Me 'n' My Dad

4/6/2006

More of Meeeee...

Some more pretty pics of me taken today during play time.

I said play time is ooooooooover!!!

Insistant Erika - ready for another sleep :)

Busy Busy Bee.... PLAYTIME!!

I got these balloons at Valentines when I went to see Grandad. I love playing with them, they are so much fun!
Tina doesnt really like to play with me - but one day she might :)
Erika Louise is a star... S.... T... A and R

Ive got my remote and Im trying to swap it for a camera, but so far its not happening.

Pleeeease can I have the camera??? Im using my cute duck lips!

Erika is getting to be so much fun to play with. She plays pretend and tries bigger and bigger obstacles to climb over. We got a small foam kiddies couch off the side of the road, which she just loves - and she climbs over the back of it and back again laughing all the way. She thinks its hilarious. It folds down into a bed and she dives on it giggling with her skippy toy. Funny baby.

Whenever she says hello she puts her hand to her ear like a phone and says Aaah dooow. Or sometimes misses the 'd' Aaah ooow. Very cute. She is trying to say more words - like she makes noises quite similar to 'how are you' and tries to copy the movements your lips make when you are talking.

She also likes to taste whatever anyone is eating, puts her hand out and makes a high pitch squeal. If the food is specifically for her she will only allow a tiny bit into her mouth to taste it, then if she likes it - its all good, but if she doesnt like the food - she wont open her mouth again! Fussy tart.

:( Chunder chucker

Erika has been a bit sick today. She threw up in the car and has been whingy all day!
She has been hard work but seems to be feeling better tonight. The pics above are her play time early afternoon. She had a sleep in the car and seemed to be feeling a lot better after her sleep.

18 July 2006 Sleepy Girl...

Play time before bed... why did you take my ball away??

I love my bottle - but cant work out why you are waving that camera at me

OK - go away now, I need to sleep...

I had a good day today but I have been very fragile all day. I nutted out when Nana left the room. She only went downstairs to get something and left me upstairs eating in my highchair with Craig.

Ive been practicing walking along furniture - Im getting really good at it now and my favourite toy this evening has been the baby piano. I like finding the "C - Cat...miaow" button then turning round with my nose all wrinkled up to find whoever is watching and laugh really loud with them.

I had meat patties for dinner and didnt really like it much so I tipped it on the floor for Zack.

When Mum got home I was next door at Marys place with Nana. Mum came over and I was sitting in Marys kitchen on Nanas knee. I saw Mum coming all the way from Marys letterbox and no one else noticed. I got off Nanas knee and crawled all the way to the ranch slider to her before anyone even noticed she was there! Im sooo observant!

I tried to sleep this afternoon but only slept for 1 hour because some people are building something down the back and were using skill saws and big excavating equipment. I tried to sleep this morning but cried so much Nana got me back up... so I was really tired tonight!

Tell you what Ive been doing tomorrow...GOOD NIGHT!!!

For my Daddy...

I miss you Daddy. Ive been looking for you - under your pillow and in the bathroom.

Im a bit frightened, I dont like being on my own in my room anymore...I cry if Im alone in any room or if Mum walks away. Im very clingy and I cant go to sleep very well right now.

But Im still smiling most the time and I'm looking forward to seeing you - I hope not too long before I see you.

LEMME FREE!!!

LET ME OUTA HERE!!

I love food :) One of my favorite passtimes is scoffing crackers and I mostly like savory stuff instead of sweet stuff.

Sadly I like beer and will try to jump out of peoples arms to get wine from Daddy

Erika has become a very cheeky wee girl, full of personality and determination. She is 11 months old and can now crawl and pull herself up on anything. She is beginning to cruise around furniture and has a set of lungs on her like a bull elephant. Man can she holler!! She is very skilled at turning on tears when she feels they are needed

She loves singing and dances while sitting on the floor. She will headbang if she is crawling and likes the music she hears.

