Guitar Dancing in Maryland

Feats

We took Eddie along to Whole Foods the other day, afoot. He walked through the aisles pointing at things and naming them. He saw some grapes and said "gapes"; he saw some apples and said "appos"; he saw some tomatoes and said "tomt"; he saw a guy shopping and said "man!" (pointing at him.)

I had to confirm things before we moved on: "Yes, those are grapes! Yes, those are apples! Yes, those are tomatoes! Yes, that's a man!"

He had a really good time, except when he found the toy section and then didn't want to leave; he was upset that we had to move on. But he got over it.

There's a new playground nearby (well, almost a mile away) in the Navy Yard: the Mayor Menino Park. We went to check it out. Eddie walked the whole way! He said "hi" to people we met and pointed out that they have doggies (in case they hadn't realized.) There's a closer playground that we go to in the Navy Yard, and even though we were going a different way this time, he knew when we should be turning to get to that one. He stopped and pointed the way we should turn. I told him "We're going this way, this time." He seemed pretty dubious about that, but let himself be convinced.

He was carrying a rock that he picked up on our front walk, but it was pretty cold and I put his mittens on. After that he was having trouble keeping hold on the rock, and he asked me for help. I showed him how to put it in his coat pocket, and he was really pleased with this. "Pocket! Ha-ha!" he shouted. He has come to the realization of how great pockets are for someone who wants to carry around every portable thing he can find!

Toward the end, he was really slowing down to look at every drainpipe and sign, and it was taking forever. I wasn't entirely sure if we were heading the right way myself, but then I heard some squealing children. Then I said "Do you want to go to a playground?!" and Eddie said "Yes" in his most emphatic voice. We covered the rest of that block in a fraction of the time!

It's a pretty sweet playground! It's still under construction on the outskirts; it juts out into the harbor and they're extending the harborwalk around it. There were cool bells and musical things. Up on the play structure there were a couple of periscopes which let you look across the harbor at Boston. As Eddie trundled through I said "Hey Eddie, what's that?" to get him to check it out, but some older kids (6?) were running by just then, heard me, and looked at them. "Oh wow this is epic!" one said. "Guys! Guys! You have to see this!" They shouted until all their friends came and looked, and there was a lot of hubbub for a few minutes. Eddie just stood and watched until they had all run off. When he finally had it to himself, he went up and put his face to it and said "Guys!"

Artists at work

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!