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!