Erika talks more now, she says Mumma and Dada, Nana and Dog. She says Pa for Poppa and kind of says teded for Teddy.

She is very entertaining!

Miniature Rose between two very cute Thorns

Dylan (4yrs) Erika (9mths) Ryan(19mths)

Erika posed (not very willingly) between her cousins on Mothers Day in May 2006

Ryan had so kindly piled lots and lots of cars in front of her to entertain her, but she remained unimpressed.

Ill have my people call your people....

My agents number you ask? - 0800 SEXY BABY

Check out her teeny wee teeth - Shes got three now and just about a fourth coming thru maybe tonight? They might look weeny but geez-louise are they sharp! When she manages to get her jaws around your finger and chomp down with her brand new pegs you sure know about it.

Erika is getting a bit clingy, shes not keen on strangers, particularly men - she bellows like a bull if they dare touch her... and her Daddy thinks thats great. In fact we are both happy for that phase to continue until she is about 25!

She is trying to speak and her word du jour is 'Boo'. She has mastered Ba ba, Mumumum, Da da - occasionally spits out Nan, and as far as I can tell the dog is called AARGH! with a low growl after it.

With her clingy phase she has also got quite cuddly and its nice having her give hugs and slobber all over my face with big open mouth baby kisses. It just leaves me a little on edge not knowing if she is about to exercise her new teeth on my jaw bone, or give me a spit bath while imparting loving kisses. A little bit of breath holding is involved on my part.

She has decided that she is not keen on crawling and would rather just stand. But her standing looks like she is doing a booty dance as she has bugger all balance and just succeeds in bopping around looking hilarious. She goes rigid stiff if you try to sit her down and when forced into a sit position she bellows and splashes tears down her face. Erika is apparently rather determined :)

She calls by using a high pitched screetch which is lovely. If I walk out of the room it is usually followed by screetching and she trys to get the attention of the dog the same way. Also she trys to make her dummy come to her by screetching at it. I havent seen that work yet.

Miss Polly had a dolly who was sick sick sick...

Erika is now 8 months old and has been sick a couple of times in the last month. She is cutting teeth and is overall a bit sad. Her Dad snapped this pic of her today when she was feverish and needing sleep. She wasnt impressed at having a camera stuck in her face either!


We went on holiday last month for a couple of days break on a weekend and Erika had a practice of being a little Malay girl. It lasted approx 3.5 seconds before she ripped the scarf off...

This is a few days ago playing at home with Nana during the day. This is what she does now instead of going to daycare and I dont know about you, but she seems pretty happy to me...

Too cute!

This is about the last time Erika will fit this bunny suit, so she had to have pics taken wearing it

Erika and Dylan (4yrs) sitting in a chair waiting to go out for dinner for Nanas birthday.

Erika and her Mummy all ready to go out in the car

Playing in Nanas room. She has lots of different toys to choose from, but she chose to play with a pillow instead of the toys :-)

She is not crawling still - she reaches things from sitting and sits back up rather than crawling and if she cant reach something, she sometimes uses a tool, like a spoon or drags things closer to herself. She seems to be getting frustrated that she cant move around so I dont think it will be long before she is mobile...

Sitting Pretty

Erika began to sit a couple of weeks ago and has it totally under control now.
She sits very strong and is beginning to get around by rolling, slithering and commando crawling across the floor.

The pillows behind are just in case :)

She is 7 months old today and is such a happy baby!

Erika finishes daycare tomorrow. Her lovely ladies who look after her at daycare are sad to see her go. I have felt quite guilty taking her out of her daycare centre as the ladies really seem to love looking after her. Who wouldnt! Shes a delight!

From Monday onwards her Nana will be looking after her at home - so she wont have to be woken up early to go to daycare, and wont have to get upset when we get stuck in traffic and she is sick of being in her carseat... A good arrangement for Erika and her mummy too :)

Erika and I shared a bath which she really enjoyed. She was propped in a bath seat so I didnt have to keep my hands on her all the time and we could have a really deep bath. We had fun:

She is trying to copy us now, using her voice and hands to mimic what we do. After a particularly raucous rendition of twinkle twinkle little star tonight Erika was trying to copy the hand movements I had done when I sang the song.

