Our little star...
Sephira, now 18 months old, has taken to singing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" this week. She just breaks in to song randomly throughout the day...so here is the long and the short of it for you to enjoy!
the short version
the long version
A little impromptu Rubbie Duckie rendition at bathtime. Doesn't it sound like an old 1920's radio song?
Sephira is all about vocalizing her many sounds! JUST now 17 months old, she is REALLY excited about "reading" whatever she gets her hands on. Check it out!
Feb. 7, 2010 - 1 day from 17 months old!
For those of you who did and/or didn't receive personal news about this, here is the official report!
Friday, December 18th, Effie's mother, Cris Bisch, had her name legally changed to "Lee Enry Erickson". Dirk was home sick, but Effie and Sephira went out with Nana and Papa to celebrate this new chapter and adventure in their lives.
Here is the back-story (written by Cris/Lee):
Yes. It's true. This may come as a surprise, even a shock to some of you, but I've changed my name! Really.
My birth name was Christie Lee Caufman, then when I married Cliff I dropped the "h" in Chris, even my middle initial, and taking the Bisch name I have been know by family and friends for the past 35 years as Cris Bisch. The Bisch clan is a wonderful family of which I am still proud to be a part.
Ever since I was a young girl, I have wished I'd been given the first name of Lee instead of it being my middle name like my mother's maiden name Marjorie Lee Erickson. Unfortunately, my maternal grandfather Leif (aka Lee) Henry Erickson died prematurely in his 40's before I was two years of age. I was his first grandchild and he loved me. The photo is of me sitting on the lap of Bestafar my Norwegian great grandfather with his son, my grandfather, Leif showing me a photo of my father who was away serving in the Korean Conflict with the Navy. This photo, representing four generations of our family, was on the front page of the Bellingham Herald on Father's Day, the year before my grandfather passed away.Bestafar, Leif and Christie Lee with a photo of her father Robert Wesley Caufman.
So now my name is Lee Enry Erickson to fulfill my lifelong wish to honor his memory. And with this name I am pursuing my lifelong passion for writing, storytelling and pursing other creative ventures. At first, I intended Lee Enry Erickson to be an alias or pen name, but decided to take the plunge and formally take my new name for handling business and legal transactions, as well. I invite you to visit my L.E. Erickson blog at http://leerickson.com.
Although I will keep my "Cris Bisch" Facebook page, I am gradually transitioning over to my new identity in all online communications, including Facebook. I invite you to friend me as "Lee Erickson" on Facebook. My husband and children already have. They are very supportive; I hope you will be, too! I expect many if not most of you will continue to call me "Cris" by choice or habit, and that's perfectly fine with me, even if you friend me as "Lee". I'm a good at multitasking and respond well to both ; ). Remember, "Lee" has been my middle name all my life.
I apologize that I've only been able to include most of my family in this note and none of my friends, as I am having a persistent problem tagging more this note, but if you are reading this and are family or a friend of mine here on Facebook, feel free to share this note with mutual family and friends to help me spread the news. I've tagged Lee Erickson in this note, so you can easily click to view my new profile, and "friend" me there, as well.
I also want to take this opportunity to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas. From our home to yours... Happy Holidays!
With Love, Lee (aka Cris)
This is a little 10 minute video of our family decorating our first Christmas tree together. Special times for us that we want to share with our family and friends around the States, and beyond.
May the joy of the season fill your home as it does ours!
Sephira loves giraffes...of course all thanks to us because they're all over her bedroom!...but when I saw these boots I just couldn't resist! And now she can't resist wearing them, even though they're still 3 sizes too big!
Sephira loves to dance. This just shows how much! But you gotta be playing the blues!!!! Oh, she is a riot!!!
She is 14.5 months old in this video from Thanksgiving 2009, rockin' out to Etta James at Nana and Papa's house in Lorane, Oregon. Her other fave is Marvin Gaye.
Sephira loves to put on pants and shirts...and sometimes they get reversed. Here she put her coat on her legs, too cute, and proceeded to walk around the house.
This video also shows how good she is at communicating with us, with her signs and such. We find it hard to edit out too much of these little clips because of these precious moments we share with her. We hope you enjoy them as much as we do!
