A year has gone by since Erica entered the world. It's been a year of not much sleep, getting used to having a second child, LOTS of diapers, and ear-piercing screams but we wouldn't trade Erica for anything. She is so stinkin' cute! She is super cuddly when she's tired and out to explore the world when she's awake. She's so close to walking well, but still prefers to hold my finger. I'm not too anxious for her to grow up since she is likely our last baby but it will be nice when she can be a bit more independent.
Erica loves books like her sister. She crawls over to a book, holds it out and says "ah" to get me to read it. How can I resist that? She really just likes to flip pages and look for animals that she knows. She knows sounds for a cow, sheep, elephant, lion, dog, fish, snake, cheetah (zoom), and rooster (ka-doo doo). She's starting to try out more sounds and attempts to repeat me a lot. She loves face books too, and pictures, and anything with real baby faces. She doesn't quite have the attention to listen to books I read to Amelia but she likes flipping pages-which makes Amelia mad.
Erica also plays with animals in the barn or just on the floor. She likes to put them all in a bin then take them back out again. She looks through a flip puzzle to find the cow saying "mooo" the whole time until she finds it, then proudly holds it up to show me. She digs through toy bins seemingly in search of some particular toy that she knows is in there. She loves rattles, or anything that can be a rattle, particularly spices and marble containers. She somehow knows when the spice cabinet was left open and quietly sneaks over there to shake to her heart's content.
Erica is a more adventurous eater than Amelia. She will try most things I put in front of her although she often spits them out once or twice before accepting it and wanting more. She loves rice, quinoa, couscous, bananas, pears, scrambled eggs, graham crackers with cream cheese, shredded cheese, mixed veggies (corn, peas, carrots), yogurt, smoothies, muffins, soup, pancakes, and most other soft foods. She has two bottom teeth and is just starting to get the two middle top ones.
Erica is in to everything. We didn't have to babyproof much for Amelia but now all the cabinets are locked, Soxy's food has been moved to the basement, the doors and gates all need to stay closed, and I'm going to have to relocate my empty mason jars soon. She loves to explore and often has something in her mouth and something else on the way in when I find her.
Erica laughs easily and loves to be tickled. She loves dancing to music on the floor or in my arms and often sways her head back to be dipped. She stomps her feet when music is playing and claps when she accomplishes something (or anytime she hears someone say "yay"). She is often tackled to the ground by her crazy sister but recovers quickly and crawls right back to her. She adores Amelia. When Erica wakes from her nap first (which is most of the time) I take her with me to get Amelia and she lunges for Amelia's door giggling the whole time. If Amelia is still in bed, Erica will walk right over there and grab the binkey right out of her mouth. They chase each other around the upstairs and laugh the whole time. It's great to watch their blooming friendship.
Erica is starting to sleep better. She's pulled a few 8-hour teasers but is usually up once or twice a night-a drastic improvement to every 2 hours. She sleeps much better in our walk-in closet in a pack n play, I think because it's dark, quiet, warm, and she can't roll over. She uses the crib slats to roll in her crib and then stands up-clearly not conducive to sleeping. In the pack n play she is stuck on her back so she might as well just sleep. She naps twice a day, usually around 9 and again with Amelia at 1.
It's been great having Erica-mommy time when Amelia goes to Preschool. We play on the floor, go for walks, have picnics in the living room, and go shopping. It's good for both of us and I look forward to that time each week. Erica does seem to look around for Amelia when she's gone though. She also loves her daddy and as soon as she hears the garage door open she starts saying "dadadada" and crawling toward the door. So cute.
Erica has added so much joy, and late nights, to our lives. We love her so much and can't wait to see how she grows this next year. Happy First Birthday my beautiful girl!
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