Talk

The other night, Eddie was in the bath, walking his ducky around the edge of the tub, saying "Quack quack quack". He got to where Mommy's feet were up on the tub and said "No, Mommy! No, Mommy!" The duck could not get by the feet! After some persuasion, Mommy moved her feet back so that the duck had room to get by, but Eddie still wanted them gone. Daddy explained that the duck could get by now, and they could share the road. The duck decided to try it and quack-quacked by, but after this successful experiment, Eddie decided the feet had to go anyway, so Mommy moved them back on to her seat. Then the duck happily quacked all the way around the tub. But when he got back to where Mommy was, with her feet back on the seat completely off the tub, again we had "No, Mommy!" Does the duck's insatiable demand for foot-free space know no bounds?

Yesterday, we were looking at some animal magnets and naming the animals, and whether we had ever met one. Daddy mentioned that we saw a goat pooping in Bolzano once. Then when we were going back through the animals, Eddie said "Goat poops." Well-remembered! We agreed and pointed out that all animals poop. Then Eddie went through and (all on his own) described the habits of all the animals: "Horse poops. . . Duck poops. . . Turtle poops. . . "

In the bath again, Eddie had a fish, and for some reason we were talking about its hair. I asked if the fish had hair, and Eddie said "No." So I asked if Eddie has hair, and he said "Yes." I asked if Mommy had hair, and he said "Yes." Then I asked if Daddy has hair, and he said "Don't cry."

Ouch! Well, I'll try. . .

Home again

Shortly after arriving safely home, Eddie was heard to remark "Yaaay home!"
He started playing with his vehicle puzzle and his legos right away.

Later he got on his toy phone and made a call. "Hello," he said. "How are you." (Mumble. Pause.) "No. . . Home. All done." After reporting that he was home, he hung up.

Third day of Christmas

Nowadays, Eddie mostly counts by going "Two, three, two, three, two, three." But he does count One, Two when he is getting dressed or buckling his booster seat or something similar, saying "One buckle" when he gets the first one in, then "two buckles" when he's done. This morning, when I was putting on his socks, he said "One feet" after I got the first one on. Haha! WRONG

When he came out and saw Grandma, she asked him if he liked bacon. He said "Yeah yum yum bacon yum yum." He was pretty clear about it.

In the morning we went to a big indoor playground called Amazone. It was three stories of tubes, bridges, slides, swinging balls and the like. A parent had to accompany toddlers under 4, so Papa got to crawl through the habitrail too. Whee!

Eddie was timid at first, but he got into it. When it was time to leave, he tried to run back in.

Boxing day

This morning, Eddie ran straight out into the dark living room where the presents were left, saying "Truck! Truck!" After the lights were on, he pulled out some toys and said "Fun, fun, fun." Later I found him rocking on a rocking horse, talking to his grandma. "My mommy sleeping," he said. "Mommy coming."

Later, he was eating breakfast, and the grate was open on the stove in the fireplace so we could see the flames. "Fire hot," he reported, several times.

After his cousins got up, Eddie and Stephen had an argument. Stephen was sitting in the high chair, eating, and apparently Eddie didn't approve. He said "No!" Stephen turned around to regard Eddie severely and said "Make an S and close the gate, that's the number eight eight eight!" Eddie insisted "No!" and Stephen said "EIGHT! EIGHT! EIGHT!"

Lately, Eddie's been asking us to sing "This old man" a lot. He does this by saying "Singing old man" or sometimes just "Sing old man." Or maybe he just wants me to sing: "Sing, old man!" The latter theory might be supported by this:

Eddie had pulled a little kiddie chair up to the raised hearth, which was at about the same level as the seat, so he could put his feet straight out onto the hearth. He pulled another kiddie chair up to his, so that Papa could join him, and said "Sit old man!"

In the afternoon, we visited Eddie's Bisnonna. On the car ride there, he started saying what sounded like "Take, take." After we arrived, he kept saying it. We figured out he meant "Cake"—he remembered getting treats there on Sunday, and when we told him we were headed to Bisnonna's house, he was ready! We let him have two cookies. He also ate a whole apple and banana.

While we were there, he ran around and climbed up on the couch and pretended to take a nap, lying down and saying "nap." But Zia Franca wasn't fooled—she said "Your eyes are open! Close your eyes!" Eddie evidently understands this, because he screwed up his eyes and pretended to close them, but we could still see them slitted open. Zia Franca said "You're cheating!" and he laughed.

Christmas

Eddie had a lot of fun on Christmas. As he got up, he said "Tree, tree." He found the presents under the tree and was very excited. He wasn't to touch them until after breakfast when everyone had gotten ready (he was the first kid up), but he kept poking at them and testing the limits. After breakfast, he ran back saying "Presents! Presents!"

Eddie got lots of fun things that he liked playing with: a big doodle pad, lots of books to read, some animal magnets, and stickers. He especially liked playing with the other kids' toys.

In the afternoon Uncle Bo arrived along with even more children and some more presents, which were in shiny paper in a big pile. When Eddie noticed them, he giggled so high and loud it was basically a squeal. Eddie and Stephen stood side by side contemplating the glorious sight. Then Eddie, without taking his eyes off the presents, put his arm out and pushed Stephen away. I guess he's a two-year-old.  (Eddie's been pushing Stephen several times. Stephen usually doesn't get upset, I guess because he's used to worse, but sometimes he says "Don't push! Don't push!")

Then Eddie ran in circles around the house saying "Uncle Bo! Uncle Bo!" until he got up on Uncle Bo's lap, showing him his stickers and then sitting there a long time watching the other kids playing.

Basic

Eddie liked playing with his grandparents' dog, Basic. They would run around, and Eddie would tell her to drop her toy and then throw it for her (about a foot) and she would get it. She was very gentle with him, and careful not to jump on him, even though she jumps on everybody else!

Everyone corrected Basic a lot around Eddie, so he learned to do that. Whenever he saw her he would point his finger admonishingly and say "NO!" in his most stentorian voice, even though she wasn't doing anything. Poor Basic! He also learned to tell her to sit. He'd say "Sit! No!" even though she'd sat very nicely. Once he ran up while she was napping, whacked her and said "Stop!" Basic put up with all this with supercanine patience. Eddie also learned to say "Nice doggie" and pet her.

Sometimes Basic would chew something she wasn't supposed to (one if the main things Eddie saw her being corrected for.) One she chewed up the base of a wooden Nutcracker statuette. Later, Eddie found it, and apparently sussed out what had happened. He picked it up and said "Noo!" Then he ran over to Basic to point at her accusingly and say "No! No! Eddie's! Eddie's!"
Basic looked appropriately cowed. He's definitely picked up on ownership lately. When he picks up Mommy's or Daddy's books or clothes, he says "Mama's" or "Papa's", and a lot of things are "Eddie's."

Basic and Eddie were great pals. This morning, a couple days after we left, Eddie got up saying "Dog, dog, dog, Basic, Basic, Basic."

Guest blog by Grandmom Subie

A ray of sunshine in snowy Oxford Ohio: Eddie is in town!  His vocabulary is growing daily, with one of his latest discoveries being "Help, please."  Since we all want to encourage such a polite boy, he gets whatever he wants when he says that!
Basic the dog seems to think Eddie needs protection.  When Eddie is closed in a room with his parents, noisily getting diaper changes or being comforted when over-tired, Basic alternately looks alertly at the door, whines, or otherwise tries to get grandparental attention: surely some kind of abuse is going on, and she wants us to go rescue the baby from these nefarious doings.  Basic is pretty sure these people (Kolya and Anne) are not to be trusted with such a sweet boy!
Eddie likes Basic, too.  He says "Drop!" in a way that Basic sometimes recognizes, so that she drops her toy, which Eddie then throws for her to fetch.  What a pair!

