Merry Christmas

Busy times and computer problems. Not good timing given we sent out the blog address with our Christmas letter. Eddie first celebrated with G'ma and G'pa Wisc. at our home. Now we are in Ohio with G'ma and G'pa Ohio and Aunts and Uncles. Everyone has spoiled us rotten. Between spoiling Eddie with attention and spoiling us by taking care of Eddie and allowing us to sleep in, we don't want this to end!

The first photo is in Ohio (I'll post more Ohio photos of everyone looking goofy trying to get Eddie's attention). The others are on Christmas Day with G'ma and g'pa Wisc. Aunt M suggested we run off to Las Vegas this week and no one would miss us--as long as we left Eddie. If he were sleeping through the night, I think we might have done it.

Eddie is having a great time and has started to surf the furniture. I'll resume more frequent posts when we get home.

MONTHLY--10 months

Eddie is 10 months old today. I find it utterly unbelievable not only that he is 10 months old, but how much his personality has emerged. G'ma and G'pa Wisconsin are here for Christmas and they are having a ball playing with Eddie. In the last month, Eddie has really gotten proficient at pulling himself up--using people, chairs, toys, stairs, cabinets--whatever is within reach. He's not really into surfing the furniture yet, but did so once. He can open cabinet doors and drawers, although doesn't seem to have a great deal of interest--yet.

He's progressed into chunkier solids and quite a bit of table food. He's become a challenge to change, as he wiggles around all over the changing table. In the last few days, he's learned to take his socks off (see picture--he is tugging at his remaining sock)--something that pleases him to no end. Yesterday he stood for about 2 seconds alone. These latest developments in mobility prompted the installation of a baby gate. See picture. It is quite a challenge to install a gate requiring screws into a metal post. Dennis used all his handyman/engineer skills on this one to concoct 2 wooden wedges that he affixed to the metal post. Ever the detail man, he painted them black. I was mighty impressed with the end result. He was cursing at the end.

Aside from teething, Eddie seems to be sleeping a lot better at night. We're not sure if it's that we're pumping him full of liquids more than we had in the past (a recommendation that was made to us), or some other untracable cause, but we're happy. Course that means tonight he won't sleep well :)

Eddie continues to be all smiles, all the time. No stranger anxiety yet--but I understand there is still time. He doesn't know it, but he can't wait for Christmas. Not the presents, but all that wrapping paper and boxes.

O Christmas Tree

We decided not to have a Christmas tree this year. Sort of. I'd planned to get one of those little four-foot trees and put it up on a table. But they sold out before I could get myself to the store that had the ones I wanted. I didn't want one of those three-footers in the little pot, I really had my eye on the four-footer.

So, when I was unable to get it by mid-December (and we finally got around to unpacking our decorations), we decided to forgo a tree. After all, we had the nativity scene, which really is the whole point anyway. Apparently this was not a wise decision. Everyone who has been to our house recently has commented on our lack of a tree. I could come up with any number of very viable reasons why we have no tree. But the honest one is, with everything else going on, we just didn't feel like doing it this year.

We won't be able to make such a decision in the years to come, as a certain young man will get indocternated into the Christmas Holiday spirit and be might disappointed if we fail to produce a tree. I did decide to order a cute one-foot tree one from Crate and Barrel, but it was supposed to arrive 2 days ago, and still isn't here.

With all this talk of a tree, I am starting to feel a little guilty that Den's parents came all the way from Wisconsin and there is no green Christmas tree for them. Oh well, it's Eddie they want to see. We did take Eddie to see Santa...

Test of counter

Seeing if it will work. Nope. Maybe? Not very well.

Expanding our palatte

Eddie's had egg yolks (apparently they are not supposed to have the whites till later). He's really getting good at eating a little of whatever 'table' food we give him. So much easier (and cheaper). Course we have to be careful he doesn't hoard the food in his mouth. He'll basically try and cram in there whateever you set in front of him, like a chipmunk saving up for winter.

Around this time we are supposed to try making the transition to a sippy cup. We've been filling it with water, most of which winds up on his shirt or bib. Dennis happened to comment about how he is messier with water than formula, even when he drinks from a bottle. So, tonight I decided to put formula in his sippy cup and would you know that nary a drop was spilt.

