17 months

Eddie is playing 'catch' with his friend Sharon. He was giggling hysterically, although I'm not sure these pictures show the degree of his amusement.

He even would fake out, like he was going to throw the ball and then wouldn't, or would fake that he wasn't going to and then would. He was playing a lot of games.

Here Ed is spoon feeding himself some yogart at b-fast. See the post below for discussion on this.

I'm 2 days late on this--was a hectic weekend--the kind that started out with not much to do.

First and foremost, language skills. Ed developed quite the vocabulary in Alaska. He now has, in addition to 'ball', 'bear'--likely only for use in Alaska, mama (this is a definite, before I think he'd been playing around), daddy, banana (so maybe we are the only ones who understand him on this one), balloon (ba'-ga), bamm (as he throws something), bottle, bye, and two non-'b' words that we can think of at the moment-- 'eye' and 'duck'. It's pretty exciting how adept he is at communicating.

His walking has become more steady, although he still takes a good tumble at least a couple times/day. He's really getting into what is a fun age for me. He's so much easier to care for than when he was an infant. He is so completely obsessed with balls and frankly anything spherical--like a hidden Mickey at Walt Disney World, he finds 'balls' in everyday objects and things we just don't see.

He is trying so many new foods now, it's hard to keep track. I'm trying to not only balance giving him the ocassional sweet, but also not spoiling him with meals that are specifically made for him. Ed is also supposed to be learning not to throw his food from the table. He can usually take bites off of food, like a bite of a sandwhich and can self-feed in this way. One of the more exciting developments is that today he started self-feeding with a spoon. Previous attempts consisted of him shoveling something into his mouth and then throwing the spoon to the floor with glee. He seems to have started to move past that stage. Course now I'm having to retract my Feb. 26, 06 post about eating utensils as now many of them are coming into play. I've pasted the link below and at this point at least, retract what I said about their frivilous nature--some seem to actually work at this age/stage.

http://watchusgo.blogspot.com/2006_02_01_watchusgo_archive.html

He still doesn't care for ride-on toys, loves to look at books, loves to throw objects, climb stairs,and go down slides. Today he went down a pretty big slide at the neighborhood park. It was a curvy slide about 5 feet tall. He set himself up at the top, under my watchful eye, then I told him to wait and then I hopped down to the bottom of the slide to catch him. He waited each time and aside from starting to tumble forward on the first run, seemed to eat it up. Oh, and he really enjoys throwing things down the stairs. I have to admit, it's fun to watch them fall, and see what happens. He dropped rocks down the slide, which isn't a big deal, but it's just not a habit I want to encourage at home.

We think he may be entering a growth spurt as he is eating a lot more and sleeping more for his naps--he logged over 3 hours today, which is just unheard of for Eddie. We'll find out at the doctor's apointment next month...

I'm sure there are tons of other developments, but those are what come to mind. So far the only fallout from Alaska seems to be that he crys a bit before falling asleep, which he didn't used to do and he is pooping his pants about 5 times/day.