Cowboy Henry and Buzz-Buzz Svea

There is a group at UE who does reverse Trick-or-Treating for the students. So the young kids get dressed up and pass out candy to the students while they walk out of buildings the day before Halloween. So we joined in.

Henry let me draw a mustache on (amazing) and Svea refused to wear the "bee" part of the costume. She'd only wear the under-tard thing. And the hat thing.





They were sweet in the stroller together...



...and Henry was sweet giving candy to students.



How can actual Halloween get any better?

Play by Play

Our awesome cousins Carter and Graham gave us this Jack-in-the-Box which both Svea and Henry love.
Henry turned the crank.



The dog watched.



Svea burped her Buggy (the baby).



And then the dog licked Henry right when the clown popped out...




...and startled Svea.

Use the Force, Luke.

tree dwellers

Sometimes I really think these two look alike.



Mostly the hair and athletic agility makes me think that...



...but maybe it's their tree dwelling.

(Uncle Johnny's in the Mickey Mouse tee)

This Is What I Have To Work With at Dinner

You Tube-Inspired Dinner

First, go here and watch Taco Town.
We did. Then, we had cravings.



Though we did decide to leave off the blueberry pancake.
And the deep frying bit.

Lilah...Svea...Wyatt...Henry

Yo. My friends came over to play.



Heeeeeeyyyyyy. We on the couch.



What's over here?


Wo. Almost fell.



New dance moves just come to me all the time.



Sometimes a sistah's gotta rest.



Wyatt has learned to walk. Yet Henry's crazy running moves are a bit intimidating, even to the adults. Smart, Wyatt, smart.

Be Still, My Beating Choo-Choo Train

Our last week here in the Erickson home has been so very full - so full that my heart is reaching near explosion.

Brian and I got to attend the Americana Folk Festival in Burns, TN (right outside Nashville) on Saturday and it was AMAZING. First, we sat still for hours. Then walked around when we wanted. Then ate when we wanted. Then sat some more. Heaven.
We got to see at least 22 musical artists, our faves included Patty Griffin (OF COURSE - she was the headliner), Mindy Smith, Blue Mother Tupelo, The Everybody Fields, Sandra McCrackin, and Carey Ott. So good.
Here's a picture of Brian and our dear friend Kimberly at the festival:



And 2 of the 3 stages:



The kids have had a stomach bug (now for 6 days straight) so I'm just about fed up with all this. The laundry...the diapers...yuck.

However, some good news is that I think we can officially declare Svea as a "walker"! She's been standing up and staggering about since August 5th so thank GOODNESS she decided to stop this pattern of taking 3 steps in a row then taking the rest of the week off.

She is also saying "Moo" and "Quack" at the appropriate times, "DDSsssss" for "juice" and dancing at all times regardless of background music (or noise).

Henry lay his head on my chest yesterday (in an attempt to calm down for his afternoon nap) then he looked up at me quickly and said, "I hear a choo-choo train? A choo-choo train on its tracks?"
I was so caught off guard that I think I explained that we all have choo-choo trains in our chests and that he should now GO TO SLEEP but then I held him so tight, despite my weakness induced by his sweet cleverness.



Oh, how I love these kids.

Next Seen On...

A. American Idol?



B. So U Think U Can Dance?



C. Nashville Stars?



D. What's the equivalent or our generation's Star Search? Or is Star Search still on?



E. Austin City Limits?

I Heart My Daddy

thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiissss much

The Morning Attire

(The gloves are because the football players in the Sports section of the newspaper have been seen wearing gloves lately. It's still warm in Evansville.)

Dry Spell

I've been in a dry spell with good photo opps lately...all the good moments have come when the camera was out of reach, or my moving to turn it on would spoil the magical moment of Henry sharing with Svea or Svea looking at Henry and cracking up laughing.

They have been playing together the last two days which I am trying to use to my advantage, but I am so in awe of the phenomenon, in addition to the overwhelming relief, that I don't know what to do.

Svea has fallen in love with her baby doll she got for Christmas which she lovingly called "Boogie" yesterday, but today calls "Buddy." That's right before she licks and bites the baby's plastic face. (Should I be telling people that?)

She has also decided that it is not okay for me to hold Henry or for me put on his shoes. Nor can I do a puzzle with him or read him a book.

Henry has decided that if I am holding Svea, he has to really sweetly ask me to put her down because, "it's time for a hug." The first 12 times he did it, totally melted my heart. So I would put her down and Henry and I would have a long hug. Now, we are doing more group hugs on the floor with everyone...and he seems to be not so interested in me when Svea crawls away too. Hmm.

We went to the library today and had to go upstairs, and with the stroller, that meant taking the elevator. Henry is still on the fence about elevators, he usually hates them, but after 4 rides he really liked riding the "alligator."

Svea is still staggering around occasionally, but not walking yet. She says "duck" and "Daddy" a lot.

