It's raining cousins

In a matter of weeks, Eddie's gotten 2 new cousins. Aunt Lore' and Uncle David are fostering a little baby that they hope to adopt. He is 10 days younger than Eddie. Until they get a little further in the process, I can't post a picture, but we're thrilled. His name is Patrick.

Then, we just got word today that my Cousin and her husband got their referral papers for the little girl they are adopting from China. Her name is Jillian. She was born April 4--again very close in age to both Eddie and Patrick. We can't wait for Eddie to meet his new cousins!

Drinking my Legos

Don't know if you can see the chaulk on his pants here, but they are covered. Shoes too.

Eddie's friend Lizzie had this huge bucket of chaulk that he decided to play with. I think he did more of the handling and less of the drawing, but he sure had fun. He just about changed the color of his pants with the chaulk. Guess I need to go get some sidewalk chaulk.

When we got home, we played with some legos--Eddie seems obsessed with trying to drink out of everything.

Back in the Saddle

Okay, so I'll admit that the first time I typed the title, I spelled it 'sattle'. But that didn't seem right. Hey, at least I caught it without using spellcheck. No telling what else is mispelled.

Den is on the road again. This time he's in Ft. Wayne, IN. We enjoyed two wonderful weeks of him being home and joked to ourselves en route to the airport, that we truly couldn't keep track of where he was going in these next couple weeks.

Dennis and I have tried just about every method to get Eddie to take his medicine, and I believe I've written about them in a previous post (pinning him down, tipping his head upside down to let gravity help, etc.). The method that is working right now is to put it on a spoon and put the spoon in his mouth. Whoda' thunk? Definitely my preferred method.

Front Door

We've done quite a bit to the house in the nearly 4 years we've lived here (it was previously owned by an elderly man whose wife had passed a while back and was a bit out of shape when we bought it). One of the things we have yet to do is fix up the front door. Consequently, we still have a metal storm door that Eddie loves to bang on in a sort of greeting to anyone who walks up or in front of the house.

We get lots of attention from passers-by when he's standing at the front door, banging away. I took the trash out tonight and there was Eddie, banging and waving, bouncing up and down. Den snapped these then. Eddie was also doing the classic 'face pressed against glass' game.

I'll have another round, bartender

I've mentioned that Eddie enjoys drinking out of a cup. Dad found an ingenious way to give him a small plastic cup that doesn't have the height of a sippy cup or bottle--yay. It's the cap that goes on top of a bottle. And I thought we were nearly finished with the bottles. As you can see from the shirt, he doesn't quite have 100% accuracy. But he is incredibly pleased with himself.

We kept refilling the cup--the combination of his pride at his accomplishment with the cuteness factor of him drinking out of a little cup was fun to watch.

The Littlest Fish

Thanks to Eddie's miraculous recovery--we headed out for an afternoon jaunt with his good friend Eli and Eli's parents. Destination: Baltimore Acquarium. As expected, it was a little lost on them, but they did seem to enjoy watching the dolphin show.

Dad walked around quite a while with Eddie passed out in the back of the carrier. People kept smiling and pointing.
Getting ready to go, just after the naps. Eddie tried to get away whilst we were sitting here (he's the one on the left).

Watching the Dolphin Show.






Hiking around with dad. The borrowed carrier works pretty well, according to dad. Mom thinks so too--she didn't have to carry him.

+ 5 Hours

It's about 5 hours after I took the photos in the post I made earlier today. Eddie's had at least 3 good naps today, 2 nebulizer (for his breathing) treatments, one dose of meds, and actually ate something for dinner (he refused dinner last night and lunch today). I'm sure we still have a rough couple days and nights, but sure makes a parent's heart sing to see their kid smile.

"It's like flying to Europe without the alcohol"

This is how Dennis described his night of sleeping upright (well--reclined the minimal amount that the chair reclines) so that Eddie would sleep more upright. I gave Den a break a couple hours, but it was mostly all Den--he claims to enjoy the time with him. Eddie slept in 30-40 minute increments the whole night and when he wasn't sleeping he was crying/screaming. I was errand girl, getting drinks, providng bathroom breaks, and in general making sure the boys had what they needed.

I called the after hours line at the pediatrician last night 2 times and no one returned the call--to say I was miffed would be an understatement. We left the house 2 hours after I called and they called just after we left to drive Eddie around in the hopes of getting him to sleep. He was feeling really bad. I contemplated several times wether we should go to the emergency room. In the past, the doctor had given 3 signs to watch for stress/distress while breathing and he was exhibiting 2 of them last night.

This morning the doctor tells me that Eddie has an ear infection in both ears. Just the act of sticking the probe in Eddie's ears caused him to melt down in huge tears and writhe in pain. Fortunately his lungs sound clear--but we are the proud owners of a nebulizer. Guess I'm set the next time I get a bad cold.

He continues to be fussy today--wanting to be held a lot, still not being content while being held and not sleeping well. Hopefully by the time Den leaves this week, Eddie will be feeling better. The pictures are from Eddie's nap today. We were getting ready to drive him in the car to get him to sleep, when Dennis noticed he had fallen asleep in the 2 minutes he'd been holding him. And I'd been trying for an hour to get him to sleep. Den definitely has a way with Eddie's sleep habits that I unfortunately don't.

