Work, PTA, and repeat

So the last couple of weeks have been pretty eventful in the Erickson household.  Steph got less than encouraging news on her follow-up appointment.  For anyone who doesn't know, she had a hysterectomy on December 3rd and has been off work since.  She was planning on going back to work on February 7, but her stitches have not healed and she was told to take it easy for another four weeks.  She did start back at work part time, working just the mornings and only at a desk.  I got bad news a week ago when I was informed that the company was doing some corporate re-structuring.  I have now spent 6 days without work and I have cleaned the house more than I would like to admit.  Haven't had any job offers yet, but have met with three different recruiters and hope that I will have something sooner rather than later.  Carter has been doing really good at school, he has gotten almost all of his spelling tests right this year and we have been told he is one of the smarter kids in the class.  A couple of weeks ago Steph and Carter had a mother/son event for the school's PTA.  In true Steph fashion, she is the vice president of the PTA, and was running this event.  They had a scientist come and do some chemistry experiments and while they waited the kids created paper rockets that were shot off by air compressors.  Needless to say, they kids had a great time and it was an even that they will be having again.  This last weekend was the father/daughter dance that the PTA put on and even though Hadley is far from going to it, I still went as our neighbor, who is a truck driver, could not get back to go with his daughter.  It was a good dress rehearsal, but going to a father/daughter dance with someone other than your daughter is awkward to say the least.  Yesterday Carter and I had a "guys" day, we went over to Iowa City for the Hawkeye wrestling meet and basketball game.  It was a long day, but I think that he had fun, if only the basketball game would have had a better outcome.  He did get his picture taken with the Insight bowl trophy that Iowa won last December.

Basketball

Carter has once again started basketball.  He is still in the type of league that does not allow steals, blocks, or keep score, but he enjoys it just the same.  Like most years, he is one of the tallest kids on his team and has a mixed team of girls and boys. He has had two games so far, scoring two baskets in each game and getting in trouble multiple times for blocking shots and stealing the ball.  His team has 12 players on it however, so he spends more time on the bench than he does in the game and he is always the first one to volunteer to go in if someone gets injured.  When he is on the bench, he is sitting on the edge of his seat pining for his turn to get in.  His game has gotten much better since last season, he actually dribbles now instead of just picking up the ball and running like a running back.  He loves playing point guard so that he can have the ball in his hands as much as possible.

The last week in sports

Soccer-
Carter has grown leaps and bounds in the last few weeks in soccer.  Two weeks ago he scored his first goal, Mom and Dad were super proud.  We taught him how to do a slide tackle when playing defense and he did great job with it, even forced another kid to face plant.  Before we taught him this, his defense consisted of him running up and giving the kid with the ball a forearm shiver, don't get me wrong, I was proud, but there were nasty looks from the other kid's parents.  Of course at the next practice the coach informed us that a slide tackle is illegal in the Under 8 division.  Oops.  Now last week, he stepped it up even more by scoring two goals!

Golf-
Golf has had trouble with the rain that we have gotten the last week, but Carter has had two "meets" this week.  They let the kids play one hole and start from the 150 yard marker.  The first night Carter scored an 8, which is better than his dad usually does.  The second night he scored a 9.  He has to use a set of clubs from the course, beings that he is left handed and we only have right handed clubs.

Much needed update

So I just noticed that it has been since March that I updated this.  So much for frequent updates, huh?  I will try to summarize what has been happening the last six months. 

Hadley-
The last update she was on just a couple of foods a day, now she is on to the Gerber graduates, and even feeding herself with some of them.  She now has six teeth, two on the bottom and four on the top.  She loves the Gerber puffs and Cherrios, that way she can feed herself.  She has gone from rolling over, to army crawling, to regular crawling.  Now she is standing up and walking around things, but the stubborn Haas in her comes out when she goes to take a step and she plops down and crawls.  She will however walk behind her walking toys or when you hold her hand, so it is only a matter of time.  She had her 1 year checkup and is growing at an average rate, she is in the 50th percentile for height, weight, and head size.  She really enjoyed taking walks around the pond and looking at the ducks.  Her favorite summer time activity however, was swimming, whether it was the pool, bathtub, or the lake she loved splashing and being in the water.  She really enjoyed having her big brother around all summer, she would follow him all over the house and just wanted to be close to him.  When she wasn't busy bothering her brother, she enjoyed the neighbor girls coming over and spending time with her, it also afforded some much needed quiet time for dad to work.

