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!

Edward Scissorhands

Yakkin'

Now Eddie has started saying "Oh boy oh boy oh boy" (often more like "boyo boyo boyo" or "boyee o boy"), and also "Here we are!"  He already seems to have a Boston r.

Fat lip

This morning, I was ignoring Eddie for a while, reading the comics. Eddie brought over some blocks and books to dump in my lap but I didn't take the bait. Then he went off by himself. When he'd been quiet for a while, I noticed that my foot was getting cold. My slipper was missing! I looked around and it wasn't under me. I couldn't see Eddie, either. I was going into the nursery to see if he'd gone in there, when I heard a sound by the front door. Eddie was standing in front of it, holding my slipper!

I called him a rascal and we roughhoused a little bit. But while I was tickling him, he tripped and clonked his chin on my knee, and got a bloody lip. Poor guy! There was blood in his mouth and on his face, but he calmed down after a while and he's fine except for a fat lip.

He seems to have forgiven me but he's acting a little gingerly in my vicinity.

Vocab

We've been trying to compile a list of the words that Eddie recognizes. We've come up with a vocabulary of about 100 words. No doubt he knows a bunch more that we haven't noticed, or forgot about!

He also recognizes "turtle" but has it confused with "hat." We were looking at turtles, and we asked "What sounds does a turtle make?" Daddy made some snapping sounds like a snapping turtle, which sounded like "hap hap," and Eddie decided this means "hat." Then he clapped his hands on his head when he saw pictures of a turtle.

head
hat
nose
mouth
teeth
ears
hair
brush
chest
belly
hand
foot
socks
shoe
toes
pig
owl
hoo-hoo
elephant
awooga
doggy
woof
bird
bear
roar
butterfly
snake
fish
cat
clock
paper
ball
block
Sherlock
Beatrice
Clifford
Ahab
Rosie
Eddie
Luke
Mama
Papa
cheese
food
cibo
hungry
milk
latte
thirsty
water
acqua
fruit
berries
banana
peaches
light
lamp
window
ceiling
moon
stars
outside
flower
sunflower
tree
stroller
playground
slide
balloon
airplane
truck
car
helicopter
fire truck
wee-ooo wee-ooo
train
hi
bye
ciao
clap
little boy
baby
good job
no
yeah
wow
bath
bathtub
wash your hands
book
box
table
chair
walk
run
stand
hold
hug
put away
giddy-up
where

all done
high five
so big

The sincerest form of flattery

Eddie got weighed & measured today: 34.5" tall, 29 lbs.

He's been imitating us a lot today! When I was making some Indian yells, Eddie did a good job on his own. Then he grabbed my hand, bopped it against my mouth, and said "ba ba ba!" There is no stopping allowed!

Another time, I laughed rather villainously (I had an evil plan to get the baby.) Eddie spread his hands apart and carefully made several distinct "ha"s. It was pretty deliberate, for maniacal laughter.

He'll imitate arm positions and such, too. He's also been repeating what we say: when we say "Wow," or other easy sounds, and he repeated "Papa" and "Mama" after us.

He's very good at finding any doggies around, and says "woof" when he sees them. He's also pretty good at picking out elephants and owls in pictures. Lately, he's really into pictures of balloons and flowers (he will always go back to the page of the book which has them, and point at them over and over.) Besides his nose and head, he can now find his mouth, ears, belly, chest, foot, and hand when asked (usually.) We were studying a picture book, which had a little boy taking a bath. He pointed at the boy, and I said "That's a little boy." Then he pointed at himself!

He also recognizes the word "clock" and points at the nearest clock. He's been really interested in the cat clock in his nursery (this is a clock which looks like a cat, with a tail that swings back and forth and eyes that open and close,) and whenever cats are mentioned he'll point at it, or toward the nursery. Actually, he first seemed to notice the cat clock one day when I was adjusting it, and started pointing at it insistently. For many days after that, he would point at it almost frantically whenever it was in view. I think he was saying "That thing is TOTALLY CRAZY! Hello? How can you be so blasé? Do you even see that? IS ANYONE SEEING THIS BUT ME? Look! Look over there!"

He's relearned how to open doorknobs in the past couple of days. I don't think I reported this, but a month or two ago, he started opening the bedroom door while it was latched, so that he could barge in while Mommy was sleeping. We neither encouraged or discouraged this, and after a few days he stopped doing it, and seems to have completely forgotten the skill. (Anything that we either encourage or discourage he tends to keep trying.) We pretty much forgot about it too. Then the other day he was assaulting the bathroom door (he was left out while Mommy was in the shower), when it suddenly opened and he fell on his face!

Although he didn't seem to see the humor in this, he kept at it, and has opened the door (without falling) several times since then.

He loves playgrounds. We visit them a lot, but if we ever walk by one on our way elsewhere, he'll point at it and voice his displeasure if we take a different track. Today he went down a slide on his butt all by himself! Up till now, he's always had someone assist him down the slide, or he'll slide down on his belly (feet first.)

Walking

Yesterday, Eddie walked around while carrying things—a ball, and a box that came in the mail (it was quite light.) He also started "quick-walking" with his arms held forward, taking bigger steps, instead of shuffling with his arms held out to the side. Pretty soon he'll be running!

Here he is wandering around a playground, occasionally teleporting. (The video is from last Sunday, April 28.)