Morning accomplishments

Eddie is not allowed to use our screen devices, but he wants to (of course.) He knows how to wake up the tablet by pushing the power button, but he hasn't yet managed to get off the lock screen; he just swipes his finger back and forth on the lock screen, and he's pretty pleased if something happens.

This morning, I was in the kitchen, when I noticed that he was on the couch with the tablet, swiping away. Apparently he had unplugged it, because he was holding the plug in the other hand. When I came to get him, he started to try to plug it back in. Apparently, he thought that if he could plug it in and leave it where he found it, he wouldn't be caught!

Also this morning, he started attempting to make the sign for "airplane" (point your index finger, put out your thumb and pinkie like wings, and swoop your hand through the air) and made serious attempts to put his socks on (he put his foot way up, held onto the open end of the sock with both hands, and brought it down on his foot.) Putting socks on is hard! I think he'll manage to put his shoes on before he succeeds at socks.

Words

Eddie's most used words are "hi!", "yeah", and "wow". Pretty great first words. He answers most questions with "yeah" (except "What sound does a ____ make", which is usually "awooga"), as in "Can you say fire truck?" "Yeah!"

When he got home from an adventure to Northeastern with Papa today, I told him there was a surprise for him on his table. I got My Big Truck Book for him from the library. He found it and said "Wow!", plopped on the floor and read.

He has a pretty constant stream of babble and mumbles, but when he feels especially passionate something bubbles up from deep within and surprises all of us. He was standing at the kitchen threshold the other day, watching me prepare his food, muttering away. "Mum ma mom blakberwy."

Switched at birth

More, please

Warmth

Last night, after Eddie was in bed, Anne and I felt mysteriously warm. We dismissed it for a while. Then we finally checked the thermostat and found that it was at 80º!

We have no explanation for this mysterious occurrence.

Walking in the Garden

Well, we were having a fun day earlier this afternoon.

Eddie's getting better and better at walking, altho he's still leery of unpaved surfaces and slopes. And last Saturday he was afraid he was doing it all wrong!

He'd gone with Daddy to the Science Carnival at the Cambridge Public Library, where we saw lots of cool things. There was a whole robot zoo full of robots. We almost just saw one robot, because the first one we saw was a Roomba cleaning up dirt, and Eddie was so fascinated that he just wanted to stop and watch that one indefinitely. Eventually I convinced him that that was the most boring robot there and we moved on. We saw robots that crawled like bugs, robots shaped like humans (about Eddie's size) that danced, robots that rolled on wheels and treads, flying robots. . . you name it. There was also an enormous hovering soccer ball. Eddie was a little frightened of that.

As we were heading out, we found two whole tennis courts full of booths of interesting things outside! We didn't have time to look at this very much, but Daddy's favorite exhibits were from the Museum of Mathematics, which it turns out recently opened in New York City. As we tried to find the exit, Eddie watched a little girl roll by on her shoes (which just looked like normal shoes.) He was really taken aback.  I could see him thinking:

"If you can just glide along like that without moving your feet and all this jazz. . . what have I been doing?!? Oh man I've made this WAY too hard for myself!"

Then he stood there for a minute trying to will himself to move without picking up his feet.

Safe Home

We just got home. We took Eddie out to see the marathon today. We had a nice picnic lunch in the Public Garden, then we headed over toward the finish line to see the runners. We were just a block away when we felt two big explosions. Then we saw smoke and heard screaming, and turned around and headed the other way. We don't know any details about what happened, but we're really glad to be back at home. Eddie had a good time anyway—it's a beautiful day out.

Yeah

Eddie has been saying "Yeah" a lot lately, which is nice (it's a darn sight better than "no"!)  He says "yeah" when he points at things that he wants or finds very interesting; it's replacing "da" for this purpose.  He also says "yeah" more often in response to questions.  On the other hand, questions like "What does <blank> say?" are answered "Awooga" and questions like "Where's your <blank>?" have various answers:  He'll actually find his socks, shoes, or ball if asked.  He'll poke his nose if asked about that, or about his ears.  For anything else, he'll either poke his nose or point in a random direction.  He's shaping up to be well-suited for academia or politics: if you don't know the answer, make something up with confidence!

Eddie started walking longer distances today, longer than 6 feet.  Watch out, world!

Skills

Besides walking, which Eddie continues to work on (he's still just going a couple of feet), he has been developing some other skills!

He's getting really good (and loud) at blowing his whistle (a clay one, shaped like a turtle.)  He gives a very realistic fake cough sometimes after Daddy coughs.  He also makes very realistic slurping sounds when he picks up a ladle which we leave for him to play with sometimes (his mother taught him to pretend to drink from it.)

He now cooperates when we're taking his coat off; if he's standing at his bench, after we get one sleeve off, he'll put that arm down for support and raise the other arm for us.  If someone says "peekaboo," he claps his hands over his face to hide, then peeks out. (This is pretty cute.)  And when we ask where his nose is, he points at it!  However, he usually points at it right up to his knuckle.

Around when he turned one and while we were in Ohio, he was doing "pyramids" a lot: putting his head and hands on the ground with his butt sticking up in the air.  That dropped off after a while.  But last week it came back with a vengeance! Now he's doing it with his feet flat on the ground, so it's a taller pyramid than before.

He has pegged how to discard of unwanted items: the other day, he pulled off his sock and tossed it right in to the bathroom trash.  (He knows he's not allowed to pull things out of there—and he's pretty good about that—but nobody said anything about putting stuff in.)

First steps!

Eddie took his first steps today, at the Charlestown Public Library! They have some nice plush stools there that are a nice height for Eddie, and I guess plush things are more encouraging to lunge at. At first he just covered a gap of about a foot by shuffling a little. Then he worked his way up to lunging across more than two feet.

I didn't get any great pictures, but here's a blurry one:

Haircut

We decided to say goodbye to the light, airy hair that often choked us when we snuggled. Eddie got his first haircut across the Training Field from us at the Bunker Hill Barbershop, where the atmosphere is pointedly masculine and Irish need not apply. Eddie's barber was great with him. He was reserved and comfortable and took his time. He gave Eddie a comb and golf ball to hold and encouraged him to touch the clippers before he used them. Eddie was very patient and quietly took it all in. I think he'll look forward to going back.

...interesting...

Bunker Hill Barbershop

The new 'do

Chubby cheeks

Standing & Shouting

Eddie will often stand unsupported as long as he's too distracted to notice that he's doing it! This morning, he was walking outside with Mommy, and saw the bright new flowers outside the door. He dropped Mommy's hand so that he could point at them. Then he stood there, gently poking the flowers, without holding on to anything.

Last night, Eddie was really excited to see himself in the mirror after bathtime. He gave himself a huge grin, with his face screwed up like Teddy Roosevelt, pointed at himself and shouted laughter. He went on grinning and shouting for a while, then he suddenly quieted and turned to point at his mother, regarding her solemnly. Then he saw himself in the mirror again and grinned and shouted some more.

I think the monologue must have been something like this: "Ha! Eddie! It is SO GREAT to see you! You are looking REALLY GOOD! YEAH! But let's remember it's all thanks to Mommy."

(Solemn silence)

"But anyway MAN what have you been UP to? You look TERRIFIC! I look good too? Oh, you kidder! We've got to do this more often! Hey let's remember Mommy."

And so on...