Carter-
Well despite the fact that he is fighting his mom's inferior genes, Carter did pass kindergarten.  Over the summer, he played baseball and had swimming lessons.  He loved baseball, but didn't like the fact that he had to hit off the tee, he really wanted to hit live pitching.  We found out the hard way that we need to sign him up first, because apparently they have a draft and if you sign up late, you get put on the scrub team.  He enjoyed swimming lessons, but didn't want to jump off the board.  He spent a lot of time with the neighbors on their boat and would jump off the boat into the water and had a blast tubing.  For a week he had basketball camp at Drake, he learned a lot and was voted best teammate on his team.  His team ended up getting second place and he was upset about it, but getting a medal made up for it.  Carter spent a lot of time playing with his friends in the neighborhood and had several sleep overs.  Now Carter is in 1st grade and we have been told that he is good.  He started riding the bus now this year, so he gets to sit next to his best school friend to and from school.  We started soccer again this fall and he seems to like it, he is light years ahead of where he was two years ago when he played.  He also started golf, his first meet was to be tonight, but got rained out, of course now that he is playing golf, he thinks that he needs new clubs.

Steph-
Steph has been at her job for a little bit less than a year now and seems to still like it.  She does love working with the elderly, so that part of her job is great.  This year she got involved in the PTA, and like everything she dove in headfirst and is now the Co-VP.  So between work, PTA, and Carter's activities, there is very little free time for her.  She does however still find time to keep the house spotless and my clothes always seem to get washed.

My job is going great, we recently hired some new guys in New Jersey and that has been an adjustment.  I have kept busy with Carter's events and taking care of Hadley during the day so my days are equally full.

Sleep Walking?

So this past weekend we had our first confirmed sleep walking incident from Carter.  Steph and I were watching a movie on Saturday night about 11 when Carter came walking up the stairs.  Once he got upstairs, he laid on the couch for about ten seconds, then he got up and walked into our room.  Mind you the whole time he is doing this he is holding his nether regions.  I get out of bed and lead him to the bathroom where he attempts to pee on the sink.  After completing his business he climbs into our bed only to have Steph attempt to wake him up and walk him back downstairs.  This is shortlived as he gets to the top of the stairs and laid his head down and goes back to sleep.  We get him to the couch and he slept the night through, in the morning he had no idea what had happened.  Carter had a sleep over on Friday night with his friends Jack and Cole, of course they stayed up late playing video games and watching movies.  Of course on Saturday morning they were up bright and early to eat their pancakes and bacon.  Carter enjoyed his week off for spring break, but I don't think he was ready to go back to school.  He spent a lot of time over break playing with his friends outside and the weather cooperated.  Hadley has her 6-month check up this week, so I will update her height and weight later this week.  She has been eating about two foods a day and is doing really well, even getting upset at mom and dad for not getting the food into her mouth fast enough.  She is still sleeping through the night and allows her dad to get his work done during the day.

Half Birthday's

So Carter has learned about half birthday's this year and has tried to capitalize with gifts. Little does he know that his dad is one of the cheapest men alive. When he asks for gifts I start in about how there are people in this world who don't even know what television is and here he has one in his room. He then tells me that those people should work harder so that they can afford a T.V., at that point I have no rebuttal. Hadley turned 6 months last week and is rolling all over the place, there are times that I catch her rolling multiple times in a row to get somewhere. She tries to sit up, but is still pretty top heavy. She is mesmerized by her brother and Jax the cat, if either one of them are in the room she is fixated on them. Of course we had a photo session last week to commemorate her six months, but she spent more time staring at the camera than smiling at it. That is of course until the camera was put down, then she wouldn't stop smiling. There were some good pictures, but we are going to get them done in a month or so when she is hopefully sitting up. She has moved on to foods now, we do food twice a day and so far she hasn't found a food that she doesn't like, however, peas did do a number on her "pipes," so we probably won't be doing those for awhile. Carter found out that his baseball team this spring/summer will be the Pirates, he even got a hat with the Pittsburgh logo on it and hasn't taken it off since Saturday. Hadley had her first church experience this last weekend as we went to our neighbors son's baptism. She did pretty well and probably would have made it through the service, but I think Steph pinched her leg so that she could get up with her.

Steph's job has been going great, she is busy as every, typically working 55-60 hours per week. Hopefully it ends soon as she has been covering for a position that a new person is starting next week. She did go to Oklahoma a couple weeks ago, so I was flying solo as a dad, wasn't too bad, Carter and I got to have the meals that we like and Steph doesn't. Carter liked it because I think I am a little bit more lax with the rules than Mom is and he thinks he is getting away with something.

My job got interesting a while back as our partners from Israel bought out the other partners, so there were some tense moments where I thought that I would be updating my resume, but they retained me. There is about an 8 hour difference in time from there to here, so we only cross over a couple of hours in the office, so a lot of communication is done via email. It is an interesting way to work to say the least, but I wouldn't change it for anything.

Basment Update

So it has been a looong time since I updated this, sorry.