Sephira loves activity that gives her a "rush". Swing, by her arms or legs, and in conventional playground swing equipment...and recently discovered is her radio flyer wagon! We've been able to instill good safety habits by having her wear her bike helmet anytime she wants to go for a joyride. Now she'll try to put it on herself without any complaints!!!
She's also able to use her Baby Signs to communicate her playtime fun: more, all done, down, etc. We have SO much fun together!!! And with this sport, Mama and Dada get really tired!!!
Well, you wanted to see a happy baby, here you go!!! Thanks Granpa and Grandma Siverts for making Sephira soooo happy!!! There was no way we could hold off giving her this present before Christmas, and the timing couldn't have been better! She loves her Giraffe Pillow Chum. She sits on it everyday reading books, relaxing, and just generally having a happy place to call her own. We tell her, "go sit on your Giraffe", and she knows exactly what to do!!!
Sephira loves throwing herself on pillows on the floor, and a friend just received a Giraffe Pillow Chum as a birthday gift during our baby group birthday party on Sunday. All ten of our babies are now officially one year old, so we had a group celebration - and costume party!
Our Birth To Three group got together the day after Halloween to celebrate all our babies turning "one year" old! We celebrated with a costume birthday party. Sephira wore her ladybug costume that Dirk's co-worker, Pat Dickison, made for her before she was born!
We've been meeting with these families every two weeks since our babies were three months old. We are a big group of 10 families, so it's a lot of fun and activity when we get together. Sephira is the oldest by 10 days...ending with Avery who is 6 weeks younger.
Sephira's first Halloween participating in pumpkin carvings and trick or treating! Well...we actually did the gutting of the pumpkin since she had absolutely no interest in sticking her fingers in the "goo". 
Here's a little window into some of our precious mealtime moments... Sephira is learning how to feed herself with a spoon, and we enjoy mealtime VERY much!
Sephira is a foodie. She enjoys eating everything from avocados to enchiladas, rice to green olives! And boy howdie does she love meat! Any type of sausage, chicken, ribs or other and she's a happy camper. She's pretty good with her veggies too, but we'd have to say peas and corn are her favorites. She eats fruit, like blueberries, bananas, applesauce, the occasional spoonful plums or apricots...but apart from blueberries and bananas she doesn't show much interest or desire for most fruit. Though recent experiments with frozen fruit cups are widening our horizons! Especially after hard nights of teething!
NOTE: We have recently discovered that she is allergic to tomatoes, whether raw, cooked or otherwise. She developed an immediate and long lasting skin rash under her mouth....so NO TOMATOES for this chickadee! Future eating experiments will tell us when she's able to consume them again. This is unfortunate for her, since Spanish Rice is one of her all-time favorites foods!!!
Sephira is officially walking, having taken her first steps last week (at 12 and a half months old). She is rapidly picking up the pace and showing her skill!!! See here in this short video.
Sephira is growing up SO fast...but into such a beautiful girl, inside and out. She is able to share her world with us through Baby Signs which we have been teaching her since birth. She currently uses and understands 36 signs and is able to communicate her preferences with us every day! Her favorites signs are: book, frog, duck, swing, milk, all done, more, eat, potty, diaper, wash, bath time, water, kisses, ball, and flower! Her verbal skills are also rapidly picking up and she is saying "Mama", "Dada", "Baby", "Booh" (book), "Hi", "Wawa" (water), "Bubbles", "Baa" (ball), "Nana" (Effie's Mom), and "Iddy" (kitty). She loves to eat fresh strawberries and flowers from the garden and sand on our visits to the Oregon Coast.
We celebrated Sephira's 1st birthday by dedicating her to the Lord with family and friends. Our friend, Reverend Wesley Schlenker, performed the dedication for us in our home.
MANY could not be with us, so here is a short photo slideshow to share the day with you!!!
As of May 13th, at 8 months old, Sephira is officially on the move. Not only did she start crawling that day, but she also started pulling herself up on anything she could.
She is loving her new found abilities, and also loves to walk while holding on to Mama and Dada's hands.
Here is just a little peek into the new, mobile Sephira!
You're gonna love this! This last weekend Effie filmed Sephira talking...but it's not all "ahgoo's", "ahbah's" and "ahgle's" anymore. Check this out!