Wish us luck with this new and different antibiotic and breathing treatment.

MONTHLY--13 months

Holy cow, I just realized it was Eddie's 13-month birthday. Den actually had to remind me. I'm not as conscious of the 22nd of the month any more. This is really a 3-day post--I've not quite had the time to complete.

Ed's got a cold. The wake-up-in-the-middle-of-the-night-and-sit-in-a-steam-bath kind. We've only had to put Eddie in a steam bath once before, but he was just coughing so hard and sounded so raspy. Ugh. Time to break out the lotion, tissues and suctioner.

Not sure how much longer I'll keep up the monthly posts, considering the dramatic changes have slowed, but for now...

He's definitely said his first word and knows what it is. Ball. He points to it in a book and says "ball". He hands you a ball and says "ball". Not consistent of course, but pretty definite.

He says other words indisciminately, like mama and dada, and daht--as in 'that'.

The Time I've (we've) been dreading

I wonder if there is a limit on how much I can upload in a given day. Having difficulties again with posting pictures to the blog. I'd switch to typepad, but I think that may be beyond my abilities--and patience. I'm sure I could learn it, but blogspot is so idiot-easy that typepad would actually take a bit of time to figure out and therefore = less posts. And less posts = less pictures--which for the g'parents would I'm guessing be a problem. We'll see how frustrated I get, but then I've heard of problems on typepad too. Anyone have a blogging site/software that is relatively easy to learn and use and reliable, or does that combo not exist?

Now that I've gotten that out of the way, the title of the post--the time I've been dreading. Well, of course g'ma and g'pa Wisc. leaving. They woke up with Eddie--wether they liked it or not when he woke in the middle of the night. He is back to sleeping fine. I don't know what it is about G'ma and G'pa Wisc. but something makes Eddie want to get up in the middle of the night when they visit. They also got up with Eddie when he woke for the day at 5:30/6am. Sure was nice to sleep in--til 7:30 or 8:30, depending.

The thing I think I've been dreading even more is the transition to one nap. I LOVE Eddie's naptimes. Is it constricting in what I can do? YES. But I have the potential to get so much accomplished during those, two periods of 1.5 hours during the day. And it is nice to take some time for myself--or update the blog. Sadly, I believe those days are coming to an end if not already over. Eddie is doing some marathon sleeping, often from 10/10:30-1 or sometimes later, depending on when he fell asleep. Of course he has no desire to sleep more after this. My productivity, which as a certified procrastinator is already low, will potentially drop even further. Or maybe having such a long chunk of time will be good.
This change in naptime also represents another "milestone". These milestones are sure passing by faster than I realized they would.

Pictures to Post

Had some technical difficulties the last couple days with uploading photos to blogger. I keep waiting for the day Blogger will me I've reached my storage quota. Anyway, below are some pictures from when G'ma and G'pa Wisc. visited. G'ma Wisc. was here too--but it seems G'pa got all the camera time.

This is the same Camilla tree that was pictured in the snow on my Feb. 12 post. Clearly it recovered. It's got beautiful pink blooms right now.

The sweater Eddie is wearing in this photo is the same sweater his dad wore when he was Eddie's age. I don't know where G'ma Wisc. stashed all this stuff, but it seems they always have something from Den's youth to pass along to us. Hope I am able to save equally well (well, okay, so the saving part won't be the problem, but the remembering the history of each item as she does may prove difficult.


G'pa is in heaven right about now in this picture.

Eddie's 1st birthday, part 2 (with G'ma and g'pa Wisc.)

Since g'ma and g'pa Wisconsin didn't make it out for the actual day, we celebrated with a second cake and more presents which still did not attract Eddie's attention. G'ma chased him around the living room for a while trying to get him to open his present. This picture immediately above the text cracks me up--he has one hand on the wrapping paper and the other focused on his toys.

So you're looking at the pictures in reverse order. Eddie was waving his plate all around, then when we put a pice of cake on it, he dumped it squarely on the table. I don't know if it was the filling dinner, or what, but Eddie didn't seem (and still doesn't) interested in eating the cake. The rest of us thought it was plenty tasty. Got more milage out of the paper plates and hat I bought too.

Our little chipmunk

I was feeding Eddie whole (cut) green beans the other day. I'd give him a couple at a time. He would appear to have nothing in his mouth and so I'd give him some more. After 3 or 4 times of this, he would start to spit a little bit out, then a little more and pretty soon the entire contents of his mouth would be spilling down his bib.

Where in the world is he holding all this food? It's just about more food than I can fit in my own big mouth. He's doing this pretty regularly these days. I will swear there is nothing in his mouth, only to find the entire contents of the last 5 minutes in there. G'ma and Gp'a Wisc. I think hit it on the head--he likes the flavor, but not the texture of the food as he swallows.