Working on legos

Eddie can spend hours working with his toddler legos. Here he is a few weeks ago.

Guitar Dancing in Maryland

Feats

We took Eddie along to Whole Foods the other day, afoot. He walked through the aisles pointing at things and naming them. He saw some grapes and said "gapes"; he saw some apples and said "appos"; he saw some tomatoes and said "tomt"; he saw a guy shopping and said "man!" (pointing at him.)

I had to confirm things before we moved on: "Yes, those are grapes! Yes, those are apples! Yes, those are tomatoes! Yes, that's a man!"

He had a really good time, except when he found the toy section and then didn't want to leave; he was upset that we had to move on. But he got over it.

There's a new playground nearby (well, almost a mile away) in the Navy Yard: the Mayor Menino Park. We went to check it out. Eddie walked the whole way! He said "hi" to people we met and pointed out that they have doggies (in case they hadn't realized.) There's a closer playground that we go to in the Navy Yard, and even though we were going a different way this time, he knew when we should be turning to get to that one. He stopped and pointed the way we should turn. I told him "We're going this way, this time." He seemed pretty dubious about that, but let himself be convinced.

He was carrying a rock that he picked up on our front walk, but it was pretty cold and I put his mittens on. After that he was having trouble keeping hold on the rock, and he asked me for help. I showed him how to put it in his coat pocket, and he was really pleased with this. "Pocket! Ha-ha!" he shouted. He has come to the realization of how great pockets are for someone who wants to carry around every portable thing he can find!

Toward the end, he was really slowing down to look at every drainpipe and sign, and it was taking forever. I wasn't entirely sure if we were heading the right way myself, but then I heard some squealing children. Then I said "Do you want to go to a playground?!" and Eddie said "Yes" in his most emphatic voice. We covered the rest of that block in a fraction of the time!

It's a pretty sweet playground! It's still under construction on the outskirts; it juts out into the harbor and they're extending the harborwalk around it. There were cool bells and musical things. Up on the play structure there were a couple of periscopes which let you look across the harbor at Boston. As Eddie trundled through I said "Hey Eddie, what's that?" to get him to check it out, but some older kids (6?) were running by just then, heard me, and looked at them. "Oh wow this is epic!" one said. "Guys! Guys! You have to see this!" They shouted until all their friends came and looked, and there was a lot of hubbub for a few minutes. Eddie just stood and watched until they had all run off. When he finally had it to himself, he went up and put his face to it and said "Guys!"

Artists at work

Halloween

Eddie had a lot of fun at Halloween yesterday. In the morning, he went to a Halloween magic show at the library, and he played really nicely with the littler babies, giving them toys and things. He must have learned from his cousin Tony last week!

For the evening he was dressed as a professor, with suspenders, a tweed jacket, and a pipe. He spent the afternoon hanging out with Luke, who was a kangaroo, then sent out to the big parade. It was really crowded with little kids and their keepers dressed as all sorts of things. He stared and stared at everything. He liked some of the house decorations--people had moving statues, giant spiders that dropped out of a tree to ambush you, and lots of jack-o-lanterns. For some reason, he always pronounces pumpkin as "mambit" or something (sounds like "rabbit"), but he's very consistent, so we know what he's talking about.

He did a little trick-or-treating, too. I've been trying to coach him to say "trick or treat" but I'm not sure he said anything recognizable. But he would take the offered candy, then put it in his bag. If he had several pieces, he would put them in one by one, often trading them between hands to prepare them. He would take a long time to accept candy, often checking the offerer's face while slowly extending his hand and closing his grasp.

We stopped by the fire station, where Eddie got to ring the bell on the fire truck. It was really loud, and he wasn't sure he wanted to do it again! When he saw Luke doing it, though, he had to give it another try.

At home, he unwrapped one of his lollipops (on his own initiative) and started sucking away! He worked on it for quite a while, and finished most of it. Baby's first candy! We started playing some spooky Halloween music, and he really got into it. He laughed along with creepy laughter and shrieked at appropriate moments.

Then Nonno showed up! Eddie was delighted after he got over his surprise. Or maybe he was embarrassed to be seen with candy drool all over his face. We went out again a little bit with Nonno and got in line to go through a haunted tent set up in the training field. We got to the front of the line, and had to wait a while. Eddie stared at a guy dressed as a ghoul by the entrance, and a creepy moving statue. He seemed uncertain. Then he saw a vampire through the gate, and said "No." That settled it--this was not his scene! So we went home.

Eddie had fun seeing everybody act all crazy! I think he started to get the idea that it's a celebration of the spooky, eery, and scary. Or maybe he just likes the candy.

Holding hands with a pumpkin

The day after

Maryland

Eddie had a wonderful trip to Maryland over the weekend! He loved seeing all the relatives and lots of new toys.

Reading with Bootsie

On Sunday, he got to spend all afternoon with his cousin Tony, who's four, and was really great with Eddie.

How to use a truck

They built up a big stack of nesting blocks, and everyone wanted Eddie to knock it down. Eddie was pretty content with leaving the big stack up, though. It was about as tall as he is. Finally Tony demonstrated how to demolish the tower, and Eddie jumped! They built it up again (Eddie would hand the blocks to Tony; if Eddie handed them in the wrong order, Tony would call him "silly.") Aunt Brandi helped Eddie to knock it down. Then on another try, Mom encouraged Eddie to try kicking the tower. Eddie carefully put a hand up to hold on to Aunt Brandi's hand, then stuck out his foot until the tower fell over. He didn't seem too sure about this, but after everyone cheered he crowed and clapped his hands. Another few visits and he'll revel in destruction!

Later they went off by themselves into the living room, while everyone else was out on the deck, and climbed up on the sofa to talk. Tony explained lots of things to Eddie (I couldn't hear what.) Then Tony did all sorts of goofy things to make Eddie laugh. They were at it for an hour, laughing a ton. Eddie was trying to copy the things Tony was doing. They got down on the floor and pretended to sleep, which they thought was a hoot.

Later on, Tony got up on a lap to play a game on a tablet. Eddie wandered up to see what was going on, and Tony said "Not now, I'm busy now, buddy!"

Tony was great at sharing his toys with Eddie. He let Eddie play with the toys he wanted. When Eddie was monopolizing the Wiggles guitar (an instrument of audio torture), Tony asked nicely if he could have a turn and didn't grab it or shove Eddie. This is quite a change of pace from almost-2-year-olds and I was impressed.

Eddie fell in LOVE with a matchbox fire truck. He carried it everywhere, and whenever he realized it was out of sight he would put his open hands out to the side in an inquisitive gesture and plaintively say "Truck?" It was cutely pathetic, or pathetically cute. I warned him several times before we left that he'd have to leave it behind, which may have helped, because he only cried for a short while. He was pretty sad to leave and say good-bye to everyone. He really likes spending time with family.

Laughing

Lately, Eddie has been laughing a lot—very loudly, and manically, so that he sounds deranged. He laughs at all kinds of triggers, like Daddy saying something, or getting some yummy food, or the ceiling. This is a lot more pleasant than his previous phase, when he whined a lot!

For instance, the other day we were coming back from a playground. We had to wait to cross a busy street with lots of cars and trucks going by very fast. Whenever one roared by, Eddie laughed and laughed, like a crazed daredevil laughing in the face of danger. Later, another stroller with little girls was coming down a side street and one girl kept laughing, like she was being tickled. Whenever she laughed, Eddie shouted laughter too. They were about a block away, and he kept doing it as we headed the other way. Then we passed through a little park at the corner of the street, which had some steering wheels to turn (he likes those a lot) and a funhouse mirror. He laughed a lot at the funhouse mirror, which I think is the first time he's really reacted to one.