LOOK what I made!

Erikas first tooth popped through on 31 Jan 2006. She seems mighty proud of herself, and wont leave it alone. She feels it with her tongue most of the time and chews her fingers the rest of the time. Its very sharp! She wasnt grumpy while she cut it and didnt cry any more than usual (which is hardly at all). I didnt even know it was there until she bit my finger. You can hardly see the tooth actually because it has only just broken thru the surface of her gum.

Erika is doing really well with her bottles and I only feed her about 3 times a day now. She must be having a growth spurt because she seems hungry all the time.

Shes doing wonderfully at daycare and moves from strength to strength with rolling and trying to sit. Her coordination is excellent she grabs things and puts them straight in her mouth soooo fast! Going to have to start putting things higher at home very soon.

Theres another piece of me down there too!

Erika has discovered that she has feet and apparently they taste good... Her cousin Ryan knew this already, having tasted them not long after she was born and he tries to go back for another chew whenever he can get anywhere near them.

Can you resist this?

This wee drama queen shot was Erikas attempt to make her Dad pick her up. It didnt work to begin with so she spun herself into a major hissy fit and eventually got what she wanted.

Having become quite adept at rolling, Erika wont stay on her back for long and falls into this gorgeous pose whenever she is concentrating on something.

This was Erikas first try of solids ... not her favorite thing but we are having a go each night and she is getting used to it. She first tried baby rice and sad to say - shes right, its quite revolting. No bloody wonder they dont take to it. I gave her mashed kumara tonight and she seemed to like that a lot more. I have started to wean her off daytime feeds and put her on formula, and she has taken well to a bottle for her morning feed. I still go to daycare to feed her in the afternoon but will try to wean her off that next week...

All is going well. Would be better if we could get her sleeping through the night shes not good at that yet, but we are working on it.....

Hi Dee Hi Campers...

Heres our happy camper on her Aunties knee, on her first camping trip to Orere Point Holiday Park. She is a week short of 5 months old.

This is her preferred position. She believes she can stand up. I just balance her - she stands herself up, shes got very strong legs. We are sitting under a tree on Orere Point beach watching Dylan swimming in the sea with Deen, Mike and a blow up boat.

Our tent site was pretty near the owners bedroom window at the camp but the first time the owner met Erika was when we were leaving. She was so quiet the whole time, they didnt even know she was there! She doesnt cry at night at all.

We camped with Andrie, Mike, Dylan and Ryan - they are Erikas Aunty, Uncle and cousins and we stayed all together in one tent for 6 days and had a great time. Her Nana joined us on the second day in her own tent and stayed for the rest of our trip and Erika had a nice time getting to know her relatives better :)


Erika takes a nap on Nanas knee down by the swimming hole at the river in the camp ground while Dylan swims again with Deen and Penny. We had such a good time that we are all going back next year.

Little Miss Cranky-pants!

She may look gorgeous - and she is, but boy does she have a strong will! Erika has decided in the last couple of days that if she doesnt get what she wants - FAST - then she is going to scream until she gets it...LOUD! Its a bit of a shock to her dad and me as she has been so easy going up until now. In her defense she has been feeling a bit sick because everyone got a tummy bug and were sick after xmas, and we are hoping that the loud crying will pass with the tummy bug... shes also decided that there are some people that she just doesnt want to talk to and she screams if they talk to her. This pic is one of her happy moments :) :) :) Even when shes sick she manages to charm the pants off everyone.

Xmas time fun with Mum

<-Sitting on mums knee having xmas at Grandads house next to cousin Dylan who is almost 4yrs old. Erika is wearing her flash new shades that she got from her Aunty
-> Under the tree at Aunty Andries house posing with Mum, Andrie and cousins Ryan (14 months) and Dylan.