Guess we need to buy more of those, a lot more. He has no idea that Christmas is coming, but I suspect once the presents start getting unwraped, he is going to have a field day. He LOVES newspaper circulars and magazines. And with most everything else, waits until you are reasonably sure he's not going to put it in his mouth and then in it goes.

G'ma and G'pa Wisc. come on Tuesday. We're hoping to finally finish up some painting while making use of their baby sitting. With that, I should post some pictures of g'ma and g'pa Ohio's visit before I get behind. Eddie had a great time with them when they came in early Dec. (and then again mid-month for a quick 12 hours).

Finger Cast

Went today to get Eddie's iron level measured. Recall that he had one other needle prick during his nine month apointment. For whatever reason, the peds office has to outsource this test. I'd sort of been putting it off--not because I was worried about how Eddie would do, but more how I would do.

So we went today--on a Friday afternoon just before 4 pm right before Christmas. If you know anything about where we live, you can imagine the traffic. At least the lab tech who drew his blood said Eddie made her Friday. He was doing his usual smiling at her and she worried that she'd be responsible for that smile going away--not likely I assured her.

I couldn't watch, but looked at Eddie as she stuck his finger. Nothing, not a flinch and he actually continued to smile the whole time. The tech had to basically squeeze, one drop at a time, enough blood from him to 1/2 fill a little tiny vile. Kept right on smiling and actually laughed as she tap-tap-tapped the vile to knock the blood to the bottom after each drop.

The tech was just amazed. Said she'd never had a baby like this. Then she tried to put the bandaide on. My job was to hold the cotton gauze tightly on his finger, because as she said, he was a good bleeder (not in a bad way). I was having trouble doing that. He wouldn't hold his hand still.

She put the Bandaide on the wrong finger. No worries, Eddie popped it right off. She said she'd see if she couldn't find another one that would be more difficult to remove. I appreciated this because at the peds office they said they draw blood from the toe because kids are less likely to mess with the bandaide. The peds office nurse told us the story of a kid who digested a bandaide. No thanks.

Anyway, he started getting fussy when we tried to make him hold still to put this improved gauze/medical tape bandaide on his finger. What is on his hand now slightly resembles a cast and I think I'll need Dennis' assistance to remove it. Notice in the picture how tense and red our hands are--I'm trying to hold his hand and he is trying to resist.

Santa got into the Eggnog

We were taking some pictures of Eddie on this horse and he was doing a great job. Then he decided to check out the suspension of his ride. He regularly bends over to check out the bottom of the rocking horse where he feet are (and these giant rubber bands that make it bounce).

Eddie's had two 'big' developments in less than 24 hours. He waved to us yesterday--multiple times. We'd not been working on that very long. And then this morning, he was able to crawl on all fours for a short while--a couple times. It still isn't his preferred method of transport, but I suspect soon will be.

G'ma and G'pa Ohio opened up the betting pool about when he'll start to walk. I say before Jan. 15, Dennis says Feb. 1. G'pa Ohio said 11 months--that would be Jan. 22, and I can't recall what G'ma Ohio says. What's your pick--you can add it to the comments section?

Sledding!

We got our second snowfall of the week (and season). Both disappeared pretty quickly. The snow was crunchy underfoot, but we had just bought the sled for Eddie and by golly we were going to use it. Ed loved it! We have another sled in case we want to take him to the local hill on the next snowfall--maybe we'll do some warmups in the yard first.

He was grinning and giggling as we made a loop around the yard, his arms waving up and down in excitement. I'm not sure if we were outside for a total of 5 minutes as it was getting windy and time for a nap for Eddie but we sure maximized our time.

In other news, he has appeared to figure out how to sit back down from a standing position--at least in his crib. Other places, its more of a semi-controlled fall, but he is unfazed--most of the time.

I think he made his first 'sign', as in sign language. I was changing him and he was looking right at me, and his hand made the sign for milk. It seemed very clear to me. When I repeated it back, it seemed to be what he wanted and when we went downstairs to get milk, he was pretty darn excited to have it. We'll see.

Standing!

