The Egg

So here's the picture of Eddie's bump. Not sure if you'll be able to make it out, but it's the big red spot in the middle. Fortunately it doesn't look too bad in person. Read the other post below for details on how this happened.

And hey, this is one of the best pictures I have of his two front teeth, the only ones to surface as yet.

On a positive note, I've learned that Eddie will let go of the dining room chair and lunge himself forward to grab the camera. If he'd have picked up a foot, I could have almost called it a step. He's always been a camera feign, but he was pretty adament about getting his hands on the camera. Or was he trying to take a camera from his paparazzi?

Perhaps I'm Overdramatizing

In my family, my mother and I in particular are known for over-dramatization. That is, freaking out/worrying about stuff on a level that far exceeds the actual problem, or in this case, incident.

My worst fear today was realized (see what I mean?). Eddie fell from our bed, head-first. I kind of knew it would happen eventually, but every time he was on our bed, I always hoped it wouldn't. [* in the interest of full disclosure, he did fall from a bed in a hotel in Orlando, but that was a roll off the bed, 1/3 the distance onto carpet, not the head-first dive of this morning]

My stress level rises when he is on our bed, but at 6 or 7am when we get Eddie from his crib, it doesn't rise enough (until now) to get me up for the day. The irony of course is that Eddie and I have recently started laying in bed watching the Wiggles (a TV show) while I wake up. Only today, I decided to bolt out of bed and get ready for the day--I should have stayed in bed.

Our bed is up very high off the floor--I need a stool to get into bed. This same stool is what Eddie hit his head on. I guess I should be thankful that he stopped at the stool and didn't continue the additional 8 inches to the hardwood floor. Not that the stool was any too padded, but physics and all, less acceleration, etc.

I was standing right next to where he fell. It's kind of a blur now, I don't think I want to remember it. Eddie of course cried. He was head-first into the stool. I took Eddie up to Den, who tried to reassure me Eddie would be fine. I took a few minutes to get beyond the sickness in my stomach, wondering if my neglegence just caused him permanent damage (more overdramatization, I'm sure). I won't go into all his details, but needless to say, I've been paying close attention to everything and not letting him go to sleep. And no doubt will worry when he sleeps very long during his naps today.

The nanny came this morning, and reassured me that Eddie would be fine. She also noticed the goose-egg that had developed in the 45 min. since it occured. I keep repeating in my head, "This is just an opener to things that will happen to him as a kid--some of which I won't know about, or won't be around for." Like when he decides he can fly from the top bunk of a bunk bed. Or falls from a treehouse. But still, I should be able to protect him at this age.

Then, as I procrastinate in starting work this morning, I read on Auntie M's blog about someone who died after a head-injury sustained from a fall. Ugh.

See how the drama happens? I'll post pictures of a post-fall Eddie later today. Maybe the goose egg will be gone by then.

Utensils

Eddie is typically a good eater. He likes to self feed. He especially likes to grab the spoon and wave it around, flinging food everywhere and then maybe stick the spoon in his mouth. Sometimes he will stick the spoon straight in his mouth, as a sort of trick. When I let go, then he flings the food, the spoon, and everything to the floor. He is also fond of taking a hold of the spoon, and trying to dip it into whatever I'm feeding him. If I let him, he'll do this over and over, each time, spreading more food around. I can't decide if he is really trying to get something on the spoon, or just playing.

I want to encourage him to learn how to feed himself. It's a fine line between how much mess I am willing to take that day and how much I want to encourage his development in this area. What I would really like to encourage is for him to completely self feed. (Dennis, as you may recall taught him to hold a bottle himself around 5 months--I had no idea how liberating that was until I learned that other kids his age were not holding their bottles).

So, I've gotten a variety of spoons (and a fork) pictured here. For those with no interest in infant implements, you can skip ahead two paragraphs. On the package, each yells "pick me, pick me" for a different reason. I fell for them, described from left to right. The first one is a "dipper" with the idea that your child can dip into something and not worry about the difficulty in getting the food onto a spoon, because it is somehow supposed to be easier to get on the Dipper, an infant spork (fork/spoon in one). But in my mind, unless there is a magnet that sucks the food onto the spork, thus far, this has been a waste of money, it's actually easier for him to get food onto a regualr spoon. The next one, with the holes in it "guarentees" that the food will stay on the spoon better. While this does so far seem accurate, what they don't tell you (and I wasn't thinking clearly enough to realize) is that the spoon is too big to fit in the baby's mouth. It's the size of an adult spoon!

