{The Day Eisley Had a Big Sister}

Last week we had the pleasure of having Eisley's cousin, Moriah {or Mo} along with us for an outing.

Mo is so motherly and sweet to Eisley. We had lunch at the mall {see above pic, and we will return to this one in a minute}, played at Monkey Bizness, went to Costco:

{They even got to sit side-by-side in the gargantuan Costco carts. All Mo asked of us was that she get to try the samples. Fair enough.}

Finally, they conked out in the car together on the way home. How cute is this???

Mo, you can come hang with us anytime! Eisley adores her big cousin and is very entertained by her presence - which makes running errands a lot easier for all of us.


Now, I would like to return to this image {a clipping of the first photo in this post}.
We cannot, for the life of us, figure out why Eisley has black lips in this photo? Our camera has a "beauty shot" which evens out skin tone, perhaps this is the "goth mode" we didn't know about?

No, but really... she was eating apples and french fries... there is no explanation for this.

{Cue Twilight Zone theme music.}

Merry Christmas - from my family to yours!!!

A Very Erickson Christmas 2009 from Heather Erickson on Vimeo.

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas...

Yesterday we got most of our Christmas shopping done at Park Meadows.

True to my gender, I love shopping.
To Justin it was probably more of a chore.
To Eisley it was probably pretty darn boring.

Except when Daddy threw her on his shoulders and skipped around like a horsey.
That part was pretty cool.

MWAH!

A few days ago Eisley got a letter in the mail. It was from her Great Grandma Erwin, and enclosed was some money just for her, with instructions to find her something special for Christmas.

I tucked the bills away in my purse and made a mental note to myself to think of something special Eisley would like for Christmas.

A couple days later, after a family portrait session and lunch at Aspen Grove, Justin and I spotted Build A Bear Workshop.

"Do you think that's something Eisley would like to spend her Christmas money on?" Justin asked.

"I'm not sure..." I said.

We hesitated, after all, Eisley is only 16 months old and she cannot tell us herself what she would like and what she wouldn't. But we ended up entering the colorful store anyway, just to see {we told ourselves} if Eisley reacted to anything in the store.

Justin held her up to look at all the un-stuffed bear & animal skins to see if she took to any of them. A gray kitty made her smile so we decided to go with it.

Eisley watched as the employee used a huge machine to stuff fluff into the kitty and then sewed the kitty up.

Eager to see how she would react to her new stuffed friend, we handed over the kitty and...

"MWAH!" {The air kiss noise we taught her recently.}

Eisley kissed the kitty on the face, hugged kitty, and then kept going...

"MWAH! MWAH! MWAH!"

And we didn't even prompt her. She did it on her own whim.

Any doubts we had had about Eisley being old enough to enjoy Build A Bear were long gone. It was clear she had a new, and very dear, feline friend.

We dressed kitty in a Mrs. Claus outfit for kicks, paid {Eisley's Christmas gift money was exactly enough for the experience}, and left happy.

She still kisses that kitty...

Last night we put Eisley to bed with her kitty, and heard her kiss kitty. "MWAH! MWAH!"

Again this morning, I was downstairs and heard Eisley waking up...

"MWAH! MWAH! MWAH!"

She *really* loves her Christmas gift, Grandma, thank you!

Car Rides

Dear Eisenheimer,
{as your Pappa Erickson calls you}

Gone are the days of relaxed reclining in the rear-facing car seat. The lovely Chicco model we brought you home from the hospital in will go into storage until Violet or Paxton arrives {No, I am not pregnant. Yes, we have the names of the next children picked out}. This photo is not of you on the day you were born, but last week in King Soopers, where they give free cookies to the kids:
Now you ride in a forward facing seat. Much to our joy. Because unlike the day you were born, you now know how to get attention by throwing your milk, food, and toys over the edge of your seat to get attention and make the car messy. Also frustrating is driving while reaching one hand way back desperately searching for some way to stop your screaming. And finally, we can make use of that DVD player the previous owner of our car installed. If any kid deserves it, it's you, as you currently spend too much time each week riding in the car. So mom & dad are more than willing to give up listening to their new Glee CD so that you can watch Yo Gabba Gabba.

We're just SO happy your favorite show happens to be this one, and that we don't have to listen to Elmo's shrill voice or Barney talking down to children. Oh no, this we can put up with:




Love,
Mama & Jsuhshen