Eddie's had lots of fun adventures with his mom this week! They went to the Aquarium on Tuesday, and yesterday they saw six live owls at the library!

Language

When Eddie wants to get down now, he says "Down. Down. Down." (He also says "up" when he wants to be picked up now, instead of using "Down" for everything!) When he's a little upset, though, it comes out sounding an awful lot like "Damn."

The other day, I picked up Eddie against his will.

Eddie: "Down! Down! Damn! Damn! Damn!"

Daddy (shocked): "Eddie! Where did you learn that language?"

Eddie: "Mama!" (points at Mama.)

Well!

Vacuum

Today, Daddy was putting up a magnet board on the wall, which involved tools that Eddie wasn't allowed around. Naturally he was very interested. I also had to vacuum up some dust, so the vacuum was out.

While I was taking a break, Eddie got over there. Mommy had warned him not to mess with the vacuum, but the red switch on the side was apparently too much for his curiosity to bear. He pushed it, and the vacuum came on with a roar.

Without missing a beat, Eddie did a smart about-face and walked quickly away. He didn't make any noise until he was a safe distance away. Then he cried "Mommy! Mommy!"

We wanted to be a little stern with him, as well as comforting. But we couldn't help laughing.


I'm glad to say that Eddie's sleeping a lot better now. When he goes down in his crib, he says "Nite nite. Ciao."

Talking, sharing, and a big boom

One day in the bath, Eddie pointed up at a washcloth that was hanging over the bar and said "Pants."
I corrected him: "Washcloth."
Eddie, exasperated, shouted: "That thing!"


Eddie has started climbing on things more. Last week, he tried to climb on a metal shelf that we have near the kitchen, and it fell over. He had a HUGE bump over his eye, and we took him to the doctor. He was fine. He's still climbing on things.


At the playground the other day, Eddie was looking enviously at a soccer ball that belonged to a little girl. Her dad asked "Do you want to kick it?" But instead of kicking it, Eddie grabbed it and ran off (give him an inch, he'll take a mile...)

I asked him to give it back to the little girl. He headed off that way. It looked promising, but he overshot: he kept going past her, then threw the ball toward the wall.

I asked him a second time to give it back, and he picked it up again, then put it on top of the wall, outside the playground.

I asked him a third time to give it back, and he picked it up off the wall, then took it straight to the little girl and handed it to her!

What a good boy!


Eddie says "jar" now, but he pronounces it "dao." He says it consistently, and he's definitely saying "jar", it just comes out as "dao" every time.

Understanding

This morning, Anne asked Eddie to take Uncle Snuffles (a teddy bear) and show him how to ride on Rosie (the rocking horse). Without any further coaching or prompting, he walked across the room and set Uncle Snuffles sitting up on Rosie, and rocked him a little, all on his own! Then Uncle Snuffles fell off and Eddie said "Uh oh!" He was pretty worried but luckily Uncle Snuffles was uninjured.

Eddie has started to say "Down" when he wants to get out of our arms or his chair, but he also says "Down" when he wants to get up into our laps, or generally wants to get anywhere.

Eddie's been having a lot of trouble sleeping for more than a week now, so he's often out of sorts. I hope that passes by soon!

Counting

Asked to count, Eddie holds up random numbers of fingers and says "Two, Tree, Shoes, Two, Tree, Shoes."

Eddie has really gotten into his rocking horse, Rosie, since we got back. He now gets on all by himself and rocks away. He also recently got re-acquainted with his tricycle and he gets on that by himself too, but he hasn't learned to pedal.

Safely home

Yesterday, we arrived home safe and sound!

Eddie didn't make it three feet inside the door before he found left-behind toys. So many toys that have been missing him! He also didn't make it three feet before we found that he could easily reach things that were previously out of his reach (a train on top of a table.) Uh oh!

We're overcoming jet lag and getting reacquainted with old buddies (Eddie has been carrying around Renard, his little fox, a lot since he found him again.) Nonno took his leave today, and Eddie will sure miss him!

Gorges

On Sunday, we left Grasse and traveled up a winding mountain road to Castellane, a very pretty little town where we stopped for lunch. It had a church high, high above it on a cliff, which we could see long before we got there; Eddie said "Bing! Bing!" when he saw the bell tower. The restaurants were all packed, even in this small town in rather remote mountains: it's amazing how many people are in Provence now! Every little village is having a festival, and is jammed, and on the roads between we saw hundreds of swimmers, climbers, and hikers. Where do they all come from?

We ate outside, as usual, in front of a church with a depiction of Jesus over the door that looked a little like Eddie's grandpa Steve when he was younger. Eddie tried a bunch of weird French foods and seemed to like them.

From Castellane we descended into the gorges of Verdon, a series of canyons whose "Grand Canyon" (that's French for "grand canyon") is second only to THE Grand Canyon in size and depth. It was pretty spectacular, but Eddie slept through it. We got to the "Point Sublime" (that's French for "sublime point") which was just breathtaking; then we passed high over a sparkling blue lake. Eddie woke up then, as we were about to leave the spectacular gorges. We passed through Moustiers-Sainte-Marie, which is apparently very cute, but we didn't stop because all this mountain driving is more exciting than the freeway, but also much slower, and we were worried about Eddie's bedtime. We did stop in a little town called Riez, which was ALSO having a festival, dedicated to wheat! Eddie was fascinated by a marching band which was led by a little girl. We heard it at first from afar making a buzzing kind of sound-like kazoos-and close up we saw that the instruments were all decorated like bees or other insects; it was a buzzing band of bees! There was a big line of kiosks selling all kinds of clothes and jewelry. As we walked through, Eddie tried to slyly slip a shiny silver watch strap (or something) off a table, but the vendor saw him. What a rascal! There were also old people dressed up like peasants (or maybe they just dress like that) showing off wool carders, smoking renderers, and other farm implements. Eddie was fascinated by some chickens-a rooster and two hens-in a cage. Then he got to watch a big group of farmers dancing while his parents got some ice cream. As we left town, we saw that there was a kind of fairground outside town with even more stuff going on, in a big field empty except for three tall columns remaining from a Roman temple. The thing is, this was a tiny little place, which in the States would just be a depressing place to get gas.

Driving along from there, we saw a few fields of lavender, and finally left the mountainous region, crossing the Durance river. We finally got to our hotel in Avignon, out of gas (American credit cards are too primitive to work in the gas stations; European cards have all had smart chips for years. And of course the stations are unmanned on Sunday, so they can't take cash) and a little late for Eddie's bedtime. So we had dinner at the hotel cafe, which was awful, and turned in.

Shoes

This kid just loves shoes. Whenever we mention them, and he catches sight of them, he says "shoes," lovingly, then giggles and covers his mouth coquettishly.

