more photos

Here are more photos to go along with my previous post. Delcia and my friend Jillian's baby, Sam who was born a few days after Del, visited last week. And of course, Grady J. More photos on our Picasa website, link to the right.

Little Sweetie is right!

My sister, Jenny was in town from Idaho with her son, Grady. So we met at our house Sat. morning for bagles and family time. My mom, Jami, Josh, Kierra and Jake all came to hang out and see Jenny and Grady. Grady is getting so big and is almost a year old, Mar.24. He has refused to crawl and is almost walking! We had fun playing with the kids and going for a nice walk in the park. It was a beautiful day and fun to see everyone.
Delcia has a little cold, but seems to be nothing too serious. She actually seems happier than usual the last couple of days. We have gotten accustomed to her crying for a couple of hours every evening since she was born. The last three nights, however, we have been surprised by peace and quiet accompanied by a few smiles. We hope that this trend continues!
The weather was really nice for a few days, resulting in spring fever and motivation to get back in shape. We have been walking almost every day and I am anxious to get back to the gym this week, ("mommy and me" classes).
I recently joined a book club with some of my girlfriends. It has been really fun to have an excuse to read and enjoy a monthly night out with the girls. Our first read was A Thousand Splendid Suns, which I couldn't put down. We are now reading The Shack, which I have not started because I have yet to finish Dreams from My Father by none other than our new president. Movies we watched this week included, "Everything is Illuminated" which we both love for it's quirkiness and emotional depth. Last night we attempted to watch "Sukiyaki Western Django" which I thought was weird and boring so we turned it off after about 1/2 hr and watched "The Rocker" instead, which was actually pretty funny and entertaining. Since we don't have TV, we watch quite a few movies. I think that's about all that's going on around here.

Ness's Birthday (President's Day)

Since I've been at school 3 nights a week and work all week long, Ness and I haven't had much time together, especially since we are passing Delcia back and forth and frantically trying to get anything done when we are both at home. For Ness's birthday I decided to call in sick and have a special excursion. We loaded up everything and hiked in to our friend Jim's cabin in the mountains. We built a fire, hung out together, and ate some leftover reheated homeade pizza. Bean seemed to like it too, it's a shame our neglected/beloved big rich had to stay home. Anyways, here are some pictures (including Delcia's "Bear" Bottom). There is plenty of snow up in the mountains!! We (read Janessa) then left Delcia for the first time with Janessa's Parents so we could head out to eat alone, but we just thought about our little bean most of dinner. Isn't parenthood great??

Happy Valentines Day

Delcia has learned to smile occasionally, though it doesn't last long (the picture is in transition from smiling to being mad she wasn't being held. So now we've added that to here repertoi of crying and turning red, sleeping, and begrudgingly passing gas. The joys of new parenthood, where you are excited to see poop! On the homefront the weather has been wierd, almost spring like, but we did get a wonderful Utah storm this past week that made for some terrific VDay skiing.
While John was out enjoying the new snow, Delcia and I resumed our regular activities- crying, eating and sleeping. I even got a little nap in myself today, which I'm finding harder and harder to do. As soon as I get her to sleep, I hop in the shower, eat some food, do laundry, dishes and clean up the house. By the time I'm done with all of that she is awake again. Our house is definitely falling through the cracks as far as cleanliness goes, but oh well. Bridger has also noticed a decline in his frequency of walks and belly rubs. Poor guy! Don't feel too sorry for him though- he still helps himself to the trash as soon as he is left home alone. We even bought a new "dog proof" garbage can with a lock on the lid- didn't last one night.
I've been watching my niece Kirra a few days a week. She is so cute and a lot of fun, but also good birth control. Her and Delcia are only 15mo. apart and the two of them together are a lot of work. They keep me very busy. I told John that my goal when I have the two of them is to keep them both safe and happy, anything on top of that is extra- dishes, lunch for myself, etc. It has gotten easier though as I've gotten used to it. And Kirra is so sweet with the baby although she is too young to realize that piling blankets on top of the baby is dangerous and that Delcia doesn't really appreciate the whole fruit basket emptied on top of her in her carseat. Kirra also plucks Delcia's binky right out of her mouth and throws it in the garbage.
Anyways, that is the latest at the Erdmann residence. John has finished his three nights a week of class and is now down to two for 5wks. We are leaving Delcia with my mom Mon. night for our first night out without her. We are sad to leave her, but looking forward to some time away and alone for my birthday dinner and maybe a movie- we'll see how it goes first. We will try to take and post more pictures soon- request from grandma Bev.