I put Eddie in his crib and briefly stepped out of the room. When I came back, this picture is what I found. Eddie was standing in his crib. He's definitely gotten proficient at getting to a standing position, although gets frustrated when he has difficulty.

Had our 9 month apointment today. Ed had the following stats:

Weight: 20.14 pounds (we don't weigh him naked at home as they do at the doc's office). This was a slight drop in percentile to 50%, likely due to the chicken pox. Head circumfrence was 18" (60%) and height was 29.5 inches at 75-80%. This last one cracks me up, given our respective heights.

All around good visit, and they said everything looked great. He got tested for hemaglobin (I can't remember what this is--I think an iron test), but Eddie passed. They pricked his toe for a drop of blood. He didn't even flinch and was smiling at the nurse before she even got the bandaide on. We have to get a lead test, as is standard, I guess. That's done at a separate lab.

Almost Standing

The blogger.com site has been down for a little while. Eddie and I are holding down the fort during daddy's 20th trip this year (since April). So if it seemed like I was always writing about a trip he was on, it's for good reason (out of sheer curiosity, I had to add them up). Rack up those miles, baby!

While I definitely have the travel bug, I haven't felt as much like traveling--perhaps because I don't want to disrupt Eddie's schedule.

Eddie is very actively trying to pull himeslf up. He's pretty good. He can very easily get himself to a kneeling position, and while he can get to a standing position using a couple props, hasn't mastered that last little bit with the ease of getting to his knees. While standing, he is able to hold himself up while holding onto the something. I just can't get over this change in mobility.

We're starting to give him more table food. I think he's definitely ready for it, but we're not.
Some think he knows the word mama and says it to reference me. I'm not sure yet. He hasn't said it much the last couple days. I had wanted to give him teething bisquits, but had worried about him choking, as I do with all food I give him. G'ma and G'pa Ohio were just here and they assured me it would be fine, so he's had a couple and seems to enjoy them and do fine.

Eddie saw his 2nd snow fall yesterday. His first occured when he was in the hospital after his birth. Above are pictures from our outing from yesterday and then the pictures with the toy are from this evening, when he got himself to a standing position for the first time (or the first time I saw him anyway).

Lazy Sunday

G'ma and g'pa Ohio are here. They came to babysit Eddie so we could go to Dennis's work holiday party. They are also helping out while daddy is on a work trip. Here's a couple pictures I promised daddy when he left.

Wouldn't post to previous entry.

Just before dinner.

Recreational Worrying

I spent a couple hours last night reading. Something I haven't done in a long time. What did I read? Books geared towards new fathers. One is written like a boy scout manual and is hillarious. The other is more matter-of-fact. I shouldn't have read them, definitely not the second book. It talked about all these games you could/should be playing with your child at Eddie's age and these skills the games will be teaching. I wasn't doing much of anything it suggested. Usually I take these things with a grain of salt, but I've been worrying lately about Eddie hitting his head so much on the hard floors we have around the house, not to mention banging his head into furniture, including his crib--all while he is rolling around, crawling and playing. The last thing I should have been reading was about development.

I have no concerns about his development, but I worry in general as any good mother does/should. Eddie's Aunt M calls it recreational-worrying, and I believe I have a PhD.
So this morning I tried a couple of the suggested games out on Eddie and they went over like a lead ballon. I suppose I have to repeat them several times before he'll catch on.

Tonight I let Eddie play with his food. He loved it. The picture above shows the results. I had to undress him before I'd pick him up. He treated the rice like it was water, slapping his hand in it and trying to scrape it out of the bowl. I had made too much rice anyway and it was bath night. Speaking of bathes. Eddie sure can splash. We put him in with a full tub (baby tub) and he emerges with literately 1/2 the water gone. I took him out tonight after about 25 minutes because his lips were quivering. Whoops--but he was having such a good time.

The below is gross, you might not want to read:
Was putting Eddie to bed tonight and he was being really squirmy. All of a sudden he sits up and starts kissing/knawing on my chin and trying to get his hand into my mouth. Just as I closed my mouth, he spit up, right on top of my closed mouth. Gross!! I'm just thankful my mouth was closed.