Grasse

Saturday morning, we left Genoa early and headed up the highway, which has lots of tunnels through all the mountains here. We stopped in a little town called Taggia to walk around and let off steam, after which Eddie took a long nap in the car. Luckily, he had enough time for a long nap, because of all the times we had to wait in huge lines to pay tolls!
Now we're out of Italy and into France. Our first stop is Grasse, a little town which produces a ton of the world's perfume. This weekend they're having their Jasmine festival. There were so many people and marching bands, and the whole city was rigged with sprayers misting the streets, both cooling it down and scenting it with jasmine. We followed several bands around and Eddie clapped for all the songs. On one cute street, we saw an ice cream shop, but Mama said she only wanted ice cream if they had lavender. Well, this ridiculous challenge was no problem for this glacerie, which had not only lavender but also jasmine and violet!
Eddie enjoyed finding a wall on a piazza with a big waterfall all along it. Then we climbed up to the cathedral-- Eddie still loves visiting churches to dip his hand in holy water-- and on the way, we kept encountering big blue paper ribbons on the road. Eddie would pick them up and carry them for a while. Finally, behind the church, we found their source: a bunch of trees had been festooned with them, near a square with a beautiful overlook of the valley below Grasse. A bunch of kids were running around with them, or jumping in mounds of them, and it was a wonderfully breezy spot to sit down and cool off.

As we were finishing dinner, we heard the thumping beat of a parade approaching in the distance, and set off to find it. Wow! There were all sorts of people dancing and playing music, in strange outfits. Some pretty girls were handing out a big load of flowers, and Eddie got some that he carried the rest of the trip (back to the car, and into the hotel, and back into the car the next day, although by then they had been pretty well dismembered.) Some ballerinas dressed like flowers did a dance around and on a wheelbarrow. Some people on huge stilts came leaping down the steps on the road. Eddie was really impressed by a group with very loud drums, and flashing lit-up costumes-- he says "boom! boom!" a lot now, when he thinks about them.

Eventually it was time to go back to the hotel and bed, clutching our flowers. We're really glad we got to be in Grasse for the festival-it was a lot of fun.

Genoa

After a morning walk through Lucca, visiting several churches, we drove on to Genoa while Eddie napped. It was really hot! We had to keep to the shade wherever we went. After lunch, we walked downtown. Eddie ran around for a while in the courtyard of the town hall. Then we got to Piazza de Ferrari, which had a huge fountain to run around, and some giant speakers where a band was setting up or something. Every once in a while they would start playing music—sometimes extremely loudly—then stop in the middle of a song. Eddie was running back and forth, dancing away whenever the music started, then shaking his open hands to say "all done" when it stopped. He approached some of the other people around, too. He wandered into a photo with great panache—he just walked up to stand next to the two people getting photographed, looking up as if to say "So what are we doing, guys?"

Another guy was sitting on the edge of the fountain, looking kind of depressed. Eddie climbed up to sit by him and make buddies. Then when the music started, Eddie danced on his seat, looking at the guy to say "see? Dancing is fun!" When the music stopped, Eddie ran off, but whenever it started again Eddie would run back to tell his friend about it. The guy had to smile. Nonno thinks that Eddie reminded him why life's worth living.

The next day we took a funicular up to Righi, a town on a mountain over Genoa. It had some nice views, and an observatory with models of all the planets for Eddie to look at, and then we had a long walk on a quiet road through a forest. We had lunch at a charming restaurant with a view, and underneath a man was mowing what must have been mint, because it smelled wonderful.

After Eddie's nap, we went back downtown, and headed into a street of shops. Eddie stopped in a toy store to look at some accordions. Then we got to the church of San Matteo, which besides being practically named after my father, has a mosaic above the door which looks just like him!

After that we visited the Duomo, which has some fantastic, long-maned, friendly-looking lions on its front steps. Inside, our guidebook casually mentions, it has the Holy Grail. ?! Of course we tried to see it, but it's in the treasury, which was closed. Darn! I bet this is what happened to the knights of the round table too!

We did get to see an unexploded bomb which hit the cathedral (which they keep around as a souvenir of a miracle, I guess.) I was worried that Eddie would knock it over so we hurried out. Outside, he ran around like a crazy guy. He saw another toddler, headed toward him, and said "Ciao baby!" Eddie veered away from actually encountering the kid, though, and started chasing pigeons.

At dinner time we found that Eddie is really into seafood now: shrimp and crab were big hits.

On the road again

Today we left Urbino, starting to make our way around to Spain to catch our return flight. On the way we stopped at the same restaurant in Monterchi where we ate before (and Eddie hit his head.) The restaurant's good, though (if very slow) and Eddie stayed upright this time. Then we stopped in Florence to go through the big leather market and get some belts. Eddie spent the time with Nonno in a pretty shaded courtyard by the church San Lorenzo, where he charmed all the docents.

Eddie was really tired, and he slept through a lot in the car. On the way into Florence, he was asleep when a police car went by with its siren wailing. Eddie shouted "Ah! Wee-ooo, weee-ooo!" in a voice hoarse from sleeping—and stayed asleep!

Later we stopped at an Autogrill on the highway for dinner. Eddie shared some of our food, as usual. Toward the end of our meal, I was trying to get him to eat a piece of pear, but he kept looking away and refusing it. He loves fruit, though, so I said "Eddie, I don't think you've seen what this is. Look with your eyes!"  Immediately, he turned, grinning, grabbed the fruit off the fork, and stuck it in his eye!

We stopped for the night in Lucca.

Danger dance

While we were riding up the elevator to return to our apartment, Eddie started dancing in his stroller. He danced so vigorously that he shook the stroller, and the elevator car started rocking, too. I thought the whole thing would collapse!

Motivation for dancing: unknown.

More Travels

The weekend after visiting San Leo and San Marino, we went to Ravenna (June 28th and 29th.) On the way home we stopped at Ikea and Eddie visited their playground!

A week after that, we stopped in Parma for a night (July 4th and 5th), then continued on to Como. On the way back (Sunday, July 7th) we stopped in Milan and saw the Duomo. The next Friday, July 12th, we took an day trip to nearby Urbania.

Assisi

This weekend we visited Assisi, where we met up with Luke, one of Eddie's buddies from Charlestown! Luke's parents came along, too. At first Eddie was a little shy around Luke--he'd been practicing saying "hi, Luke" but he wouldn't say it in person (though he'll say ciao to total strangers readily enough!) By the end of the day, though, Eddie was ready to give Luke a hug.

Assisi is really lovely. It's hilly, with lots of steep streets and stairs; it's not a stroller-friendly city. There's a surfeit of arches and underpassages and alleys consisting of winding stairwells, which I really like, all between medieval stone houses with lots of flowers. Eddie's getting really good at climbing and descending stairs. He took one bad tumble, though, falling down two tall steps to crack the top off his head on stone. He seems to be all right, though! He did scrape his face with the sticks he was carrying; he always has something in his hands, which makes it harder to climb and dangerous to hug other kids!

When we arrived in Assisi Friday afternoon, it was pouring rain. After Eddie took a nap, it was still drizzly, but we went exploring with Eddie sheltered in his stroller. That's when we discovered how hard it is to get around with a stroller. We visited a Roman temple to Minerva which has been made into a church, and the New Church built over the childhood home of St. Francis, and the church of St. Clare, and the Duomo, dedicated to St. Rufino, from the 1100s, where Francis and Clare were baptized. Eddie loves to dip his hand in the basins of holy water and cross himself (which consists of tapping himself randomly,) which I usually let him do once per church visit. After we leave he usually tries to run in again, shouting "Wawa! Wawa!" He also likes the echo in big churches, and the paintings and sculptures of babies.

In the morning he helped getting dressed:
"Eddie, let's put on your shoes!"
"Shioos?"
"Yes, can you find your shoes?"
"Shioos!"
Eddie looks at his feet, then under the bed, then finds his shoes on the table. He picks one up. "Shioos!" He toddles over and gives it to me.
"Thank you! Can you get the other shoe? The other shoe?"
"Shoos shoos!" Eddie gets the other shoe.

