frosting, carrot cake with home-made cream cheese frosting, and the bottom layer of the stacked cake was chocolate-mayonaise. I had the worst luck with that bottom layer. At first I didn't cook it long enough, then I put it back in, then if fell, then it got burned. After I frosted it, it cracked to several pieces, and the final straw, the cat licked it. Arg. Needless to say, no one ate that option.

Erin got lots of presents and had a blast. She really didn't know what she was supposed to do with the presents, though. Gma opened most of them for her. She had fun anyway.

The Haul: Riding pony with wheels, little people pink bus and dump truck, zhu zhu pet, beach beanie bear, two Dr. Suess books, 6 pairs of shoes and tons of outfits, including a swim suit and her Easter Dress from Aunt Ashlee. She is so spoiled!!.

Here's party #2:

Here's a close-up of the Stacked cake. Cupcake flavors this time: lemon cream again, it was really yummy, and Cherry Chocolate with home-made chocolate ganache frosting (let me just say, ganache is so yummy and so easy) and the bottom layer was plain old yellow. It was the last baking, and I was not in the mood for creativity in the recipe at that point. I still had really bad luck with that bottom layer. I don't know why. The cake baked really well, but I put it back in the pan after it was cool overnight, then it stuck, leaving a big hole when I had to shake it out again. I filled in the hole with frosting. Then, it cracked again. I don't know what's up with that. The cat didn't get to it this time, though!

Going for the cherry again, she must have decided she liked it. This was her second first birthday cake, yellow cake with chocolate frosting, which I must admit, she seemed to enjoy more than the carrot and cream cheese. Sorry Ashlee.

She got to a bit more of the cake this time, she mostly got frosting the first time.

Here's some action shots! The cousins always have to be right there in the action, helping out. They can't stand to let the birthday person do it themselves. Erin had a blast with all the kids, though, I'm so glad they came. She loves to watch them run around and "play" with them.

The Haul: A little shopping cart with a baby doll in it, a soft bag a of groceries and a bunch of plastic fruit to go with, a tin musical tea set, a lunch box, a cute flowers sprinkler to "run" through, two fun outdoor balls, sidewalk chalk, a bunch of clothes, of course, only one pair of shoes, and a cute bag of home-made notes and books from Makayla and Jessica, so cute. She kind of started to get the hang of opening presents by the end, she'll be a pro next time. My favorite moment was when she opened the grocery bag, and made this "ooohhh" sound! It was sooo cute, I wish I had it on video. I love this baby!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ERIN SAGE ERICKSEN!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Once again, Erin had multiple outfits for the Holiday. She actually didn't get to wearing them all this time, though. The one she missed was a white baseball tee with green sleeves that said "Kiss Me". It was so cute, but there is only so much time in the day, and Erin really doesn't like to get her clothes changed! We did get two outfits in, though. Our milk didn't even turn green this year, it was kind of a bummer. Tyson was in Colorado, so I couldn't pinch him until he got home, he didn't even remember it was the big green day (not the band). Oh, well. There's always next year!

I hope no one got pinched!

Pics!

Okay, here are the pics!! Isn't it fun!!! I finally got to spend some time with it, I love, love, love it!!!!

New Car!

We just got a new car! I am so excited!! It is a 2009 Subaru Forester, it's grey, and it's gorgeous!! Sorry I am a slacker and didn't get a picture of it for you yet. I have been crazily preparing for Erin's Birthday Parties, and I haven't had much of a chance to get aquainted with it myself, but I will get you some pictures soon. Woo Hoo!

The Pits

It really is the pits when your baby is sick. Erin has had the beginnings of a cold for a couple days, and it was suspected that she had an ear infection. On Friday night she only slept from 11:00 pm to 2:00 am. Then she cried every 10 minutes the rest of the night. Then on Saturday night, she cried every 10 minutes the whole night. Finally at 1:30 am, I called the doctor's office and got her an appointment for 3:10 am. Ug. Sure enough, she had an ear infection. The doctor gave us amoxicillin, and ear numbing drops, and told us she was old enough and heavy enough to double the dose of Tylenol and Pediacare we were giving her, because it wasn't helping her at all at the doses we were giving her. We gave her the ear drops and put her back to bed at 4, but she was up again at 5:30. Needless to say, we are sleepy. It does seem like she is feeling better, now, though. She is at least happy and smiley again! Hopefully she will sleep tonight. Wish us luck!!

Escape!

Up until last week, this was our baby barricade. It worked just as well as a baby gate, and it didn't cost any additional money. It's a suitcase and the little carseat piled up in the hall. When we wanted to get past, we'd just move the carseat. It was quite nifty.

But Erin has figured out that that is all she needs to do to get past, too. It is no longer affective. Our other barricade downstairs consisted of two rubbermade totes full of toys, she figured that one out, too. I guess we'll be spending that money, afterall. Oh, well. It couldn't last forever, I guess.

"It was...Soap Poisoning!"

Today while I was washing my face in our bathroom, Erin grabbed a still wrapped bar of soap. I took a step toward her but she "ran", so I let her have her prize. I was almost finished when I looked in the mirror and saw her ready to take a big bite out of it. I didn't run to stop it because since I didn't have my glasses on, I thought it still had the wrapper on it. Nope.

(side 1, bottom teeth)

(side 2, top teeth)

When I had dried my face I went over to her and she had taken an enormous bite out of it, and she was looking shocked. Then she started to cry and tears were rolling down her face. It was so sad. I got all I could out of her mouth, then tried to get her a drink, but she didn't understand and wouldn't take a drink! I felt so bad!!

Then, while I was taking these pictures, she grabbed it and tried to take another bite! Silly Girl!