The next set, the fork and spoon set is cute, but again, the spoon is a little big for him, and I do like the tines of the fork, but he's got a little while before he will be able to self feed with a fork. The yellow polka dotted one, has a wavy-curved handle for ease of grip. Don't really use it much, but it's fun to look at. Next we have the workhorses of our kitchen. The "take and toss" spoons we've been using from the beginning. These things are great. They fit into our travel case we bought to hold the spoons and we don't care if they get lost. The last spoon pictured has a nice rubber coating and a comfortable arm. Eddie loves to gnaw on the "spoon" part. This comes in handy when trying to feed him medicine. Oh and the spoon part is temperature sensitive, so it turns white if it gets too hot--or in this case, is run through the dishwasher numerous times.

So there you have it. In case you are in the market for baby spoons. It's not comprehensive, but a representative sample of our inventory. The picture of Eddie cracks me up. "what you talkin' 'bout?"

Thanks by the way for all your encouragement on the sick front in terms of my compentence as a mother. He's feeling much better and we learn a bit more with each experience.

Bronchilitis

Word can't tell me if I spelled that correctly, but it's what the Doctor said Eddie's got. He's had a cold now for 10 days so when g'ma Ohio noticed he was breathing fast and heavy, and wheezing, we went to the Doctor this morning.

As I understand it, Bronchilitis is when a baby gets an adult head cold and doesn't have the lung capacity or ability to deal with the cold. As a result, the lower airways get inflamed and I guess constricted. No drugs they give will really do anything, so we are just supposed to treat at home with steam showers, humidifiers, etc.

The doctor gave me all the danger signs to look for a more serious problem. I hope I recognize it, since I didn't even notice my own son was having difficulty breathing. His g'ma had to tell me. Can you feel the guilt? Doctor said the wheezing is referred to as happy child/unhappy parent wheezing becuase the parents are worried and the baby is happily smiling.

Eddie's been a wild man with his toys today. Crawling all over us and surfing the furniture with no fear. The nanny said Eddie tried to take some steps today. Aside from the breathing and nose, you'd hardly know he is sick.

Having Your Cake...Part 1

For having a cold, Eddie had a good day. I realized today that the reason he'd been increasingly putting up a fit when we try to wipe his nose is that it is raw. Yikes. Bad mommy. Aunt Lore' wisely suggested lotion tissues and that seems to make a big difference.

Can't believe he's one. Am I sad? Yes. I never thought I would be sad, but the uniqueness of this time in Eddie's life and in our lives has now morphed into toddlerhood That's right, apparently Eddie is no longer an infant, but is now a toddler. We're seasoned parents now. By no means experienced, but we've been though quite a bit in one year. We fully understand what our parents and others mean when they say the time goes quickly. We're in deep trouble if the next 17 years of his life each pass as quickly.

It doesn't seem possible that a year ago I had major surgury and was so exhausted from the experience that I fell asleep mid-sentence while nursing. Now I just collapse in a heap at the end of the day, crossing my fingers for a good night. I took a 10-week PACE (Parent and Chilld Education) class with 9 other moms when Eddie was 3 weeks old. On the first day of class, the facilitator told us, as our eyes were held open with toothpicks, that she promised by one-year our babies would be sleeping through the night. Can I get a refund on that class?

It won't let me post very many pictures in a row, so 2 part post...

Having Your Cake...Part 2

Here's the rest of the photos. I can't get them in the right order, but I think you all can figure the order out.

Happy Birthday Baby!

In approximately 6.5 hours, Eddie will offically be 1 year old. I'll post more pictures later, but here are a couple on the day. Thanks to Aunt Lore' for tickling him so he'd smile. He's not very smiley today. I think it's because he kept his mom and dad up from about 4am onward. As you can see, he still has his snotty nosed cold.

Oh and it's snowing a wet, thick snow.

Mug Shot

Here is the picture I referenced in yesterday's post about Eddie's passport photo. Keep in mind that with his cold, he is often breathing through his mouth. But I asked the clerk if he wanted to take the photo again (because of course I am used to Eddie smiling for the camera) and almost increduously he said that it was a perfect picture.

You can see Eddie's haircut too. Shouldn't we all get photos immediately after our haircuts so we can have them as reference points for the next haircut? Maybe as you leave the salon, they can snap a quick photo of you.