We met Luke in front of the basilica of St. Francis. After passing through the upper basilica, there's a close where they could run around without bothering anybody, and they got reacquainted. They had some competitive banging on walls and sitting on steps (whenever one got up to leave, the other would sit down, so the first would imitate that, forever.) Eventually we went through the lower basilica and the tomb of St. Francis.

During lunch, Luke stabbed himself in the face so he'd have a matching scrape with Eddie. After lunch, Eddie took a nap at the hotel with Nonno, while the rest of us wandered and Luke napped in his carrier. We were at a cafe when it started pouring again; we huddled under a table umbrella while water cascaded all around. Eventually we braved the streets and met up with the Santes. In front of the basilica, Luke showed Eddie his new trick of putting his head on the ground and one leg up in the air. Eddie imitated him but didn't get to the leg part. Then Eddie showed Luke how to go through the fence around a big enclosed yard there, where the adults couldn't follow. Nonno caught him before he ran off, but after that one or the other of them was trying to break in whenever our backs were turned.

Travels

We've been so remiss in our blogging, we haven't even reported our trips! The first weekend, we made two day trips, first to San Leo and then to San Marino. San Leo is a little town high up on a mountaintop, very pretty, with a big fortress perched right on the topmost crag. The guys went through the museum in the fort while Mom waited outside. We popped out on all the battlements and windows to wave at her. Eddie's favorite part was the papal chambers, which were a labyrinth of little rooms and twisting hallways with occasional windows between them. Eddie chased me around. We also visited the Duomo and an 8th century church.

San Marino is a separate country, about an hour's drive from Urbino. That makes six countries Eddie's been to. San Marino is also perched on top of a mountain, but it's a much bigger city. We hung out in a cool piazza with a great overlook and a fountain. Eddie loves fountains these days; he wants to splash in them and pick up gook from the puddles. His parents are less fond of that part. After a while a big wedding party showed up on the piazza, and a toddler about Eddie's size was with them. They chased each other around, and Eddie ran around the rest of the party, having a grand old time. The festive atmosphere made him happy. I heard some relative along the father of the other toddler who his playmate was. His answer was, I think, Italian for "I dunno, some wedding crasher!"

Birthday

Yesterday was Nonno's birthday! We helped him feel young by calculating that he's 780 months old, whereas Eddie was 588 days old, so Nonno has lived more months than Eddie has days.

Eddie celebrated at the playground, where he had a good time. We met one of the Italian instructors, Davide, along with his wife Giovanna and 8-month-old daughter Elena. Pretty soon the place was really hopping, with kids of all ages. Eddie has developed his own approach to meeting people. First he walks up to them with an expression like he found something unexpected on the bottom of his shoe. After a while he decides they're human and just frowns at them for a minute (while face-to-face). Then he turns around and runs away with his arms in the air.

Nonetheless, he seems to enjoy playing with other kids. He watches them and then imitates what they did (usually after they've left.) I hope he learns to be more friendly, though! One little girl, just starting to walk, had a great big smile for him, but he just stared and kept walking and her smile faded.

He is such a giant. Italians tend to be shorter than Americans, so it's even more pronounced here: he seems like a 3-year-old.

Key

This morning, Eddie grabbed a keyring off the desk in the bedroom and said "Key!" Then he ran off to the front door of the apartment, where he stood on tiptoe to try to put the key into the keyhole.

Ha! The door wasn't even locked, dummy!

This afternoon we went out for a long walk in Urbino. Eddie walked down a nice narrow street with swallows swooping down the middle at top speed. He pointed up at them and said "woosh!" Later he found a metal ramp which he could walk on and make booms.


After we left, two women came out of the building with the ramp and talked while they got on their motorcycles. Eddie, who was in front of me, came back and clutched my legs so he could peek around at them. Then he walked up and stared at one lady. He was pretty impressed by her motorcycle, I think!

Eddie did a good job climbing up a steep street (Urbino has lots of those.) Then I picked him up so that he could look at a painting of the Madonna in an alcove on the street (Urbino has lots of those too.) Although he'd been happily walking till then, he didn't want to be put back down—I guess getting off his feet made him realize how nice it was! So he was riding in his stroller when he saw two cute Italian twin girls, 2 or 3 years old, running and laughing in front of the Ducal Palace. Lots of university students in Urbino are graduating around now, so there are little crowds of people cheering for the new graduates. Whenever we passed one Eddie would clap for them too.

Urbino

We finally arrived in Urbino last Tuesday. We didn't get to unpack and settle in right away, though, because the apartment turned out not to be as nice as we'd hoped, and we ended up arranging to stay in a different place outside of the old town. We moved Friday night, and since then we've made ourselves at home. Hopefully Eddie can start catching up on sleep!

Eddie's head finally healed from his fall in Monterchi, so yesterday I gave him another big scrape! We were at a playground by the Fortress at the top of town, which Eddie had all to himself. The first time Eddie visited this playground, it was packed with dozens of kids, but on a sleepy Sunday it seems that nobody's out! (Or maybe they all went to the beach—it was pretty hot!) Anyway, there was a carousel with elephants and caterpillars to sit on, so I helped Eddie sit on the caterpillar and started spinning it around. He was laughing and having a good time, when he fell off and went skidding into the dirt. He seemed okay, but later we noticed he had a great big scrape above his elbow. I don't think this poor kid will ever be uninjured.

He's been learning some Italian words and animal sounds! Back in Rome, Loredana taught him to say "Cucú" (Coo-coo), which is what Italians say for peek-a-boo, and he glommed on to that right away. He likes to play Cucu with Nonno, and now that seems to be his name for Nonno! Whenever Eddie sees him, he'll say "Cu cu cu cu." Once when we talked about Nonno while he wasn't there, Eddie went running from room to room saying "Cu cu" (rattling all the door knobs, too.) We have to lock the doors here to keep Eddie out of rooms where he shouldn't be, since he's learned to turn the door handle and walk in. He's been turning the keys—it's only a matter of time before he figures out how to unlock the doors. Then we're in for it.

Eddie has also done a pretty good job saying "kikiriki", which is how Italians say "Cock-a-doodle-doo" for roosters. Since his triumph in saying "neigh," he's also learning to say "mooo" (which is the same in Italian), but he usually says "booo" instead. He's also starting waving to people Italian-style (opening and closing the hand.) And he's begun imitating the sounds of bells and other collisions by saying "bing, bong" or "bang." The other day, we had just come out of Urbino's Duomo when the bells started ringing, so they were really loud. Eddie was drinking some water, but he was so surprised that he spat it out. Then he said "bong, bong!"

At another playground, not far from our apartment, Eddie met a little girl named Veronica, about a year old. It turns out her mother is Russian; we both assumed that the other was a native Italian who would be able to tell that we don't speak natively, so it took us a while to figure out that we were both foreigners! We were standing on some gravel when Veronica fell down on her rump. Her mother picked her up and shook out some rocks that had stuck to Veronica's hand. Eddie watched, then he said "Boom ba-da boom!", picked up some rocks, and shook them out.

So, he's definitely getting better at imitating, and it seems like he might be stringing some words together, too; he might say "big boy" and some other phrases (but it's hard to tell.) We think throwing all this Italian in the mix might slow down his talking. But it's supposed to be a lot easier than learning it when he's older.

Arezzo and Monterchi

After leaving Florence, we drove through the Chianti region, keeping to curvy back roads so Eddie could sleep for a while. We stopped for lunch at La Loggettina in Impruneta. It started raining, which helped him fall asleep after we set off again. (Eddie doesn't sleep very much on car rides, unlike most babies; but if he's tired enough and we sing a long lullaby, it might work.)

