Wealth guard

Eddie started demanding a $1 toll of anyone to enter the kitchen. Vincent went around and entered the kitchen without paying. Eddie decided to escalate to a responsible party, and accosted his mother: "Is this your son? Please give me something."

(The name Edward comes from ead, "wealth" + ward, "guardian" or "protector.")

He's got my number

I was biking Eddie to school. After some strenuous hills we had this conversation:

Papa: "Today is slo-go day."

Eddie: "Why?"

P: "You have to go slow today."

E: "No it isn't!"

P: "What do you mean?!"

E: "You're just tired!"

Brain store

Eddie to his grandfather: "I'm gonna go to the brain store to get you a new brain, because this one is too old."

Halloween decorations

Eddie took it on himself to decorate our place for Halloween this year, since his parents weren't doing much. He hung up spooky decorations all over, especially in his room. We really like the cardboard ghosts he cuts out of boxes.

A little ghost over his bed

BOOOOOOOOOO BOOOOO. Note the grave labeled "Eddie"!

Haunted pirate ship!

Wreak

Vincent always wants us to read to him these days. He brings us a book and says "Wreak! Wreak!" (He's not big on pronouncing D's. He calls his brother "Eckie".)

Then when I start to "wreak", he puts his hand over the page and says "stop!"

Eddie and Erdős

Today I read Eddie a picture book about Paul Erdős, The Boy Who Loved Math. (At one point he demanded "Did I pick this book?" and I had to admit that no, Papa picked this book.)

Near the end it mentions Erdős numbers and has a graph with pictures of people and their connections, with numbers one and two. Eddie said "I wish I had Erdős number one."

"Well, that's impossible now," I said, "because—"

"I mean, I wish I had Erdős number three!" he said.

"OK!" I said. "We can do that. If you write a paper with me someday, you'll have Erdős number three."

"Yeah!" he said. "We'll write a paper together."

After we finished the book, he was ready to start right away. "Let's write a paper, Papa."

So, we did.

So Eddie's Erdős number is 3.

On cheeks

During dinner, Eddie told Papa "You love me!"

"Yes," Papa agreed.

"And I have little cheeks!" Eddie continued.

"Huh?"

"My cheeks are little!"

Ozymandias

So Eddie is always asking me to tell him a story "about a human being." I have to really cudgel my brains to come up with something these days. So during dinner, when a story was demanded, I told him about Ozymandias, a king who had a huge statue of himself built, and wrote on the bottom "I am Ozymandias, king of kings: look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!" But then time went on, the desert overtook the land, the statue crumbled apart, yada yada, and just the pedestal was left.
Then when people saw it, they were like "What works? Pfft, Ozymandias was pretty silly."

Eddie didn't buy it. "Why were the words still there?" he asked.

"Just the pedestal was left", I said.

"If the whole statue crumbled away, why were the words still there?"

Well, that's a pretty good question, now that you mention it!

Eddie's pirate book

Eddie just wrote a pirate book.

"Eddie's Pirate Book." You can find all the letters if you look—it's like a treasure hunt!

Here we see lots of treasure, with a net to catch it. Pirate Eddie (with a skull and crossbones hat) and Pirate Papa will share the treasure.

Pirate Papa is in a boat on the waves, as Pirate Eddie stands by. On the right, up above, we see a chicken thinking about pecking. Then we have a man with thoughts in his brain. He is thinking about treasure.

Pronouncement

We were riding in the car, and Eddie had been quiet for some time. Suddenly he said "Pirates have green teeth!"

Um

Yesterday, Eddie got a goodie bag at his school's farewell picnic, including a ball, some stickers, a little notebook, and a pen. He's been having fun writing and drawing in the notebook. The teachers had a bag for Vincent too!

Today, Eddie was examining Vincent's bag, and noticed that it didn't include a pen. He asked why not.

"Pens are not for babies," I said.

"Why not?"

There seem to be many reasons, but I said "They're too sharp."

"Not if his big brother wants to kill him!" said Eddie.

Uh

No more Mr. Shy Guy

Eddie used to be pretty shy. Not anymore!

When we're at the playground, he will just sit down next to random grownups on benches and strike up a conversation. He'll ask them about any logos or words on their belongings. He'll be very collegial, perhaps put his hand on their shoulder.

The other day, we were at the playground, and he was talking to a grandmother in the sandbox. She had the temerity to look at her own family or something for a while, but Eddie wanted to discuss a basketball game some other kids were playing, so he tapped her on her shoulder to get her attention.

Then after Eddie has been talking to someone for a while, Vincent will usually wander up to say hello too. His preferred approach is to smile and point at their face.

Front page

Eddie is on the front page of the Charlestown Patriot-Bridge!

Alas, the poster child won't be there for this one.

Next step up

On the way to school, Eddie and I saw a swarm of ants on the sidewalk, and Eddie stopped to examine them for a minute.

Later he said "Papa, there must have been a hundred ants!"

"Yeah!" I said. "Even more than a hundred, I think."

"Yes, there were a billion ants!" he said.

Vincent's vocab

When Vincent wants to be picked up, or put down, he says "Up!" When he is strapped into his high chair, he can be very emphatic about it. "Upppppppp!"

He likes his hat—he always gets it when he wants to go out, and says "Ha', ha'."