The basement renovation is complete, it was a long process, but so worth it when we almost double the size of our living space. Carter and his friends fit a lot better in his new room as opposed to four boys trying to squeeze into a 10x10 room with furniture. Even though she didn't know it, Hadley is happy to be out of our closet and into her own room as well. It is nice to work on my desktop computer again instead of the laptop. In the future we are hoping to get a new TV down there and new furniture upstairs so that the furniture upstairs can move downstairs. We really appreciate all the help from friends and family to get it completed.

Big day for the Erickson's

So today turned out to be a big day in the Erickson household. We had Hadley's two month appointment, she tipped the scales at 10 lbs 2 oz and was 23 inches long. The put her in the 45% for weight and 75% for height. She also got three shots, which she was not a fan of at all. Everything checked out fine and she got a clean bill of health. Of course her Nana had to take her around and show her off to everyone in the office and naturally she was dressed for the occasion. After that Hadley and Steph went over to Steph's work so that she could put her two weeks notice in as she has taken a new position with Wesley Life in Johnston. She will be the health services director and oversee 8 marketing departments, needless to say she is excited for the new challenge. If all of that was not enough for a day, Carter came home from school with the announcement that he had lost his first tooth that had been loose for several weeks now. He was super excited as he gets to put his name on the poster at school for lost teeth and his teacher gave him a treasure chest to put his tooth in. On the way home from school I asked him how much money he thought the tooth fairy brought. He thought about it for a minute and said that he thought she brought $100! He is his mother's child. I remember the days when I was excited to get a quarter from the tooth fairy.

Renovation update: We have about 60% of the drywall hung and everything that is hung has been spackled and taped. We are hoping to have all the drywall hung by the end of the weekend and my goal is still to have a Christmas tree down there, even it happens on December 24th!

October Events

October had several significant events for the Erickson household. Carter spent a night in the hospital for dehydration. He came home from school on a Tuesday complaining that he didn't feel well and stayed home from school on Wednesday. He acted fine, but wasn't eating very much and wasn't going to the bathroom. Wednesday afternoon Steph took him to the doctor and I began to mentally prepare for him being admitted to the hospital. He was admitted, but only on an observatory 24 hour period. Thankfully he was discharged after his 24 hours of being in their. Of course by the weekend he was fine and attended the Iowa Hawkeye game with Todd and I. It was kind of a different game as instead of going early and tailgating, we left later and parked and took the Hawkeye Express to Kinnick Stadium. It was kind of fun, not something that I would want to do every weekend, but I know that Carter enjoyed it, so it was well worth it. Carter has started basketball, something that he has been talking about non-stop. His games are on Saturday's and he has practices on Sunday and Friday nights. He enjoys it so far, so hopefully he sticks with it and has fun. This month has seen Hadley grow like a weed. She is really starting to smile now and is staying awake more than she had been in the previous weeks. Carter is still a great big brother, he even has a big brother voice. He still helps out as much as possible, aside from changing diapers. Steph is still on maternity leave, and we are still married with her being home with me all day every day. Tomorrow is Hadley's 2 month appointment, so I will update again after that.

Family Pictures

Last Sunday we had our family pictures taken. You can go to the below link to view them.

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20 Days

Hadley is now 20 days old. So far she hasn't lost any of her hair, that was one of Steph's biggest fears. She is still breast feeding and staying on a schedule for the most part. Last Friday, she slept for five straight hours for daddy! Last week was her two week appointment and she weighed in at 7 lbs 14 oz, 2 oz heavier than when she was born. Her neck is getting a lot stronger as she is trying to hold her head up when she is getting burped. She went on her first salon visit today with Mommy and did great, like usual. Steph had her first alone day with the kids last Saturday as I went over to Iowa City for the football game. Not only did she survive the day, but cleaned the house top to bottom and gave both kids baths. Carter has continued to be a great big brother, he loves to hold his sister and always has to have her in the room when it is reading time. He loves school so far, of course he has made several new friends. His favorite school day is Friday, because it is show and tell day. Steph is doing great, but she is not looking forward to 9 weeks from now when she has to go back to work.

1 Week

So Hadley is now one week and somehow we lucked out again. She has been a great baby so far, eating every three hours or so and not being fussy hardly at all in between. She sleeps really well and has gotten back up to 7 lbs. 5oz. Steph is doing awesome and is really taking to the whole breast feeding thing, the accountant in me is happy about not buying formula. Overall the first week couldn't have gone any better than it has.