After a nice nap, we got to Arezzo, where we spent the night. It's a very charming little place, much more relaxed than Florence, with nice pedestrian streets and beautiful (but really steep!) piazzas. Eddie took another nap soon after we got settled in to the hotel, while Nonno and Anne went to explore the city. After Eddie got up, we went to join them, and they took us to a playground they'd found behind the Duomo (cathedral) at the top of the city! On the way, Eddie climbed a really steep street on his own, meowed at some cats and woofed at some dogs. Then he got distracted by looking at a big statue of Petrarch, who was born in Arezzo. Finally he got to the playground and played on the swings and a slide.

For some reason, dozens of lines full of laundry were hung over the Piazza of the Duomo—it looked like an installation, not actual laundry. There was more in the main piazza (Piazza Grande). Also, in a courtyard just off the Piazza del Duomo, Nonno found a life-sized inflatable bulldozer. Eddie thought that was pretty strange. We got dinner at Caffé dei Costanti in front of the church of St. Francis. Then Eddie ran around splashing his hands in puddles (a practice we're not sure we approve of.)  After dinner Eddie really enjoyed riding piggy-back on Papa (he used my arms like levers, lifting them up, then pushing them down, then laughing.) We snuck around the top side of Piazza Grande. When Anne saw us, she came running up from the bottom of this big, steep piazza, and Eddie (sitting on my shoulders) couldn't stop laughing the whole time she was running up.

The next morning, after exploring Arezzo a little more and having a morning nap, we hit the road for Urbino. For lunch, we stopped at Monterchi, a really nice little Tuscan village. We had lunch at Una Terrazza in Toscana (A Terrace in Tuscany). Before eating, Eddie and I explored the village a little bit:

Then Eddie worked on learning to slurp pasta!

It turned out that right next to our restaurant was a museum which had the Madonna del Parto, a famous painting by Piero della Francesca that Nonno knew. Every little town in Italy is like that—the smallest hamlet will have some important artwork and a picturesque church. We went to see the painting, and the ticket also covered a Museum of Scales nearby, so we went to see that too. That was two stories filled with scales, of all different designs, for weighing lots of different things. It was a strange little museum!
Eddie was walking down a steep path when he tripped and fell. It was so steep that he couldn't stop, and he scraped his forehead along the stones until his head bonked into a metal post. The poor guy! He's okay, though, besides a big scrape on his forehead. He cheered up pretty fast.

Walking in Florence

Florence

Auto stop on the road to Florence

It was rainy much of the time we were in Florence, which kept it nice and cool. The old center of the city is mostly car-free, which is nice for Eddie to walk around. On Thursday we walked in Le Cascine, a big park along the river Arno near our hotel. We'd heard there were playgrounds, but we went a long way without seeing any. Eventually we turned around and headed into the city along the river. We came to Ponte Vecchio, a bridge which is completely covered in two-story buildings on both sides, so that you don't even know it's a bridge. It's all jewelry shops now; Eddie like to look at the shiny things, or maybe that was his mother. A couple blocks from the far side of the bridge (south) is the flat where Nonno once lived for 6 months, long ago.  Back on the north side, Eddie got out and walked with us toward the Palazzo Vecchio, where a waiter at a restaurant (which all have tables outside) accosted him: "Giovanotto! Dove vai?" Hey kid! Where are you going? Eddie gave him a look and kept going.

On Friday we all visited the chapel of the Medici, where they're all buried. Sometimes Eddie gets restive in museums, but he liked this one. He mostly enjoyed pictures of babies. He is always impressed going into high-vaulted rooms, like the vast central cupola of the chapel. He especially likes making loud echoes...

When we left, all around there was a big open-air market, with kiosks and stands selling all sorts of things, filling the streets for blocks. We wended our way through the crowds and found a place to eat called Da Pinocchio. Florence has a lot of good food for Eddie: Ribollita, a kind of bread soup, and plates of salty cheeses with honey, a new favorite. After lunch we visited the Duomo (cathedral), and Eddie walked all around on the mosaic floors. Then Nonno took him back to the hotel, and Eddie fell asleep in his stroller, so Nonno just wheeled the stroller into the room and left him to sleep in it.

On Saturday we all headed south of the river. We found a trattoria that Nonno recalled fondly, the Quattro Leoni (Four Lions.) Eddie used his bread to do "scarpetta"—wipe up his plate! What a good mangione! The waiters liked him, as usual. Eddie has been enjoying lots of salads (he eats everything but the lettuce) and fruit. He also likes bread, which restaurants always bring before the meal, and we have to try to slow him down or he will fill up on nothing but!

Eddie managed to say "neigh" like a horse! He's very proud about it, and now whenever we ask about an animal sound he doesn't know (or some that he does) he will say "neigh" (previously, he would say "bah" when he didn't know; before that it was "meow" and before that "awooga.")
He also learned to say "boh," which is Italian for "I dunno." He does it very well. It's a good all-purpose response to questions in Italian, or a general comment in a discussion.

After lunch we went to the Palazzo Pitti, one of the Medici's main palaces, which now contains a bunch of museums. We all went through the Palatine Gallery, which has lots of statues and paintings, including a big painting of baby Hercules strangling the snakes that came into his crib (which was Eddie's Halloween costume last year.) Eddie put up with all this for a while, but then he got thirsty, so I took him out to drink some water and run around in the Palace's huge courtyard. After the others got out, we all went behind the Palace to the Boboli Gardens, a big park which was once the private garden of the Palace. Part of it is a labyrinth of tall hedges and very steep paths!

Boboli Gardens

Eddie made it to the top of this steep hill all by himself. Then he pointed at his stroller: time to ride now!
He took a little nap in the garden. Then we crossed back over the Ponte Vecchio and got dinner at a kind of creepy place by the Palazzo Vecchio. On the way home we passed by this big boar.

The "Porcellino" at the Mercato Nuovo

On Sunday, all the waiters whistled like birds for Eddie: at lunchtime at the Grotta Guelfa by the Mercato Nuovo (in the center of town), and at dinner at Da Pinocchio by the Mercato San Lorenzo (at the edge of town.) We sure spent a lot of time in markets that day! Eddie tried to whistle too, but he doesn't quite have it down. Between markets we visited the Uffizi, a big museum with tons of important art. Eddie's favorite was a fresco with a cherub who had stolen one of Zeus's thunderbolts—a baby lugging a big heavy thing around, like Eddie when he absconds with a 2-liter water bottle. Eddie made it through a good bit before he got bored and Nonno took him outside.

Poor Eddie missed his afternoon nap, so the next day we hit the road earlier than planned, hoping that he would sleep in the car.

Videos in Malta

Pics from Malta

The Cathedral in Mdina

A view from Mdina

Sometimes he didn't sleep in the rickety crib

On watch from the bastions of Valletta

Rome redux

After Malta we spent several more days in Rome, where we saw more of all the relatives. Eddie charmed them all by showing off his animal noises. He's beginning to learn the names of animals in Italian, too. Eddie spent the days with Nonno at playgrounds and eating gelato while his parents visited the Vatican museums one day, and the Roman forum, Colosseum, and Palatine Hill the next. Who got the better deal?

Eddie did come with us into St. Peter's cathedral. He thought it was pretty impressive. Then he went with Nonno while we went to the museums. They had gone to a bar to get lunch (in Italy, this is not as irresponsible as it sounds) when it started pouring! They were sitting outside under an umbrella, and lots of people crowded in to escape the rain. Everybody watched Eddie eating, and he put on a show of saying "mmmm" and smiling and drilling his cheek. Everyone applauded and laughed. When it stopped raining, everyone waved "ciao" and Eddie waved back!

