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.