Happy Holidays

Hello all,

I hope you're all enjoying the holiday season!

Our first Christmas with Anja brought some revelations that I'm sure all parents have experienced. While many of you know that having children will change everything, I think it takes awhile for the reality of that idea to really set in. Christmas Eve has always been our family night as we like to make a nice dinner and open our gifts afterwards. This year, I spent a bit of time preparing a nice fancy meal and just as we sat down to dinner, Anja decided she needed us. We thus spent the rest of dinner trading off rocking her so our food wouldn't be get too cold. Christmas dinner will never be the same!

At the same time, Anja has been sleeping longer and becoming more and more expressive. She seems to be more smiley every day! More importantly, she actually slept for 7 hours straight last night!! Shana and I both woke up amazed and grateful.

While it has also been a busy holiday, it has been great to see family. Shana's parents are in town along with our nephew Memmo. Memmo, short for Guillermo, is seven years old. We've spent a lot of time watching movies and playing with Legos. It has also been a bit of an educational experience for Memmo. He finally asked Shana what she was doing when she would take Anja in a separate room to nurse. I helped explain what breastfeeding was and how it was like "custom made" food for Anja. Memmo replied, "But my Mom fed me formula--why doesn't Anja get that?" I told him that while formula was good, it wasn't quite as good was breast milk. He then replied, "I think I would've preferred it that way." (It was at this point Shana and I decided we had to start writing down all these statements as he's got some great one-liners!) Kids are so innocent!

We're looking forward to Anja's baptism tomorrow and we'll post some pictures. If anyone is in town, you are welcome to attend. It will be at University Lutheran Church of Hope. http://www.ulch.org

-Erik

5 Weeks!

Anja is 5 weeks old today and continues to grow like crazy! According to our scale, she's about 9.5 pounds. She's becoming more animated and smiles often. These photos were all taken within the past week except the last one (which is one of her dad's favorites).

Look at me . . .

It's hard to believe that Anja is already growing. She's already over 8 lbs. and has certainly grown at least an inch and a half. Things are going well and Anja has been great. Despite a few sleepless nights, she traveled to Winona with us for a swim meet, has been on numerous errands and even came with us to get our Christmas tree, although she did stay inside with Grandma Erickson. She'll be on skis before we know it!

The next few weeks will be a bit crazy. Erik is back to work and has finals coming up for his Master's program while Shana will continue coaching. We're definitely looking forward to Christmas break when we'll have some time to relax - notice how we didn't necessarily say sleep :-)


Here she is checking things out. Her eyes are really starting to turn blue (even though they still look pretty dark in the pictures).