Hey Eddie, it's hard to make out but I think there might be a Colosseum over there

The next day, Eddie visited a playground on top of Nero's palace, the Domus Aurea, while we visited the Forum and Colosseum. Thanks to the meddling of those no-good parents, he had fruit for a snack this time, instead of gelato (at least, that's what was reported to us...) While we went for a quick look at the Palatine Hill, he revisited the Circus Maximus, where he got to see a chariot race take place—but with bicycles instead of horses! He brought some of the stones from the gravel on the track away with him, and left them on the seat of the car.

The next day, it was time to say Ciao to everyone—especially Baby (ie Lorenzo)—as we hit the Via Flaminia for Florence.

Airplane

Eddie is pretty excited about planes now. He is good at recognizing pictures of them, even little icons on a map, and makes the sign (for him, a flat hand moving horizontally through the air) and says "vvvvvv". When we go through airports and get on planes, he does it all the time. He has been good on all our flights so far.

While we were driving through Malta with our Maltese guides, he made the airplane sign. We looked around, and sure enough, there was a plane flying by, but it was in front and to the right where he couldn't have seen it! The people in front could see, and talked about it, so maybe Eddie heard them—but they were speaking Maltese! I guess he's already picking up a new language!

(Maltese is a bizarre mixture of Arabic, Italian, and English, which produces such place names as Ta'Xbiex and Marsaxlokk.)

Malta

As we landed in Malta, we wanted Eddie to drink some milk, since swallowing helps to equalize pressure in the ears. So we told him that the milk would be good for his ears. Then he tried to put the milk in his ears! Luckily, it was in a sippy cup with a valve, so it didn't spill all over his head.

On our first day in Malta, we ate at the Fortizza, a restaurant in a little old fort on the beach. It's built of sandstone, like everything else on Malta, and since it hardly ever rains, you can't tell how old anything is: stuff from 1300 and 1800 look alike. Eddie was tired from his long airplane journey, but the rest of us ignored him and stuffed our faces.

He's been sharing our food, having some of whatever we order. He'll eat just about anything we give him, except lettuce, olives or anchovies. His taste for some veggies seems to vary day by day, though.

The hotel provided us with a crib, which was frighteningly rickety and had a drop-side secured with a simple slide bolt latch, which we had foolishly taught him to open with a latch board. So we couldn't leave him to fall asleep on his own.

That night, we went to Valletta, the capital of the Knights of Malta, on a bus. Entry into the city is through immense walls, with huge outerworks around a little gate reachable over a narrow bridge. Those knights were serious! But a few blocks down, there were no walls along the seaside. Didn't they have to fear attack by sea more than by land? What's up with those guys?

Strangely, Valletta seemed like a ghost town, with all the restaurants and shops closed, around 8pm. We ended up at The King's Own Band Club, where it seemed like most of the staff had gone home and a busboy and a waitress were trying to run the restaurant by themselves. Eddie entertained himself by saying "baby" over and over (looking at some pictures of children.)

On the second day, Eddie visited some cool playgrounds near our hotel, and made friends with a Maltese boy. After his nap we took a taxi to Mdina, the old capital. This is a small stone city where he enjoyed walking around and watching horse-drawn carriages go by. After lunch he convinced us to take a carriage ride, which went all over the little place. We tried to teach him that horses say "neigh", but he would only say "bah", like he says for sheep. He hasn't been doing Ns for a while.

The next day, Eddie hung out with Nonno, visiting playgrounds and walking along the rocky beach visiting pools, while his parents had lunch in Valletta and made their way to Tarxien to see the 5000-year-old temples there. That night, a friend of Nonno and her boyfriend drove us around the southern coast, which we hadn't gotten to. We got out to walk along the coast by the even older temples of Ħaġar Qim and Mnajdra, which were closed, but we saw the outside. It was nice to see some of the island which wasn't covered by buildings.

Poor Eddie is short on sleep, but he's being very good. He loves stomping around in all these new places, and getting attention from people. He can also tell when something is impressive, and he'll point and say "Oooh!" What a good little tourist he is!

The Eternal City

Eddie's family came out in droves to meet him when we got to Rome! I think he met 18 relatives in a couple of days: Lina and Enzo, whose home we stayed in; her parents, Mena and Antonio; their daughters, Serena (well, Eddie already met her in Boston) and Cristiana, along with her husband John and 7-month old son Lorenzo; Giovanni who drove us around, his wife Mena and daughter Valentina; their sister-in-law Loredana and her children Simone and Elena; Aunt Assunta; her daughter Sabrina; Aunt Cecilia; and her son Dario. Eddie liked to play with Lorenzo (and call him "baby"), but he mostly wanted to take all of Lorenzo's things and not give them back.

Eddie meets Lorenzo

In back: Enzo, Mena, Valentina. In front: Anne, Eddie, Giovanni

Eddie examines Lorenzo's things. From left, John, Cristiana, Lorenzo, Anne, Eddie, Kolya, Mena, Lina

The first night we had a feast at Lina and Enzo's, then went to bed. The second day we had a feast at Mena and Giovanni's, then drove around Rome for a bit. We went to see the Bocca Della Verita, a huge mask, but there was a huge crowd waiting, so instead we walked around the block to the Circus Maximus. Eddie had fun running around in the gravel there (on the anciently blood-stained ground.)

We drove up the Aventine hill and visited some nice gardens, like an orange grove, with wide views of Rome: St. Peter's, the Tiber, churches and parks. Eddie tried some roasted chestnuts. We saw an Italian baby there all bundled up in a winter coat and a winter hat! To our Boston sensibilities, it was not very cold; it was a little warmer than in Dublin, where the bus driver told us it was too hot for the Irish! Eddie was in layered shirts and sandals. Anne pulled his hood up so that the other baby wouldn't feel too overdressed. Eddie found a cool pinecone. He also liked playing with Giovanni's keys.

Near that spot we stepped into a church (St. Sabina) playing organ music, with a totally empty nave. Further on was the headquarters of the Knights of Malta, our next destination! Those wily knights placed their door and keyhole to frame a view of St. Peter's dome.

That night was a pizza party at Mena's, with tons of relatives again. Eddie received a cool magnetic book as a present from Loredana.

Elena, Loredana, Serena (out of frame), Anne, and Kolya watch Eddie open his present

He really enjoys showing off for an audience. When he ate, he would twirl his finger in his cheek and say "mmm," and everybody loved it. He likes to babble and make everyone laugh.

There's a little step out of the living room where we ate, and Eddie managed to walk up it all on his own (a new skill he's working on, instead of crawling up stairs: usually we need to hold his hands) and even to step down sometimes. But usually he took the prudent course of backing down over it on all fours. Everybody watched while he made this maneuver one time. When he finished and stood up to find everyone watching, he took a bow! He quite deliberately bent at the waist, keeping his hands at his sides, and made a full bow, then straightened up! Of course we all went wild. I've never seen him do that before (he'll bend over, but he puts his hands on the ground.) I have no idea where he picked that up, but it was hilarious!

The next morning we embarked for Malta!

Ireland addendum

On our last day in Dublin, we had a picnic lunch outside the Department of Education, which has an elementary school on the grounds, which was on recess. Some little girls saw Eddie through the fence as he was wandering around and said "Hello baby! Come here baby!" Eddie walked back and forth nearby, smiling at them. A little boy joined the girls and said "Be our friend!"

Pics

Orange Grove in Rome with Giovanni

Walking in Malta

Ireland

Eddie had a very nice visit to Ireland! When we arrived on Monday, it was rainy, and rain was forecast all week. But Tuesday and Wednesday turned out to be very nice. Dublin is a very pretty city. On our return trip we'll have more time in Ireland and maybe we'll go outside the city.