Eddie's First Haircut

We took Eddie for his first haircut to finally tame that shaggy mane. He did great! The barber--Pat --was phenominal. He is completely set up for kids with a race car and horse for kids to sit in. Of course I took a ton of photos. Pat said the secret is not to hold his head. Dennis thought Pat looked like a boxer, trying to follow Eddie's head.

Eddie kept standing up and sitting down and turning his head mostly to watch Pat. Fortunately Eddie didn't seem to be making any sudden moves. He looked so adorable with his smock on, like a little angel. We had been a little concerned about any blowdryers scaring him, but he did fine. There were mirrors on either side wall and a big window to the outside. A kid named Henry who was waiting for a haircut was sharing his Henry the Engine of the Thomas the Tank Engine line. His mother told us there is an Edward the Engine and gave us a taste of what we had in store. So Eddie was kept plenty occupied between the haircut and all that was going on around him.

The first picture is post-haircut, when we went to get Eddie a passport photo. We were hysterical over his photo, which I'll post after we scan it in. Took longer to get the photo developed and paid for than to get the haircut. So you can imagine I must have been taking photos about every 10 seconds during the haircut.

Eddie's Due Date

One year ago on today's date, Eddie wasn't born. He didn't give any indication that he was ready to be born. We had 5 more days of sleep (well, for one of us), and lots of questions about what our lives would be like. There is no way we could have known, nor could anyone have prepared us. Yet, today (plus or minus 2 weeks) was Eddie's EDD (estimated due date).

Just kind of wild to think back about it, when so few babies are actually born on their due date. Yet we attach such importance to this date. I suppose the medical world (and social world too) needs a reference point.

Today, in 2006 I assembled, all by myself (which if you know that my husband is an engineer, then you know these duties typically fall to him), a new booster/high chair for Eddie. I am very proud of myself. It appears sturdy and I didn't have any leftover pieces. I did have to read the instructions, but it didn't fall apart when I put Eddie in it. On both counts I can speak from experience at having assembled a TV stand and was unable to attach one of the doors due to an error I made during assembly. The picture is of Eddie in the chair and he seems to approve as he bangs on the tray.

The other picture is of Eddie with this giant wooden cube you might have seen in previous posts. It's one of his favorite toys, but we have to be careful, because he can (and in this case did) tip it over. Fortunately he landed on top of it, rather than the other way around. I saw it happening not 3 feet away, but just couldn't get there in time. I think he was both stunned and proud of himself. He had a new way to play with this toy. And found another thing for his mom to worry over.

It Doesn't Get Any Better Than This!

Eddie slept from 7:45pm til about 6:30 this morning. I heard him a couple times, but nothing I had to respond to. I felt like I was in heaven when he woke at 6:30. What kind of twisted place have I come to when I say that?

In other news, Eddie got a new dresser and bookcase hutch today. We're really excited as his clothes were falling (and being pulled) out of the changing table. Course it looks much bigger in his room than it did in the showroom, but I think it will be great. It will be nice to have a place--other than the guest room--for his belongings. I still have to clean it, so haven't loaded it up yet.

When Will I Learn? Part 2

Eddie has another snotty-nosed cold. This one is even more snotty than the last, so I'm a bit worried about the puke factor (altho' last time I think he had the stomach flu). He puked two times tonight from all the stuff draining to his stomach. Poor kid. But then he didn't seem phased by it.

So last night, when I got home from my meeting at midnight, Eddie had been stirring a bit, but I really wanted to peek in on him. I figured I could safely open the door, as we do each night. But a little voice inside said to just leave him be. Did I listen? Of course not. So I open the door and he still seems fine. I'm really dying to see him--to the point where I wouldn't be able to sleep for thinking about how he was doing.

As I walk into his room, the little voice is practically shouting, "Don't do it, don't do it. He's fine". My feet make the wood floors creak and I pause with each step, hoping not to disturb him. He's quite figity. I get not two feet from the crib and he gets on all fours, pulling himself up to standing. I'm such an idiot. He stayed up until nearly 3am. Poor kid--couldn't get comfortable. Was crawling all over my lap to find a soft place for his head and finally rested on my stomach, with his feet half dangling down, half curled up, fetal style. Every time I tried to put him down in his crib, he woke up, crying.

I was slammed with work today, so didn't get much in the way of pictures. He's my submission for dear old dad, out in Salt Lake City. Fortunately he gets home tomorrow--we can't wait!

Trip #3

I've decided to number Den's trips when I post about them. It's way past my bedtime, but I just got home from a work meeting and need to wind down. Plus Den mentioned that he checked the blog this evening and 'sniff', there weren't any new pictures. I was working all day, so didn't have much opportunity to snap photos. Here are a couple. The one with Eddie holding his foot is him sitting on a little couch--he's about to either tip forward or fall because of the force required to pull off his socks.