Henry wakes up asking for his boots and socks and football and jersey. Then he sings the AL fight song all day. All day. I mean, all day.

That's the update for today. Better pictures in the future I hope. Hope all of you are well.

Filling Time

We have recently acquired a bunch of tennis balls (about 50 or so - some thanks to Wal-Mart and some thanks to our dear friend Heidi). I thought it a good idea since they fit in Svea's hands well as she is learning to throw, and since Henry loves swinging his racquet.

And because I'm already sick of football and seeing that it is still just October, that's kinda bad.



So we went to throw and hit some tennis balls the other day and my plan worked perfectly for about 23 minutes. Then the racquet kept getting way to close to Svea's head and Svea got bored and just wanted to climb up and down our flimsy stroller.



Now we just have them all over the living room and dining room.

Half Marathoner

Leta finished a half marathon!!!



Last Sunday morning, Leta and her friend Crystal (who all children refer to as Juju. Except Henry. He calls her Juju Train, which makes total sense) ran 13.1 miles. Henry, Svea and I loaded up on donut holes in the car, and then got out to cheer (and run) them on.



They had live music at several of the mile markers and we happened to pick the corner with the guy singing Bob Dylan on his lone guitar. It was Dylan, Dylan, Dylan, Adam Sandler's "Happy Hannukah" song, then some more Dylan. Okay...





Henry danced and ran around in his boots and Svea shook the shakers and threw them on the ground...about a million times. It was so fun - all the clapping and cheering was so contagious that it made me a little teary when we actually got to see Leta and Juju finish mile 7. So teary that I forgot to take a picture of them. Hello.

And This Seemed Like Such a Good Idea at the Time...

Karaoke and Popsicles

The other day we had a great play date. Lynnen was here and she found the microphone. That was pretty much all she needed the rest of the afternoon. Then Calvin and Susana (new baby, not pictured) arrived.

Lynnen would "sing" while Calvin "played the piano" and Svea looked lovingly into Calvin's eyes. Henry, on the other hand, refused to put his pants on and kept trying to climb on the work bench so I would stop paying attention to all those other kids who were invading his play space.



Then Lynnen bumped her head on the floor and a purple popsicle held the only proper healing agents. So Calvin got a purple one and Henry, a red. Let me introduce my son, Vlad the Impaler (that is, Dracula, for all of you who haven't read The Historian yet).



And yes that is a can drink coozie on Calvin's elbow and an empty back pack on his back. I think toddler boys get more creative and eccentric when they get new baby sisters.

Danny Degas and Henry Matisse

Danny came over the other morning and decided that he "wanted to make a painting." So he held his paintbrush as a divining rod and painted 3 paintings (the last one he embellished with crayon).









We did, in fact, remove shirts for the ordeal and I think the boys had a great time.

I couldn't get any pictures of Svea because she was in the high chair "coloring" and I kept having to dig crayon bits out of her mouth.

Nestled

I started feeling a little land-locked tonight as I sat at my cozy desk in my nook of an "office" watching my missed episode of Grey's Anatomy online. So I thought, why not mark where I've been and start planning the next trip we can take as a family...in 2019?

I join many other blogs in marking my trek, and I realize this may come off as weird, but I think it's a cool idea to see where you are, where you've been and visually, where you want to go.



create your own visited country map

And it helped me from weeping into my keyboard while watching my friends Christina, Izzie, Meredith, George, Alex, Miranda, Derek, Phinn, etc.

P.S. South Korea doesn't REALLY count as I was just in the airport.

Whirlwind

We just got back from a few hours in Birmingham.

First, we went to the Homewood Middle School Homecoming football game and saw our dear friends the Spencers there (ALL of them: Brad, Amelia, Graham, Liza, Mary Virginia, Isaias, James and even Brad's mom Grandma Spencer was there).



Henry fell in love with Mary Virginia and didn't want her to leave the stands where he was. That face he is making while sitting in her lap is the new "I'm in love and I must be stoic lest she decide to not hold me any longer" look. He especially loved banging his hands on the bleachers in time with the marching band.



We got some good time with Bobbie and Pops on Friday. Bobbie knew Svea's favorite game of peek-a-boo...



...and sit-in-the-wagon-and-hand-me-toys-please.



We spent some time outside...



...throwing the ball in the neighbor's yard (Henry loves that carved wooden pelican to the right of his head)...



...and practicing walking in the soccer field with Pops.



Svea wanted us to keep "chasing" her...



...as Henry threw the tennis ball and caught it over and over.



Friday night we had a birthday party for Papa (is this the best picture we have???) and my hands were too full for me to take any more good photos...I can't remember if anyone else was capturing the moment. If you can see behind the picture frame that Papa is showing Henry, the birthday cake is indeed a Roll Tide theme.



We were there just hours but managed to see almost all of the in-town family. Those we didn't see are at the top of our Hit List for Thanksgiving...