In other exciting news, Eddie took his first steps today. Once for each of us. I'm sure it will be quite some time until he is full on moble, but wow, was pretty exciting to see him move on his own. I know, this is the beginning of the end--but really just the beginning :)

Breakfast with Bear

Because it takes me a while to wake up in the morning and Eddie not so much, we've been watching Disney Playhouse from about 6:30-7:30 each morning. I have resisted watching this and in particular having Eddie veg in front of the TV, but ultimately, I decided both Eddie and I would be better off with a morning TV fix.

Originally we started with the Wiggles, but now there are 2 shows to which I am addicted. Breakfast with Bear and Charlie and Lola. Read that again--I am addicted. Not Eddie--although now he will sit and watch most of it as opposed to before when he would be moving all over the bed.

Much to my dismay, I discovered that the content is geared towards those who are 3-6 years old. Argh! I am either poisoning Eddie's young mind or setting him up to be advanced.

Breakfast with bear is kind of like the commercials for in between the 20 minute shows. So we see B-fast with Bear in two-minute snipits--he meets the kid, Charlie and Lola, then B-fast with Bear where they do the "morning mambo" (an improvised dance) to get going (I could probably stand a mambo to get going), then some lame-o 'This is Daniel Cook'--a carrot top, precocious 6 year old does a variety of things from milking a cow to visiting dinosaurs. Then we get Breakfast with Bear where the kid gets ready for school and then eats b-fast. Then we get the Wiggles and one more Breakfast with Bear where they go outside and play.

Don't quote me on the exact order, morning is not my finest hour, but my point being, I love this hour of my morning. It reminds me of being a kid and sitting around in my PJs with nothing better to do than watch cartoons. Charlie and Lola reminds me of the "Simon" chaulk drawings of my youth. it's hilarious. The Wiggles TV show I watch for Eddie--or so I thought until I realized the content age.

The commericals are also cartoons so it's hard to differentiate between the cartoon and the commercial. McDonalds seems to be a major sponsor. And interestingly the ads are kind of healthy food conscious--did the docu-movie, Super Size Me have that much of an impact of McDonalds? Hope so.

Finally got around to some photos. And now they won't post. We'll try the next post.

How Do You Play with a One-Year Old?

I feel like an anthropologist watching Eddie play. I have aboslutely no background to know what is normal or typical behavior and so everything he does is fascinating to me. By now he knows how to open and close drawers and what drawers have what things in them. He knows what is in the bathroom (his bath toys and beckoning roll of toliet paper to unfurl). He knows that if something goes under a drawer or a piece of furniture, it's not gone, he just has to look and it will be there.

He knows people come and go through the front door and what to do with the seat buckles in his highchair and carseat, even if he can't make them hook together. He helps and almost completely takes his shirt off (has had socks mastered for a while as you know). He's pretty well mastered all this stuff by now.

I have yet to master how to play with a one-year old. Like Eddie I'm learning by how everyone else acts around him. The picture shows how we play together in the kitchen, or rather the results of playing together. The string of legos continues beyond the lens of the camera on the left and down the hall.

Pictures

G'ma and g'pa Wisc. Short on words, but here's a couple pictures. Everyone is having a good time.

Finally!

No, he's not walking (good crawlers apparently tend to walk late), but I think Spring may be around the corner. Now because I typed that we'll have a blizzard next week. Bulbs are starting to emerge and most improtantly, our Quince is blooming. This is the first fully blooming plant of the Spring. Otherwise, I'm not overly fond of the plant--it's got thorns and needs heavy pruning each year (it gets very leggy). I'm excited about Spring, but more than likely about the warm weather we had today--felt like 70 outside!

Eddie and I went and played outside. I discovered that in one split second, he can pick up and jam leaves and grass in his mouth. He deomonstrated this skill over and over. It was the first time he'd really had the chance to crawl around outside on the grass. I don't know that he knew what to make of it, but he was certainly interested. Hope the grass stains will come out of his pants.

Mystery Solved

Here's what I found when I came downstairs--Eddie using a cup--and quite proud of himself.
Who needs fancy toys when you can use a tissue box and box to move your roll-around balls back and forth?

Eddie's had a couple developments of late, including trying to drink the bath water from his stacking cups. Well, this morning I figured out why that is happening. The nanny is giving him sips of water from a cup. He's doing a great job. I was thinking about needing to do that this afternoon with him anyway (because clearly he is expressing an interest), so am pleased that she is. But, she didn't bother to tell me.
As I recall, G'ma Wisconsin commented on having to do this with dad/Den before there were things called sippy cups.

The other thing that has started is a hint of separation anxiety. When he sees me and is with a caregiver, he cries for me. Hadn't seen that till this week. And, in the size department, he is outgrowing a couple of his size 12 month pants (more in the waist than anything)--either that or they are the ones that get washed a million times and have shrunk.

He's emerged as a real rough-houser. We played on the bed (softest place in the house until you fall off). And he took great joy in standing up, holding onto my shoulders and then falling backwards with no fear. He liked bouncing and just rolling all over. When we collided heads and noses, I would be the one wincing and he didn't even notice. Dennis calls him a 4-wheeler, the way he plows through and over us. What does our future hold?