Halloween

Eddie had a lot of fun at Halloween yesterday. In the morning, he went to a Halloween magic show at the library, and he played really nicely with the littler babies, giving them toys and things. He must have learned from his cousin Tony last week!

For the evening he was dressed as a professor, with suspenders, a tweed jacket, and a pipe. He spent the afternoon hanging out with Luke, who was a kangaroo, then sent out to the big parade. It was really crowded with little kids and their keepers dressed as all sorts of things. He stared and stared at everything. He liked some of the house decorations--people had moving statues, giant spiders that dropped out of a tree to ambush you, and lots of jack-o-lanterns. For some reason, he always pronounces pumpkin as "mambit" or something (sounds like "rabbit"), but he's very consistent, so we know what he's talking about.

He did a little trick-or-treating, too. I've been trying to coach him to say "trick or treat" but I'm not sure he said anything recognizable. But he would take the offered candy, then put it in his bag. If he had several pieces, he would put them in one by one, often trading them between hands to prepare them. He would take a long time to accept candy, often checking the offerer's face while slowly extending his hand and closing his grasp.

We stopped by the fire station, where Eddie got to ring the bell on the fire truck. It was really loud, and he wasn't sure he wanted to do it again! When he saw Luke doing it, though, he had to give it another try.

At home, he unwrapped one of his lollipops (on his own initiative) and started sucking away! He worked on it for quite a while, and finished most of it. Baby's first candy! We started playing some spooky Halloween music, and he really got into it. He laughed along with creepy laughter and shrieked at appropriate moments.

Then Nonno showed up! Eddie was delighted after he got over his surprise. Or maybe he was embarrassed to be seen with candy drool all over his face. We went out again a little bit with Nonno and got in line to go through a haunted tent set up in the training field. We got to the front of the line, and had to wait a while. Eddie stared at a guy dressed as a ghoul by the entrance, and a creepy moving statue. He seemed uncertain. Then he saw a vampire through the gate, and said "No." That settled it--this was not his scene! So we went home.

Eddie had fun seeing everybody act all crazy! I think he started to get the idea that it's a celebration of the spooky, eery, and scary. Or maybe he just likes the candy.

Holding hands with a pumpkin

The day after

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!

Language

When Eddie wants to get down now, he says "Down. Down. Down." (He also says "up" when he wants to be picked up now, instead of using "Down" for everything!) When he's a little upset, though, it comes out sounding an awful lot like "Damn."

The other day, I picked up Eddie against his will.

Eddie: "Down! Down! Damn! Damn! Damn!"

Daddy (shocked): "Eddie! Where did you learn that language?"

Eddie: "Mama!" (points at Mama.)

Well!

Vacuum

Today, Daddy was putting up a magnet board on the wall, which involved tools that Eddie wasn't allowed around. Naturally he was very interested. I also had to vacuum up some dust, so the vacuum was out.

While I was taking a break, Eddie got over there. Mommy had warned him not to mess with the vacuum, but the red switch on the side was apparently too much for his curiosity to bear. He pushed it, and the vacuum came on with a roar.

Without missing a beat, Eddie did a smart about-face and walked quickly away. He didn't make any noise until he was a safe distance away. Then he cried "Mommy! Mommy!"

We wanted to be a little stern with him, as well as comforting. But we couldn't help laughing.


I'm glad to say that Eddie's sleeping a lot better now. When he goes down in his crib, he says "Nite nite. Ciao."

Talking, sharing, and a big boom

One day in the bath, Eddie pointed up at a washcloth that was hanging over the bar and said "Pants."
I corrected him: "Washcloth."
Eddie, exasperated, shouted: "That thing!"


Eddie has started climbing on things more. Last week, he tried to climb on a metal shelf that we have near the kitchen, and it fell over. He had a HUGE bump over his eye, and we took him to the doctor. He was fine. He's still climbing on things.


At the playground the other day, Eddie was looking enviously at a soccer ball that belonged to a little girl. Her dad asked "Do you want to kick it?" But instead of kicking it, Eddie grabbed it and ran off (give him an inch, he'll take a mile...)

I asked him to give it back to the little girl. He headed off that way. It looked promising, but he overshot: he kept going past her, then threw the ball toward the wall.

I asked him a second time to give it back, and he picked it up again, then put it on top of the wall, outside the playground.

I asked him a third time to give it back, and he picked it up off the wall, then took it straight to the little girl and handed it to her!

What a good boy!


Eddie says "jar" now, but he pronounces it "dao." He says it consistently, and he's definitely saying "jar", it just comes out as "dao" every time.

Understanding

This morning, Anne asked Eddie to take Uncle Snuffles (a teddy bear) and show him how to ride on Rosie (the rocking horse). Without any further coaching or prompting, he walked across the room and set Uncle Snuffles sitting up on Rosie, and rocked him a little, all on his own! Then Uncle Snuffles fell off and Eddie said "Uh oh!" He was pretty worried but luckily Uncle Snuffles was uninjured.

Eddie has started to say "Down" when he wants to get out of our arms or his chair, but he also says "Down" when he wants to get up into our laps, or generally wants to get anywhere.

Eddie's been having a lot of trouble sleeping for more than a week now, so he's often out of sorts. I hope that passes by soon!