I'm afraid he may be coming down with a cold. We've been trying to get together with some friends for over a month and between the 2 adults and 2 kids are on opposite 'sick' schedules. I know for sure he is teething something fierce. Ugh.

Tired. Can't write anything with wit. Goodnight.

When Will I Learn?

The nanny brought Eddie back from a walk sound asleep. She never likes to move him--and will wheel the stroller up the stairs into our house to avoid any moving that might jeopardize his nap. I on the other hand, will move him without fear. Most of the time, I'm okay, but this time, I think because he had a full diaper, he woke up after only about 45 minutes asleep and about 5 minutes after I moved him to his crib. Maybe if I hadn't tried to unzip his 'starfish' outerwear--but I worried he would get too hot.

Everyone keeps asking if Eddie liked the snow. I guess I just can't imagine how he wouldn't. Not that I'm a fan of the cold, but there is something about snow that is just magical, and for my part, I reason that snow makes it feel warmer than it really is outside. I think the part he was not a fan of was our putting his mittens and boots on--although as small as they were, they were adorable--can you bronze a baby's first snow boots? Plus the size 12-month snowsuit I finally settled on (see post from Oct/Nov) is actually quite a bit too big on him--Dennis is convinced it's mis-sized.

We went and sledded the local hill with our neighbors and their daughter. Eddie's jacket kind of got in the way of seeing his face. In that top picture he seemed to be asking 'Are you sure this is worth skipping my morning nap?' Sure glad we did it --the snow had started to melt by afternoon and we are expected to see temps in the 50s, almost 60 by the end of the week. He and Den were caught in an action shot.

It Snowed, It Really Snowed!

The area in which we live is notorius for the weather forecasters calling for big dumps of snow, only to have either nothing at all, or a dusting. In their defense, we are in this tricky area, where literately depending on the wind, we are on the snow/rain line. Last night, when we went to bed and there was just barely a dusting we laughed to ourselves, thinking they really must think we're getting a lot of snow tonight (forcasts had been for anywhere from 4-8 or 6-12 inches).

We woke up to roughly 10 inches of snow.

Mr. Wisconsin (AKA Dennis) commented that the snow started out wet, then turned to powder, making it perfect for snow ball fights. It also happens to be beautiful stuff, weighing down all the branches, and snapping several. I've posted a picture of a beautiful winter blooming Camila tree we have. It normally reaches up to the 2nd story of our house, as seen in the non snow picture, where you can see the gutter. This morning, in the snow picture, notice where the top of the tree is--all the way down by the fence, bent in half!

Parenting Style

Thus far, Dennis and I have agreed on the major stuff in how to raise Eddie. As one would expect, we have different approaches in certain areas. For instance, I am the one who will let him play with the base unit on the phone (as evidenced by a previous post). I am also the one who will let him play in the kitchen cabinets with the stuff that he can't hurt and it can't hurt him. Exhibits 1, 2, and 3 on this post. I will let Eddie make a complete and utter mess with his food, providng myself quite the clean-up and ensuring an outfit change.

Dennis is the one who will sit forever in the rocking chair with Eddie because he doesn't want to put him down (both because he is afraid Eddie will wake, and because he so enjoys holding him). Dennis is able to multi-task while watching Eddie. For example, he can cook a meal, feed Eddie, and clean the kitchen floor (which if you went by my approach to feeding would be a tricky endeavor).

Games We Play

When G'ma and G'pa Ohio bought Eddie the shape sorter pictured here, I was a bit skeptical of the green trap door/parent entrance to get the shapes back out. However, Eddie, in his infinite wisdom, has shown us that it's a pretty cool toy. He is really into putting toys into containers and taking things out of containers. So with this shape sorter, if he gets frustrated that he can't get the shape in, he just puts it through the green slot. He puts other small toys in through there too.

On the one hand, I really want him to learn to use the shape sorter end (he's around 50/50 sucess, depending on what other toys he's been playing with recently), but on the other, I applaud his ability to find more than one way to sucessfully approach the toy. But he is probably too young for that lesson.

Eddie has gotten quite good at discerning the difference between things. He likes to do the triangles together, the blocks together, and circles together. He seems to know when things 'go' together--the 2 wooden spoons (which he likes to bang together like a drummer), the cups in his bath, etc.