Walking along the Liffey

Eddie set out to flirt with all the waitresses we met. Our first meal was at Copper Street Bistro, a nice place across the street from Old Christ Cathedral (we had bangers and mash, beef and Guinness stew, and shepherd's pie-pretty satisfying Irish meals!) The waiter wanted Eddie to give him high fives, but Eddie just smiled at him. But he started blowing kisses to the waitress as soon as he saw her!

Eddie had a little trouble settling down to sleep the first night—it was still daytime back home. But after he got to sleep, he slept till 9am, about 14 hours. Wow! Our hotel room has a full-length mirror, and when Eddie walked by he said "Baby - wooo!" He's very good at identifying babies and airplanes now.

A snack at the hotel

The second day, we took a bus tour. Now Eddie knows that fire trucks (his favorite vehicle) have sirens (which we say "wee-ooo, wee-ooo" but he says "wa-ohh, wa-ohh"), and he's picked up that sirens are loud. Unfortunately he seems to think all vehicles have sirens, so he tends to be a loud baby around traffic (like on a bus tour.) We're trying to point out that buses and trucks don't have sirens—hopefully he'll catch on!

Later that day we visited the old library at Trinity College, with its famous Book of Kells, and its fabulous long room full of two-story stacks of old books. Eddie liked the trees around there with huge gnarly trunks and magpies. Dublin has a lot of pedestrian streets, which he loves to walk along. He has no fear of walking right up to people, and doesn't seem bothered if his family is keeping up with him. He still needs to work on keeping out of people's way, which is hard in Ireland since nobody seems to know whether to walk on the right or left.

After the Book of Kells, Eddie decides where to go next

We had a lot of hearty breakfasts and lunches with lots of meats. Eddie had more meat at breakfast time than he's used to. I think he missed fruit—we'll get more of that in Italy!

This morning we walked to St. Stephen's Green, a very nice park with wooded isles that Frederick Law Olmsted would have envied, where Eddie enjoyed climbing and chasing ducks (and Nonno's hitherto unsuspected ability to talk like a duck.) After a last nap and a last sausage roll, we headed to the airport and Rome!

Baby

Eddie's new favorite word this week was "Baby" (ever since that day at the playground!) He usually uses it appropriately, for pictures of babies and little kids, but sometimes it seems to more generally mean "human or animal." He got a little book at his doctor's visit, "Baby bathes," with lots of pictures of babies, so that's been pretty popular!

The other day, in the morning, I was sitting on the couch when Eddie came by and put a book in my lap. I thought he wanted me to read it to him, but he just kept on his way. I guess he thought "Okay, that ought to keep Daddy entertained for a while!" He's very thoughtful, making sure I'm occupied while he gets into mischief.

Eddie is a huge collector. He picks up any sticks, rocks, and other debris he finds outside. He's pretty good about surrendering trash to us to throw out, but he does NOT approve of anything else being taken away. Recently he found a huge chunk of concrete in the training field, which he carried with him. Whenever he encountered another stick, he'd have to put down his concrete to pick up the stick, then figure out how to arrange everything so that he could pick up the concrete again. It made it pretty slow going! Luckily, chasing a doggy up the steps distracted him long enough so that I could hide the concrete. When we got home, I took away his remaining stock of sticks (including a big two-footer) to leave in the mulch by our front door, and he bawled.

Two exciting things arrived today: new sandals, and Eddie's Nonno! He loves his new sandals, and showed them off for Nonno by stomping in place and carrying them around. Nonno also taught him to twirl his finger in his cheek to say "Yum, good!"

This kid has changed a lot in the past month! I can hardly remember what he was like before, but now he's really like a little person. A month or two ago, I thought childhood was a bizarre institution where you allow an animal unfettered access to your home while trying to act as if the resulting disruption was normal, and moreover everyone else joins in the conspiracy to pretend that this undomesticated creature fits in with society. But now he definitely comes across as human—extremely small, clumsy, and inarticulate, but a person.

Monday miscellany

Doctor's visit today: Eddie measured at 36" and 28 lbs. Since this is about two inches taller and a pound less than the measurements two weeks ago, probably both sets should be taken with some grains of salt.

Eddie seems to recognize some letters (like his bath toy alphabet) and indiscriminately call them "A" or "B".

At dinner time I successfully taught him to fence with silverware.

Playground

Today I took Eddie to a nearby playground at the John Harvard mall. We don't usually go there because it's kind of small and often has older kids, but it's the closest one. Today there was just one other kid, Connor, who was maybe 3 or 4. He was really nice with Eddie! He had some cool wind-up cars (a school bus and a DeLorean) and let Eddie play with them. Eddie carried the car around the whole time. Then Connor would run around the playset and shout "Baby! Follow me! Baby! Come here!" At first, Eddie just stood about 10 feet away and stared. Then, after Connor had given up and run off, Eddie would head toward where he had been. After this went on for a while, Eddie started shouting "Baby" too. ("BABABABEEBEE BABY BEEBAB")

There was a bouncy bridge. Eddie feels some trepidation about crossing such things, which in this case was exacerbated by Connor jumping on it to make it bounce whenever Eddie set foot on it. But after a while Eddie screwed up his courage and walked all the way across. Then there was a big curly slide which Eddie went down several times, all on his own: the first few times on his belly, feet-first, and then on his butt.

The boys also shouted together into a speaking tube that they have at the playground. Eventually Connor had to go; he was reluctant, probably because he liked showing Eddie the ropes. Eddie was sorry to see his buddy go, but also a little relieved to play without the pressure, I think! It's kind of exhausting to have a personal play trainer!

May day

Eddie had a wonderful visit from his grandparents! He enjoyed showing off for them, and I think they enjoyed seeing him! They taught him some new tricks, too.  Grandpa came in to the room and said "Boo!", and Eddie repeated it—but for some reason, keeping his mouth closed, so that it came out "Bmm!" After that, he'd say the same thing, with his mouth closed, whenever anybody said "Boo." We can't figure out why he's doing this. Later, I asked him "What does an owl say?" and he said "Hoo." We repeated "Hoo" a few times (which he says with his mouth open.) Then I tried to switch over to "Boo" and he went back to "bmm." Pretty bizarre!

His grandparents also gave him a whole apple. He appears to have eaten the entire thing, core, seeds, and all (or else we'll find some apple remnants in some out-of-the-way place in a few months!) He handed me the stem.

Yesterday, Eddie and I headed out on foot. I intended to cross the street to the Training Field, but he wanted to go north instead, which he usually does when he's walking. This time I followed his lead, and found out why: he was heading straight for the fire house! When we got there, he was a little bashful with the fire truck. He would point at it, then duck behind the wall, then walk out and point at it again.

After he was done flirting with the truck, we finished walking all the way around the block. Eddie walked the whole way on his own! I just had to put him back on course a few times.

Eddie seems to have learned a few advanced concepts! I asked him "Where does a gray whale live?" and he said "Wawa!" (There's a gray whale in one of his bedtime books. He doesn't seem to recognize the word "whale" on its own.) Tonight, I asked him "What comes after 8, and before 10?" and he said "Nine!" (I chose 8 and 10 because 9 is the only number he tries to repeat when I'm counting. Still, I was pretty impressed!)

Eddie currently has 13 teeth: all 8 incisors, the 4 front molars, and one canine. The other three canines seem to be coming in now, rounding him out to 16 teeth. Then he'll just have 4 molars to go.

Ready to go!