Jan 19 - 25: We have a Tooth!

The big news of this week is that Elin popped out her first tooth!  I'm not sure if you can see her tooth in the photo below, but she now has her bottom left center tooth.  Her particular teething symptoms appear to be drooling and not sleeping.  Erik would get a fever.  I think I like Erik's process better.  Elin has always been a drooler, but in the last few weeks, her drool factor has grown exponentially.  She is rapidly earning the nicknames "drool queen" and "drooliest baby ever"!  Erik has even told Elin to "stop dripping, baby sister"!  Ha, ha.  

Her other teething symptom is not sleeping - which is even worse than the drooling.  She is waking up every 3-4 hours at night and crying her little heart out.  She stands up and hangs onto the crib rail while she cries.  When I walk into the room, she calms a little bit and then grabs onto me when I get close.  After I pick her up, she will put both arms around my shoulders, grab hold as hard as she can and bury her head in the crook of my neck as if she hasn't seen another human being in days.  She's a great hugger, though!  I would rather she save all her hugs for daytime hours, I think!  I think that she is working on 1-3 more teeth right now.  I seem to recall that Erik popped out a few teeth all at once, so maybe Elin will be the same way.  

Her tooth is just visible.  Elin's personal dentist (Aunt Jenny) confirmed she could see it in the picture!

Other news on the Elin front is that she has developed a real taste for sucking on my hair!  I remember sucking on my hair as a child and Elin has apparently decided to follow in my footsteps on this score.  I am constantly pulling my hair out of her mouth and out of her fists.  She used to just dig her fingers into my hair and hang on, but in the last week, she advanced to sucking on whatever strands she has grabbed.  Crazy girl.

Erik has been up to some rather cute antics these past weeks. I forgot to mention on my Christmas & New Year's blog entries that, over the holiday, Erik started telling Grandpa Johnson "No, no Grampa - that's naughty" - usually at mealtimes!  Not sure what he was admonishing Roger for, but we all got a huge kick out of it!  Another cute instance happened this week when Erik "helped" me rock Elin to sleep for one her naps by humming to her!  That was precious.  I have gotten in the habit of humming Brahms' Lullaby (the "go to sleep" song) to Elin for her naps and Erik has clearly picked up on it.  Erik also has started to display that distinct trait of parenting a younger sibling.  He loves to tell Elin "No, Elin, that's not safe" or "Elin, stop it" or "Elin, be careful" and he uses his best commanding voice each time.  I've had to bring out the classic parenting line "You pay attention to yourself.  I will take care of your baby sister"!  Oh boy.

Our food struggles continue with Erik; he refuses to try new food and claims to "No' like it".  However, we did have some progress this week and Erik voluntarily asked to eat a cucumber I was slicing for myself and he liked it!  He has eaten a few raw carrot sticks this week, as well, rather than just chewing them and then spitting it out.  He has eaten cucumber on several occasions now, so I'm hoping that we may have turned the corner and Erik will start to accept more food choices soon.   After a few times of Erik eating cucumber, I apparently fell off my Mommy encouragement duties, so Erik prompted me to tell him  "I'm Proud of You" after he took a bite!  Kent & I tend to make a big deal out of Erik eating new foods.  

Random cute picture

Typical Elin face - what a smiley baby!

Grabbing onto my hair for all she's worth!

The boys on a bike ride

Riding bike in the house

More bikes!

Progress on my 2014 Goals:
1. Bible - this week the passages from Genesis were about Joseph - my favorite story in the Bible!  I love his unswerving faith, his strength of character and his love of family.  Plus, I love the great reveal to his brothers and the amazing happy ending!
2.  Health - I reached a milestone in my Take Shape for Life program by the end of this week - 15 pounds lost!  I love being a loser!!!  I am now back at my  pre-baby weight from 3 years ago before I got pregnant with Erik.  I discovered this week that I now have to wear a belt to keep up my jeans; I cannot remember the last time I wore a belt, so this was a momentous event!
3.  Fun - Erik received a balance bike for Christmas, which is a bike without pedals that is supposed to help him learn how to balance on a bike so that he can skip the training wheel phase.  Riding bikes is one of his favorite activities now and he was very fortunate with nice weather this week so that he could ride outside with Kent.  I also took him a few walks where he rode his bike and Elin rode in the stroller.  We do let him ride the bike inside the house, so he has been getting in some practice even when the weather isn't great for being outdoors.
4.  Projects - I really didn't really accomplish any project goals this week.  It was more of a week where I started a lot of different projects but didn't finish any of them!  So, to claim a completed project, I'm going to pull out some "old" ones.  Kent and I have gotten all our Christmas decorations taken down & put away.  Being done with this by mid-month can be a great accomplishment some years!!  The other project is one that Kent & his Dad completed over the holidays.  Kent put insulation in the attic above the Master bedroom & bathroom - there wasn't any up there previously, if you can believe that.  It has been a wonderful thing with all the cool weather that Florida has gotten this winter and I'm looking forward to a cooler room during the hot summer months as well!