The other 'game' we are playing involes these 18 roll-a-rounds I bought. They are these really cool balls, and each one does a different thing. They are themed--noise makers, balls to look at, balls to touch and feel, etc. G'ma and G'pa Ohio introduced them to us. Today's game involved rolling the ball under the entertainment center so that mom or dad would go get it. He would roll the ball under, then bend himself down as pictured to look under the cabinet, wait for us to get it, then roll the ball again. You can just barely see the white of the ball on the right side of the photo. He also tried to make the ball go under the couch, but it wouldn't fit.

Towards the end, we were more interested in this game than Eddie was.

Changes

Eddie is waving 'bye-bye' with far more regularity than in the past. Often without prompting. He really seems to have made strides in communicating too--both in asking for stuff and 'telling' us what he wants.

Today, he threw his sippy cup from the high chair to the floor and then looked right at me. I looked back. He smiled. I had to look away so he didn't see me laugh. It is nearly impossible not to return a smile.

In the picture, he has commandeered our phone and is using it to page the cordless unit. He seems to like phones. Wonder if it's hereditary?

The Baby Circuit

When Eddie was little, we would rotate him from one "holder" to the next, depending on where in the house we were. We had the doorway jumper in the kitchen, the Ladybug exersaucer in the basement, the giant exersaucer in our office, the bouncy chair on each of the main floors, the activity mat, etc. (Needless to say, they were all loans and gifts, for which we were (and are) immensely grateful).

Eddie must have been paying attention, because at g'ma and g'pa Ohio's, he did a circuit of playing with the vertical blinds, to the high chair, to the new airplane, to the toys in the living room. And he just made a loop like this, all day long, with occasional deviations for naps, bottles, and to follow a particular person. Consequently, all my pictures of him focus on these areas.

Now that we are back home, I see the same pattern. Depending on where we are in the house, he gravitates to the same things--toys or not. Suppose this makes babyproofing a lil' easier at this point. I'm also sure this is typical baby and human behavior, but the observation of it remains fascinating.

Had a good trip back--lots of helpful people. Eddie and I tried to give up our seats in exchange for $200 vouchers, but they didn't need our seats. It would have only been a 1.5 hour wait and I was prepared, with lots of airport in which to roam. Oh well, another time.

Airplane Travel

As tantalizing as my last post was about what Eddie and I had to endure because Eddie is on the TSA watch list, it really wasn't anything. The airline employee informed me of his status, handed me a paper on how to get removed from the list (after waiting about 10 minutes), told me to travel with his birth certificate in the future, and not to say anything to the people in security. Like I was going to volunteer--hey my 11 month old son is on your watch list, is there anything you need to do?

I'll be interested in what happens on the way back.

In anticipation of Eddie's and my trip on the plane, I wanted to minimize the amount of gear I had to contend with. Since Eddie is not walking, nor really standing alone, I also wanted to have some wheels. The baby product business being what it is, there are a couple options. One option is called the GoGoKidz, which is basically a luggage rack for your carseat. Pretty ingenious. Option two is called a Sit n Stroll. You might have seen this product in a SkyMall magazine. It goes from stroller to car seat. I posted pictures of them above. We do have a car seat 'bag' we bought to check the carseat, instead of carrying it on the plane, but this would have necessitated another piece of gear to hold Eddie, and I went to the expense of buying him a seat and didn't want the hassle of pulling it in and out of the bag). It was a $30 bag and in hindsight, am not sure it was worth the money since I don't plan on traveling with him as a lap baby again--once by myself was enough.

So there are a couple great listserves in the DC area for parents. I managed to get someone to loan me the GoGoKidz system and another person the Sit N Stroll. There are pluses and minuses to each, but both offer the same concept--wheel your kid around with a carseat and not with a separate stroller. I won't bore you with the details, but opted for the Go Go Kidz for this trip.

We got lots of double takes as I wheeled his carseat, with him in it through the airport. Mostly you could hear people say what a cute kid Eddie was--so maybe it was his cuteness they were starring at, and not the carseat on wheels. It rolled smoothly over all the surfaces we encountered and gettng through security was a breeze. Course we have no stroller with this option, but boy is it tempting to buy our own. Do we need another piece of 'gear'? If so, which one makes the most sense? We do travel quite a bit, but is it enough to justify the price tag? Anyone else have experience with these?

The picture of Eddie was after he finished playing with the blinds at g'ma and g'pa's. Our windows aren't this low to the floor, so he is really enjoying the view of the SNOW.