body b

Check out Eddie's bicep muscle as he dives into his pool!

("body b" is something his dad says...it means body beautiful...probably from a movie or something)

kodak moments

Our camera has been in the shop for over 4 weeks now and I am missing it. It fell off the couch and the lens popped off and wouldn't go back on. There have been some special moments over these past weeks that I wish I was able to capture; luckily, our handheld digital still works, but it is not the same as our Nikon SLR. There was the afternoon we played outside with the neighborhood kids and the older boys took Eddie for a high speed wagon ride. He was in seventh heaven. There was Eddie's first romp through the sprinkler, which he loved, and the first dip in the pool (yesterday). There have been many special moments between Eddie and his cousin Noah lately. The other night they were both "playin in the kitchen," as I call it (from one of our music class songs). They were banging pots and pans and hitting the wall with measuring spoons. Oh, there are so many moments that you just cannot capture on film. Like when Noah pointed at Eddie and then Eddie responded by touching Noah's finger, ala ET. And when Eddie was outside on the deck and Noah was inside and they were pressed against the screen giving each other kisses. The camera also wasn't there when we picked our first ripe strawberry from the garden and ate it together, Eddie stuffing the remainder of it in his mouth, along with its leafy top. Nor did I have it on hand when we baked chocolate chip cookies together and Eddie really dove into the flour, proudly covering himself with white dust. Sometimes you just cannot grab the camera quick enough and the moment is lost, except in your memory...perhaps these are the true kodak moments.

how boys play

A recent trip to Family Grounds, a drop-in play space by our house, reminded me of how different boys and girls truly are. Six boys (including my Eddie), ages ranging from 18 months to 3 1/2, huddled around a train table in silence. Well except for the occassional vroom or hum or choo-choo. These boys played with the trains, hardly interacting with each other, other than the occasional shove or snatching of another's train. The girls, there were few that day, were parading around in feather boas and chatting about their babies. Wow. The gender roles are so engrained at such a young age. And the verbalization of the sexes differs so much too. Again yesterday I marveled as my Eddie played alongside of his neighborhood friends - three other boys ages 3, 5 and 7, and they built train tracks on the sidewalk in silence. For a whole hour. Intensity was there though.

mama's day

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms reading this! My second Mother's Day has come and gone, and this year I am feeling a bit more emotional. Maybe it's because being a Mom is hard work, filled with sleepless nights and constant testing of patience. Maybe it's because my guy got a 100.7 degree fever half way through the day. Maybe it's because the day just didn't go as I had imagined in my head...but they really never do once you have kids, do they? A friend of mine says that her motto is "adjust we must," and she announces this every time things run amuck and plans must get shifted. This is so true. Being agile and making adjustments is a major part of being a Mom. So when your 20 month old suddenly seems unsocial and sleepy, you put him down for a nap, even though company is over and you are in the midst of flipping pancakes. And when he still seems sleepy later in the day, you put him down for another nap even though he hasn't taken two naps for months and you were planning on visiting friends. Last year on Mother's Day I was sick. This year my Bomby is sick, and clings to me, reaches for me saying "mama, mama."

zoo, ice cream

Eddie had a busy week, despite still recovering from cold number six of the season (hopefully the last). It was such a beautiful week of spring weather that on Tuesday we went to the Lincoln Park Zoo, finally. We became members for the year, which means free parking passes, which is a huge incentive. We arrived early, shortly after 9 a.m. and it was perfect because it wasn't crowded at all except for several other babies and toddlers in strollers. Eddie seemed to like the tiger and other felines the best. His new word is "see" and he says it as he points to things. He was saying "see!" a lot as he noticed all the animals. He didn't seem freaked out at all, which for some reason I thought he would be. I also thought he would be really into the gorillas and various monkeys, but he wasn't. He was more into all the other kids at the zoo and climbing on things with them. He also loved running over all the hills and ramps and manhole covers. We ate our picnic lunch amongst ducks, geese, seagulls and sparrows, whom were all way too assertive in their quest for food.






His other "first" this week was ice cream. Actually he had frozen custard from Scooter's, which is Chicago's only custard stand (frozen custard is BIG in Wisconsin but not really anywhere else). He liked the vanilla which I fed him from my bowl and said "mmm." But he loved his Dad's chocolate cone even more; whined when it was all gone.

farmer's hours

Eddie is on farmer's hours these days - goes down with the sun around 8 p.m. and wakes up with the sun, sometime between 5:30 - 6 a.m. It wouldn't be so bad if he wasn't still waking up throughout the night. Where does his energy, his lust for life come from? I wish I had some.