He calls balls "ba." His toy cars are "ca," and whenever anyone says "ca", he has to climb up the sofa to look out the window and point at cars driving by.

We went out this morning. I put his coat on and he said "co." While we were out, we walked by a dog, and he said "do."

He loves to be read to now—this is a pretty recent development (the past few weeks.) He holds up a book plaintively and cries if you don't start reading immediately. Today he picked up a book and said "bu."

When we talk about his diaper, he points at his butt, but he hasn't said anything about it yet. He calls his water bottle "wa". When I say "ground," he looks down and seems confused (perhaps he is wondering why I am talking about the ground.)

Joke

This morning, Anne and Eddie went out, while I stayed with Vincent.

Eddie told me that I had to take care of Vincent and tell him jokes.

Papa, to Vincent: "Eddie says I have to take care of you!"

Eddie: "And tell him jokes!"

Eddie provided an example.

"Knock, knock."

"Who's there?"

"Baby."

"Baby who?"

"Baby aren't you glad I didn't say I like lollipops?"

Nature

Today, Papa took Eddie to Knee-High Naturalists, a nature club at High Park. They learned about animal tracks and food clues, then went outside to look for animal signs. They saw lots of dog tracks, and also squirrel tracks and nests, chipmunk holes, and other animal signs. Eddie had a lot of fun, especially because it was unseasonably warm and there were huge swaths of deep squelchy mud.

Eddie really enjoyed this nature club, which is good, because he is sort of a city boy. When Papa tried to take him hiking in High Park a week or two ago, he was enthusiastic about the idea, but as soon as he got in the woods he wanted to go home. "This is taking a long time," he commented. "When will we be back in the city?"

Grooming

Last night Eddie and Vincent were hiding together under the table. Turns out Eddie was trimming Vincent's hair with kiddie scissors.

Doctors

Eddie's fingernail has been infected for over a month now. We ended up giving him a course of antibiotics.  Unfortunately, his fingernail finally detached and fell off on Thursday. The doctor prescribed another course of antibiotics, and we'll keep it covered with a bandaid until it grows back, which will probably take 4 months.

Eddie also visited the eye doctor (Owl Optometry) last week for his first vision checkup. He did very well, and the optometrist says his vision seems great. Eddie was impressed with the selection of toys in the waiting room, and with the Valentines chocolates he got afterward (which said "Owl be your valentine".)

Yesterday, Eddie went to the dentist's for his first checkup and cleaning. He did very well there, too! The dentist gave him candy-flavored flossers and candy-flavored mouthwash (what the heck, dentist?) which he is pretty excited about.

Just baby things

Places Vincent likes to practice standing unassisted:

• The stairs
• The sofa
• On top of Eddie's junior chair
• Windowsills

Vincent now does quite a bit of his practical locomotion by walking like a zombie, with his arms stretched out. He still resorts to crawling when he is in a hurry.

Walkin

On parents

In the evening, Eddie commented "I wish I was in a house with no grown-ups."

Family portrait

From left to right, we have Vincent, Papa, Mamma, and Eddie.

The lives of superheroes

Eddie: "Did you know that Batman has two beds?"

Papa: "Really?"

Eddie: "Yeah, so that sometimes he can have sleepovers with his friend Superman!"

First steps

Yesterday, Vincent took his first little steps! In the morning, he pulled up on the dress-up bin and got out a wizard hat. Then he used both hands to put it on, leaving him standing unsupported. After he finally got the hat on, he realized that he was standing, and apparently thought "Hey! I can do this!"

After that, he's been standing unsupported lots of times. If you kneel in front of him and hold out your arms, he will smile really big, think about it, then totter a few steps to your arms. He is really proud of himself.

Eddie is excited too and wants Vincent to walk to him (but Vincent doesn't seem to think he is quite as reliable a landing pad).

Baking with Grandma Subie

Vincent face-palms in the background.

Doctor

A few weeks ago, we all went to meet our new family doctor. Eddie was shy around her, but seemed to like her, and Vincent was delighted to see her, of course. We had a "meet-and-greet," Papa got a flu shot, and Eddie got flu mist up his nose.

Later, Papa and Eddie were out for a walk, and Eddie brought up the doctor.

"Why did we see the doctor?" he asked.

"She is going to take care of our family and make sure we're well," I told him.

"Did you and Mommy like her?" he asked.

"Yes," I told him.

"Did Vincent like her?"

"I think he did."

"I like her too," he said.

"Good!"

"When is she moving to our house?" he asked, a little shyly.


I explained that the doctor won't come live with us, but we'll go see her when we're sick or injured.

Santa Claus is coming

Jobs

Eddie: "I want to be a police guy when I grow up."

Me: "Oh yeah?"

E: "Yeah, when I grow up. I will put bad guys in jail."

Me: "It might be hard work!"

E: "No! I can do it!"

Me: "What if the bad guys want to fight you?"

E: "Why?"

Me: "Well, they don't want to go to jail, so they'll fight you to not go to jail."

E: "Why?"

Me: "Because it's your job to put them in jail!"

E: "I want to be a boat driver when I grow up."

Me: "Oh, that sounds good."

E: "Not even a police boat driver.  A fire boat driver."

Me: "Then you could drive around and spray water on anything on fire near the water."

E: "Yeah, and put out the fires!"