little daredevil

The beauty of childhood - no fear. Eddie's latest activity is trying to figure out how to jump. He likes to stand on the arm of the sofa and then dive into the cushions squeling with delight. But he also tries to jump off the couch onto the floor and tumbles down carelessly. The other day I caught him doing his squatting, pre-jump wind up on the stairs and had to instruct him not to practice his jumping on the stairs. We have a wild one here!

bye bye and ball

I was very proud of my son this weekend. As we were leaving our friends' house and were saying goodbye, Eddie waved bye bye. I know this is something that a lot of babies do way early, girls even at 10 months, but for Eddie this is a huge milestone. For the longest time I have been trying to get him to wave goodbye to people as they leave our house and he often will do nothing but smile until they actually leave. Once they have left he will often go to the window and stand on the chair to watch them and then wave, long after they have departed. So I knew that he could wave his hand, but was just waiting for him to do it at the appropriate time. I gave up several months ago. And then, bam, suddenly he just did it. He is totally this way about everything - he does things when HE wants to and at his own pace.

This is the sentiment I have been feeling about his language skills too. I called the pediatrician this week and left a message saying that I was still concerned as there had been no progress over the past two months in his speaking. And then suddenly this weekend he just seemed to bloom like a little flower. He is now saying "ball," even though the "l"s are sort of silent. He is not the type to just yell out the word when he sees it, but if you point to a ball or a picture of a ball and ask him "what's that?" he will say boisterously "BALL!" He is babbling even more now and making a lot of new sounds. He is becoming more emphatic with his "dada," "mama," "no," "oh no" and "yeah." And he is pointing to everything and showcasing that he knows what so many things are. For example, he will point to the lights on his trucks and then point up to the lights in the ceiling, as he utters sounds and looks with bright eyes for affirmation.

first popsicle

Eddie had his first popsicle last week and repeatedly made the "mmm" sound he does to indicate when something is good.

outside

It's 7 a.m. and 45 degrees and we are outside. Eddie loves to play outside and these days it feels like the only breaks he takes is to come in and eat, and even then sometimes we cannot pull him away. He practices his golf swing, attempts to ride his tricycle and likes to find rocks and other objects to throw. Our neighbors gave us their old slide and swing set, and he likes to go down the slide over and over again.

terrible

Eddie is officially in his "terrible twos" stage. His Dad said this a few weeks ago. If "terrible twos" is characterized by extreme emotional outbursts of expression that usually culminate in throwing oneself on the floor, throwing of objects in a fit of rage and general menace-like behavior, than yes, Eddie is in his terrible twos. The collapsing to the floor occurs really anytime he wants something and is refused, or if you go to try to pick him up to remove him from a situation and he wants to remain in his troubling endeavor, then he will become boneless and collapse in a whiny fit. Of course he loves to throw balls, but he also will throw something when upset, as in on the changing table, which he hates more than anything. As he tries to scoot off of it backwards, he will throw lotions and such at our heads. And of course he loves to throw his food now. I didn't realize how messy and annoying this is until today, since I am without a dog. Perhaps the worst of it all is that he has no willingness to please and often does the exact opposite of what we say. He seems to get a real charge out of this. I am constantly telling him NOT to eat certain things and yet he consistently repeats his consumption of nasty inedibles, such as crayons, chalk, hair gel, toothpaste, dirt, citrus rinds, flowers, lotion, soap. You name it and he has tasted it...and oddly seems to like it. When I get serious and tell him to look me in the face or get upset and raise my voice in a stern "NO," he laughs. He will often run away from us, giggling, of course. I am thinking that maybe I have too high of expectations of him. I think that he is capable of doing tasks like coloring a picture or helping me prepare biscuits, and yet activities end in abrupt frustration because he consumes the crayons or stuffs flour into his mouth vigorously. Maybe I need to leave him to play with balls and trucks and run around, and not try to do more civilized things like arts & crafts projects. And maybe my eagerness to DO things overtakes the realistic notion that he is a toddler. Take today, for example. I thought going to the garden center to buy seeds and some tools would be fun. We would look at flowers and a koi pond and cool objects. And he did enjoy it, and luckily we got there before it was too crowded so he could run around a bit. But the problem arose when we went to pay for our items and he spotted some cool glass balls, sort of garden art pieces, and colorful glass bud vases. I set him down because he was squirming too much and whining and I had to get my card out to pay, and of course the instant I set him down he reached for the bud vases and as I tried to intercept, I was too late and he knocked over one, which in turn knocked over who knows how many in a domino effect resulting in colorful shattered glass everywhere. As I tried to mitigate the mess, he found comfort in the arms of another woman - a long grey-haired woman scooped him up and told him it was alright. She just seemed to ooze the essence of calm and soothing...whereas I was the stern-faced, disappointed and embarrassed parent trying to scold and teach him a lesson. The workers magically cleaned it all in a matter of seconds and I don't think they charged me for the vases, as we bolted out of there and drove home in silence.

outside with cousin noah

here are some shots of Eddie and Noah from a 70 degree day last week

our quiet easter

Eddie had a 103 fever on Saturday forcing us to lay low for Easter and forego our plans to spend it with friends in the suburbs. Instead we had a quiet day at home, which included a blueberry pancake breakfast, gifts from Grandma Bonnie & Grandpa Rick and the Easter bunny, yard work outside and a ham dinner. Pretty festive, I guess, considering. Here are some highlights: