Construction

So the landlords are turning our back yard into a parking lot. They've been cutting down trees and tearing down fences for months, but things really got started last week, with excavators, front loaders, dump trucks, and other big machines. This has some drawbacks (like the day with 12 hours of jackhammering down the walls) but Eddie loves the chance to have a front-row seat at the construction site.

More poems

In the bathtub tonight, Eddie had some toy letters. I mentioned that one was a Q.
Eddie looked at me seriously and said " Q was once a little quail."

"Oh yeah?" I said.

Eddie continued:
"Q was once a little quail
Quaily, Faily, pudding and pie
Kissed the girls and made them cry
When the cots(?) came out to play
Georgie Quaily ran away."


I have been reading a book called Regular Polytopes. When Eddie sees it, he says
"Polytope, polytope, nice postman
Give me a hug as fast as you can
Pat it, and prick it, and mark it with an E
And put it in the oven for Eddie and me!"

I am pretty sure this is an utterance original to Eddie among the billions of people who have ever lived.

Poems

Eddie often recites poems, sometimes altered for the current circumstance. This morning, Eddie wants to go out to play, but thunderstorms are imminent so we're staying in. Eddie says

"Georgie Porgie pudding and pie
Kissed the girls and made them cry
When the boys came out to play
I want to go out to play!"

Another one from the other day:
"Fee fie fo plum
I want to eat a plum."

Rub a dub dub

Eddie was sitting in his tub, reciting "Rub a dub dub." I tried to unobtrusively record him, but he saw me and came over, wanting to see the pictures. I told him that there was nothing to see until I got a video of him! This convinced him to get back in the tub and recite the poem for the camera. So this is staged.

Past tense

Sometime lately, Eddie has begun using the past tense, without me noticing. It becomes noticeable when he tries to use irregular verbs.

For example, he was at the Monument a few days ago, chasing squirrels around. After several squirrels had evaded him, he came to me and complained. He just wanted to pet the squirrels, he explained. He saw another squirrel nearby and chased it, shouting "Pet! Pet!" Alas, the squirrel fled, and Eddie came back, reporting "Squirrel runned away."

Later, he was examining a bug, which left. "Bug flyed away!" he said. "Oh, the bug flew away." I said. Eddie picked up on the difference and said "Yeah, bug flewed away."

Thunder

This evening, there were a couple of thunder storms. After his bath, Eddie was in his towel getting dried off when he decided to trick us. "Thunder," he intoned in his deepest voice. "Thunder?!" we exclaimed. Then he laughed. "No, I not thunder," he said. "I'm Eddie."

Ages at Aquarium

Yesterday we visited the Aquarium. Eddie had lots of fun watching the fish.

At the top of the big ocean tank, we saw the giant turtle swimming around. I heard that he was 85 years old.  I said to Eddie, "Wow! That turtle is 85 years old! How old are you?"

Eddie didn't hesitate; he's got this. "I'm 8," he said.

I poked him in the belly. "You're 2 and a half!" I told him.

Eddie laughed. "Papa's 2 and a half," he said.

"No, Papa's 30," I told him.

Eddie nodded thoughtfully. "Papa's 2 and a half," he said.

Pronunciation

Eddie has trouble saying Ls. When an L is at the beginning of a word or between vowels, he substitutes a Y, but otherwise he leaves it out.

This can be kind of embarrassing!

For instance, whenever we're out walking and he sees flags or bunting, he exuberantly points it out. "Flag, flag, flaggy flags," he'll say loudly. But he leaves out the Ls.

On the landing of the stairwell outside our apartment, there's an extremely large clock. So when we're out in the hallway getting ready to go out—and we're liable to run into our neighbors—Eddie points it out. "Big clock!" he says. It's exciting, so he says it loudly. "Big clock!" But he leaves out the L.