Hadley Vivienne Erickson

We would like to introduce Hadley Vivienne Erickson. She was born on September 3rd at 7:43 AM. She tipped the scales at 7 lbs 12 oz and was 20 inches long. She had a full head of hair, chich was surprising, since Carter had no hair until he was almost 1! Both Hadley and Steph are doing great. Hadley took to breastfeeding like she was a pro and mom isn't too shabby either. We came home on Sunday and other than Jax being a little weirded out by her crying, it has been a seamless transition. If you want to view her pictures from the hospital there are here: http://www.our365.com/NewbornPortraits/BabyDetail.aspx?birthid=ae437bec-06db-40c5-ada8-33ae2cbb54c5

8 Days

So we are now down to 8 days until the C-section date, which is September 3. We go in early on the 3rd and will probably have a new daughter by 8 AM. Last Sunday Steph had contractions for about 7 hours straight, but as soon as we went to the hospital, they stopped.
We had Carter's 6th birthday party early this year as it would have been right after the new one's arrival and he didn't want to wait. This is the first year that we didn't do a big event for it, we just had ice cream cake and presents, which are the only things Carter really cares about anyways. Of course he got more presents than he needed and the gift cards that he got were burning holes in his pockets, so we had to go spend them that night.
Carter's first day of school was today, he started kindergarden and is very excited about it. Most of the neighbor kids go to the same school, so he will have lots of kids that he already knows. He doesn't know any of the kids in his class, so he will have to make new friends.

Vacation Bible School

So while we were at Summerfest last weekend, one of the brochures we got was to send Carter to VBS. He was reluctant at first, stating that if he didn't like it when we walked in, he could just go home. We told him that was fine and signed him up. Well after two days he loves it, except for the fact that they only get one snack during the three hours and they don't feed him lunch, according to him "my stomach gets crabby." Here is a picture of him there.

Fishing

So after a year and a half of having a fishing pole new and in the packaging, I finally unwrapped it and took Carter fishing. Of course I was a little leery as his attention span is about that of a 5 year old, go figure, but he wanted to go so I agreed. After learning that taking Carter to a sporting goods store is like taking him to a toy store, he had to play with everything he saw and especially liked the fish finders. We made it to the pond, which is located right next to the DMACC campus here in Ankeny. Of course, he carries nothing, while I am forced to lug folding chairs, poles, tackle box, and our lunch to the dock. I was pleasantly surprised when Carter didn't complain about being bored or anything for the entire two hours we were there, especially since we didn't get a single bite. Of course when we were packing up, the people next to us caught a fish on their first cast, and Carter made sure to let me know that they caught something on their first cast. All in all it was a nice little afternoon out with Carter, I am sure we will be going back.

Baby's Room

I know that it doesn't have the furniture yet, but I did paint the baby's room. I had to go back and channel my former professions to get it done, but I think it turned out pretty good. If this baby turns out to be a boy, I am going to be so pissed! Everything is going along fine right now, Steph is still really tired, but not getting the morning sickness as much. Carter has gone through big brother class and is ready for his baby sister to get here.

Back in the metro

Hello from Ankeny, we are officially back in the Des Moines metro. After a whirlwind year, we have moved three, yes three times. We are settled in for the most part, but a year from now we will be moving back to Altoona when our house is done being rented. The good news is, I have become very good at packing a U-Haul truck, so if anyone needs help, I would almost go as far as to say I am an expert. We had a scare this last week, Jax our grey cat, was missing for five days, but Monday night came back after we had become resigned to the fact that he was gone for good. Carter was very excited to have his cat back, and George was super excited to have his friend back. Carter is adjusting better than the rest of us, he loves being close to his cousins and wants to see them almost every single day. Steph started back up last Thursday at work and already is accustomed to the drive and the new building. She loves having an employee right underneath her, pretty sure that she likes to be called boss! I have been staying busy with work and watching my neice and nephew a couple of times a week. It is good practice for when our little girl arrives and I am still not sure if I will be able to handle another Haas girl. Pregnancy wise everything is going fine, Steph is very tired most of the time, especially after a day of work. We haven't had any more Dr. appointments, but have another ultrasound in a couple weeks. Well that is all I have for now. If anyone wants to send me a gift of any sort :-), our new address is 5105 NE Ledgestone Court, Ankeny, IA 50021

It's a girl!

So surprise surprise, Stephanie couldn't wait the four weeks for our doctor's ultrasound and she had to go to a different one. I figured that it was probably the first time she has ever not used her birthday present on herself. The lady that we went to will only tell you what you are having if she is 100% sure and she said that she is 110% sure that it is a girl. Girls are not something that come easy on the Ehlers side, the last one that was on that side was my mom, and we won't flat out say her age, but it has been four grandsons and three great-grandson's since a girl. The only thing that I wish is the my Grandma was still around as I am sure she always wanted to hold a baby girl, but I am sure that she had a part in making sure we are having this one.

D Day

So over the last year we have become very good at moving, and as of the 28th we will be back in the Des Moines metro area. We found a house in Ankeny to rent until our rentor's move out of our house in Altoona.